Beyond lake settlements:Studying Neolithic environmental changes and human impact at small lakes in Swizerland, Germany and Austria
Final Report Abstract
The interdisciplinary research project "Beyond lake settlements: Studying Neolithic environmental changes and human Impact at small lakes in Switzerland, Germany and Austria." was carried out within an international cooperation of the Universities of Bern, Vienna, Innsbruck and Basel together with the Baden-Württemberg State Office for Monuments. Scientific disciplines represented in the project were prehistoric archaeology (Universities of Bern, Vienna, Baden-Württemberg State Office for Monuments), palaeoecology (Universities of Bern, Innsbruck and Baden-Württemberg State Office for Monuments), geoarchaeology and archaeobotany/zoology (University of Basel, Baden-Württemberg State Office for Monuments). The overall aim of the project was a better understanding of long-term human-environment interactions during the European Neolithic period (6th-3rd millennium BC, with a focus on the 4th millennium BC) and the complex systemic linkages between early human activities, economy, climate and vegetation. Research and field work within the Swiss part of the project focused on the Burgäschisee prehistoric settlements of the Neolithic and the direct hinterland of the small lake. Small-scale excavations were carried out at all known sites (Burgäschisee Nord, Ost, Süd and Südwest) in an attempt both to date the settlements and to determine their exact chronological sequence. Small-scale excavations were further carried out in the prehistoric sites found in the hinterland of the lake (Burgäschi, Hintere Burg and Nördlich Strandbad). Burgäschisee, Nördlich Strandbad is a newly discovered site beyond the lake shore which was found during a drilling survey. Despite intensive field inspections and surveys, no more new sites off the lake shores could be found. In all excavations with wet soil conservation, great attention was paid to the recovery of wood for dendrochronological dating. The modelling study of the doctoral student employed in the project is intended to record the mobility of the population and determine patterns of demographic change. A new model based on GLUES (LUTES) has been programmed to identify actors of economic and cultural processes in relation to physical-geographical and human economic conditions and adaptations in a period of significant climate and environmental change. This study is already well advanced and completion of this model is scheduled for the end of May 2019. The cooperation with the palaeoecology research group around Prof. Willy Tinner was intense. Research and fieldwork within the German part of the project focused on surveying and understanding the "Westallgäu"-region in the south-eastern part of Baden-Württemberg. This area north of the well-known lake Constance shores and south of the Danube settlement areas has hitherto remained archaeologically relatively unknown. The research was concentrated on small lakes and mires in seven micro-regions, but included also hilltop sites. Additionally, three cores from laminated lake sediments delivered new, high resolution off-site pollen and sedimentological data, two of them within one microregion, and a third one deliberately positioned further off. The majority of the newly registered 114 sites belong to the Neolithic period, with the largest numbers of - partly contemporaneous - settlements and other sites during the 38th and 37th centuries BC cal. The surprisingly high numbers of new sites were identified with a methodology combining very small "spy-hole" trenches with on-site pollen as well as archaeobotanical and archaeozoological sampling. Of crucial importance to recognize nearby settlements or human impact with varying degrees of intensity was the combination of archaeological field methods, on-site pollen and the continuous environmental record of the off-site data. Evidently the former archaeological blankness of the region is a taphonomic artefact. Research and fieldwork within the Austrian part of the project focused on the Upper Austrian Attersee-Mondsee region, which represents the core area of the 4th millennium BC pile-dwellings of the so-called Mondsee group. Of Austria’s nearly 30 waterlogged sites 22 are attributed to this cultural entity. The sites lie scattered around the lakes Attersee and Mondsee at the periphery of the Northern Limestone Alps. The rich material culture of these lacustrine sites indicates a complex socioeconomic structure and far reaching transalpine contacts, but land use dynamics and subsistence strategies remained poorly understood. Therefore, the Austrian project part focused on establishing a highly resolved Holocene palaeoenvironmental record, enhancing our understanding of landscape in terms of spatial networks through an research program focusing on different spatial scales. On the microregional level archaeological excavations were carried out in the hinterland of lake Attersee and on-site cores from the lacustrine site Weyregg III (lake Atteresee) were investigated.
