Genesis and Structure of the Hessian-Westphalian Megalithic Soest Group

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Ralf Gleser; Professor Dr. Heinz-Jürgen Przybilla; Professor Dr. Michael Schultz
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: from 2009 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 128716157

The project aims to explore the Soest Group, situated in the contact zone between the societies of the Funnel Beaker Culture and the Wartberg Culture, both known for erecting megaliths. The excavation of the newly-discovered collective tombs of Erwitte-Schmerlecke allows new insights into social differentiation processes, depending on both societies' completely different interpretations of burying in collective tombs. Anthropological analysis enables conclusions about social structures. Furthermore, the immediate vicinity of the Soest Group tombs is to be examined to possibly find more hitherto unknown tombs and associated settlement places. Monumental earthworks are also in focus, especially concerning their relation to the megalith tombs. Finally, it is intended to reconstruct a grave and settlement landscape in the Hessian-Westphalian Megalithic. An interdisciplinary approach in connection with research and results of the Priority Programme helps to get an actualized overview not only for the Soest Group but for the whole region of the northern border of the German Uplands and its relations to the north western megalithic zone.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1400: Early Monumentality and Social Differentiation. The Origin and Development of Neolithic Large-Scale Buildings and the Earliest Complex Societies in Northern Central Europe
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Michael Baales