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Dr Heinrich Härke

Dr Heinrich Harke portrait
  • Visiting Research Fellow

Areas of interest

  • Migrations and ethnogenesis in early Medieval Europe (including Britain)
  • Early medieval burial ritual in England and on the Continent
  • Archaeology of Eurasian nomads (Iron Age to medieval)
  • The history of German archaeology
  • Archaeology and politics.

Research projects

Excavating an early medieval town on the northern Silk Road

After an exploratory visit to Kazakhstan in 2009, Heinrich obtained funding from the Wenner Gren Foundation (USA) for an initial excavation season in 2011 at Dzhankent, just east of the Aral Sea. This proved highly successful in showing the potential of the site for a major project, and it provided new dating evidence which was published in academia.

The first series of radiocarbon dates from Dzhankent, and pottery finds from sections inside the town walls have key implications for the starting date of the town: its origins are not in a 9th century fortified capital of intrusive Turkic nomads (which is suggested by writings of 10th century Arab geographers), but in an open settlement of a local sedentary fishing population in the 7th century. This is changing our ideas on the medieval urbanization of this region, and instead of looking for explanations in nomad state formation started by the arrival of the Turkic tribe of the Oguz from Mongolia, we now have to look for other factors two centuries earlier. And the most important event affecting this region on the river Syr-darya in the 7th century was the establishment of the northern Silk Road along the river, around the northern shores of Aral Sea and Caspian Sea, and continuing from there southwest to Byzantium, or northwest along to Volga linking into Viking trade routes in Eastern Europe.

Now Heinrich has obtained funding from the Deutsche Forschungs-Gemeinschaft (DFG) for a major three-year project to explore the relationship between this deserted town on the steppes close to the Aral Sea, and the wider world of trade in the 7th to 11th centuries. The main collaborative partner will again be the regionally important Korkyt-Ata State University of Kyzylorda. There is a whole series to key questions to be tackled: How long did that fishing village exist on this spot before it was turned into a trading site? Does the archaeological evidence suggest the presence of traders from the southern Silk Road civilization of Khorezm (Chorasmia)? There are substantial quantities of Khorezmian pottery in the occupation layers, and even the lay-out of the later fortified town appears to copy a Khorezmian type of urban lay-out. When did the Oguz nomads arrive to make this trading town their capital? Did they live in the citadel? Did they contribute livestock trade to the regional exchange patterns? Where are the cemeteries which might prove or disprove the multi-ethnic nature of this town? Where is the river channel which must have run past Dzhankent before the delta dried out, and where is the river port implied by a short note in one 10th century text? Is the hump outside the east gate of the town a caravanserai? And why did the town falter in the 11th century?

These questions require a multidisciplinary approach, and Heinrich envisages close collaboration of the German and Kazakh archaeologists with geophysicists, geomorphologists and soil scientists from Russia, American animal bone specialists based in Germany, a German radiocarbon laboratory, and numismatists and historians from Britain. It is hoped that the answers will have an impact not just on debates within Central Asian archaeology, but well beyond. After all, the 7th to 11th centuries AD were the period when a trading network flourished in northwestern Europe – and Dzhankent, with its connection to the northern route leading to the Volga, may have provided a link from the Silk Road to the East European and Scandinavian trade network of this time.

Background

Dr. Heinrich Härke has taught the archaeology of post-Roman Britain and Europe, with a special interest in Anglo-Saxon England and Central and Eastern Europe. His research interests include migrations and ethnogenesis, early medieval burial ritual in England and on the Continent, urbanization and state formation of Eurasian nomads, and the history of European (in particular German) archaeology. He has excavated Roman and Medieval sites in the Rhineland, and has led a fieldwork project in Russia. Since 2011, he has co-directed an international collaborative project on early medieval sites in Kazakhstan.

Heinrich was a Visiting Research Fellow of the School from 2007-2010 and has been reappointed to that status for the period 2014-2017; he has been teaching at the University of Tübingen (Germany) since 2010.

Selected publications

  • Härke, H. (2014) Grave goods in early medieval burials: messages and meanings. Mortality 19(1), pp. 1-21. [DOI 10.1080/13576275.2013.870544]
  • Härke, H. and Belinskij, A. (2012) The 'elite plot' in the cemetery of Klin-Yar (Russia): The emergence of a hereditary elite in the Early Alanic North Caucasus? Chronica (Annual of the Institute of History, University of Szeged) 11 (for 2011), pp. 135-143.
  • Härke, H. (2012) Weapons in Anglo-Saxon burials: The symbolic representation of war and violence in early medieval graves. In: Florya, B.N., Akimova, O.A., Turilov, A.A. and Ivanov, S.A. (eds.) Obraz vojny v obshchestvennoj mysli slavyanskikh narodov epokhi srednevekovya i rannego novogo vremeni. Materialy konferentsii. Indrik, Mosow, pp. 137-140.
  • Härke, H. (2012) Conquest ideology, ritual, and material culture. In: Jones, A.M., Pollard, J., Allen, M.J. and Gardiner, J. (eds.) Image, memory and monumentality. Archaeological engagements with the material world: A celebration of the academic achievements of Professor Richard Bradley (Prehistoric Society Research Paper 5). Oxbow, Oxford and Oakville, pp. 108-115.
  • Arzhantseva, I.A., Karamanova, M.S., Ruzanova, S.A., Tazhekeev, A.A., Modin, I.N. and Härke, H. (2012) Early medieval urbanization and state formation east of the Aral Sea: Fieldwork and international workshop 2011 in Kazakhstan. The European Archaeologist 37, pp. 14-20.
  • Härke, H. (2012) Astronomical and atmospheric observations in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Bede. The Antiquarian Astronomer 6, pp. 34-43.
  • Härke, H. (2012) Die Entstehung der Angelsachsen (The creation of the Anglo-Saxons). In: Beck, H., Geuenich, D. and Steuer, H. (eds.) Altertumskunde - Altertumswissenschaft - Kulturwissenschaft. Erträge und Perspektiven nach 40 Jahren Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde 77). De Gruyter, Berlin and Boston, pp. 429-458.
  • Härke, H. (2011) Anglo-Saxon immigration and ethnogenesis. Medieval Archaeology 55, pp. 1-28.
  • Härke, H. and Belinskij, A.B. (2011) Klin-Jar: Ritual und Gesellschaft in einem langzeitbelegten Gräberfeld im Nordkaukasus (Klin-Yar: ritual and society in a long-term cemetery in the North Caucasus). TÜVA-Mitteilungen (Tübinger Verein zur Förderung der ur- und frühgeschichtlichen Archäologie) 12, pp. 37-49.
  • Arzhantseva, I., Inevatkina, O., Zav'yalov, V., Panin, A., Modin, I., Ruzanova, S. and Härke, H. (2011) Por-Bajin: An Enigmatic Site of the Uighurs in Southern Siberia. The European Archaeologist 35, pp. 6-11.
  • Härke, H. (2011) Gender representation in early medieval burials: ritual re-affirmation of a blurred boundary? In: Brookes, S., Harrington, S. and Reynolds, A. (eds.) Studies in Early Anglo-Saxon Art and Archaeology: Papers in Honour of Martin G. Welch (British Archaeological Reports 527). Archaeopress, Oxford, pp. 98-105.
  • Higham, T., Warren, R., Belinskij, A., Härke, H. and R. Wood, R. (2010) Radiocarbon dating, stable isotope analysis and diet-derived offsets in 14C ages from the Klin-Yar site, Russian North Caucasus. Radiocarbon 52(2-3), pp. 653-670.
  • Thomas, M.G., Härke, H., German, G. and Stumpf, M.P.H. (2008) Limited social constraints on interethnic marriage: Unions, differential reproductive success and the spread of 'continental' Y chromosomes in early Anglo-Saxon England. In: S. Matsumura, P. Forster and C. Renfrew (eds.). Simulations, genetics and human prehistory (McDonald Institute Monographs). Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 2008, 61-70.
  • Härke, H. and Belinskij, B. (2008) Trauer, Ahnenkult, Sozialstatus? Überlegungen zur Interpretation der Befunde im Gräberfeld von Klin-Yar (Nordkaukasus, Russland) (Grief, ancestor worship, social status? Considerations for Interpretation findings in the graveyard of Klin-Yar (North Caucasus, Russia). In: Kümmel, C., Schweizer, B., Veit, U. and Augstein, M. (eds.) Körperinszenierung - Objektsammlung - Monumentalisierung: Totenritual und Grabkult in frühen Gesellschaften. Waxmann, Münster, pp. 417-430. Item availability restricted.
  • Thomas, M. G., Stumpf, M. P. H. and Harke, H. (2008) Integration versus apartheid in post-Roman Britain: a response to Pattison. Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 275 (1650). pp. 2419-2421. ISSN 0962-8452 Item availability restricted.,
  • Härke, H. (2007) Ethnicity, 'race' and migration in mortuary archaeology: an attempt at a short answer. Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History, 14 . pp. 12-18. Item availability restricted.,
  • Härke, H. (2007) Ethnogenese über Nacht: Eine Anekdote mit ernsthaftem Hintergrund. In: Burmeister, S., Derks, H. and von Richthofen, J. (eds.) Zweiundvierzig: Festschrift für Michael Gebühr zum 65. Geburtstag. Leidorf, Rahden, pp. 35-38. ISBN 9783896464255 Item availability restricted.,
  • Härke, H. (2007) Invisible Britons: Gallo-Romans and Russians: perspectives on culture change. In: Higham, J. (ed.) Britons in Anglo-Saxon England. Boydell, Woodbridge, pp. 57-67. ISBN 9781843833123 Item availability restricted.,
  • Härke, H. (2007) Review of I. Bóna, Les Huns: Le grand empire barbare d'Europe. Ancient West and East, 6 . pp. 364-365. ISSN 1783-8398 Item availability restricted.,
  • Härke, H. (2006) Archaeologists and migrations: a problem of attitude? In: Noble, T.F.X. (ed.) From Roman Provinces to Medieval Kingdoms. Routledge, London and New York, pp. 262-276. Item availability restricted.,
  • Thomas, M. G., Stumpf, M. P. H. and Härke, H. (2006) Evidence for an apartheid-like social structure in early Anglo-Saxon England. Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 273 (1601). pp. 2651-2657. ISSN 0962-8452 Item availability restricted.,
  • Härke, H. (2005) The Anglo-Saxon weapon burial rite: an interdisciplinary analysis. Opus, 3 . pp. 197-207. Item availability restricted.,
  • Härke, H. (2005) Material culture in post-soviet Russia: an archaeological perspective. In: Vishnyatskij, L.B., Kovalev, A.A. and Shcheglova, O.A. (eds.) Arkheolog: Detektiv i Myslitel'/The Archaeologist: detective and thinker. University of St Petersburg, St Petersburg, pp. 226-236. Item availability restricted.,
  • Härke, H. (2004) The debate on migration and identity in Europe. Antiquity, 78 (300). pp. 453-456. ISSN 0003-598X Item availability restricted.,
  • Belinskij, A.B., Dudarev, S.L. and Härke, H. (2003) Ob opyte sotsial'nogo ranzhirovaniya muzhskikh pogrebenij predskifskoj epokhi mogil'nika Klin-Yar III. Donskaya Arkheologiya, 2001 (3-4). pp. 45-59. Item availability restricted.,
  • Härke, H. (2003) Population replacement or acculturation? An archaeological perspective on population and migration in post-Roman Britain. In: Tristram, H.L.C. (ed.) The Celtic Englishes III. Winter, Heidelberg, pp. 13-28. Item availability restricted.,
  • Härke, H. (2003) Vyrazhenie polovoj prinadlezhnosti v rannesrednevekovykh pogrebeniyakh: otrazhenie real'nosti ili proyavlenie rituala? In: Dudarev, S.L. and Stetsura, Y.A. (eds.) Materialy mezhdunarodnoj nauchnoj konferentsii "Problemy pobsednevnosti v istorii: Obraz zhizni, soznanie i metodologiya izucheniya. Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation and Armavir State Pedagogical Institute, Armavir, pp. 36-38. Item availability restricted.,
  • Härke, H. (2002) Interdisciplinarity and the archaeological study of death. Mortality, 7 (3). pp. 340-341. ISSN 1469-9885 Item availability restricted.,
  • Härke, H. and Entwistle, R. (2002) An Anglo-Saxon quadruple weapon burial at Tidworth: a battle-site burial on Salisbury Plain? (with a contribution by Jacqueline I. McKinley). Hampshire Studies/Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeology Society, 57 . pp. 38-52. Item availability restricted.,
  • Härke, H. (2002) Vyrazhenie polovoj prinadlezhnosti v rannesrednevekovykh pogrebeniyakh: otrazhenie real'nosti ili proyavlenie rituala? In: Materialy mezhdunarodnoj nauchnoj konferentsii "Problemy pobsednevnosti v istorii: Obraz zhizni, soznanie i metodologiya izucheniya". Dudarev, S.L. and Stetsura, Yu.A. (eds.). Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation and Armavir State Pedagogical Institute, Armavir, 36-38.
  • Härke, H. (ed.) (2002) Archaeology, ideology and society: the German experience (Gesellschaften und Staaten im Epochenwandel 7). 2nd ed. Lang, Bern and Frankfurt a.M. [437 pages].
  • Härke, H. (2002) Kings and warriors: population and landscape from post-Roman to Norman Britain. In: The Peopling of Britain: The Shaping of a Human Landscape (The Linacre Lectures 1999). Slack, P. and Ward, R. (eds.). Oxford University Press, Oxford, 145-175.
  • Härke, H. (2002) Review of M. Todd, Migrants and Invaders: The Movement of Peoples in the Ancient World, Tempus, Stroud 2001. British Archaeology, 65: 29.
  • Belinskij, A., Dudarev, S. and Härke, H. (2002) Iz opyta sotsial'nogo ranzhirovaniya muzhskikh pogrebenij predskifskoj epokhi mogil'nika Klin-Yar III (v kontekste mezhdunarodnykh sobytij VIII-VII vv. do n.e.). In: Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya v bassejne Chernogo Morya v drevnosti i srednie veka. Kopylov, V.P., Vasil'ev, A.D. and Kovalenko, A.N. (eds.). Rostov State Pedagogical University, Rostov-on-Don, 14-17.
  • Härke, H. (2001) Cemeteries as places of power. In: Topographies of power in the Early Middle Ages (The Transformation of the Roman World, 6). De Jong, M. and Theuws, F. with van Rhijn, C. (eds.). Brill, Leiden, Boston and Cologne, 9-30.
  • Belinskij, A.B., Dudarev, S.L. and Härke, H. (2001) Ob opyte sotsial'nogo ranzhirovaniya muzhskikh pogrebenij predskifskoj epokhi mogil'nika Klin-Yar III. Donskaya Arkheologiya, 2001 nos. 3-4: 45-59.
  • Härke, H. (ed.) (2000) Archaeology, ideology and society: the German experience (Gesellschaften und Staaten im Epochenwandel 7). Lang, Bern and Frankfurt a.M. [432 pages].
  • Härke, H. (2000) The German experience. In: Archaeology, ideology and society: the German experience (Gesellschaften und Staaten im Epochenwandel 7). Härke, H. (ed.) Lang, Bern and Frankfurt a.M., 12-39.
  • Härke, H. (2000) Social analysis of mortuary evidence in German protohistoric archaeology. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 19 no. 4: 369-384.
  • Härke, H. (2000) The circulation of weapons in Anglo-Saxon society. In: Rituals of power from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages (The Transformation of the Roman World, 8). Theuws, F. and Nelson, J.L. (eds.). Brill, Leiden, Boston and Cologne, 377-399.
  • Härke, H. (with contributions by Belinskij, A.B. and Stoodley, N.) (2000) Die Darstellung von Geschlechtergrenzen im frühmittelalterlichen Grabritual: Normalität oder Problem? In: Grenze und Differenz im frühen Mittelalter (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil.-Hist. Klasse, Denkschrift 287 = Forschungen zur Geschichte des Mittelalters 1). Pohl, W. and Reimitz, H. (eds.). Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna, 181-196.
  • Härke, H. (2000) Review of T. Capelle, Die Sachsen des frühen Mittelalters, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft and Theiss, Darmstadt and Stuttgart 1998. Medieval Archaeology, 44: 360-361.
  • Härke, H. (2000) Review of M. Parker Pearson, The archaeology of death and burial, Sutton Publishing, Stroud 1999. Mortality, 5 no. 3: 325-327.
  • Härke, H. (2000) Comment on S. Burmeister, Archaeology and migration: Approaches to an archaeological proof of migration. Current Anthropology, 41 no. 4: 558-559.
  • Belinskij, A.B., Kalmykov, A.A., Korenevskij, S.N. and Härke, H. (2000) The Ipatovo kurgan on the North Caucasian steppe (Russia). Antiquity, 74 no. 286: 773-774.
  • Härke, H. and Belinsky, A. (2000) Nouvelles fouilles de 1994-1996 dans la nécropole de Klin-Yar. In: Les sites archéologiques en Crimée et au Caucase durant l'Antiquité tardive et le haut Moyen Age (Colloquia Pontica 5). Kazanski, M. and Soupault, V. (eds.). Brill, Leiden, 193-210.
  • Härke, H. and Savenko, S.N. (2000) Problemy issledovaniya drevnikh pogrebenij b zapadnoevropejskoj arkheologii. Rossiskaya Arkheologiya, 2000 no. 1: 217-226.
  • Härke, H. and Savenko, S.N. (2000) Problemy issledovaniya drevnikh pogrebenij b amerikanskoj arkheologii. Rossiskaya Arkheologiya, 2000 no. 2: 212-220.
  • Härke, H. (1999) Sächsische Ethnizität und archäologische Deutung im frühmittelalterlichen England. Studien zur Sachsenforschung, 12: 109-122.
  • Härke, H. (1999) Collapse of empire and material-culture change: the case of the Soviet Union. Medieval Archaeology, 43: 183-185.
  • Härke, H. (1999) Review of J. Chapman and H. Hamerow (eds.), Migrations and invasions in archaeological explanation (British Archaeological Reports S664), Archaeopress, Oxford 1997. British Archaeology, July 1999: 16.
  • Härke, H. (1999) Don's Diary. Times Higher Education Supplement, no. 1368, 22 January: 10.
  • Härke, H. (1999) Review of Lev S. Klejn, Das Phänomen der sowjetischen Archäologie: Geschichte, Schulen, Protagonisten (Gesellschaften und Staaten im Epochenwandel 6), Lang, Frankfurt a.M., Berlin, Bern, New York, Paris and Vienna 1997. Archäologische Informationen, 22 no. 1: 73-75.
  • Belinskij, A.B. and Härke, H. (1999) The "Princess" of Ipatovo. Archaeology, 52 no. 2: 20-21.
  • Härke, H. and Belinskij, A.B. (1999) Fürstliche Bestattung: Zur Auffindung eines eisenzeitlichen "Fürstinnengrabes" bei Ipatovo (Russland). Antike Welt, 20 no. 2: 185.
  • Härke, H. (1998) Archaeologists and migrations: a problem of attitude? Current Anthropology, 39 no. 1: 19-45.
  • Härke, H. (1998) Briten und Angelsachsen im nachrömischen England: Zum Nachweis der einheimischen Bevölkerung in den angelsächsischen Landnahmegebieten. Studien zur Sachsenforschung, 11: 87-119.
  • Belinskij, A.B. and Härke, H. (1998) Novye issledovaniya na mogilnike Klin-Yar bliz g. Kislovodska. In: Yubilejnye mezhdunarodnye XX "Krupnovskie chteniya" po arkheologii Severnogo Kavkaza (tezisy dokladov) Zheleznovodsk, 1998 g. Chechenov, I.M., Kuznetsov, V.A., Belinskij, A.B. and Marchenko, L.S. (eds.). Zheleznovodsk Municipal Administration, Regional Museum Zheleznovodsk and GUP 'Nasledie', Stavropol, 19-20.

Publications

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