Wells, Peter S.

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WELLS, Peter S.

PERSONAL: Male. Education: Harvard University, Ph.D., 1976.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota, 395 Hubert H. Humphrey Center, 301-19th Avenue, South, Minneapolis, MN 55655. E-mail—[email protected]

CAREER: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, professor of anthropology.

AWARDS, HONORS: Association of American Publishers Award for best professional book in anthropology, 1999, for The Barbarians Speak.

WRITINGS:

Culture Contact and Culture Change: Early Iron Age Central Europe and the Mediterranean World, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1980.

The Emergence of an Iron-Age Economy: The Mecklenburg Grave Groups from Hallstatt and Sticna, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1981.

Rural Economy in the Early Iron Age: Excavations at Hascherkeller, 1978-1981, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1983.

Farms, Villages, and Cities: Commerce and Urban Origins in Late Prehistoric Europe, Cornell University Press (Ithaca, NY), 1984.

Settlement, Economy, and Cultural Change at the End of the European Iron Age: Excavations at Kelheim in Bavaria, 1987-1991, International Monographs in Prehistory (Ann Arbor, MI), 1993.

(Editor, with Calvin B. Kendall) Voyage to the Other World: The Legacy of Sutton Hoo, University of Minnesota Press (Minneapolis, MN), 1992.

The Barbarians Speak: How the Conquered Peoples Shaped Roman Europe, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1999.

Beyond Germans, Celts and Scythians: Archaeology and Identity in Iron-Age Europe, Duckworth (London, England), 2001.

The Battle That Stopped Rome: Emperor Augustus, Arminius, and the Slaughter of the Legions in the Teutoburg Forest, W. W. Norton & Company (New York, NY), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS: Anthropologist Peter S. Wells, according to Times Literary Supplement contributor A. M. Snodgrass, has become known as "one of the key figures in the recent reorientation of Anglo-Saxon research on Northern Europe." Wells specializes in the prehistoric and Roman periods, and his research from almost thirty years of field work in Germany is the basis of several notable books.

Covering a sequence of events that occurred between 600 and 400 B.C., Culture Contact and Culture Change: Early Iron-Age Central Europe and theMediterranean World considers the various imports from the Mediterranean to central Europe, with a particular emphasis on how Greeks and Etruscans influenced the cultural development of the Iron Age. Wells studies trade between the two cultures until its demise sometime in the fifth century B.C. due to Greek needs for more accessible sources of goods. Antonio Gilman, writing for American Anthropologist, praised Wells for coming to conclusions only when there is sufficient scientific proof for his statements. "This account is carefully tailored to the salient features of the archeological record," Gillman wrote. "Where that record does not clarify matters … Wells is prudently reticent."

Rural Economy in the Early Iron Age: Excavations at Hascherkeller, 1978-1981 was referred to as "a welcome addition to the archaeological literature," by H. Arthur Bankoff in American Antiquity. In this book Wells reconstructs a prehistoric European village by examining the remains of its economic and social structure. Bankoff pointed out that Wells believes that the beginning of the Iron Age was a "crucial period" in the development of the "commercially-oriented communities" of central Europe. There is a strong relationship, Wells demonstrates, between the beginnings of commercial trade and the advancements in metallurgy. Wells not only presents his conclusions of what life might have been like in the small hamlet in southern Bavaria, he also documents the techniques used to excavate the thirteen pits and the objects found there. Although John Collis, for Antiquaries Journal, found the book to be "padded out with general discussion," he concluded that the work constitutes "a useful site report."

Farms, Villages, and Cities: Commerce and Urban Origins in Late Prehistoric Europe covers the pre-Roman and early Roman period of pre-industrial Europe. In this study Wells argues that central Europe at this time did not have any established urban centers such as those found in the Near East and the Mediterranean during the same period. There were mostly only small villages with under four hundred people living in them. This lack of urban centers, Wells believes, was due to the fact that the Europeans had an abundance of resources close at hand and therefore did not need to institute trade. As J. D. Muhly stated in American Historical Review, "The Europeans simply had things too good, with most necessary resources readily at hand, no need to practice irrigation agriculture, and no use for the administrative or ceremonial centers that dominated life in ancient Meso-America and the ancient New East." Wells's book draws on a wide range of archaeological publications focusing on the late prehistory of central Europe. Muhly concluded his review of this work by commending Wells for his "excellent summary" of the results of that scientific work.

The Barbarians Speak: How the Conquered Peoples Shaped Roman Europe attracted significant critical notice. Steven E. Hijmans in Canadian Journal of History wrote that Wells has given the reader "a welcome, indeed exciting, new perspective on the influence of Rome in a part of the world which he loosely terms 'temperate Europe,' the area between Eastern Gaul, Southern Denmark, central Poland, and the Danube." The difference between Wells's book and previous studies is that Wells tells the story from the perspective of the indigenous people rather than from the point of view of the Romans. "The result," wrote Hijmans, "is a thought-provoking and highly-readable re-appraisal of the processes of cultural interaction in this region following the arrival of the Romans."

After providing a history of European cultures before the Romans, Wells begins a discussion of the effects of the Roman invasions. He also points out that even after the people were conquered, local traditions continued as reflected in the architecture and burial practices of the European people. He also suggests that the so-called Celtic renaissance of the second century A.D. was not technically a rebirth of culture but rather, in Hijmans's words, "a measure of the continued vigour of La Tene culture throughout the preceding period." Hijmans concluded his review by stating that Wells's book should have "an impact which cannot be ignored."

Writing for Antiquity, Barry Cunliffe stated that for readers familiar only with a "romanized" version of this historic period, Wells's book "will be something of a surprise" as they will find that the "cherished absolutes" are challenged by the author's interpretations. Cunliffe noted that one of the great benefits of Wells's book is that "it introduces some of the current debates that have begun, at last, to revitalize Roman archaeology." The Barbarians Speak won the Association of American Publishers Award for best professional book in anthropology in 1999.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Anthropologist, March, 1982, Antonio Gilman, review of Culture Contact and Culture Change: Early Iron-Age Central Europe and the Mediterranean World, pp. 163-165; March, 1985, Alan McPherron, review of Rural Economy in the Early Iron Age, p. 162.

American Antiquity, January, 1985, H. Arthur Bankoff, review of Rural Economy in the Early Iron Age: Excavations at Hascherkeller, 1978-1981, pp. 211-212.

American Historical Review, December, 1985, J. D. Muhly, review of Farms, Villages, and Cities: Commerce and Urban Origins in Late Prehistoric Europe, p. 1170.

American Journal of Archaeology, July, 1993, Eric Klingelhofer, review of Voyage to the Other World: The Legacy of Sutton Hoo, pp. 593-594.

Antiquaries Journal, 1985, John Collis, review of Rural Economy in the Early Iron Age, p. 168.

Antiquity, March, 2001, Barry Cunliffe, review of The Barbarians Speak: How the Conquered Peoples Shaped Roman Europe, p. 220.

Booklist, October 15, 1999, Gilbert Taylor, review of The Barbarians Speak, p. 416.

Canadian Journal of History, December, 2001, Steven E. Jihmans, review of The Barbarians Speak, pp. 529-530.

Choice, April, 1985, C. Gabel, review of Farms, Villages, and Cities, p. 1209.

Journal of Field Archaeology, Winter, 1997, Ian Ralston, review of Settlement, Economy, and Cultural Change at the End of the European Iron Age: Excavations at Kelheim in Bavaria, 1987-1991, pp. 501-505.

Science, May 10, 1985, Klavs Randsborg, review of Farms, Villages, and Cities, p. 713.

Times Educational Supplement, May 8, 1981, Ian Caruana, review of Culture Contact and Culture Change, p. 24.

Times Literary Supplement, April 17, 1981, David Ridgeway, review of Culture Contact and Culture Change, p. 440; October 25, 1985, Andrew Sherratt, review of Farms, Villages, and Cities, p. 1215; July 14, 2000, A. M. Snodgrass, "Tacitus and Himmler."