Nomadic pastoralism in the Early Bronze Age of the central Balkans evaluation of background knowledge

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to examine background knowledge about the orga­nizational properties of mobile pastoral groups in order to assess the likelihood of the existence of pastoral nomads in the Early Bronze Age in the central Balkans. The patterning found by A. L. Johnson (2002) is taken as a point of departure for the cross-cultural analysis conducted in this study. Johnson’s findings are in the main corroborated. Acquired knowledge about the workings of pastoral societies suggests that highly mobile pastoral groups should not be expected in the Early Bronze Age of the central Balkans.

Keywords

• mobility
• pastoralism
• transhumance
• Early Bronze Age
• central Balkans
• cross-cultural analysis