Journal of Neolithic Archaeology
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Die Bedeutung der Jagd in der Trichterbecherkultur
Get PDFThe role of hunting in the Funnel Beaker Culture is analysed by a comparative study of the proportions of wild animal bones at sites in southern Scandinavia and Central Europe. The study revealed signifi cant regional differences. Sites in the southern regions show only small amounts of wild animal bones, in contrast to the north, where both sites with small and large proportions of wild animals occur. The reasons could be differing environmental conditions, differences in the regional economic and settlement systems, and possibly a different cultural background on which the regional groups of the Funnel Beaker Culture evolved. Furthermore this article discusses the importance of the various species of wild animals at sites of the Funnel Beaker Culture
Zur Bedeutung von Getreide in der Einzelgrabkultur Jütlands
Get PDFThe importance of cereals in the Single Grave Culture in JutlandUntil 25 years ago, the Single Grave Culture in Jutland was perceivedas a culture of nomadic cattle herders. A number of newersettlement finds allows us today to partly revise that picture. Pollenanalysis still indicates a major importance of cattle breeding,buta number of finds demonstrate that cereals also played an importantrole. This role can be described by a closer examination of theinformation at hand today. It is possible to discern between directand indirect sources. Among the direct sources, the first demonstrationof beer made from cereals can be cited besides finds ofcereal grains. Further information can be gained from numerouspollen analyses from samples of both lakes and bogs and fromfossil earth layers underneath barrows, the barrows themselvesor contents of ceramic vessels. Furthermore, impressions of cerealgrains in ceramics, ard marks underneath barrows, quern stones and some forms of pottery decorations all contribute to our knowledge.The results of the investigation show, that naked barley was grown almost exclusively in the early and middle phases of the Single Grave Culture, where it was of minor economic importance only. In the late phase of the culture, settlement expands onto more fertile soils in Eastern Jutland. In this phase, an increasing amount of emmer wheat was grown and the overall economic importance of cereals was probably increasing. Furthermore, it is important to note a remarkable ritual importance of cereals during the whole lifetime of the Single Grave Culture. This is indicated by a high degree of handling and consuming cereals within the grave cult
A Review of the Early Late Neolithic Period in Denmark: Practice, Identity and Connectivity
Get PDFThe focus of this study is the early part of the Late Neolithic Period in Denmark with particular emphasis on impact from the European Bell Beaker culture in the fi nal centuries of the third millennium BC. The history of research is briefl y reviewed and the published evidence of domestic and ritual practices and of material expressions are discussed in some detail. The underlying intention is to provide a preliminary conclusion useable as a framework for describing future research potentials and aims. Flint daggers and various other things and materials enriched with symbolic meanings, culture and knowledge were exchanged over northern central Europe and Scandinavia, but were diff erentially received locally. The specifi c cultural and social situation in northern Jutland – associated with a marked concentration of Beaker elements – can best be understood as dependent on a series of internal conditions such as rich sources of high quality fl int as well as on interaction with a wider Late Neolithic realm in southern Scandinavia and with late Bell Beaker and affi liated groups in western Europe.A scenario of competing social identities is presented in which strategies were closely coupled to appropriation of new kinds of material culture and in some measure also new cultural and social practices. External impulses were continuously translated into a local cultural language. Future research into Beakers may benefit from an interpretive approach that combines analyses of archaeological data with social theories about the role of material culture in social practices, identifi cation strategies and cross-cultural connectivity
Modellbau jungsteinzeitlicher Häuser aus Norddeutschland im Archäologisch-Ökologischen Zentrum Albersdorf. Rekonstruktive Grundlage, Erfahrungen und Probleme aus der Praxis
Get PDFSince 1997 the "Archaeological-Ecological Centre Albersdorf" (AÖZA) in the county of Dithmarschen in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, is working on the aim to re-establish a Neolithic cultural landscape (c. 3000 BC) on an area of about 40 hectares. One concrete and important step for the project is to build a "Neolithic village" as a model in original scale and as an open-air museum in the immediate vicinity of original prehistoric grave monuments. The article describes the aims and the scientific base of the "Neolithic" house models following the relatively well preserved structures of houses in Flögeln-Eekhöltjen and Pennigbüttel in Lower Saxony. The experiences of the work (material, methods and problems) are discussed and the possible effects for knowledge and mediation of prehistoric house building for the public are shown
The Neolithic Settlement Landscape of the Southeastern Swabian Alb
Get PDFThis paper presents goals, methods, and preliminary results of a collaborative project investigating Neolithic settlement and land use of the southeastern Swabian Alb limestone plateau region in southwestern Germany. The project combines systematic surveys of plowed fields and analysis of large private collections to investigate site distributions on the plateau, which is largely poor in surface water but a source of regionally important chert raw material. GIS based comparisons of site locations in terms of soil type and their agricultural potential, distance to water, and distance to chert sources show that numerous sites from the Bandkeramik to the younger Neolithic are associated with either chert sources or high-quality settlement locations. A number of extensive private collections provide a rich foundation to investigate functional and chronological differences among site locations. Preliminary results of lithics and ceramics analyses of nine sites indicate chronological variability as well as dissimilar characteristics in blade core technology and abundance and types of retouched tools between chert-extraction sites and settlements
Okolište – Grabung und Geomagnetik eines zentralbosnischen Tells aus der ersten Hälfte des 5. vorchristlichen Jahrtausends
No full textExcavations and a geomagnetic survey took place at the site of Okolište, a settlement mound in Central Bosnia. The reconstructionof a settlement plan was possible, which displays beside a huge defence system the regularly planned rows of houses of the timearound 4800 BC. The village fulfilled probably central functions within the Visoko basin
Kieselgeoden als wichtiger Rohstoff für die Beilproduktion im Neolithikum von Nordwestdeutschland – Erste Nachweise von Produktionsplätzen der Trichterbecherkultur
Get PDFThe black silica-ironstone was used in northwestern Germany during the Neolithic period only for the production of large stonetools. It is a sediment type from the Soninnia-Beds of the Lower Doggerian (Middle Jurassic) that was heated up thermically by the Bramscher and Vlothoer Pluton in the Cretaceousperiods and has similar working features such as flintstone. The large platy to small round black concretions were collected by theNeolithic people from surfaces between the Teutoburger Wald to Wiehengebirge. The raw material was collected in secondary Pleistocene Saale ice age deposits of ground andend moraines or from Were, Else or Weser river terrace gravels. For the first time, this material was discovered and rarely used by the Rössen Culture (6.900 BP) for the fabricationof flat unperforated adzes. In the period of the Funnel Beaker Culture a manufacture of rectangular silica-ironstone hatchetsand their trade over distances of about 150 km can be prooved. From this period a new hatchet production place was remembered at Bissendorf-Wulften, Kr. Osnabrück in closecontact to some megalith graves such as the Sloopsteene and settling places. At this site the raw material, more than 150 debris, and some hatchet fragments, hatchet brutes, brokenhalf products and finished polished hatchets were found. Other Neolithic sites have delivered only a few silicaconcretion debrisin between the common flint stone material. Another more important small production site of the Funnel Beaker Culture was found at an old river branch of the river Else at Kirchlengern-Steinlacke, Kr. Herford. With the discovery of these hatchet producing sites for the first time the silica-ironstone hatchet production can be discussed. 68% of the debris atthe main site Bissendorf-Wulften contains cortex remains that indicate a prepreparation to hatchet brutes, which were polished in another step from all sides. The debris was rarely used for scrapers. In a few cases cissels and thickbladed rectangular hatchets were produced of the silica-ironstone. The high percentage of hatchet fragments and debris indicatea lower quality of the raw material silica-ironstone concretion as flintstone or magmatic rocks. In the following late Neolithicperiods people of the Single Grave and Bell Beaker Cultures used rarely silica-ironstone mainly for the production of battle axes, until this raw material became forgotton at about4.200 BP
Zur Verzierungslogik ältestbandkeramischer Tonware aus Friedberg-Bruchenbrücken. Ein Beitrag zur hermeneutischen Stilanalyse neolithischer Keramik
Get PDFA hermeneutic style analysis of Early-LBKpottery from Friedberg-Bruchenbrücken/ Hesse.The hermeneutic style analysis of Neolithic vessels does not only aim at examining their individual formal and decorative elements, but at reconstructing the connections and interdependencesbetween them. This method will be presented with an example of two Early- LBK-vessels from Friedberg-Bruchenbrücken/Hesse
Eine neue Parallele zu den Einbauten im spätmichelsbergzeitlichen Erdwerk von Calden, Kr. Kassel?
Get PDFThe late Michelsberg enclosure of Calden, Kr. Kassel (Germany), is well known for its elaborate wooden gateways. Comparable structures with a more simple layout are up to this day only known from the Urmitz enclosure, which dates to an early Michelsberg phase. This article discusses a still undated ditch system near Großfahner, Kr. Erfurt, which shows very similar features. It might belong to the Baalberge culture, thus being contemporary with the Calden enclosure
Die mitteleuropäische Subsistenzwirtschaft des 3. bis 2. Jahrtausends v.Chr. aus paläoökologischer Sicht
Get PDFoai:ojs.134.245.38.100:article/2Über die Subsistenzwirtschaft der Bevölkerung des 3. und 2. Jahrtausends v. Chr. (dem Ende der Jungsteinzeit und dem Beginn der Bronzezeit) liegen bislang nur wenige bioarchäologische Daten vor. Die augenscheinliche Dominanz von Gräbern und Grabfunden und das fast vollständige Fehlen von Siedlungsnachweisen für diese Zeit führt seit mehr als 70 Jahren zu Diskussionen und verschiedenen Erklärungsmodellen. Eine dieser Hypothesen geht davon aus, dass die Menschen der Schnurkeramik- und Glockenbecherzeit Viehhirten waren und als ein reisendes Volk von Bogenschützen angesehen werden müssen. Dem stellen wir hier Resultate aus gut datierten paläoökologischen Untersuchungen entgegen, die klar beweisen, dass in Mitteleuropa (zwischen der Schweiz und Dänemark, sowie zwischen Rhein und Oder) im 3. und 2. Jahrtausend v. Chr. ein voll funktionierendes Landwirtschaftssystem existiert hat. Dies bedeutet auch, dass die Siedlungen permanent bewohnt waren und die Bewohner auf den lokalen Anbau von Kulturpflanzen (z.B. Getreide und Hülsenfrüchte) und auf Viehhaltung spezialisiert waren. Mit Hilfe der Pollenanalysen aus dem Großen Treppelsee ́ in Brandenburg (Deutschland) kann das Vorhandensein von mehreren Landwirtschaftsphasen und einer ersten Form von Grünlandwirtschaft zwischen 3200 und 800 v. Chr. gezeigt werden. Diese paläoökologischen Resultate ermöglichen ein besseres Verständnis dieser Zeitepoche, die zudem durch Neuerungen in der Tischkultur (u.a. das Auftreten von neuen Geschirrformen) und durch die Düngung von Landwirtschaftsflächen charakterisiert wird. Somit ist das augenscheinliche oder effektive Fehlen von archäologisch nachgewiesenenSiedlungen entweder durch schlechte Erhaltungsbedingungen und Forschungsstrategien begründet, oder aber auf neue Vorlieben in der Auswahl von Siedlungslagen, Bauweise und/oder Abfallentsorgung zurückzuführen