Settlement and landscape archaeology of the Earliest Linear Pottery Culture - Two settlement areas in the central Franconian Gäulandschaft and the foothills of the southern Franconian Alb as key areas of the early Neolithic
Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte der Universität zu Köln (S. Scharl & A.-L. Fischer), in cooperation with Bayerischen Landesamt für Denkmalpflege (M. Nadler, H. Fehr, Chr. Lobinger)
Funded by the German Research Foundation (project number 529234507)
Studies on the dispersal of the earliest Linear Pottery Culture (ÄLBK) are predominantly at regional and supra-regional level, while there are only few studies on settlement dynamics at small scale and local level. This is where the project comes in: On the basis of two earliest Linear Pottery settlement areas in the central Franconian Gäulandschaft and the foothills of the southern Franconian Alb, the colonisation of the landscape by the carriers of the LBK at the beginning of the Neolithic will be investigated. We work on three different scale levels: At the micro level, four excavated ÄLBK settlements will be used to analyse questions concerning the internal chronology of the settlements, their spatial structure and their subsistence. At the meso level, the focus is on questions concerning the integration of the various settlements into the local social and economic networks, as well as on the contacts with other settlement regions. Another priority will be the analysis of agricultural land use patterns. Finally, on the basis of the insights we have gained at the two lower scale levels, on the macro level we will adressoverarching questions concerning the mobility of the Earliest Linear Pottery Culture and the currently discussed dispersal mechanisms of the ÄLBK (leap-frogging versus wave-of-advance). The Nördlinger Ries, whose earliest Linear Pottery Culture settlement dynamics was recently studied in detail, serves as a comparative region.
In addition to the classic methods of recording the features of finds and structures as well as archaeobotanical and archaeozoological analyses, GIS analyses of spatial patterns within the settlements, land use and demography are planned. This will be supplemented by P-ED-RF analyses of the axe blades in order to answer questions about the origin of the raw material. The analysis of organic residues (ORA or lipids) in the pottery will provide information on the use of the vessels, but also on the food consumed (e.g. milk utilisation). Finally, a larger series of 14C data together with the seriation of the pottery and the stratigraphy of the features will serve as a framework for the chronology.
Further Reading:
S. Scharl, M. Nadler & A.-L. Fischer, Siedlungsgeschichte(n) der ersten Bauern – Fallstudien aus der Mitte Bayerns. Archäologie in Deutschland 5, 2023, 34-35.
M. Nadler, S. Scharl & A.-L. Fischer, Ein Siedlungsplatz der ältesten und älteren Linearbandkeramik im Steinbruch Mörlbach, Gde. Gallmersgarten im nordwestlichen Mittelfranken (Lkr. Neustadt a. d. Aisch-Bad Windsheim). In: L. Husty, Th. Link & J. Pechtl (Hrsg.), Neue Materialien des Bayerischen Neolithikums. 4. Tagung im Kloster Windberg vom 12. bis 14. November 2021. WüST VFA 8 (Würzburg 2023), 29-44.
A.-L. Fischer, Eine Siedlungskammer der ältesten Linearbandkeramik im Nördlinger Ries – Die Sammlung Krippner. Arch. Ber. 36 (Kerpen-Loogh 2023).