Project Details
Projekt
History of the Western Ruhr Region between late antiquity and the eve of industrialization
Subject Area
Prehistory and World Archaeology
Term
since 2023
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 518005165
Today's Ruhr urban landscape looks back on an changeful history, which is often associated with the industrialization of the 19th century and which is emblematic of an ongoing structural change from the "coal-steel region", the classic "Ruhrpott", to a diverse, multicultural metropolitan region. Today's polyphony of this region is an expression of a historical, topographical process of densification that did not begin with industrialization, but has far deeper roots. The aim of the project is to follow the traces of urbanization and the transformations of urban space from late antiquity to the late pre-modern period. In four chronological sections from antiquity to the late pre-modern period, the archaeological data of the Duisburg city excavations will be analyzed and comparatively contextualized with the inclusion of selected written and pictorial materials.This will give us the opportunity to question critically established models of "town types" (e.g. Palatine city, Hanseatic city, "Ackerbürgerstadt") on one hand and to identify the roots of the Ruhr metropolitan region beyond the tumultuous phase of industrialization. At the same time this is a fundamental step towards answering the question of the impact of pre-modern urbanization on the formation of todays urban landscape.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
