Well connected. Mobility in settlement communities in the northern alpine foreland (3950-3550 BC)

Heitz, Caroline Franziska; Stapfer, Regine Barbara; Hinz, Martin; Thierrin, Gisela; Affolter, Jehanne; Wehren, Helena Stefanie; Emmenegger, Lea Meret; Hafner, Albert (5 September 2019). Well connected. Mobility in settlement communities in the northern alpine foreland (3950-3550 BC) (Unpublished). In: 25th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA). Session #251, ‚The 4th M BCE in Europe: Exploring the supraregional entanglements as triggers for cultural, social and economic transformations’. Bern. 4–7 September 2019.

Neolithic wetland sites in the Northern Alpine Foreland dating to the 4th M BCE provide an extraordinary data basis to study forms of (cross)regional connectedness. Since 2016, in the SNSF-project 'Mobilities, entanglements and transformations in Neolithic societies on the Swiss Plateau (3900-3500 BC)', we have addressed those phenomena by analysing styles and materials of pottery and lithic tools from dendrochronologically dated wetland sites. By adopting a newly elaborated mixed method approach, we have applied qualitative and quantitative methods of archaeology and archaeometry: impressionistic and computer-aided pottery classification, thin section and (p)XRF, XRD and SEM analyses as well as macroscopic petrographic provenance determination of lithic tools. Thus, in the rhythm of decades, multiple regimes of mobility and triggered transformations in production and consumption practices of things could be approached:
Settlement communities at Lake Constance and in Upper Swabia were strongly entangled at the end of the 40th c. BCE. In contrast, entanglements intensified to Neckar, the Kraichgau and the Kaiserstuhl regions in the 39th c. BCE. Communities at Lake Zurich were connected with those in the Trois-Lacs, South Alsace, Lac de Clairvaux and Saône regions at the end of the 39th c. BCE. It was not until the middle of the 39th c. B.C. that these older networks of relationships gradually disintegrated in favour for northeast-oriented relations. In Central Switzerland entanglements show ties to the regions of Trois-Lacs, Lake Zurich and South Alsace at 39th to 37th c. BCE. However, the communities in the Trois-Lacs region were more connected with Eastern France during that time period. These results on pottery can be contrasted with those of flint tools.
The examinations of directions and ranges of changing entanglements made different regimes of mobility visible, each referring to various supra-regional, multidirectional networks of relationships.

Item Type:

Conference or Workshop Item (Speech)

Division/Institute:

06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of History and Archaeology > Institute of Archaeological Sciences
10 Strategic Research Centers > Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research (OCCR)
06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of History and Archaeology > Institute of Archaeological Sciences > Pre- and Early History

UniBE Contributor:

Heitz, Caroline Franziska, Stapfer, Regine Barbara, Hinz, Martin, Thierrin, Gisela, Wehren, Helena Stefanie, Emmenegger, Lea Meret, Hafner, Albert

Subjects:

900 History > 930 History of ancient world (to ca. 499)
000 Computer science, knowledge & systems
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology

Language:

English

Submitter:

Caroline Franziska Heitz

Date Deposited:

15 Jun 2021 12:10

Last Modified:

24 May 2023 14:27

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Archaeology, Neolithic, Mobility, Networks, Entanglements, Transformations

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/152467

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