Bell Beaker common ware and Giant Beakers: A Final Neolithic to Early Bronze Age settlement model based on the sequence of site Altgaul, Brandenburg

A well- preserved Final Neolithic to Early Bronze Age settlement stratigraphy on the western edge of a lowland area in east Brandenburg allows the possibility to derive a model of Final Neolithic settlement dynamics. The sequence evidences features and intra-site pattering which would be difficult to detect under regular preservation conditions. Both the settlement pattern as well as the typochronological development of specific vessel forms, recognized from the stratigraphic sequence, can serve as an explanation for larger spheres of interaction within second half of the 3rd millennium BC. Of great importance is the close relationship of Bell Beaker common ware and the Giant beaker horizon as settlement pottery within the sequence. The analyses of the Altgaul sequence and the here presented results are part of my doctoral thesis (Lehmphul in press)

The genesis of the fortification of Corneşti-Iarcuri near the Mureş Lower Course (Romanian Banat) – a phase model on the chronology of the settlement and fortifcation structures

The large fortifi cation of Corneşti-larcuri is located on the Mureş River in Romania and comprises four rings of defensive ramparts. With the outermost rampart encircling a total area of 17.65 km2, Corneşti-larcuri is thus considered the largest Bronze Age fortification in Europe. New intensive research began in 2007 with the six-year project “Investigations on settlement structures and the chronology of the Late Bronze Age fortification of Corneşti-larcuri in Romanian Banat”, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The project terminated in the autumn of 2017. Now the goal is to evaluate the data collected during the last eleven years and to develop the first syntheses. As part of the new excavations, a total of 109 radiocarbon datings from diff erent contexts (ramparts, ditches, pits, house structures, etc.) were obtained. The subsequent phase model based upon these data essentially refers to the dating of ramparts I and II and to pits associated with house contexts. Thus, it enables a site biography for Corneşti-larcuri to be outlined for the first time and four settlement phases to be distinguished

Corneşti-Iarcuri in the Romanian Banat and its late bronze age context

Die größte bronzezeitliche Befestigung Europas in Corneşti-Iarcuri wird seit 2007 durch das Muzeul Naţional al Banatului, die Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt/Main, das Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin und bis 2015 die University of Exeter wieder intensiv erforscht. Durch Grabungsschnitte an den Holz-Kasten-Erde-Mauern und in der Siedlungsfläche, durch großflächige magnetische Messungen und systematischen Oberflächenbegehungen sowie paläobotanische Untersuchungen ergibt sich zwischenzeitlich eine recht detaillierte „Biographie“ Corneşti-Iarcuris. Im Rahmen von Rettungsgrabungen beim nahen Autobahnbau und anderen Grabungsprojekten in Rumänien und Ungarn zeigt sich, dass Corneşti-Iarcuri zwar durch seine Größe und Komplexität heraussticht, aber in dieser Landschaft nicht alleine steht. Zahlreiche kleinere unbefestigte (temporäre?) Siedlungen finden sich im Umfeld, ebenso bis zu 400 ha große befestigte Anlagen. Es zeichnet sich für die späte Bronzezeit im Banat zunehmend ein enges Netz aus riesigen und befestigten Zentren, von denen Corneşti-Iarcuri mit über 1760 ha das mit Abstand größte ist, und kleinen Dörfern, Weilern oder Gehöften ab. Corneşti-Iarcuri als möglicher primus inter pares kann nur im Vergleich und Zusammenhang mit seinem Hinterland verstanden werden.Since 2007 the largest Bronze Age fortification in Europe, Corneşti-Iarcuri, has once again become the object of intensive study by the Muzeul Naţional al Banatului, the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University in Frankfurt/Main, the Museum of Pre- and Early History, State Museums in Berlin, and until 2015 the University of Exeter. Excavations since then have revealed timber-earth-ramparts and settlement areas and through large-scale magnetic measurements, systematic walking surveys, as well as palaeobotanical investigations, altogether resulting in quite a detailed ‘biography’ of Corneşti-Iarcuri. Through rescue excavations near autobahn construction and other such projects in Romania and Hungary, it can be shown that although Corneşti-Iarcuri is outstanding in expanse and complexity, it is not a singularity in this landscape. There are numerous smaller and non-fortified (temporary?) settlements in the surroundings, as well as fortified complexes up to 400 hectares in size. The Late Bronze Age in Banat increasingly emerges as a close network of huge, fortified centres, of which Corneşti-Iarcuri covering more than 1706 hectares is the largest, and of small villages, hamlets and farmsteads. Corneşti-Iarcuri as a possible primus inter pares can only be comprehended in association with its hinterland