How We Write the (Dacian) Past? Late Iron Age Archaeology in Post-Communist Romania

Abstract This paper offers a critical historiographical assessment of Romanian late Iron Age archaeology in post-communist Romania, grounded in the understanding that narratives are constructed within their specific social, political, economic, and ideological contexts. Initially, post-1989 Romanian late Iron Age archaeology exhibited significant historiographical continuity, largely characterised by the élite’s strategic conversion of political capital into cultural capital rather than a genuine paradigm shift. However, the mid-1990s witnessed the emergence of new historiographical trajectories: an emphasis on material culture analysis, a nascent deconstructivism challenging established national myths, and a powerful ‘nationalist counter-offensive’ that continues to shape scholarly and public discourse. The study ultimately reveals a present-day Romanian late Iron Age archaeology oscillating between some critical endeavours and ideologically charged narratives, marked by methodological conservatism, theoretical lacunae, and a notable absence from broader European archaeological metanarratives, reflecting the complex historical, sociopolitical, and ideological forces that continue to shape the writing of the Dacian past.