With National Science Foundation support a U.S./German team of Lynn Fisher, Susan Harris, Corina Knipper and Rainer Schreg will conduct a two-year interdisciplinary archaeological study of mobility and upland land use in the Central European Early Neolithic. The project brings together specialists in archaeology, geology, stable isotope analysis, and Geographic Information Systems to investigate economic linkages between early farming villages in lowland valleys and environmentally contrasting upland regions in southwest Germany.
Early Neolithic (Linearbandkeramik or LBK, ca. 5500 - 4900 B.C.) people were the first farmers in Central Europe, where they introduced cultivated cereals, domesticated cattle, sheep and pigs, the region's first sedentary villages, and distinctive ceramic vessels. Prevailing views of LBK settlement and economy have emphasized homogeneity in economic and settlement systems focused on lowland areas with fertile loess soils. This scenario has been challenged by evidence for upland land use and substantial variation in size, organization, and economy of early Neolithic settlements. While previous archaeological research on the Early Neolithic focused on lowland settlements, this project investigates the procurement of chert raw material for stone tool production and woodland pastures for cattle as examples of upland resource exploitation and linkage of upland and lowland areas in the early Neolithic settlement and economic system.
Procurement and transport of chert is investigated through two seasons of field work on the Swabian Alb limestone plateau, an important source of stone for tool production in neighboring lowlands. Strontium and oxygen isotope analyses on cattle teeth from several lowland sites will inform about the importance of seasonal use of pasture grounds in upland areas with contrasting geological conditions. U.S. and German researchers and students will 1) map natural stone sources, 2) complete systematic survey of tool production debris around sources, 3) carry out geomagnetic survey to locate archaeological features such as raw material procurement pits and houses, 4) conduct test excavations on a sample of such features, 5) complete analysis of artifacts from survey and excavation, 6) carry out isotope analyses on samples of cattle teeth, 7) complete a reference database of natural strontium isotope levels needed to identify pasture areas, and 8) integrate results of archaeological and isotope analyses in a Geographic Information Systems analysis.
The research will test models of LBK land use and mobility that are part of long-standing archaeological debates about the economic and social processes involved in the spread of farming in Europe. It will also contribute to understandings of relationships between early farmers and contemporary foragers by investigating LBK use of resources that may have attracted both foragers and farmers into the uplands.
The project has broader implications for research in archaeology because it will test methods for the study of cattle husbandry and build a digital archive of archaeological, geological and environmental data that will be made available to other researchers. The project combines research and international education in a continuing partnership between the University of Illinois-Springfield (USA) and the University of Tubingen (Germany). U.S. and German undergraduate and graduate students will participate in fieldwork and data analysis to enhance their training in archaeological method and theory and increase their knowledge of an important period in European prehistory.
This award is co-funded by the Directorate For Social Behavioral and Economic Sciences and the Office of International Science and Engineering
