Project Details
Projekt
Studies in the Neolithic settlement of Pietrele and landscape development in the Lower Danube region.
Subject Area
Prehistory and World Archaeology
Term
from 2015 to 2019
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 282592204
The connection of archaeological excavation and palaeoecological research in Pietrele/Romania which guided the investigations from the beginning has been very successful and revealed an entirely new picture of the 6th and 5th millennium BC at the Lower Danube. The recent work in the last two years made clear that Pietrele was inhabited not only during the Copper Age but also in the Middle and Late Neolithic. Thus the entire period between 5200 and 4250 BC can be documented. Pietrele is the only known settlement with such a long continuity in the region. Therefore it is an outstanding site for understanding the transformation from Late Neolithic to Copper Age.At the same time excellent geoarchives at the Lower Danube open the possibility to place the settlement in its landscape context. The proof of a large palaeo-lake which covered large parts of the Lower Danube valley shed new light on the prehistoric landscape in the region.The archaeological investigation will built up a radiocarbon based chronology of the middle and late Neolithic in South Romania. The Neolithic in Southern Romania has been neglected since more than two decades. One of the questions is, if the copper age innovations can be explained by the neolithic development or were introduced from outside. Research on landscape development goes far beyond the previous studies as it now focuses on sediment sequences representing the time span from the Neolithic to the Copper-Age period. Based on corings close to archaeological sites of this phase, which will be conducted between Pietrele and the Danube delta, we want to figure out the extent of the palaeo lake, the reasons for its development, whether it already existed to its full extent during the Neolithic period, and how it affected settlement development along the Lower Danube. Studies on colluvial deposits at Neolithic and Copper-Age sites should provide information on land use intensity helping to assess the human impact on the ecological conditions of the lake. Environmental changes will be detected by means of geochemical and other analyses of sediment samples. A chronostratigraphy will be established based on OSL- and 14C-dating. Focusing on the Neolithic and Copper-Age period should help to confirm the special position of the settlements as a lake culture. Finally, the archaeological and sedimentological/palaeoecological data will be integrated in a model of the Neolithic and Copper-Age settlement development and environmental changes
DFG Programme
Research Grants
