Furholt, F., Hinz, M. Mischka, D.,, “As time goes by ? ” Monumentality, Landscapes and the Temporal Perspective. Proceedings of the International Workshop “Socio-Environmental Dynamics over the Last 12,000 Years: The Creation of Landscapes II (14 th –18 th March 2011)” in Kiel. Volume 2, 2012
Temporality and the different concepts of time are closely connected to the investigation of monu... more Temporality and the different concepts of time are closely connected to the investigation of monumentality. In the archaeological literature a dichotomy between a cyclic and linear notion of time seems to be prevalent. Also the general notion that these concepts are present seems to be valid; they represent two aspects of a dialectic relationship rather than a total phenomenon that guides the actions of past and present societies. This mainly theoretical article tries to explore the different levels of temporality, on the one hand as part of a cognitive framework in which ancient societies acted and the link between action and time, but on the other hand also the tension that exists between the perspective ancient societies could have held and the perspective of the present investigators of past processes. It tries to illustrate the fact that in order to interpret the meaning of things and events, archaeologists have to consider that actions are mainly guided and directed by the present necessities, and that an interpretation can only be made from the present perspective of the past individual. A consequence of this is that the importance of material remains of rituals, for example, may be overvalued by scientists today.
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2022 by Martin Hinz
2021 by Martin Hinz
In this paper, we propose an alternative, inductive bottom-up approach in which we define resilience as a set of adaptive capacities grounded in social practices that enabled communities to cope with and respond to challenges. We use the Neolithic wetland sites from the Three-Lakes Region in the northern Alpine foreland of western Switzerland as a case study. These sites provide an abundance of archaeological and palaeoecological information, which can be used to examine the resilience of settlement communities to climate fluctuations. We will evaluate whether a causal relationship might have existed between climate changes in the period between 3600 and 3200 BCE and an observable decline of settlement activities on the shores of the large lakes. In addition to year-accurate reconstructions of settlement histories, we will apply statistical significance tests on archaeological and palaeoclimatic time series to question the correlation and causality between settlement activities and climate fluctuations. Besides the settlement frequency curve, we will use the radioactive beryllium-10 isotope (Be10) content in the GISP2 ice core from the Greenland Ice Sheet and the δ18O values of well-dated speleothems as proxies for temperature and precipitation, respectively. The inferred hypothesis, i.e. that periodically rising lake levels led to the flooding of former inhabitable spaces on the lakes’ shore zones and forced communities to relocate their settlements to the hinterland, will further be tested. Therefore, we apply multivariate statistics to pollen data to evaluate human influence on vegetation (land clearing) taken as settlement activity beyond the shores of large lakes. In addition, we examine the relevance of transformations in pottery styles as further indicators for spatial mobility.
2020 by Martin Hinz
been known for more than 150 years. Of these, 111 were awarded UNESCO World Cultural Heritage status in 2011. Mainly dating from the Neolithic (including the Chalcolithic or Copper Age) and the Bronze Age, lacustrine settlements represent an early phase of sedentarisation in the
northern foothills of the Alps. Despite much significant research on the
material culture, settlement dynamics, economy, and ecology, the focus
has hitherto almost exclusively been on the classic sites situated on the
larger northern pre-Alpine lakes in the so-called Three Lakes region of
western Switzerland and on the Lakes of Geneva, Zurich, and Constance.
The international and interdisciplinary research project ’Beyond lake villages: studying Neolithic environmental changes and human impact on
small lakes in Switzerland, Germany and Austria’ was launched in 2015 and is jointly funded by the Swiss (SNF), German (DFG), and Austrian (FWF) National Science Foundations. Research teams in prehistoric archaeology and palaeoecology from the universities of Bern, Basel, Vienna, and Innsbruck as well as the cultural heritage management authorities of the German State of Baden-Württemberg and the Swiss Cantons of Bern and Solothurn are concentrating their efforts on three Neolithic settlement areas on the Swiss Plateau, the German Westallgäu, and the Austrian Salzkammergut. Research is focused on small, deep lakes and their immediate surroundings, with the aim of obtaining new highresolution data on the natural environment and human impact on the
landscape. Our ongoing palaeoecological investigations have confirmed
that small, deep lakes such as Burgäschisee and Moossee in Switzerland
preserve laminated annual sediments that have enormous potential
for generating high-resolution, diachronic data on vegetation, palaeoclimate, and human impact. Through the integration of wetland archaeology and palaeoecology, we hope to generate new data and models that will help to understand the variability of human impact on landscapes, especially the environmental interactions of Neolithic societies in the circum-Alpine region. The overall aim of the project is to gain a better understanding of large-scale processes of adaptation and anthropogenic impact over time.
2019 by Martin Hinz
In this paper, we propose an alternative, inductive bottom-up approach in which we define resilience as a set of adaptive capacities grounded in social practices that enabled communities to cope with and respond to challenges. We use the Neolithic wetland sites from the Three-Lakes Region in the northern Alpine foreland of western Switzerland as a case study. These sites provide an abundance of archaeological and palaeoecological information, which can be used to examine the resilience of settlement communities to climate fluctuations. We will evaluate whether a causal relationship might have existed between climate changes in the period between 3600 and 3200 BCE and an observable decline of settlement activities on the shores of the large lakes. In addition to year-accurate reconstructions of settlement histories, we will apply statistical significance tests on archaeological and palaeoclimatic time series to question the correlation and causality between settlement activities and climate fluctuations. Besides the settlement frequency curve, we will use the radioactive beryllium-10 isotope (Be10) content in the GISP2 ice core from the Greenland Ice Sheet and the δ18O values of well-dated speleothems as proxies for temperature and precipitation, respectively. The inferred hypothesis, i.e. that periodically rising lake levels led to the flooding of former inhabitable spaces on the lakes’ shore zones and forced communities to relocate their settlements to the hinterland, will further be tested. Therefore, we apply multivariate statistics to pollen data to evaluate human influence on vegetation (land clearing) taken as settlement activity beyond the shores of large lakes. In addition, we examine the relevance of transformations in pottery styles as further indicators for spatial mobility.
been known for more than 150 years. Of these, 111 were awarded UNESCO World Cultural Heritage status in 2011. Mainly dating from the Neolithic (including the Chalcolithic or Copper Age) and the Bronze Age, lacustrine settlements represent an early phase of sedentarisation in the
northern foothills of the Alps. Despite much significant research on the
material culture, settlement dynamics, economy, and ecology, the focus
has hitherto almost exclusively been on the classic sites situated on the
larger northern pre-Alpine lakes in the so-called Three Lakes region of
western Switzerland and on the Lakes of Geneva, Zurich, and Constance.
The international and interdisciplinary research project ’Beyond lake villages: studying Neolithic environmental changes and human impact on
small lakes in Switzerland, Germany and Austria’ was launched in 2015 and is jointly funded by the Swiss (SNF), German (DFG), and Austrian (FWF) National Science Foundations. Research teams in prehistoric archaeology and palaeoecology from the universities of Bern, Basel, Vienna, and Innsbruck as well as the cultural heritage management authorities of the German State of Baden-Württemberg and the Swiss Cantons of Bern and Solothurn are concentrating their efforts on three Neolithic settlement areas on the Swiss Plateau, the German Westallgäu, and the Austrian Salzkammergut. Research is focused on small, deep lakes and their immediate surroundings, with the aim of obtaining new highresolution data on the natural environment and human impact on the
landscape. Our ongoing palaeoecological investigations have confirmed
that small, deep lakes such as Burgäschisee and Moossee in Switzerland
preserve laminated annual sediments that have enormous potential
for generating high-resolution, diachronic data on vegetation, palaeoclimate, and human impact. Through the integration of wetland archaeology and palaeoecology, we hope to generate new data and models that will help to understand the variability of human impact on landscapes, especially the environmental interactions of Neolithic societies in the circum-Alpine region. The overall aim of the project is to gain a better understanding of large-scale processes of adaptation and anthropogenic impact over time.
This paper aims to highlight how an inquiry into prehistoric social practices based on semiotic pragmatism, as was formulated by Charles Sanders Peirce, provides a theory on how meanings and social relations are created and recreated in the course of social practices, a model explaining how these practices as material and spatially situated phenomena can be used to explore the interrelation of social practices and their material outcomes, which have practical consequences for subsequent practices and social relations. We exemplify this by the reconstruction of building activities on the megalithic long barrow Flintbek LA3, Northern Germany, 3500 3400 BCE. Here, it can be demonstrated how construction activities over the course of a century are both shaped by and actively shape social relations. New developments can be explained by a creative recombination of already existing singular components. A process of complexification and enlargement of building activities is set into motion, including inter-group competition. This development is terminated around 3400 BCE, whereafter grave construction activities are re-directed towards a smaller number of collectively used passage graves, which further enhance the level of complexity of design, but dispense with the unequal, competitive component. This represents a process of social collectivisation paralleled with the establishment of first larger villages in the region.
But from a pragmatic perspective, it is more likely for the perception of the landscape as a taskscape (sensu Ingold 1993) that the everyday practises and routines of the inhabitants as well as the movements that evoke such practises were much more salient than the monuments. Given the agricultural nature of the economy, it would be consequent to assume that the most important constraints on spatial planning and settlement locations would arise from this economy, resulting in an agrarian landscape.
On the basis of a case study from the region of Stormarn-Lauenburg and the evidence of the number of identified specimens (NISP) of animals from a range of Funnel Beaker sites, this paper intends to demonstrate that it might not have been the monuments nor the agrarian subsistence economy but rather practises founded in the Mesolithic tradition that dominated the settlement system of Funnel Beaker societies. As an alternative, a scenario should be presented in which the access to larger animals, hunted or domesticated, as a currency in a social exchange, had a more significant influence on the choice of the settlement site than the purely economic optimisation of agricultural production processes.
This paper aims to highlight how an inquiry into prehistoric social practices based on semiotic pragmatism, as was formulated by Charles Sanders Peirce, provides a theory on how meanings and social relations are created and recreated in the course of social practices, a model explaining how these practices as material and spatially situated phenomena can be used to explore the interrelation of social practices and their material outcomes, which have practical consequences for subsequent practices and social relations. We exemplify this by the reconstruction of building activities on the megalithic long barrow Flintbek LA3, Northern Germany, 3500‐3400 BCE. Here, it can be demonstrated how construction activities over the course of a century are both shaped by and actively shape social relations. New developments can be explained by a creative recombination of already existing singular components. A process of complexification and enlargement of building activities is set into motion, including inter-group competition. This development is terminated around 3400 BCE, whereafter grave construction activities are re-directed towards a smaller number of collectively used passage graves, which further enhance the level of complexity of design, but dispense with the unequal, competitive component. This represents a process of social collectivisation paralleled with the establishment of first larger villages in the region.
XRF) devices has allowed for the fast acquisition of large data sets. In the presented paper, we evaluate the quantitative measurement capability of a p-ed-XRF device through comparison with wd-XRF. Sampling, drying, and homogenization (sieving < 2 and pulverizing) ensured comparable measurement conditions. The application of He-flotation in the measurement chamber and measurement times of a sufficient duration at low voltage/high amperage conditions increased measurement sensitivity for lighter elements (here at least 90 s at 6 kV, 100 mA), resulting in measurements of a satisfactory quality.
In a case study, we measured the elemental contents of the archaeo-sediment-sequence fill of a trench of a ca. 7300 year old Linear Pottery house at the site of Vráble-Ve'lke Lehemby, in southeastern-Slovakia. Based on a model applied at the nearby Bronze Age settlement mound of Fidvár, the P content of the archaeo-sediment was considered as a proxy of palaeo-demography. However, the measured P contents were much too small to reflect the metabolism of a reasonable number of inhabitants. Therefore, in addition to the possibilities of shorter than expected duration of house occupation and incomplete garbage deposition within the ditches, the post-depositional settlement history is considered in detail. Furthermore, bio-cycling by plants during different subsequent phases of Holocene landscape development (forested, agricultural field use) has not been considered extensively in interpretations of the archaeological record so far, but might have had a considerable influence on the shallow buried archaeological record. A reconsideration of the interpretation of the geochemical record from a nearby Bronze Age site (Fidvár) is thus suggested.
distributions—miss some other perhaps even more essential elements of human well-being. This insight has found a prominent expression in the work of the Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen’s so-called capability approach. At the same time, the market-based measure of inequality as a function of the distribution of material remains in graves and other locations remain dominant in archaeology. In this
paper, we explore the significance of the capability approach, and the associated concept of human well-being based on the idea of capabilities, to the archaeology of social inequality and socialmalintegration.We discuss these notions using the case study of the Late Neolithic Bosnian tell site Okolište and argue that there, in c. 5200–4600 BCE, the monopolisation of certain critical goods led to a critical capability inequality,
malintegration and to a prolonged period of social unrest and decline.
Importantly, the volume also outlines the significance of other kinds of places that were not monumentalised in the same way, such as fens, the seashore and the wider environment, in the construction of Neolithic worldview. Finally, it concludes with a series of articles that consider the significance of particular forms of material culture – axes, grinding stones, pottery and food – in social reproduction in the Neolithic of northern Europe. Overall, the volume presents an important body of new data and international perspectives concerning Neolithic societies, histories and landscapes in northern Europe.
German abstract:
Die agrarische Wirtschaftsweise ist eines der definierenden Elemente des Neolithikums in Schleswig-Holstein. Doch ist es plausibel, dass diese Form der Ökonomie in gleicher Weise über mehr als 2000 Jahre betrieben wurde? Lassen sich einzelne Landnutzungsphasen identifizieren? Welches waren die bevorzugten Siedlungsräume der neolithischen Bewohner Schleswig-Holsteins zu unterschiedlichen Zeiten? Können Stabilität und Veränderung im archäologischen Fundbild als Wandel im Siedlungssystem erkannt werden?
Ausgehend von pollenanalytisch bestimmten Besiedlungsphasen nähert sich diese Arbeit solchen Fragen an. Dies geschieht vor allem anhand der Auswertung von Oberflächenfundplätzen, die eine oft vernachlässigte Informationsquelle darstellen. Durch eine systematische Verarbeitung von chronologischen und funktionalen Indikatoren gelingt es, die Orte prähistorischer Aktivität zeitlich und innerhalb des Siedlungsgefüges einzuordnen. Auf dieser Basis können chorologische Strukturen und naturräumliche Präferenzen für unterschiedlichen Tätigkeiten im Rahmen eines neolithischen Wirtschaftsgefüges analysiert werden. Dabei wird nicht nur deutlich, wie sich der Charakter der neolithischen Landnutzung wandelt, sondern auch, wie sich die Wechselwirkung zwischen kultureller und ökonomischer Veränderung gestaltet.
German abstract:
Die agrarische Wirtschaftsweise ist eines der definierenden Elemente des Neolithikums in Schleswig-Holstein. Doch ist es plausibel, dass diese Form der Ökonomie in gleicher Weise über mehr als 2000 Jahre betrieben wurde? Lassen sich einzelne Landnutzungsphasen identifizieren? Welches waren die bevorzugten Siedlungsräume der neolithischen Bewohner Schleswig-Holsteins zu unterschiedlichen Zeiten? Können Stabilität und Veränderung im archäologischen Fundbild als Wandel im Siedlungssystem erkannt werden?
Ausgehend von pollenanalytisch bestimmten Besiedlungsphasen nähert sich diese Arbeit solchen Fragen an. Dies geschieht vor allem anhand der Auswertung von Oberflächenfundplätzen, die eine oft vernachlässigte Informationsquelle darstellen. Durch eine systematische Verarbeitung von chronologischen und funktionalen Indikatoren gelingt es, die Orte prähistorischer Aktivität zeitlich und innerhalb des Siedlungsgefüges einzuordnen. Auf dieser Basis können chorologische Strukturen und naturräumliche Präferenzen für unterschiedlichen Tätigkeiten im Rahmen eines neolithischen Wirtschaftsgefüges analysiert werden. Dabei wird nicht nur deutlich, wie sich der Charakter der neolithischen Landnutzung wandelt, sondern auch, wie sich die Wechselwirkung zwischen kultureller und ökonomischer Veränderung gestaltet.
German abstract:
Die agrarische Wirtschaftsweise ist eines der definierenden Elemente des Neolithikums in Schleswig-Holstein. Doch ist es plausibel, dass diese Form der Ökonomie in gleicher Weise über mehr als 2000 Jahre betrieben wurde? Lassen sich einzelne Landnutzungsphasen identifizieren? Welches waren die bevorzugten Siedlungsräume der neolithischen Bewohner Schleswig-Holsteins zu unterschiedlichen Zeiten? Können Stabilität und Veränderung im archäologischen Fundbild als Wandel im Siedlungssystem erkannt werden?
Ausgehend von pollenanalytisch bestimmten Besiedlungsphasen nähert sich diese Arbeit solchen Fragen an. Dies geschieht vor allem anhand der Auswertung von Oberflächenfundplätzen, die eine oft vernachlässigte Informationsquelle darstellen. Durch eine systematische Verarbeitung von chronologischen und funktionalen Indikatoren gelingt es, die Orte prähistorischer Aktivität zeitlich und innerhalb des Siedlungsgefüges einzuordnen. Auf dieser Basis können chorologische Strukturen und naturräumliche Präferenzen für unterschiedlichen Tätigkeiten im Rahmen eines neolithischen Wirtschaftsgefüges analysiert werden. Dabei wird nicht nur deutlich, wie sich der Charakter der neolithischen Landnutzung wandelt, sondern auch, wie sich die Wechselwirkung zwischen kultureller und ökonomischer Veränderung gestaltet.
On the basis of the investigation of the Neolithic landscape, the site locations, and natural conditions in two districts of Schleswig-Holstein (Stormarn and Herzogtum Lauenburg), this paper will discuss the different trajectories — locational continuity and discontinuity — for different activities and the economic practises that can be deduced from the different land uses. While there appears to be a long continued implementation of areas for permanent settlements from the Mesolithic up to the Late Neolithic, fundamental differences are nevertheless obvious in the case of temporary activity zones. The related changes do not coincide with phase boundaries implemented for cultural and stylistic traditions. This leads to the plausible conclusion that not only economic practices but also societal configurations were continually in-between different stages of development.
Aufbauend auf einer breiten Basis erhobener Daten können neue Erkenntnisse zu Chronologie, Demographie, Umwelt und Wirtschaftsweise vorgestellt werden. Dabei liegt der Fokus auf Siedlungen, Gräbern und Grabenwerken, aber auch auf Wegen, Kommunikationsräumen und Austauschnetzwerken. Band 2 der Schriftenreihe des Schwerpunktprogrammes veröffentlicht erste Ergebnisse aus den laufenden Forschungen zu den frühen ackerbaulichen Gemeinschaften Nordmitteleuropas.
This work focus on the collective graves: the variety of their architectures, the customs of burials and the gifts. Very complex gestures and funerary rites are observed, especially pottery and axes deposits in the entrance of the graves, at a specific time of their use. These practices highlight a close link between the world of the living and the world of the dead, and rites related to the cult of the ancestors.
This hypothesis is strengthened by the population of dead analysis from the gallery graves of the Wartberg culture. Compared with an estimation of the living population, with some ethnographical models, with a GIS-based next-neighbor-analysis on settlements and graves, and with the goods deposits, this analysis suggests that the collective graves are the funerary sites of lineages which, for four in five generations, identify themselves through a common ancestor. Then, the hypothesis of ostentations collective monuments, erected as territorial markers, seems less likely for these regions.
This paper tries to address which segment of the neolithic society erected the megalithic collective burials, which group used them as burial grounds and which group was the recipient of the message if these monuments are understood as an act of communication. Most interpretations equate burial society with settlement society. Other interpretations state that only a certain part of a living society was allowed to be buried in the megalithic graves. Against these models an alternative should be proposed that connects the development of collective burial tradition with a rising complexity of the society.
While some of the predictions of this model were tested elsewhere (Hinz 2009), here two aspects will be investigated:
Does the buried society in megalithic graves represent a viable population? If so, it is an indication that all members of the society were allowed to be buried inside the tombs.
What is the spatial extent that can plausibly be suggested as “catchment area” for the graves? Is it likely on the basis of the distribution of the graves that they represent a settlement unit with each grave functioning as territorial markers?
The means of reasoning are general and spatial statistics as well as spatial and agent based simulations. In this way the paper tries to reflect on the character and social significance of the megalithic architecture for the associated population.
The element identity is regarded as the reason for the monumental erection of collective burials.
Estimations of the labour costs for the graves as well as calculations of the living population show that the associated society could have been much smaller than usualy thought. For the only well investigated contemporary settlement (Wittelsberg, Kr. Marburg-Biedenkopf) for example can a much larger population be expected. Anthropological Investigations show a distribution of ages and sex which do not imply an exclusive access to the burial site. The graves themselve are according to GIS-analysis grouped in small clusters in constant distance. Radiocarbon dating shows that at least some of the grouped graves where erected at the same time.
Because of these results a model of the burying society can be build which organised themselve according to ancestry (lineage) in oposition to the usual interpretation as territorial markers of regional comunities. Ethnological researches underpin this model. In all recent collective burying societies the access to a grave is controled by descent.
Yet the numerous outstandingly preserved Neolithic UNESCO World Heritage wetland sites of the Northern Alpine Foreland dating to 4th millennium BC are a solid research basis to address such questions. In particular, many of the dendrochronologically dated settlements on Lake Zurich and Lake Constance of the period between 3950 and 3800 BCE offer a rare opportunity to investigate cultural, social and economic processes with a high temporal and spatial resolution. In this paper we will use them as a case study to inquire the role of spatial mobility, for cultural entanglements and transformations in prehistoric societies.
Taking three recent paradigmatic shifts as a theoretical starting point – the mobility, practice and material turn –, we have developed a mixed-methodology to investigate spatial mobility using ceramics. While qualitative methods (impressionistic classification of vessel designs) allow us to understand social practices of pottery production from the actors' perspective (micro level), quantitative methods (computational autoclassification of vessels shapes) make it possible to explore structural patterns of pottery consumption practice across several settlements (macro perspective). Through the combination of both perspectives, far-reaching entanglements between regions become visible, as well as mobility-related local appropriations and transformations of pottery practices in the rhythm of decades. In this way, the usual culture historic models of homogenous societies can be deconstructed and replaced by entanglements between different communities of practice.
Zu diesem Zweck wird ein Workshop in der Zusammenarbeit der Universität Bern, des RGZM, der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, der Schweizer TAG und der AG TidA (Schweizer und Deutsche Theoretische Archäologie-Gruppe) angestrebt. Das Format ist ein englisch-deutschsprachiger Open-Space-Workshop mit einer öffentlichen Keynote von Stefani Crabtree, einer Podiumsdiskussion mit Alexandra W. Busch, Stefani Crabtree, Cornelius Holtorf, Paul Erdkamp, Gabriela W. Christmann und Patrick Sakdapolrak, internen Spotlights und einem World-Café der Teilnehmer*innen.
Resilienz und Vulnerabilität sind nicht nur transdisziplinäre Begriffsfelder - sie sind Eckpfeiler eines gewandelten Denkens. Dieses ist sowohl wissenschaftlich als auch politisch. Es zeichnet sich dadurch aus, dass nicht mehr der Wandel in einer als stabil vorgestellten Welt, sei sie heute oder in der Vergangenheit, erklärt werden muss. Vielmehr wird die Welt als grundsätzlich unbeständig, permanent in Veränderung befindlich und von Krisen wie auch Katastrophen beeinflusst gedacht, sodass ihr Weiterbestehen gleichsam erklärungsbedürftig wird. Es ist ein Bewusstsein gewachsen, dass die Herausforderungen der Gegenwart nicht losgelöst von jenen der Vergangenheit verstanden werden können - und vice versa. Daraus erwächst die fruchtbare Möglichkeit der Auseinandersetzung und Überprüfung heutiger Konzepte in der Auseinandersetzung mit der Vergangenheit. Die Begriffe Resilienz und Vulnerabilität-die oft in einer weiten und vereinfachten Auslegung verstanden werden als Fähigkeit von Subjekten und Kollektiven, mit Veränderungen erfolgreich umzugehen oder für diese anfällig zu sein-sind erstaunlich ambivalent. Das betrifft sowohl ihre inhaltliche Bestimmung als auch ihre Bezogenheit aufeinander. So fällt auf, dass sich ein wesentlicher Teil der dazu entstandenen Forschungsliteratur an einer begrifflichen Fixierung oder Kritik abarbeitet, während Vorschläge zu Operationalisierungen eher selten sind. Zu-gleich polarisiert die Verwendung von Resilienz und Vulnerabilität durch ihre politische und gegenwartsbezogene Komponente. Während auf der einen Seite einige Autor*innen diese Konzepte dem neoliberalen-ökonomischen Diskurs zuordnen und daher ablehnen, sehen andere wiederum in ihnen eine »verheißungsvolle Schönheit« (Rungius & Weller 2016, https://resilienz.hypotheses.org/611), die dazu diene, die Welt zu einem besseren Ort und uns selbst zu widerstandsfähigeren Menschen zu machen. Diese politischen und normativen Reflexionen und konträren Positionen gilt es auch für die Verwendung in und durch die Altertumswissenschaften zu beachten. Im Rahmen des Workshops möchten wir daraus resultierend folgende theoretische Konsequenzen und Herausforderungen diskutieren und dabei die Rolle der Altertumswissenschaften im transdisziplinären Forschungsfeld zu Resilienz und Vulnerabilität beleuchten.
Many of these studies rely on global climate proxies such as the GISP 2 ice cores or total solar irradiance. However, proxies for local climate fluctuations have rarely been identified and tested for their possible relevance for human subsistence or societies. Furthermore, it remains uncertain as to how environmental changes documented in supraregional or even global proxies may have actually affected local environments. The fact that these scale-related problems have often been neglected is certainly a result of the difficulties in finding reliable and high-resolution climate indicators which may be linked with the archaeological record. In this session, we will examine new and robust methodologies and the re-analysis of old data from new angles. We invite speakers to demonstrate approaches that take a local perspective and explore medium-range social developments in conjunction with local climate archives to investigate their possible interrelationships.
Within this session we would like to explore the state of the art and the potential application of R in archaeology. We invite presentations for this session that explore questions like (but not limited to):
* What are the specific benefits of this statistical framework in the eyes of its users?
* What are the possibilities? What are the limits?
* What future directions might the usage of R in archaeology have?
* Which archaeological package has been developed, and which package still has to be developed to improve the usability of the sofware for archaeologists?
* What has to be considered to optimise the workflow with R?
We especially would like to attract colleagues who might present archaeological R packages that are ready or in the making and demonstrate their relevance for archaeological analysis. Also we would like to encourage potential presenters to demonstrate their research approaches via live coding, for which we would support them in ensuring that their presentations will work offline and on foreign hardware. [...] We
hope to foster a productive and inclusive exchange between both young and experienced users from all backgrounds.
dating methods based on carbon isotopy are still most important. For multi-site evaluations easily accessible data collections are vital as e.g. provided by the database ‘Radon’1 used here. Furthermore, statistical approaches such as sequential calibration, work best with large amount of data. In our three case studies, the combination of both has yielded compelling results beyond conventional approaches:
1. Sequence-models of Neolithic wetland sites stratigraphies: Despite the possibility of using high-precision dendrochronologies, 14C-dates are still needed in cases of poor organic preservation. Using prior information such as stratigraphies, stratified artefacts and isolated dendrodates, extraordinary high-confindence Bayesian models can be
achieved, like the examples Zurich-Kleiner Hafner (CH) and Ehrenstein (D) of the METproject1 show.
2. Sum calibration-models for Inner Alpine Neolithic and Bronze Age sites: Until recently, having nearly no radiocarbon dates at hand, the chronology of this area was based on typological comparisons with the Swiss Plateau and Southern Germany. Within the CMCTproject3
we were able to generate new samples for Radiocarbon dates from Neolithic and Bronze Age sites. Hence, an absolute chronological framework can be established for the first time.
3. Systematic radiocarbon dating of Late Neolithic human remains: The dolmen of Oberbipp (CH) is one of a rare undisturbed inhumations collective burial with approximately 40 individuals. More than 60 samples of right femora could be dated in three different laboratories, yielding very robust results regarding the burial sequence. In all examples the statistic software R and c14bazAAR4 were used.
1 radon.ufg.uni-kiel.de
2 SNSF-project: http://p3.snf.ch/Project-156205
3 SNSF-project: http://p3.snf.ch/project-165306
4 https://github.com/ISAAKiel/c14bazAAR
However, it is obvious that most investigations rely on only one of these methods. The linking of diferent proxies is the only way to check their validity and to calibrate them because of the lack of ground truth.
For this session we would like to invite contributions that examine archaeological case studies regarding demography and population dynamics using more than one method or proxy. What knowledge can be gained from combining diferent methods? Which approaches have proven their worth, and which ones confirm each other? Have we developed methods of correlating the individual proxies with each other that go beyond observing correlation or forming mean values? How can we correlate proxies with diferent temporal resolution? We welcome studies based on empirical evidence and archaeological data as well as papers dealing with these issues from a theoretical perspective.
Vorstellungen über die prähistorische Vergangenheit spielen in heutigen Diskursen zu aktuellen Themen eine vitale Rolle: beispielsweise bei der Diskussion um Migration oder der Formation von Identitäten. Vielfach werden vermeintlich wissenschaftliche Belege aus der Prähistorie herangezogen, um nachzuweisen, dass aktuelle Entwicklungen entweder ‚naturgegeben’ oder ein Sonderfall der Geschichte sind. Dabei wird auf theoretische Konzepte aus der Prähistorischen Archäologie zurückgegriffen, die längst überholt sind. Ziel des Workshops ist es, diese in ansprechender Form und den optischen Sehgewohnheiten der Generation Youtube angepasst asufzubereiten und zu veröffentlichen. Dabei wird vermittlet, wie komplexe Inhalte mit Hilfe von kurzen Videos einem breiteren Fach- und Laienpublikum leicht zugänglich gemacht werden können. Angesprochen sind Studierende sowie Doktorierende. Es sind keine Vorkenntnisse nötig. Der Workshop ist Teil des Lehrangebotes des Instituts für Archäologische Wissenschaften der Universität Bern (http://www.iaw.unibe.ch/) und findet in Kooperation mit Anarchäologie (https://anarchaeologie.de/) und Swiss TAG (https://hcommons.org/groups/swiss-tag/) statt.
A second premise of RADON is that of „Open Access“. This approach continues to be applied in the international research community, which we welcome as a highly positive development. The radiocarbon database RADON has been committed to this principle for more than 12 years. In this database 14C data – primarily of the Neolithic of Central Europe and Southern Scandinavia – is collected and successively augmented.