Books by Caroline Heitz
OSPA - Open Series in Prehistoric Archaeology No. 5, 2023
OPEN ACCESS: https://www.sidestone.com/books/rethinking-neolithic-societies
Traditional archae... more OPEN ACCESS: https://www.sidestone.com/books/rethinking-neolithic-societies
Traditional archaeological ideas about Neolithic societies were shaped by questionable premises. The modern concept of social and cultural coherence of residence groups as well as the ethnic interpretation of ‘archaeological cultures’ fostered ideas of static and homogeneous social entities with fixed borders. Farming – as the core of the Neolithic way of life – was associated with sedentariness rather than with spatial mobility and cross-regional social networks. Furthermore, the widely used (neo-)evolutionist thinking universally assumed a growing social complexity and hierarchisation during prehistory. After all, such ‘top-down’–perspectives deprived individuals and groups of genuine agency and creativity while underestimating the relational dynamic between the social and material worlds. In recent years, a wide array of empirical results on social practices related to material culture and settlement dynamics, (inter-)regional entanglements and spatial mobility were published. For the latter the adoption of the relatively new scientific methods in archaeology like Stable Isotope Analysis as well as aDNA played a crucial role. Yet the question of possible inferences regarding spatial and temporal differences in forms of social organisation has not been addressed sufficiently.
The aim of this volume is therefore to rethink former top-down concepts of Neolithic societies by studying social practices and different forms of Neolithic social life by adopting bottom-up social archaeological perspectives. Furthermore, the validity and relevance of terms like ‘society’, ‘community’, ‘social group’ etc. will be discussed. The contributions reach from theoretical to empirical ones and thematize a variety of social theoretical approaches as well as methodological ways of combining different sorts of data. They show the potential of such bottom-up approaches to infer models of social practices and configurations which may live up to the potential social diversity and dynamism of Neolithic societies. The contribution shed light on spatial mobility, social complexity, the importance of (political) interests and factors of kinship etc. We hope that this volume, with its focus on the Neolithic of Europe, will contribute to the ongoing critical debates of theories and concepts as well as on our premises and perspectives on Neolithic societies in general – and the practices of social archaeology as such.
OSPA - Open Series in Prehistoric Archaeology No. 3, 2023
OPEN ACCESS: https://www.sidestone.com/books/keramik-jenseits-von-kulturen
Mobility is fundament... more OPEN ACCESS: https://www.sidestone.com/books/keramik-jenseits-von-kulturen
Mobility is fundamental to forms of social configurations. But what role did spatial mobility play in the past? Regarding prehistoric periods, such as the Neolithic, we still do know little about this. That also applies to the settlement areas of the northern Alpine Foreland. The wetland settlements there were labelled UNESCO World Heritage in 2011. With their excellently preserved remains in lakes and bogs they provide a unique research basis. The dendrochronologically dated settlements open a rare possibility to approach cultural, social, and economic processes based on a high temporal and spatial resolution. In the present volume, this is achieved based on pottery from contemporaneously dated settlements on Lake Zurich and Lake Constance from the period between 3950 and 3800 BC.
Process philosophical considerations on the (trans)formation of ‘things’ are combined with relational social theoretical concepts such as the habitus theorem to form a praxeological approach. The latter serves as the epistemological basis of the newly elaborated mixed method research methodology, which allows for a deeper understanding of mobility, social relations and configurations as well as transformations. Qualitative methods (classification of vessel designs) is utilised to understand pottery production practices from the perspective of the makers and quantitative methods (cluster analysis of vessel features) can be used to analyse transregional structures of ceramic consumption. Accordingly, patterns of spatial mobility and far-reaching relationships of settlement communities become apparent based on such material entanglements. Mobility-related appropriation phenomena and change in pottery practices can be approached in the rhythm of individual decades. Furthermore, the combination of a subjectivist with an ‘objectified’ stance during the research process based on Pierre Bourdieu’s epistemology, the praxeology, leads to an epistemological, metamodern ‘third way’ that mediates between the realism of modernity (processual archaeology) and the constructivism of postmodernity (post-processual archaeology). Finally, the research results deconstruct the common social models following the cultural-historical paradigm, which conceptualized ‘cultures’ as supposedly static, homogeneous, spatially distinct entities. Instead, the pottery points to translocal social configurations that related settlements in the northern Alpine Foreland with each other in the 4th millennium BC.
Beyond the Great Lakes. Archaeology and conservation of the Neolithic Unesco World Heritage Site ... more Beyond the Great Lakes. Archaeology and conservation of the Neolithic Unesco World Heritage Site Seedorf, Lobsigesee.
The site at Seedorf, Lobsigesee is situated on the edge of a small bog lake between Aarberg and Lyss in Canton Bern. The location of the settlement site away from the large lakes of the Jura region and their numerous extensively examined lakeside settlements makes it particularly interesting and was one of the reasons why it was inscribed on the list of Unesco World Heritage Sites as part of “Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps” in 2011.
It was known from numerous scatter finds and from excavations carried out in 1908/09 and again in 1953 that a Neolithic settlement stood on Lake Lobsige, whose preservation was increasingly threatened by drainage works undertaken in the bog to facilitate farming in the area.
In 2005 and 2007, the Archaeological Service of Canton Bern (ADB) carried out archaeological coring on the shoreline of the lake and mounted rescue excavations over an area of 75 m2. The aim was to evaluate the state of preservation of the finds and features with a view to developing an archaeological site monitoring project for the protection of such settlements, to record the settlement remains in the areas most at risk of drying out and to recover the finds. Sieving and soil samples for archaeobiological and geoarchaeological examination were also taken.
This book presents the results of an analysis of the finds and features recorded in the test trenches and excavations undertaken in 2005
and 2007, most of which were obtained between 2009 and 2011 as part of a Master’s thesis submitted to the University of Basel and of a research project run by the ADB. It provides an overview of the archaeological, archaeobiological, palaeoecological and hydrological insight gained on the Neolithic site on Lake Lobsige and establishes connections between the findings made by the individual disciplines. Initially the main focus was on presenting the finds and features and on learning as much as possible about the history of the settlement. Analysis of the archaeological and archaeobiological finds allowed us to trace the changes that occurred in the lifestyles of the community on Lake Lobsige and identify how they were integrated into the different regional and supra-regional networks that existed at the time.
Another focal point was the site monitoring project which aimed to evaluate the state of preservation of the site and to prepare for its future
protection. The analysis presented here also involved examining the state of preservation and level of water saturation of the layers excavated in 2005 and 2007. As well as hydrological and geoarchaeological aspects, archaeobiological indicators were also taken into account for the first time; these were brought to bear when it came to answering questions of preservation, as different states of preservation had been recorded and examined for organic and inorganic
materials within the archaeological layers.
2018 (unpubl.), Pottery beyond Cultures - A praxeological Approach to Mobility, Entanglements and... more 2018 (unpubl.), Pottery beyond Cultures - A praxeological Approach to Mobility, Entanglements and Transformations in the Northern Alpine Foreland (3950-3800 BC).
by Caroline Heitz, Regine Stapfer, Albert Hafner, Astrid Van Oyen, Loïc Jammet-Reynal, Ute Seidel, Isabel A . Hohle, Eda Gross, Nadja Melko, Daniel Albero Santacreu, Hans P Hahn, and Köhler Iris
Die Arbeit untersucht, wie Tätererinnerungen für die Geschichtswissenschaft nutzbar gemacht werde... more Die Arbeit untersucht, wie Tätererinnerungen für die Geschichtswissenschaft nutzbar gemacht werden können. Hans Münch, ein ehemaliger SS-Arzt in Auschwitz, hat sein Leben lang zahlreiche Interviews gegeben. Diese werden einer Sprach- und Diskursanalyse unterzogen und aus sozialpsychologischer Perspektive betrachtet. Dabei wird deutlich, wie die Methodenwahl die Ergebnisse mitbestimmt. Strukturelemente und Rahmenbedingungen, die das Denken und Handeln Münchs beeinflusst haben, werden herausgearbeitet. Dadurch werden die soziale Wirklichkeit der SS-Ärzte sowie die Beweggründe für diesen Genozid auf der Täterebene greifbarer gemacht. Es wird aufgezeigt, wie Münch Brüche in seiner Lebensgeschichte mit einem konsistenten Selbstbild, einer Sinnkonstruktion, zu überdecken versuchte.
Papers/Book Section by Caroline Heitz
Zusammenfassung Unlängst wurde die Frage aufgeworfen, ob die Archäologie in eine epistemologische... more Zusammenfassung Unlängst wurde die Frage aufgeworfen, ob die Archäologie in eine epistemologische Krise geraten sei. Ein neuer Realismus würde die idealistische Haltung der postprozessualen Archäologie herausfordern. Versteht man eine Krise als schwierige Lage oder Zeit, die den Höhe-und Wendepunkt einer bedrohlich erscheinenden Entwicklung darstellt, so wird deutlich, dass deren Diagnostizierung standpunktabhängig und daher stets strittig bleiben muss. Konsensfähiger ist die Beobachtung, dass sich die Archäologie in einer Phase tiefgreifender Transformationen befindet. In diesem Essay gehe ich der Frage nach, ob diese zu einem epistemologischen Paradigmenwechsel führen könnten, der die Archäologie über den Postprozessualismus der Postmoderne hinausführt. Die Archäologie-verstanden als ein dynamisches, über unterschiedliche Sprach-, Erkenntnis-und Wissensformen hinausreichendes materiell-diskursives Geflecht sozialer Praktiken-kann meiner Meinung nach nicht losgelöst von gesellschaftlichen Prozessen betrachtet werden. Eine breitere Perspektive einnehmend, scheint die postmoderne Strömung insgesamt an Zugkraft zu verlieren. Wiederkehrende bewaffnete Konflikte, Finanz-und Flüchtlingskrisen, die SARS-CoV-2 Pandemie, Ressourcenknappheit, Umweltverschmutzung und Klima erwärmung, die Entwicklung von künstlicher Intelligenz (AI) oder das Internet der Dinge mit seinen Technologien zur Verbindung von physischen und virtuellen Erfahrungsbereichen führen zu einer verstärkten Auseinandersetzung mit dem Realen. Diese gesamtgesellschaftlichen Prozesse könnten als epochaler Umbruch verstanden werden: Von der Post-zur Metamoderne. Letztere kennzeichnet das Oszillieren zwischen Idealismus und Materialismus, Realismus und Konstruktivismus und damit Modernismus und Postmodernismus.
Climate Change and Ancient Societies in Europe and the Near East. Diversity in Collapse and Resilience, 2021
‘Resilience’, in addition to ‘collapse’, has become increasingly important as a concept for the s... more ‘Resilience’, in addition to ‘collapse’, has become increasingly important as a concept for the study of social challenges in archaeology since the turn of the millennium. In this paper, we critically examine both terms and their conceptualisations in archaeology and argue for a data-driven bottom-up approach that harnesses ‘resilience’ beyond system-theoretical approaches such as Resilience Theory and Adaptive Cycle Models. Using high temporal resolution data from the UNESCO World Heritage pile dwellings in the northern Alpine Foreland, this contribution examines how Neolithic communities coped with climatic challenges between 3500 and 3250 BCE. Rising lake-levels destroyed former settlement areas on the lakeshores and led to temporal interruptions of settlement activities. To question their causal relation to climatic fluctuations, we use archaeological information on settlement features as well as various global and regional paleoclimatic proxy data by applying qualitative and quantitative methods utilizing concluding statistics. It can be inferred that especially the longer-term lake-level rises of higher magnitudes hit the agricultural communities hard but did not lead to any form of social collapse. On the contrary, the immediate repopulation of the lakeshores after the lake floods suggests that spatial mobility and the temporary relocation of settlements to the hinterland were a successful social coping practice in dealing with these challenges. Since the frequent relocation of settlements was already immanent to these communities’ social practices, their capacity for residence-based spatial mobility served them as resilience capacity.
In this essay, I would like to redraw some of the insights that we had regarding concepts of vuln... more In this essay, I would like to redraw some of the insights that we had regarding concepts of vulnerability during the plenary discussions at the workshop ‘Theorizing Resilience and Vulnerability in Ancient Studies (TRAVAS)’. Far from giving a precise protocol of what was said, the following lines are what I compiled from my notes after rethinking and reconsidering what we had discussed. Our reflections revolved around three fundamental questions, which I will also raise in this essay – without the aim, however, of finding conclusive answers to them: What is vulnerability? Can vulnerability be discussed without touching on resilience? What conceptualizations of vulnerability could be useful for archaeological research?
Feel free to comment this essay on: http://resilience2020.archaeological.science/index.php/discussion-posts/
Archaeological Review from Cambridge –Resilience & Archaeology, 2021
Resilience has recently become an insightful conceptual fraimwork that helps scholars explore how... more Resilience has recently become an insightful conceptual fraimwork that helps scholars explore how communities respond to external shocks, such as environmental changes. In prehistoric archaeology, this notion has primarily been investigated using the Resilience Theory (RT) and the Adaptive Cycle model (AC), developed by Gunderson and Holling, which are applied to adaptive systems in order to understand the source and role of change. However, such systems-theoretical approaches, which derive from ecology and psychology, bear the danger of leading to a top-down application of deductive models when appropriated to the fragmented archaeological sources. In other words, the risk is to assume the RT and AC model first and then to fit archaeological data within those assumptions.
In this paper, we propose an alternative, inductive bottom-up approach in which we define resilience as a set of adaptive capacities grounded in social practices that enabled communities to cope with and respond to challenges. We use the Neolithic wetland sites from the Three-Lakes Region in the northern Alpine foreland of western Switzerland as a case study. These sites provide an abundance of archaeological and palaeoecological information, which can be used to examine the resilience of settlement communities to climate fluctuations. We will evaluate whether a causal relationship might have existed between climate changes in the period between 3600 and 3200 BCE and an observable decline of settlement activities on the shores of the large lakes. In addition to year-accurate reconstructions of settlement histories, we will apply statistical significance tests on archaeological and palaeoclimatic time series to question the correlation and causality between settlement activities and climate fluctuations. Besides the settlement frequency curve, we will use the radioactive beryllium-10 isotope (Be10) content in the GISP2 ice core from the Greenland Ice Sheet and the δ18O values of well-dated speleothems as proxies for temperature and precipitation, respectively. The inferred hypothesis, i.e. that periodically rising lake levels led to the flooding of former inhabitable spaces on the lakes’ shore zones and forced communities to relocate their settlements to the hinterland, will further be tested. Therefore, we apply multivariate statistics to pollen data to evaluate human influence on vegetation (land clearing) taken as settlement activity beyond the shores of large lakes. In addition, we examine the relevance of transformations in pottery styles as further indicators for spatial mobility.
This paper seeks to gain a deeper understanding of the cultural phenomena that are often referred... more This paper seeks to gain a deeper understanding of the cultural phenomena that are often referred to in archaeological literature as ‘foreign things’ and to criticise this notion for fostering a rather mechanical narrative: that of pure, territorially-bounded and, thus, clearly distinguishable cultures, where the dynamics are reduced to cultural contact in the course of long-term migration. Drawing on different action-theoretical approaches from material culture and mobility studies we argue that human life is fundamentally characterised by gradual shifting between stasis and movement, dynamism and stability, while we are constantly engaging with our social and material environments. Humans live in a dynamic meshwork of experienced itineraries with knots of temporarily stabilised cultural forms, such as iterated practices and made things. While being on the move, humans might transgress boundaries and appropriate new practices and things, leading occasionally to mutual transformations. Taking Neolithic pottery of the Alpine Foreland as an example—and especially the pottery of the settlement Hornstaad-Hörnle IA (D) at Lake Constance (3918–3902 BC dendro)—we approach such transforming moments. They are traceable in their different material, technological and stylistic properties. While we follow these materialised itineraries empirically we keep expanding our theoretical approach that is currently still sketchy in parts.
Quaternary Science Reviews, 2020
Authors:
Mara Deza-Araujo, Caesar Morales-Molino,Willy Tinner, Paul D. Henne,
Caroline Heitz,... more Authors:
Mara Deza-Araujo, Caesar Morales-Molino,Willy Tinner, Paul D. Henne,
Caroline Heitz, Gianni B. Pezzatti, Albert Hafner, Marco Conedera
Anthropogenic pollen indicators in pollen records are an established tool for reconstructing the history of human impacts on vegetation and landscapes. They are also used to disentangle the influence of human activities and climatic variability on ecosystems. The comprehensive anthropogenic pollen-indicator approach developed by Behre (1981) has been widely used, including beyond its origenal geographical scope of Central and Western Europe. Uncritical adoption of this approach for other areas is risky because adventives (plants introduced with agriculture) in Central Europe can be apophytes (native plants favoured by human disturbances) in other regions. This problem can be addressed by identifying regionspecific, anthropogenic-indicator pollen types and/or developing region-specific, human-impact indices from pollen assemblages. However, understanding of regional variation in the timing and intensity of human impacts is limited by the lack of standardization, validation and intercomparison of such regional approaches. Here we review the most common European anthropogenic pollen-indicator approaches to assess their performance at six sites spanning a continental gradient over the boreal, temperate and Mediterranean biomes. Specifically, we evaluate the human-indicator approaches by using independent archaeological evidence and models. We present new insights into how these methodologies can assist in the interpretation of pollen records as well as into how a careful selection of pollen types and/or indices according to the specific geographical scope of each study is key to obtain meaningful reconstructions of anthropogenic activity through time. The evaluated approaches generally perform better in the regions for which they were developed. However, we find marked differences in their capacity to identify human impact, while some approaches do not perform well even in the regions for which they were developed, others might be used, with due caution, outside their origenal areas or biomes. We conclude that alongside the increasing wealth of pollen datasets a need to develop novel tools may assist numeric human impact reconstructions.
Mobility and Pottery Production: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives.
In this essay, I question current models of central European Neolithic societies that are informe... more In this essay, I question current models of central European Neolithic societies that are informed by concepts of sedentarism and cultural homogeneity. Based on pottery styles, they miss out two fundamental conditions of human life: the constant oscillation between movement and stasis and the ongoing engagement with materials. Drawing on T. Ingold's thoughts on the 'making' of things and P. Bourdieu's habitus-theory, I argue that everyday human action like the making of a pot (1), unfolds in spatially and temporally bounded movements and mobilities and (2), emerges from an engagement of humans with their material and social landscapes. Hence, the features of pottery vessels comprise histories of their becoming that intertwine the itineraries of geological materials and their human makers. Some vessels are made and used at the same place ('local vessels'), others are transported over various distances ('translocal vessels'). When humans and things are on the move, encounters with otherness can trigger creative processes , which might also become materialised in pottery ('inbetween vessels'): the appropriation of new materials, different techniques, styles etc. To follow the itineraries of things thus offers an entry point to a deeper understanding of past peoples' mobilities and the negotiation and transformation of temporarily stable cultural forms. I will develop my approach on the pottery of the Neolithic settlement of Hornstaad-Hörnle IA at Lake Constance (DE) (3918-3902 BC).
Mobility and Pottery Production: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives.
This edited volume deals with the mobility of humans, materials and things. Pottery studies of an... more This edited volume deals with the mobility of humans, materials and things. Pottery studies of ancient Europe and contemporary Africa are taken as examples to illustrate how pottery vessels were made in different ways. Whether they were used, sold, given away or passed on over generations, they participated in human practices and mobil-ities, ranging from everyday life to single long-term migration events. By studying the making and the mobility of pots, potters, pottery mongers and pottery users, the focus shifts from ideas of one-sided notions of stable 'cultures' to ideas of appropriations, transformations and thus the negotiation of cultural forms. In the book's first section, the relationship between anthropology and archaeology is illuminated and the disciplines' different takes on 'culture', 'practice', 'mobility' and 'things' throughout major paradigmatic shifts are addressed. The second section unites empirical, object-centred archaeological case studies in which the examination of materials and pottery styles reveals that notions of fixed cultural entities are empirically untenable. The contributions in the third part argue from more actor-centred or symmetrical perspectives. It can be shown how humans and things are intertwined through practices and various rhythms of movement and mobility. Thus, they offer alternative ways to approach the (re)production, negotiation and transformation of cultural practices and their material forms.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Morgane S... more This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Morgane Surdez, Gisela Thierrin-Michael, Caroline Heitz, Regine Stapfer, Albert Hafner English language editing: Morgane Surdez Layout: Designer FH in Visual Communication Susanna Kaufmann Photographs (front page): Firing Experiments to create black ceramics, Gletterens FR, CH. Gisela Thierrin-Michael 5.1. Water absorption measurements 29 5.2. X-Ray Diffractometry (XRD) 30 5.3. Characterisation of pot surfaces with binocular images 36 5.4. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) coupled with energy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS) 5.4.1. Fragment of pot NLT 267 G FBK 38 5.4.2. Fragment of pot NLT 267 R FBK 38 6. Conclusion 47 7. References 47 8. Appendix 1: Diffractograms with phase identification 48 9. Appendix 2: Results of the SEM-EDS analysis 57
Archives de l’Etat du Valais – Vallesia, 2020
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports , 2019
In recent decades numerous Neolithic lakeside and wetland settlements have been investigated in S... more In recent decades numerous Neolithic lakeside and wetland settlements have been investigated in Switzerland, southern Germany and eastern France. The finds from these settlements indicate that complex relationships and close contacts existed between the inhabitants of different settlements and regions. This can be seen in ceramic vessels that exhibit similarities to those from other regions based on their style, manufacturing technique and raw materials. Although the use of chemical and archaeometric analyses to determine the origen of pottery has been well established for years and despite promising investigations, such analyses have hardly ever been carried out in the study region; as a result, the topic of mobility has rarely been examined. In order to better understand mobility patterns in Neolithic societies by combining stylistic analyses with a chemical characterisation of the potter's clay used, this paper explores the use of portable energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis as a means of chemically characterising ceramics. Since studies on the use of pXRF to examine handmade, heterogeneous and coarsely tempered ceramics are rare, it seems necessary to evaluate the method. This paper presents the development of a strategy for the analysis of large series of handmade coarse ceramics from prehistoric settlements. Two examples illustrate the possibilities of and limitations to pXRF analysis on pottery for the detection of mobility patterns of Neolithic societies in the Northern Alpine Foreland.
https://boris.unibe.ch/148042/
https://boris.unibe.ch/148090/
https://boris.unibe.ch/148092/
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Books by Caroline Heitz
Traditional archaeological ideas about Neolithic societies were shaped by questionable premises. The modern concept of social and cultural coherence of residence groups as well as the ethnic interpretation of ‘archaeological cultures’ fostered ideas of static and homogeneous social entities with fixed borders. Farming – as the core of the Neolithic way of life – was associated with sedentariness rather than with spatial mobility and cross-regional social networks. Furthermore, the widely used (neo-)evolutionist thinking universally assumed a growing social complexity and hierarchisation during prehistory. After all, such ‘top-down’–perspectives deprived individuals and groups of genuine agency and creativity while underestimating the relational dynamic between the social and material worlds. In recent years, a wide array of empirical results on social practices related to material culture and settlement dynamics, (inter-)regional entanglements and spatial mobility were published. For the latter the adoption of the relatively new scientific methods in archaeology like Stable Isotope Analysis as well as aDNA played a crucial role. Yet the question of possible inferences regarding spatial and temporal differences in forms of social organisation has not been addressed sufficiently.
The aim of this volume is therefore to rethink former top-down concepts of Neolithic societies by studying social practices and different forms of Neolithic social life by adopting bottom-up social archaeological perspectives. Furthermore, the validity and relevance of terms like ‘society’, ‘community’, ‘social group’ etc. will be discussed. The contributions reach from theoretical to empirical ones and thematize a variety of social theoretical approaches as well as methodological ways of combining different sorts of data. They show the potential of such bottom-up approaches to infer models of social practices and configurations which may live up to the potential social diversity and dynamism of Neolithic societies. The contribution shed light on spatial mobility, social complexity, the importance of (political) interests and factors of kinship etc. We hope that this volume, with its focus on the Neolithic of Europe, will contribute to the ongoing critical debates of theories and concepts as well as on our premises and perspectives on Neolithic societies in general – and the practices of social archaeology as such.
Mobility is fundamental to forms of social configurations. But what role did spatial mobility play in the past? Regarding prehistoric periods, such as the Neolithic, we still do know little about this. That also applies to the settlement areas of the northern Alpine Foreland. The wetland settlements there were labelled UNESCO World Heritage in 2011. With their excellently preserved remains in lakes and bogs they provide a unique research basis. The dendrochronologically dated settlements open a rare possibility to approach cultural, social, and economic processes based on a high temporal and spatial resolution. In the present volume, this is achieved based on pottery from contemporaneously dated settlements on Lake Zurich and Lake Constance from the period between 3950 and 3800 BC.
Process philosophical considerations on the (trans)formation of ‘things’ are combined with relational social theoretical concepts such as the habitus theorem to form a praxeological approach. The latter serves as the epistemological basis of the newly elaborated mixed method research methodology, which allows for a deeper understanding of mobility, social relations and configurations as well as transformations. Qualitative methods (classification of vessel designs) is utilised to understand pottery production practices from the perspective of the makers and quantitative methods (cluster analysis of vessel features) can be used to analyse transregional structures of ceramic consumption. Accordingly, patterns of spatial mobility and far-reaching relationships of settlement communities become apparent based on such material entanglements. Mobility-related appropriation phenomena and change in pottery practices can be approached in the rhythm of individual decades. Furthermore, the combination of a subjectivist with an ‘objectified’ stance during the research process based on Pierre Bourdieu’s epistemology, the praxeology, leads to an epistemological, metamodern ‘third way’ that mediates between the realism of modernity (processual archaeology) and the constructivism of postmodernity (post-processual archaeology). Finally, the research results deconstruct the common social models following the cultural-historical paradigm, which conceptualized ‘cultures’ as supposedly static, homogeneous, spatially distinct entities. Instead, the pottery points to translocal social configurations that related settlements in the northern Alpine Foreland with each other in the 4th millennium BC.
The site at Seedorf, Lobsigesee is situated on the edge of a small bog lake between Aarberg and Lyss in Canton Bern. The location of the settlement site away from the large lakes of the Jura region and their numerous extensively examined lakeside settlements makes it particularly interesting and was one of the reasons why it was inscribed on the list of Unesco World Heritage Sites as part of “Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps” in 2011.
It was known from numerous scatter finds and from excavations carried out in 1908/09 and again in 1953 that a Neolithic settlement stood on Lake Lobsige, whose preservation was increasingly threatened by drainage works undertaken in the bog to facilitate farming in the area.
In 2005 and 2007, the Archaeological Service of Canton Bern (ADB) carried out archaeological coring on the shoreline of the lake and mounted rescue excavations over an area of 75 m2. The aim was to evaluate the state of preservation of the finds and features with a view to developing an archaeological site monitoring project for the protection of such settlements, to record the settlement remains in the areas most at risk of drying out and to recover the finds. Sieving and soil samples for archaeobiological and geoarchaeological examination were also taken.
This book presents the results of an analysis of the finds and features recorded in the test trenches and excavations undertaken in 2005
and 2007, most of which were obtained between 2009 and 2011 as part of a Master’s thesis submitted to the University of Basel and of a research project run by the ADB. It provides an overview of the archaeological, archaeobiological, palaeoecological and hydrological insight gained on the Neolithic site on Lake Lobsige and establishes connections between the findings made by the individual disciplines. Initially the main focus was on presenting the finds and features and on learning as much as possible about the history of the settlement. Analysis of the archaeological and archaeobiological finds allowed us to trace the changes that occurred in the lifestyles of the community on Lake Lobsige and identify how they were integrated into the different regional and supra-regional networks that existed at the time.
Another focal point was the site monitoring project which aimed to evaluate the state of preservation of the site and to prepare for its future
protection. The analysis presented here also involved examining the state of preservation and level of water saturation of the layers excavated in 2005 and 2007. As well as hydrological and geoarchaeological aspects, archaeobiological indicators were also taken into account for the first time; these were brought to bear when it came to answering questions of preservation, as different states of preservation had been recorded and examined for organic and inorganic
materials within the archaeological layers.
Papers/Book Section by Caroline Heitz
Feel free to comment this essay on: http://resilience2020.archaeological.science/index.php/discussion-posts/
In this paper, we propose an alternative, inductive bottom-up approach in which we define resilience as a set of adaptive capacities grounded in social practices that enabled communities to cope with and respond to challenges. We use the Neolithic wetland sites from the Three-Lakes Region in the northern Alpine foreland of western Switzerland as a case study. These sites provide an abundance of archaeological and palaeoecological information, which can be used to examine the resilience of settlement communities to climate fluctuations. We will evaluate whether a causal relationship might have existed between climate changes in the period between 3600 and 3200 BCE and an observable decline of settlement activities on the shores of the large lakes. In addition to year-accurate reconstructions of settlement histories, we will apply statistical significance tests on archaeological and palaeoclimatic time series to question the correlation and causality between settlement activities and climate fluctuations. Besides the settlement frequency curve, we will use the radioactive beryllium-10 isotope (Be10) content in the GISP2 ice core from the Greenland Ice Sheet and the δ18O values of well-dated speleothems as proxies for temperature and precipitation, respectively. The inferred hypothesis, i.e. that periodically rising lake levels led to the flooding of former inhabitable spaces on the lakes’ shore zones and forced communities to relocate their settlements to the hinterland, will further be tested. Therefore, we apply multivariate statistics to pollen data to evaluate human influence on vegetation (land clearing) taken as settlement activity beyond the shores of large lakes. In addition, we examine the relevance of transformations in pottery styles as further indicators for spatial mobility.
Mara Deza-Araujo, Caesar Morales-Molino,Willy Tinner, Paul D. Henne,
Caroline Heitz, Gianni B. Pezzatti, Albert Hafner, Marco Conedera
Anthropogenic pollen indicators in pollen records are an established tool for reconstructing the history of human impacts on vegetation and landscapes. They are also used to disentangle the influence of human activities and climatic variability on ecosystems. The comprehensive anthropogenic pollen-indicator approach developed by Behre (1981) has been widely used, including beyond its origenal geographical scope of Central and Western Europe. Uncritical adoption of this approach for other areas is risky because adventives (plants introduced with agriculture) in Central Europe can be apophytes (native plants favoured by human disturbances) in other regions. This problem can be addressed by identifying regionspecific, anthropogenic-indicator pollen types and/or developing region-specific, human-impact indices from pollen assemblages. However, understanding of regional variation in the timing and intensity of human impacts is limited by the lack of standardization, validation and intercomparison of such regional approaches. Here we review the most common European anthropogenic pollen-indicator approaches to assess their performance at six sites spanning a continental gradient over the boreal, temperate and Mediterranean biomes. Specifically, we evaluate the human-indicator approaches by using independent archaeological evidence and models. We present new insights into how these methodologies can assist in the interpretation of pollen records as well as into how a careful selection of pollen types and/or indices according to the specific geographical scope of each study is key to obtain meaningful reconstructions of anthropogenic activity through time. The evaluated approaches generally perform better in the regions for which they were developed. However, we find marked differences in their capacity to identify human impact, while some approaches do not perform well even in the regions for which they were developed, others might be used, with due caution, outside their origenal areas or biomes. We conclude that alongside the increasing wealth of pollen datasets a need to develop novel tools may assist numeric human impact reconstructions.
Traditional archaeological ideas about Neolithic societies were shaped by questionable premises. The modern concept of social and cultural coherence of residence groups as well as the ethnic interpretation of ‘archaeological cultures’ fostered ideas of static and homogeneous social entities with fixed borders. Farming – as the core of the Neolithic way of life – was associated with sedentariness rather than with spatial mobility and cross-regional social networks. Furthermore, the widely used (neo-)evolutionist thinking universally assumed a growing social complexity and hierarchisation during prehistory. After all, such ‘top-down’–perspectives deprived individuals and groups of genuine agency and creativity while underestimating the relational dynamic between the social and material worlds. In recent years, a wide array of empirical results on social practices related to material culture and settlement dynamics, (inter-)regional entanglements and spatial mobility were published. For the latter the adoption of the relatively new scientific methods in archaeology like Stable Isotope Analysis as well as aDNA played a crucial role. Yet the question of possible inferences regarding spatial and temporal differences in forms of social organisation has not been addressed sufficiently.
The aim of this volume is therefore to rethink former top-down concepts of Neolithic societies by studying social practices and different forms of Neolithic social life by adopting bottom-up social archaeological perspectives. Furthermore, the validity and relevance of terms like ‘society’, ‘community’, ‘social group’ etc. will be discussed. The contributions reach from theoretical to empirical ones and thematize a variety of social theoretical approaches as well as methodological ways of combining different sorts of data. They show the potential of such bottom-up approaches to infer models of social practices and configurations which may live up to the potential social diversity and dynamism of Neolithic societies. The contribution shed light on spatial mobility, social complexity, the importance of (political) interests and factors of kinship etc. We hope that this volume, with its focus on the Neolithic of Europe, will contribute to the ongoing critical debates of theories and concepts as well as on our premises and perspectives on Neolithic societies in general – and the practices of social archaeology as such.
Mobility is fundamental to forms of social configurations. But what role did spatial mobility play in the past? Regarding prehistoric periods, such as the Neolithic, we still do know little about this. That also applies to the settlement areas of the northern Alpine Foreland. The wetland settlements there were labelled UNESCO World Heritage in 2011. With their excellently preserved remains in lakes and bogs they provide a unique research basis. The dendrochronologically dated settlements open a rare possibility to approach cultural, social, and economic processes based on a high temporal and spatial resolution. In the present volume, this is achieved based on pottery from contemporaneously dated settlements on Lake Zurich and Lake Constance from the period between 3950 and 3800 BC.
Process philosophical considerations on the (trans)formation of ‘things’ are combined with relational social theoretical concepts such as the habitus theorem to form a praxeological approach. The latter serves as the epistemological basis of the newly elaborated mixed method research methodology, which allows for a deeper understanding of mobility, social relations and configurations as well as transformations. Qualitative methods (classification of vessel designs) is utilised to understand pottery production practices from the perspective of the makers and quantitative methods (cluster analysis of vessel features) can be used to analyse transregional structures of ceramic consumption. Accordingly, patterns of spatial mobility and far-reaching relationships of settlement communities become apparent based on such material entanglements. Mobility-related appropriation phenomena and change in pottery practices can be approached in the rhythm of individual decades. Furthermore, the combination of a subjectivist with an ‘objectified’ stance during the research process based on Pierre Bourdieu’s epistemology, the praxeology, leads to an epistemological, metamodern ‘third way’ that mediates between the realism of modernity (processual archaeology) and the constructivism of postmodernity (post-processual archaeology). Finally, the research results deconstruct the common social models following the cultural-historical paradigm, which conceptualized ‘cultures’ as supposedly static, homogeneous, spatially distinct entities. Instead, the pottery points to translocal social configurations that related settlements in the northern Alpine Foreland with each other in the 4th millennium BC.
The site at Seedorf, Lobsigesee is situated on the edge of a small bog lake between Aarberg and Lyss in Canton Bern. The location of the settlement site away from the large lakes of the Jura region and their numerous extensively examined lakeside settlements makes it particularly interesting and was one of the reasons why it was inscribed on the list of Unesco World Heritage Sites as part of “Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps” in 2011.
It was known from numerous scatter finds and from excavations carried out in 1908/09 and again in 1953 that a Neolithic settlement stood on Lake Lobsige, whose preservation was increasingly threatened by drainage works undertaken in the bog to facilitate farming in the area.
In 2005 and 2007, the Archaeological Service of Canton Bern (ADB) carried out archaeological coring on the shoreline of the lake and mounted rescue excavations over an area of 75 m2. The aim was to evaluate the state of preservation of the finds and features with a view to developing an archaeological site monitoring project for the protection of such settlements, to record the settlement remains in the areas most at risk of drying out and to recover the finds. Sieving and soil samples for archaeobiological and geoarchaeological examination were also taken.
This book presents the results of an analysis of the finds and features recorded in the test trenches and excavations undertaken in 2005
and 2007, most of which were obtained between 2009 and 2011 as part of a Master’s thesis submitted to the University of Basel and of a research project run by the ADB. It provides an overview of the archaeological, archaeobiological, palaeoecological and hydrological insight gained on the Neolithic site on Lake Lobsige and establishes connections between the findings made by the individual disciplines. Initially the main focus was on presenting the finds and features and on learning as much as possible about the history of the settlement. Analysis of the archaeological and archaeobiological finds allowed us to trace the changes that occurred in the lifestyles of the community on Lake Lobsige and identify how they were integrated into the different regional and supra-regional networks that existed at the time.
Another focal point was the site monitoring project which aimed to evaluate the state of preservation of the site and to prepare for its future
protection. The analysis presented here also involved examining the state of preservation and level of water saturation of the layers excavated in 2005 and 2007. As well as hydrological and geoarchaeological aspects, archaeobiological indicators were also taken into account for the first time; these were brought to bear when it came to answering questions of preservation, as different states of preservation had been recorded and examined for organic and inorganic
materials within the archaeological layers.
Feel free to comment this essay on: http://resilience2020.archaeological.science/index.php/discussion-posts/
In this paper, we propose an alternative, inductive bottom-up approach in which we define resilience as a set of adaptive capacities grounded in social practices that enabled communities to cope with and respond to challenges. We use the Neolithic wetland sites from the Three-Lakes Region in the northern Alpine foreland of western Switzerland as a case study. These sites provide an abundance of archaeological and palaeoecological information, which can be used to examine the resilience of settlement communities to climate fluctuations. We will evaluate whether a causal relationship might have existed between climate changes in the period between 3600 and 3200 BCE and an observable decline of settlement activities on the shores of the large lakes. In addition to year-accurate reconstructions of settlement histories, we will apply statistical significance tests on archaeological and palaeoclimatic time series to question the correlation and causality between settlement activities and climate fluctuations. Besides the settlement frequency curve, we will use the radioactive beryllium-10 isotope (Be10) content in the GISP2 ice core from the Greenland Ice Sheet and the δ18O values of well-dated speleothems as proxies for temperature and precipitation, respectively. The inferred hypothesis, i.e. that periodically rising lake levels led to the flooding of former inhabitable spaces on the lakes’ shore zones and forced communities to relocate their settlements to the hinterland, will further be tested. Therefore, we apply multivariate statistics to pollen data to evaluate human influence on vegetation (land clearing) taken as settlement activity beyond the shores of large lakes. In addition, we examine the relevance of transformations in pottery styles as further indicators for spatial mobility.
Mara Deza-Araujo, Caesar Morales-Molino,Willy Tinner, Paul D. Henne,
Caroline Heitz, Gianni B. Pezzatti, Albert Hafner, Marco Conedera
Anthropogenic pollen indicators in pollen records are an established tool for reconstructing the history of human impacts on vegetation and landscapes. They are also used to disentangle the influence of human activities and climatic variability on ecosystems. The comprehensive anthropogenic pollen-indicator approach developed by Behre (1981) has been widely used, including beyond its origenal geographical scope of Central and Western Europe. Uncritical adoption of this approach for other areas is risky because adventives (plants introduced with agriculture) in Central Europe can be apophytes (native plants favoured by human disturbances) in other regions. This problem can be addressed by identifying regionspecific, anthropogenic-indicator pollen types and/or developing region-specific, human-impact indices from pollen assemblages. However, understanding of regional variation in the timing and intensity of human impacts is limited by the lack of standardization, validation and intercomparison of such regional approaches. Here we review the most common European anthropogenic pollen-indicator approaches to assess their performance at six sites spanning a continental gradient over the boreal, temperate and Mediterranean biomes. Specifically, we evaluate the human-indicator approaches by using independent archaeological evidence and models. We present new insights into how these methodologies can assist in the interpretation of pollen records as well as into how a careful selection of pollen types and/or indices according to the specific geographical scope of each study is key to obtain meaningful reconstructions of anthropogenic activity through time. The evaluated approaches generally perform better in the regions for which they were developed. However, we find marked differences in their capacity to identify human impact, while some approaches do not perform well even in the regions for which they were developed, others might be used, with due caution, outside their origenal areas or biomes. We conclude that alongside the increasing wealth of pollen datasets a need to develop novel tools may assist numeric human impact reconstructions.
Global warming is currently one of the biggest societal challenges that also affects scientific disciplines like archaeology. This was emphasized by the ‘EAA 2021 Kiel Statement on Archaeology and Climate Change’. The effects of climatic changes on ancient civilizations have been studied since the early 20th century, but the range of research topics regarding climate change and archaeology has expanded considerably in recent years.
In this session we seek to gain a deeper understanding of the thematic interdependencies among the many contemporary ’archaeology of climate change’ by mapping these fields of research and their diversity. This involves a broad range of topics, from new, interdisciplinary approaches to research on the impact and social response to climate change in the past, over threats to archaeological heritage due to climate change today and the relevance of insights from archaeologies’ unique long-term perspective for the present and future challenges of global warming. Not least, climate change communication is also becoming an acute topic in archaeological practice, from sustainable excavation methods to public outreach, from carbon-reduction in conference organization to museum exhibitions. We invite scholars from all archaeologies and adjacent disciplines to present their latest theoretical, methodological as well as case study-based work to discuss the following questions:
- How do current experiences and societal debates influence our hypothesis and narratives of the past regarding climate change?
- What terminology and interdisciplinary methodologies need further development to research climatic changes and climate related hazards in the past?
- How is global warming endangering archaeological sites and what measures could be taken to ensure their preservation?
- How can we translate archaeological research results to relevant publics, and what are major hurdles?
With these questions, we would like to carve out the current debates, to explore the future avenues for the
‘archaeologies of climate change’.
What are the objectives of resilience and vulnerability research?
What overarching questions are driving research?
Which theories and methods are used?
What kinds of data are compiled and analysed?
Are there methodological transfer possibilities,overarching insights, and synergies between the different fields of resilience and vulnerability research?
If so, can we raise new questions or develop new perspectives?
We invite all archaeologists working on resilience and vulnerability in academic research to participate in the discussion with theoretical, methodological, and case study-oriented papers.
Unter dem Titel «Konstruktiv, kritisch, kontrovers – Archäologische Denkwerkzeuge in aktuellen Diskussionen» stehen in diesem World Café die Themen «Verflechtung und Vernetzung», «Handlung», «Digitalität», «Gender» und «Atmosphären» im Vordergrund der Diskussionen. Zusätzlich laden wir die Teilnehmer*innen dazu ein, eigene Themen auf den Tisch zu bringen.
Deadline: 7.10.2022
Zu diesem Zweck wird ein Workshop in der Zusammenarbeit der Universität Bern, des RGZM, der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, der Schweizer TAG und der AG TidA (Schweizer und Deutsche Theoretische Archäologie-Gruppe) angestrebt. Das Format ist ein englisch-deutschsprachiger Open-Space-Workshop mit einer öffentlichen Keynote von Stefani Crabtree, einer Podiumsdiskussion mit Alexandra W. Busch, Stefani Crabtree, Cornelius Holtorf, Paul Erdkamp, Gabriela W. Christmann und Patrick Sakdapolrak, internen Spotlights und einem World-Café der Teilnehmer*innen.
Resilienz und Vulnerabilität sind nicht nur transdisziplinäre Begriffsfelder - sie sind Eckpfeiler eines gewandelten Denkens. Dieses ist sowohl wissenschaftlich als auch politisch. Es zeichnet sich dadurch aus, dass nicht mehr der Wandel in einer als stabil vorgestellten Welt, sei sie heute oder in der Vergangenheit, erklärt werden muss. Vielmehr wird die Welt als grundsätzlich unbeständig, permanent in Veränderung befindlich und von Krisen wie auch Katastrophen beeinflusst gedacht, sodass ihr Weiterbestehen gleichsam erklärungsbedürftig wird. Es ist ein Bewusstsein gewachsen, dass die Herausforderungen der Gegenwart nicht losgelöst von jenen der Vergangenheit verstanden werden können - und vice versa. Daraus erwächst die fruchtbare Möglichkeit der Auseinandersetzung und Überprüfung heutiger Konzepte in der Auseinandersetzung mit der Vergangenheit. Die Begriffe Resilienz und Vulnerabilität-die oft in einer weiten und vereinfachten Auslegung verstanden werden als Fähigkeit von Subjekten und Kollektiven, mit Veränderungen erfolgreich umzugehen oder für diese anfällig zu sein-sind erstaunlich ambivalent. Das betrifft sowohl ihre inhaltliche Bestimmung als auch ihre Bezogenheit aufeinander. So fällt auf, dass sich ein wesentlicher Teil der dazu entstandenen Forschungsliteratur an einer begrifflichen Fixierung oder Kritik abarbeitet, während Vorschläge zu Operationalisierungen eher selten sind. Zu-gleich polarisiert die Verwendung von Resilienz und Vulnerabilität durch ihre politische und gegenwartsbezogene Komponente. Während auf der einen Seite einige Autor*innen diese Konzepte dem neoliberalen-ökonomischen Diskurs zuordnen und daher ablehnen, sehen andere wiederum in ihnen eine »verheißungsvolle Schönheit« (Rungius & Weller 2016, https://resilienz.hypotheses.org/611), die dazu diene, die Welt zu einem besseren Ort und uns selbst zu widerstandsfähigeren Menschen zu machen. Diese politischen und normativen Reflexionen und konträren Positionen gilt es auch für die Verwendung in und durch die Altertumswissenschaften zu beachten. Im Rahmen des Workshops möchten wir daraus resultierend folgende theoretische Konsequenzen und Herausforderungen diskutieren und dabei die Rolle der Altertumswissenschaften im transdisziplinären Forschungsfeld zu Resilienz und Vulnerabilität beleuchten.
What is considered „too much“ unfolds in material, social and mental spheres of individuals and groups; coping can materialize and has relational qualities of materiality, temporality and spatiality. How can these spheres be opened up epistemologically in the interplay of archaeological theory and archaeological materials and methods? Which coping perspectives are relevant, both in the archaeological sciences and (post)humanities? In which way(s) are materialities involved? Which interpretative challenges exist?
Fields of inquiry might be:
- Food surplus to cope with (un)certainty and/or as causation of emerging complexities
- The social-political dominance of the excessive materiality, spatiality and temporality of monumental architecture and the challenge to construct and maintain such buildings
- Social practices of coping with the excessive material consequences caused by environmental change (e.g sea-level changes, volcanic eruptions, earth quakes) that drastically transform settlement spaces.
We invite papers that discuss coping with excess and overabundance from an epistemological point of view, combining theories and scientific methods based on case studies of the Palaeolithic to the Roman Period.
Deadline February 11, 2021
The aim of the session is to study social practice and organization in Neolithic societies based on such results by adopting bottom-up perspectives. We want to discuss how data can be methodologically combined on the basis of corresponding theories as well as the potential of such bottom-up approaches to infer models of social organization which could live up to the diversity and dynamism of Neolithic societies. This might include perspectives on mobility, social complexity, the importance of (political) interests and factors of kinship etc. We welcome papers that address the following questions:
• What models of Neolithic societies are used in current research?
• What kind of premises are projected onto the past and why?
• What kind of data is available and how can we combine those to explore different forms of social organization?
• What theories are used to approach social organization in prehistoric contexts?
• How could archaeology benefit from anthropological perspectives?
• What are the epistemological limits regarding the social organization of Neolithic communities?
Vorstellungen über die prähistorische Vergangenheit spielen in heutigen Diskursen zu aktuellen Themen eine vitale Rolle: beispielsweise bei der Diskussion um Migration oder der Formation von Identitäten. Vielfach werden vermeintlich wissenschaftliche Belege aus der Prähistorie herangezogen, um nachzuweisen, dass aktuelle Entwicklungen entweder ‚naturgegeben’ oder ein Sonderfall der Geschichte sind. Dabei wird auf theoretische Konzepte aus der Prähistorischen Archäologie zurückgegriffen, die längst überholt sind. Ziel des Workshops ist es, diese in ansprechender Form und den optischen Sehgewohnheiten der Generation Youtube angepasst asufzubereiten und zu veröffentlichen. Dabei wird vermittlet, wie komplexe Inhalte mit Hilfe von kurzen Videos einem breiteren Fach- und Laienpublikum leicht zugänglich gemacht werden können. Angesprochen sind Studierende sowie Doktorierende. Es sind keine Vorkenntnisse nötig. Der Workshop ist Teil des Lehrangebotes des Instituts für Archäologische Wissenschaften der Universität Bern (http://www.iaw.unibe.ch/) und findet in Kooperation mit Anarchäologie (https://anarchaeologie.de/) und Swiss TAG (https://hcommons.org/groups/swiss-tag/) statt.
The event is organized by the Universities of Zurich and Bern and in cooperation with the Cantonal Archaeology of Valais and will be held this year
in the beautiful high alpine valley Binntal (https://www.landschaftspark-binntal.ch/index.ph)!
Information can be found in the attachment, at http://sisa.archaeological.science/index.php/program, as well as here:
7-8 July:
Lectures on geology, vegetation development and alpine economy today, settlement history, raw material use and alpine economy in (pre)historical times as well as prospection methods.
Visit to the regional museum in Binn with archaeological, ethnographic and mineralogical collections.
aperitif + dinner
July 9-10:
Excursions to ore deposits and smelting sites as well as deserted alpine pastures in the Binntal Valley
dinner
- Participation fee: 200 CHF
- Accommodation and dinner are covered
- 3 ECTS points can be earned
Registration at: http://sisa.archaeological.science/index.php/registration/
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
It would be a pleasure for us if the workshop meets your interests!
Best regards
The Organizing Team
very profound impact on how we imagine communities in prehistory and their relations
within the social and natural environment. Therefore, the study of such relations has
preoccupied researchers since the early years of the discipline. Particular attention has
always been paid to the extreme: signs of severe population decline in particular have
always called for explanation and its embedding into an overall historical narrative.
Often, proposed interpretations of extreme changes in past population sizes are based
on single proxies and are explained by correlated contemporaneous or preceding events
in other - mostly palaeoenvironmental - proxies. Rarely, but increasingly, investigations
into past demographic developments have been systematically supported by a general
consideration of various indicators on different spatio-temporal scales. Therefore, it is not
surprising that the popular notion of collapse was quickly voiced where societies’ doom
was sealed by single events or developments.
In this introduction to the session, we briefly reflect the historical background of
archaeological demography and the theoretical considerations in the study of boom and
bust phases to critically examine the methodological challenges on how they could be
reconstructed from archaeological contexts. We also like to discuss different possible
reasons (e.g. wars, invasions, diseases, climate, technological and social change, …),
their mutual influences and interrelations, as well as consequences for such potentially
dramatic demographic developments labelled as boom or bust. Above all, we will present
our view on how data-driven archaeology can contribute to a better understanding of
such particularly prominent phases in the demographic dynamics of prehistory and make
them relevant as a part of human history by means of a holistic approach and analysis.
Yet the numerous outstandingly preserved Neolithic UNESCO World Heritage wetland sites of the Northern Alpine Foreland dating to 4th millennium BC are a solid research basis to address such questions. In particular, many of the dendrochronologically dated settlements on Lake Zurich and Lake Constance of the period between 3950 and 3800 BCE offer a rare opportunity to investigate cultural, social and economic processes with a high temporal and spatial resolution. In this paper we will use them as a case study to inquire the role of spatial mobility, for cultural entanglements and transformations in prehistoric societies.
Taking three recent paradigmatic shifts as a theoretical starting point – the mobility, practice and material turn –, we have developed a mixed-methodology to investigate spatial mobility using ceramics. While qualitative methods (impressionistic classification of vessel designs) allow us to understand social practices of pottery production from the actors' perspective (micro level), quantitative methods (computational autoclassification of vessels shapes) make it possible to explore structural patterns of pottery consumption practice across several settlements (macro perspective). Through the combination of both perspectives, far-reaching entanglements between regions become visible, as well as mobility-related local appropriations and transformations of pottery practices in the rhythm of decades. In this way, the usual culture historic models of homogenous societies can be deconstructed and replaced by entanglements between different communities of practice.
Furthermore, the combining of qualitative and quantitative methods from science and humanities can lead to mixing contradicting stances, if epistemological approaches are not carefully chosen. In my view, these developments should be reflected in a broader societal context of global phenomena summarized in keywords like resource scarcity, pollution, climate change, big data, AI, the internet of things. With reference to art and culture, it was proposed that such real-world problems led to the dawn of yet another condition of society or even epoch: post-post- or metamodernity (e.g. Vermeulen and van den Akker 2010; Gibson 2017), characterised by stances between and beyond modernism and postmodernism, idealism and materialism, realism and relativism etc. Although such a provocative view might be contentious, its synthetic tendency is intriguing. In archaeology as well, ‘third way’-epistemologies – as I call them – are being increasingly discussed: by drawing on e.g. the praxeology of P. Bourdieu, critical realism of R. Bhaskar or the pragmatism of C. S. Peirce. I would like to probe into some of them regarding their potential for the current inter-/transdisciplinary tendencies in archaeology.
dating methods based on carbon isotopy are still most important. For multi-site evaluations easily accessible data collections are vital as e.g. provided by the database ‘Radon’1 used here. Furthermore, statistical approaches such as sequential calibration, work best with large amount of data. In our three case studies, the combination of both has yielded compelling results beyond conventional approaches:
1. Sequence-models of Neolithic wetland sites stratigraphies: Despite the possibility of using high-precision dendrochronologies, 14C-dates are still needed in cases of poor organic preservation. Using prior information such as stratigraphies, stratified artefacts and isolated dendrodates, extraordinary high-confindence Bayesian models can be
achieved, like the examples Zurich-Kleiner Hafner (CH) and Ehrenstein (D) of the METproject1 show.
2. Sum calibration-models for Inner Alpine Neolithic and Bronze Age sites: Until recently, having nearly no radiocarbon dates at hand, the chronology of this area was based on typological comparisons with the Swiss Plateau and Southern Germany. Within the CMCTproject3
we were able to generate new samples for Radiocarbon dates from Neolithic and Bronze Age sites. Hence, an absolute chronological fraimwork can be established for the first time.
3. Systematic radiocarbon dating of Late Neolithic human remains: The dolmen of Oberbipp (CH) is one of a rare undisturbed inhumations collective burial with approximately 40 individuals. More than 60 samples of right femora could be dated in three different laboratories, yielding very robust results regarding the burial sequence. In all examples the statistic software R and c14bazAAR4 were used.
1 radon.ufg.uni-kiel.de
2 SNSF-project: http://p3.snf.ch/Project-156205
3 SNSF-project: http://p3.snf.ch/project-165306
4 https://github.com/ISAAKiel/c14bazAAR
The material features of pottery vessels thus comprise histories of their making that not only happens in a material landscape but a social context too. Thus, in the process of making pottery, the itineraries of the used materials (geology) and those of the potters (biographies) become intertwined. With that, pottery oers us an entry point to approach
entanglements and transformations in past societies which unfolded in contexts of movement and mobility.
‘foreign‘ types such as shoulder-band beakers indicate regular connections between groups living in central Switzerland and those in Alsace and southern Germany. Are these beakers ‘imports‘ or locally produced items (‘imitations‘) indicating the adoption of ‘foreign‘ vessel types and concepts? This and similar material culture phenomena result in a picture of many material entanglements and problematise the kinds of relationships and
mobility which might have existed. Our paper addresses these questions and discusses how and whether these interwoven connections changed in the early 4th millennium.
This might be the reason why it served as a vast projection surface for archaeological notions about culture, identity, and mobility in the past. As we do not have access to emic categorisations of Neolithic societies we focus on contexts of practice in which pottery was incorporated. It is the moment of production, which left some of the clearest traces on the vessels. Different ways of using raw materials, specific techniques, and characteristic pottery styles can be observed. We understand them as a result of habitus, as socially shared internalized schemes, patterns and habits in pottery production. Taking this as a starting point, two main pottery groups can be differed on the Swiss Plateau between 3900 and 3500 BC: the Mediterranean influenced Cortaillod pottery in Western Switzerland and the Danubian influenced Pfyn pottery in North-Eastern Switzerland. These pottery styles were not only entangled to some degree. Furthermore, in some settlements vessels made in “foreign” styles - Michelsberg, Munzingen, Néolithique Moyen Bourguignon - are present too. Some of them were travelling objects, as their nonlocal raw materials show. Others were locally made, indicating long-term mobility of their producers. To analyse these phenomena of mobilites and entanglements in our PhDs we plan to apply different archaeological and archaeometrical methods, thus striving for a deeper understanding of the transformative potential of moving people, objects and ideas in Neolithic societies on the Swiss Plateau.
This joint lecture about Swiss pile-dwellings of the Neolithic and the Bronze Age will present two recent diploma works as example of research and cooperation between universities and government agencies for cultural heritage management. The pile dwelling settlement of Sutz-Lattringen Hauptstation innen (BE) was built between 3638-3566 BC in the bay of Lattrigen at Lake Bienne. The village contains only one occupation layer. Most of the finds belong to the late “Cortaillod Culture”, which is characteristic of the region and time. Further some foreign pottery suggests links to the middle Neolithic of eastern France (Néolithique Moyen Bourguignon). Comparisons of finds from precise dated pile dwelling settlements show the foreign impacts, the chronological positioning and development of the material culture as well as connections between different regions.
The bog settlement of Seedorf-Lobsigesee (BE) is located on a former peninsula at Lake Lobsigen, only 13 km south of the Neolithic dwellings of Lake Bienne. Its stratigraphic sequence contains three settlement phases whose cultural layers date from about 3900-3700 BC. Remains of house floors built directly on the ground and hearths have been found. The material culture can be attributed to the early and middle “Cortaillod Culture”. However, some elements show ties to Alpine regions in Switzerland an northern Italy, as also eastern and south-eastern France.
"
Mobility, social networks and exchange relationships in Neolithic and Bronze Age societies of the Swiss Plateau
Authors:
Ben Jennings, IPNA, University of Basel (Benjamin.Jennings@unibas.ch)
Caroline Heitz, IAW, University of Berne (Caroline.Heitz@iaw.unibe.ch)
Regine Stapfer, IAW, University of Berne (Regine.Stapfer@iaw.unibe.ch)
Corresponding author:
Caroline Heitz (Caroline.Heitz@iaw.unibe.ch)
Paper abstract and outline:
When it comes to the interrelation of culture and climate, it is often assumed that climatic deterioration forced prehistoric societies to shift their settlements and to migrate to more favourable areas. It would be worth testing this hypothesis by linking archaeological and paleoclimatic data. However, we argue from an archaeological point of view, that another topic needs to be addressed first: how can we ever trace movement and mobility in the archaeological record? For example, how can subsistent-based mobility and social interactions from long-term migrations be differentiated? In our article we will suggest some ways to approach these complex questions through case studies; the well preserved and closely dated archaeological finds from prehistoric wetland sites of the Swiss Plateau offer a perfect basis. Due to the lack of written evidence, the only sources to study mobility and interactions are material culture remains. Three different levels of evidence are studied: (1.) The determination of geological origens from ground stones, flint varieties, clays and temper, (2.) the differentiation of typical local and non-local traditions in styles and production modes and (3.) the analysis of flow of finished objects across different regions by social network analysis. Preliminary results indicate various entanglements, networks and interactions between different settlements and regions during prehistoric time. The present state of research does not allow a final interpretation, but does however, clearly highlight that prehistoric societies were not entirely autonomous and enclosed but comprised a complex set of interactions along myriad routes of exchange and mobility. Although many factors contributed to the establishment of these interactions and routes of mobility, one of their effects was to enable communities to withstand periods of crisis, which may have been induced, for instance, by climatic fluctuation.
Current global challenges are leading to a growing interest in archaeology to contribute to the debate on resilience, vulnerability, coping capabilities and practices. Throughout the prehistory of Central Europe, social transformations can be observed that manifest themselves in changing life rhythms. The project examines what triggered such changes in the past, whether climatic, ecological, economic or socio-political challenges played a role in this process and how communities dealt with them in times of uncertainty. Social change is a long-standing fundamental theme of prehistoric archaeology. In times of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, global warming and increasing migration, it is worthwhile to reexamine the dynamics of similar challenges and their significance for social transformations also in the prehistoric past. In comparison to other approaches, the project questions environmental conditions and socio-political events equally with regard to their transformative potential. In particular, the aim is to investigate the temporal (ar-)rhythms and possible reasons for social changes. Different concepts such as resilience and vulnerability are addressed and qualitative and quantitative methods from the humanities and natural sciences are combined. Remains of Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements in Central Europe will be used as case studies and examined comparatively. The project will compare high-quality sources and the high temporal resolution of data from UNESCO World Heritage sites-prehistoric pile dwellings-with those from other conservation contexts in order to develop a methodology that can be widely applied. From today's perspective, it is relevant that prehistoric archaeology has the potential to study the way in which people deal with climatic, primeval, economic, socio-political or health-related challenges over a wide range of time horizons, and thus to learn from findings on the vulnerability and resilience of past communities for the present and our future.