UC Riverside

Romanian archaeology was first institutionalized as a part of the Romanian state and government at the foundation of the Romanian Academy in 1866. Its induction as an institution within the Romanian Academy came before many natural sciences, demonstrating the importance of archaeology in the creation of the Romanian nation. From the moment of institutionalization, Romanian archaeology played a pivotal role in the creation of the literal boundaries of the Romanian state and the metaphysical boundaries of Romanian ethnicity. Romanian archaeologists adopted culture-historical archaeological theory, which offered a unilinear narrative of human history based on the divisions of ethnic and cultural groupings across all time and space. This theory arose from a political landscape shaped by nationalism – where national revolutions began dividing of the parts of the Ottoman Empire in Southeast Europe into nation-states – as well as the development and privileging of scientific racism across Europe. It was not until the end of World War II and the creation of the Romanian People’s Republic (RPR) governed by the Communist Party that challenges to culture-historical archaeology arose in the Romanian archaeological community and specifically within the Romanian Academy. The RPR government, led by Romanian doctor and scientist C.I. Parhon who was also named the first RPR head of state, restructured the Romanian Academy, renaming it the RPR Academy Within the RPR Academy many Romanian archaeologists continued to apply and adhere to culture-historical archaeological theory, but Parhon and other administrative leaders within the RPR Academy insisted that Marxist-Leninist archaeological theory be privileged. Marxist-Leninist archaeological theory was also a unilinear theory of human history based on the divisions of class across all time and space. Because of the unilinear nature of both theories, they were in conflict with one another. In Romanian archaeology, however, adherents of culture-historical archaeological theory and Marxist-Leninist archaeological theory existed and worked in the RPR Academy, collaborating together, and constructing a new theoretical paradigm that combined culture-historical and Marxist-Leninist archaeological theories. This dissertation argues for calling this collaborative new theory practiced in communist Romania “complex archaeological theory.”