Territorial modelling and archaeological data: how complete must the picture be?

The study area in the Upper Rhine Valley, its geographical features, the archaeological record and the degree of archaeological exploration are described and a model is introduced that enables the use of incomplete and heterogeneous archaeological data. This model is based on the combination of three maps, respectively showing the environmental potential of the landscape, the degree of archaeological exploration and site density. It serves several purposes. Firstly, to determine whether the absence of sites observed in certain regions is due to a poor environmental potential for settlement and cultivation or the lack of archaeological exploration. Secondly, to detect boundaries that cannot be explained by poor environmental potential or the lack of archaeological exploration and give the archaeologist good arguments for a cultural interpretation of these boundaries. Thirdly, to produce qualified estimates of possible further sites, especially in areas with little archaeological exploration. Two case studies illustrate the detection of prehistoric boundaries and their possible interpretation

Flintbek LA 3, biography of a monument

The article consists of two main parts. First, the development and absolute chronology of the site Flintbek LA 3 is presented with a particular focus on the stragraphical situations and the building sequence of this monument. A model, based on Bayes’ – statistics has been choosen to calibrate the new AMS-dates within a sequence. Thereby, the well known cart tracks preserved under the last tumulus could be dated accurately to 3460-3385 cal BC. After a discussion of this quite young age, it is argued that the Flintbek traces still belong to the oldest evidence of the innovation of wheel and wagon in the world. Another part of the article concerns the meaning of the burial site Flintbek LA 3 and the shifts of its connotations through time. This is done by developing a model of a “cultural biography”

SDS – Systematische und digitale Erfassung von Steinartefakten (Arbeitsstand SDS 8.05)

The following contribution offers a recording system for stone artefacts. This compilation of existing systems from the Upper Paleolithic to the Neolithic should serve as a starting point for systematic and quantitative analysis with a uniform coding and standardized listing system of the conventional attributes recorded at lithic inventories. Therewith a valuable basis for comparative analysis and digital exchange of the data should be guaranteed

MegaForm – Ein Formalisierungssystem für die Analyse monumentaler Baustrukturen des Neolithikums im nördlichen Mitteleuropa

MegaForm is a recording system for Neolithic megaliths in northern Central Europe and southern Scandinavia. It was created in the context of the Priority Program 1400 “Early Monumentality and Social Differentiation”. It aims at formalising the recording of architectural traits of megaliths, non-megalithic monuments and simple graves, focussing on single characteristics, not on complex types. Specific national traditions have resulted in different terminologies. MegaForm unites these into one overall recording system, a new standard for the recording and description of megaliths. In this article, the recording system is proposed and commented, and it is possible to download a suitable database system

Periodisierung der Trichterbecher-Gesellschaften. Ein Arbeitsentwurf

Old and new data from the Funnel Beaker societies have been collated to create a new chronological chart of regional developments. The comparison between Scandinavian and North Central European periodisations offers the possibility to identify different developments in a synchronized time frame

Putting Things into Practice. Pragmatic Theory and the Exploration of Monumental Landscapes

The Neolithic and Bronze Age burial ground of Flintbek provides a well-documented case study of a monumental landscape, whose shaping and development through ritual practices of monument building can be studied over the course of centuries. The minute excavation and data analyses (Mischka 2011a) enable a discussion of the interrelations between collective social practices of monument building and modification as well as the practical effects those individual monumental features – and the monumental landscapes as a whole – would have had on those social collectives. We want to explore pragmatic theory as a tool to better understand the dialectic between the creation and recreation of landscapes and the reproduction of social organization in the course of social practices. This paper aims to highlight how an inquiry into prehistoric social practices based on semiotic pragmatism, as was formulated by Charles Sanders Peirce, provides a theory on how meanings and social relations are created and recreated in the course of social practices, a model explaining how these practices as material and spatially situated phenomena can be used to explore the interrelation of social practices and their material outcomes, which have practical consequences for subsequent practices and social relations. We exemplify this by the reconstruction of building activities on the megalithic long barrow Flintbek LA3, Northern Germany, 3500-3400 BCE. Here, it can be demonstrated how construction activities over the course of a century are both shaped by and actively shape social relations. New developments can be explained by a creative recombination of already existing singular components. A process of complexification and enlargement of building activities is set into motion, including inter-group competition. This development is terminated around 3400 BCE, whereafter grave construction activities are re-directed towards a smaller number of collectively used passage graves, which further enhance the level of complexity of design, but dispense with the unequal, competitive component. This represents a process of social collectivisation paralleled with the establishment of first larger villages in the region

Putting Things into Practice: Pragmatic Theory and the Exploration of Monumental Landscapes

The Neolithic and Bronze Age burial ground of Flintbek provides a well-documented case study of a monumental landscape, whose shaping and development through ritual practices of monument building can be studied over the course of centuries. The minute excavation and data analyses (Mischka 2011a) enable a discussion of the interrelations between collective social practices of monument building and modification as well as the practical effects those individual monumental features – and the monumental landscapes as a whole – would have had on those social collectives. We want to explore pragmatic theory as a tool to better understand the dialectic between the creation and recreation of landscapes and the reproduction of social organization in the course of social practices. This paper aims to highlight how an inquiry into prehistoric social practices based on semiotic pragmatism, as was formulated by Charles Sanders Peirce, provides a theory on how meanings and social relations are created and recreated in the course of social practices, a model explaining how these practices as material and spatially situated phenomena can be used to explore the interrelation of social practices and their material outcomes, which have practical consequences for subsequent practices and social relations. We exemplify this by the reconstruction of building activities on the megalithic long barrow Flintbek LA3, Northern Germany, 3500‐3400 BCE. Here, it can be demonstrated how construction activities over the course of a century are both shaped by and actively shape social relations. New developments can be explained by a creative recombination of already existing singular components. A process of complexification and enlargement of building activities is set into motion, including inter-group competition. This development is terminated around 3400 BCE, whereafter grave construction activities are re-directed towards a smaller number of collectively used passage graves, which further ..

Putting Things into Practice: Pragmatic Theory and the Exploration of Monumental Landscapes

The Neolithic and Bronze Age burial ground of Flintbek provides a well-documented case study of a monumental landscape, whose shaping and development through ritual practices of monument building can be studied over the course of centuries. The minute excavation and data analyses (Mischka 2011a) enable a discussion of the interrelations between collective social practices of monument building and modification as well as the practical effects those individual monumental features – and the monumental landscapes as a whole – would have had on those social collectives. We want to explore pragmatic theory as a tool to better understand the dialectic between the creation and recreation of landscapes and the reproduction of social organization in the course of social practices. This paper aims to highlight how an inquiry into prehistoric social practices based on semiotic pragmatism, as was formulated by Charles Sanders Peirce, provides a theory on how meanings and social relations are created and recreated in the course of social practices, a model explaining how these practices as material and spatially situated phenomena can be used to explore the interrelation of social practices and their material outcomes, which have practical consequences for subsequent practices and social relations. We exemplify this by the reconstruction of building activities on the megalithic long barrow Flintbek LA3, Northern Germany, 3500‐3400 BCE. Here, it can be demonstrated how construction activities over the course of a century are both shaped by and actively shape social relations. New developments can be explained by a creative recombination of already existing singular components. A process of complexification and enlargement of building activities is set into motion, including inter-group competition. This development is terminated around 3400 BCE, whereafter grave construction activities are re-directed towards a smaller number of collectively used passage graves, which further enhance the level of complexity of design, but dispense with the unequal, competitive component. This represents a process of social collectivisation paralleled with the establishment of first larger villages in the region

Sochařská technologie na Glauberském "knížeti". Trasologický výzkum keltské plastiky a souvisejících fragmentů z Glaubergu (Hesensko, Německo)

"Article presents the results of a complex traceological research of the famous statue of the,prince""of Glauberg, found in an Early La Tene funeral complex in Glauberg (Hesse). Research focused also on two other fragments of related sandstone sculptures, found together with the Glauberger prince. The sandstone,prince""of Glauberg was already in the past a subject of many archaeological studies. Nevertheless, all or absolute majority of them were focused on aspects of art historian nature or on the question of the origin, role and function of such sculptures in the Early Iron Age Central Europe. On the contrary, the aim of our research is oriented exclusively on the questions related to the manufacture of this sculpture, identification of used sculptor ' s tools and applied working techniques. Our research was realised by means of digital documentation followed by the aplication of traceological methods. The character of the survived working traces on the sculpture ' s surfaces was studied by mechanoscopy, while the material of used tools was determined by X-ray fluorescence. The reconstructions of used tools were compared with the existing tools as represented by the Iron Age archaeological finds. This comparison was oriented on the most relevant regions of developed La Tene culture, particularly on South Western Germany and Bohemia. However, also other relevant area, significant as the possible source of inspiration of Celtic sculptors for the creation of the monumental sculpture-Apennine peninsula, was taken into consideration. Our research revealed individual steps and phases during the sculpture ' s manufacture, enabled the reconstrucion of used tools and confirmed real existence of such tools in mentioned regions. Finally it has brought first indices of the necessity of the distinguishing between ideological and technological aspects of related Celtic sculpture, when considering possible influence of Apennine peninsula on transalpine Central Europe."Článek prezentuje výsledky komplexního trasologického výzkumu slavné sochy "knížete" z Glaubergu, nalezené v časně laténském pohřebním komplexu v Glaubergu (Hesensko