Neolithic Landscapes of Southern Germany: Insights from Regional Survey

Summary

Landscape archaeology in Central Europe has historically built on a foundation of high-resolution excavations of village structures. In this poster, we combine results of systematic plowzone survey carried out by two research groups to explore and reflect on the contributions of regional survey for understanding Neolithic land use in southern Germany. Surveys were conducted in two areas with contrasting archaeological records and geographic characteristics. On the southeastern Swabian Alb plateau, active work by avocational archaeologists provides a foundation for systematic landscape archaeology spanning the Early/Middle, Upper, and Final Neolithic. To the south, in the Alpine Foreland, exceptional preservation and detailed excavations of Upper and Final Neolithic sites in lakes and bogs raise questions about the presence, intensity, and type of Neolithic activities that might have occurred outside the intensively-studied wetlands. We analyze the distribution of Neolithic materials in lithic scatters and compare their location and density between regions and across time periods to consider questions of settlement continuity, non-residential activities, and effects of factors such as site visibility and modern land use on known site distributions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16518