Fragmentation in Archaeology: People, Places and Broken Objects in the Prehistory of South-Eastern Europe

Fragmentation in Archaeology: People, Places and Broken Objects in the Prehistory of South-Eastern Europe. John Chapman. New York: Routledge, 2000.296 pp.

Of Western archaeologists active in the prehistory of eastern Europe, John Chapman is one of the most knowledgeable. If you need to know the story behind an artifact, the historiography of a site, or the spatial distribution of a culture group, he is the first person you should contact. Why then is this book not a greater success?

Chapman sets himself an ambitious task: to weave high-level anthropological theory into the outstandingly textured fabric of southeast European prehistory between c. 7000 and 3000 B.C. The big ideas are enchainment, accumulation, and fragmentation. The material record is that of Europe's first farmers, first animal breeders, and first settlers. The argument runs that special (and ordinary) artifacts were exchanged, accumulated, broken, and deposited in particular, intentional ways and that these practices created, maintained, and altered social relationships.

After a thoroughly engaging introduction (chapter 1), Chapman provides much needed site location maps before he launches into a theory chapter (chapter 2) to introduce the concepts of enchainment, accumulation, fragmentation, objectification, personification, and, finally, to present the author's ideas about sets of artifacts and hoards. Chapter 3, 56 pages long and full, plunges the reader into the material record by examining each category of artifact in detail and putting the case for the importance of fragmentation processes. In chapter 4, Chapman...