Hominin subsistence strategies during the Middle Pleistocene in Schöningen

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Kurt Werner Alt; Professorin Dr. Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: from 2012 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 222689104

The proposed project is dedicated to the exhaustive analysis of subsistence strategies of Middle Pleistocene hominins in interglacial environments using the example of the German site of Schöningen. The focal point of the investigation is provided by the material of Sedimentation series 13-11, excavated before the end of 2005.The Middle Pleistocene site Schöningen 13-11, together with its various Sedimentation series represents an archive unique on a global scale, with an excellent preservation of organic remains, the analysis of which will allow, for the first time, a detailed insight into the functional Organization of Middle Pleistocene sites.The analysis is composed of five closely interlinked modules, which are concerned with the study of the organic remains of the Sedimentation series and the mode of their depositional processes (Project Aspect 2: archaeozoological analyses, Project Aspect 3: Biostratonomy). Results obtained here complement investigations of the Schöningen lithic artefacts and of the morphology of wooden artefacts, which are completed although not yet published.These analyses will be contextualized by three-dimensional spatial projection of their results (Project Aspect 1: Material processing and Refitting, Project Aspect 4: GIS analyses) and by a further module, which for the first time attempts to model Palaeolithic subsistence Systems (Project Aspect 5: Modelling)Work on Schöningen Sedimentation series 13-11 is directly integrated into current research into hominin adaptive mechanisms to interglacial environmental conditions during the Pleistocene and early Holocene presently being carried out by the Forschungsbereich Altsteinzeit of the Römisch- Germanisches Zentralmuseum.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Dr. Stefan Winghart (†)