The mechanisms of identifying the Bronze Age communities of the Homeric era

Abstract

The main goal of this article is to define fundamental mechanisms of identification and functioning of identity within prehistoric communities. In that sense the primary focus of the article is aimed on the identification mechanisms in Homer’s Illiad, and on defining the continuity or discontinuity of use of these mechanisms in works of later authors. By defining the functioning of the identification mechanisms, as well as its structure, observation of the relationship between identity and identity fluctuation within Homeric Greece communities becomes feasible. Additionally, it is possible to use these mechanisms to compare mentioned identities with known data relating the communities of the western Balkan region from the same chronological period. Based on the results of these comparations, there is an opportunity to observe and define/redefine more precisely term of archaeological culture itself, as well as previously defined Bronze and Iron Age cultures.