Adriene Baron Tacla (Email)

I have been studying the Celtic chiefdoms from West Hallstatt zone and their contacts with Marseille since my BA course in History at UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro). During the MPhil course in Social History at UFRJ, I developed a research on Diplomacy and Guest-Friendship in the contacts between Marseille and the Celtic chiefdoms of Vix and Hochdorf, focusing on the political dynamics of contacts, guest-friendship ties and the status of foreigners in Celtic chiefdoms and in Greek society.During the DPhil course in Archaeology at the University of Oxford I continued my studies concentrating on the interplay between religion and power in Hallstatt chiefdoms.

Current Research: Sacred Sites and Power in West Hallstatt Chiefdoms

The present work intends to show the link between religious practice, power and the appropriation of landscape in a comparative, micro-level perspective, focusing on four regions and their respective (presumed) Fürstensitze – Bourges, Châtillon-sur-Glâne, Hohenasperg and Mont Lassois. In order to do so, I propose to apply an integrative perspective to understand the nature of sites and identity of places in the landscape within the West Hallstatt zone. Therefore, I will examine the creation of sacred spaces and monuments, as well as of dwelling-places within West Hallstatt societies, by combining a phenomenological interpretation of landscape and the analysis of a prestation economy.

Areas of interest:
Hallstatt Period; Contacts between Celts and the Mediterranean Societies; Power and Kingship in Celtic Societies; Celtic Religion; Iron Age Central-Western Europe; Trade in Antiquity; Greek Marseille; Landscape Archaeology; Settlement Archaeology.