Project Details
Projekt
Diversification and change – Analysing settlement patterns and agricultural practice during the 5th mil. BC in Central Europe
Subject Area
Prehistory and World Archaeology
Term
since 2021
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 468729311
The advent of agriculture in Central Europe dates to the 2nd half of the 6th mil. BCE (Linear Pottery Culture). Agricultural practice in these early farming societies is reconstructed as comparatively static. It is generally assumed that this also applies to the subsequent Middle Neolithic period (ca. 4850-4400 BCE). In the archaeological record of the late 5th and 4th mil. BCE, finally, a diversification becomes tangible, which reflects a much more dynamic picture of agriculture and settlement patterns of early farming societies in Central Europe. The archaeological record reflects an expansion of settlement areas, land use and farming into areas which, due to their soils and climatic conditions, were far less suitable for agriculture than the previously used favourable areas of the so-called „Altsiedellandschaften“. At the centre of the current research project and the renewal proposal is the hypothesis that this change in agricultural practices, land use and settlement patterns already began in the early and middle 5th mil. BCE and thus points to a much earlier and longer-lasting transformation process. This is analysed for the regions of Mainfranken, Wetterau, Rhineland and Westphalia, where the archaeological record and the state of research on the 5th mil. BCE are comparatively good. The specific research questions that have already been formulated for the 1st project phase are: 1. how can this change be reconstructed in detail (what/when/where)? 2. which causes and correlations need to be discussed (why)? Within the framework of a diachronic and regional comparison, the above-mentioned aspects are investigated in an interdisciplinary approach – integrating approaches from archaeology, vegetation history, archaeobotany, archaeozoology, geoarchaeology, isotope analysis and molecular archaeology. The aim of the renewal proposal is to harmonise the different regional research statuses between the participating disciplines, to integrate further methods that focus on specific aspects of agricultural practices, and to intersect the results of all disciplines in order to finally record and understand diversification and change in settlement patterns and agricultural practices during the 5th mil. BCE in a transect that cuts through the Central Upland zone from NNW to SSE and runs through important loess landscapes in Central Europe.
DFG Programme
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