Wieke de Neef
I am a landscape archaeologist with an interest in archaeological methodology, non-invasive prospection, geophysics and remote sensing, pre- and protohistory, and mountain landscapes. My current research focuses on pre-Roman settlement, land use, and resource management in Italy. I am a co-director of the Pollino Archaeological Landscape Project based in the southern Apennines, and conduct geophysical and geoarchaeological work on Bronze Age centers in the Po Basin.
Address: University of Bamberg
Institute of Archaeological Sciences / Chair of Geophysical Prospection
Am Kranen 14
96047 Bamberg (Germany)
Address: University of Bamberg
Institute of Archaeological Sciences / Chair of Geophysical Prospection
Am Kranen 14
96047 Bamberg (Germany)
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Papers by Wieke de Neef
resources, the exploitation of ecological niches in the landscape, annual cycles of subsistence and the role of festivals, markets, and fairs.
Monte Primo near Pioraco (Marche, Italy) and the changing landscape in which it is situated. Monte Primo was in use between the Late Bronze Age and the Roman Republic period and is characterized by a series of large enclosures of uncertain date which cover an area of ca. 2 hectares. The earliest occupation of this 1300 m high summit is often interpreted as a fire offering place (Brandopferplatz) related to pastoral land use.
Iron Age and Roman activity is attested by various bronze figurines found by metal detectorists and/or looting. Geophysical prospection, aerial photography, and surface modelling allowed to analyze the spatial organization of the large enclosures and natural features on the mountain, and to model the ritualized access to the summit. By placing Monte Primo in a longue durée context of increasing social complexity and landscape formation processes, this article proposes how this site was embedded in
its cultural and natural surroundings, and how its role changed during its 1000-year occupation history.
traces are preserved and detectable here, and to establish the extent of the archaeological site. This short article presents the work and interpretation of the results.
Το πενταετές πρόγραμμα Ayios Vasileios Survey Project ξεκίνησε το 2015 και περιλαμβάνει τρεις περιόδους έρευνας επιφανείας, ακολουθούμενες από γεωφυσική διασκόπηση και εθνογραφική έρευνα. Κύριοι στόχοι της έρευνας επιφανείας είναι η ανασύσταση της έκτασης και εξέλιξης του οικισμού διαχρονικά, η βελτίωση της μεθοδολογίας διερεύνησης πολύπλοκων προϊστορικών θέσεων και η κατανόηση της θέσης του Αγίου Βασιλείου στο πολιτικό τοπίο της μυκηναϊκήςΛακωνίας. Η έρευνά μας επικεντρώνεται στην ενσωμάτωση επιφανειακών και υποεπιφανειακών δεδομένων, που προέρχονται από έρευνα επιφανείας και γεωφυσικές διασκοπήσεις, και στην αξιολόγηση των στρατηγικών έρευνας τέχνεργων για αστικούς προϊστορικούς οικισμούς. Τα προκαταρκτικά αποτελέσματα της έρευνας του 2015 δείχνουν ότι τα δεδομένα της έρευνας επιφανείας και της γεωφυσικής διασκόπησης αλληλοσυμπληρώνονται. Αμφότερα υποδεικνύουν ότι η έκταση του οικιστικού οικισμού στον Άγιο Βασίλειο δεν ξεπέρασε τα 5-6 εκτάρια. Γύρω από αυτήν την κατοικημένη ζώνη καταγράφηκε μια περιμμετρική ζώνη ευρημάτων, η οποία υποδεικνύει εξωτερικές δραστηριότητες, όπως βιοτεχνία, καλλιέργεια, ταφές και απόρριψη.
challenges, and present preliminary results and considerations of the fieldwork that was carried out at the site of Monte Franco (Pollenza). Keywords: archaeological prospection, protohistory, micro-regional analysis, Italy
resources, the exploitation of ecological niches in the landscape, annual cycles of subsistence and the role of festivals, markets, and fairs.
Monte Primo near Pioraco (Marche, Italy) and the changing landscape in which it is situated. Monte Primo was in use between the Late Bronze Age and the Roman Republic period and is characterized by a series of large enclosures of uncertain date which cover an area of ca. 2 hectares. The earliest occupation of this 1300 m high summit is often interpreted as a fire offering place (Brandopferplatz) related to pastoral land use.
Iron Age and Roman activity is attested by various bronze figurines found by metal detectorists and/or looting. Geophysical prospection, aerial photography, and surface modelling allowed to analyze the spatial organization of the large enclosures and natural features on the mountain, and to model the ritualized access to the summit. By placing Monte Primo in a longue durée context of increasing social complexity and landscape formation processes, this article proposes how this site was embedded in
its cultural and natural surroundings, and how its role changed during its 1000-year occupation history.
traces are preserved and detectable here, and to establish the extent of the archaeological site. This short article presents the work and interpretation of the results.
Το πενταετές πρόγραμμα Ayios Vasileios Survey Project ξεκίνησε το 2015 και περιλαμβάνει τρεις περιόδους έρευνας επιφανείας, ακολουθούμενες από γεωφυσική διασκόπηση και εθνογραφική έρευνα. Κύριοι στόχοι της έρευνας επιφανείας είναι η ανασύσταση της έκτασης και εξέλιξης του οικισμού διαχρονικά, η βελτίωση της μεθοδολογίας διερεύνησης πολύπλοκων προϊστορικών θέσεων και η κατανόηση της θέσης του Αγίου Βασιλείου στο πολιτικό τοπίο της μυκηναϊκήςΛακωνίας. Η έρευνά μας επικεντρώνεται στην ενσωμάτωση επιφανειακών και υποεπιφανειακών δεδομένων, που προέρχονται από έρευνα επιφανείας και γεωφυσικές διασκοπήσεις, και στην αξιολόγηση των στρατηγικών έρευνας τέχνεργων για αστικούς προϊστορικούς οικισμούς. Τα προκαταρκτικά αποτελέσματα της έρευνας του 2015 δείχνουν ότι τα δεδομένα της έρευνας επιφανείας και της γεωφυσικής διασκόπησης αλληλοσυμπληρώνονται. Αμφότερα υποδεικνύουν ότι η έκταση του οικιστικού οικισμού στον Άγιο Βασίλειο δεν ξεπέρασε τα 5-6 εκτάρια. Γύρω από αυτήν την κατοικημένη ζώνη καταγράφηκε μια περιμμετρική ζώνη ευρημάτων, η οποία υποδεικνύει εξωτερικές δραστηριότητες, όπως βιοτεχνία, καλλιέργεια, ταφές και απόρριψη.
challenges, and present preliminary results and considerations of the fieldwork that was carried out at the site of Monte Franco (Pollenza). Keywords: archaeological prospection, protohistory, micro-regional analysis, Italy
The proceedings present the outcome of the 1st San Lorenzo Bellizzi Meeting held between the 16th and 17th of
April 2016. The conference is intended to address new scientific visions and approaches to the Pollino Mountains
in all their complexity. The present volume rests on the results accumulated by several research teams,
which for decades have been engaged in the exploration of the archaeology and history of the area. The presented
articles represent the first combined archaeological approach to the Pollino area. In antiquity, the impressive
Pollino Mountains did not pose a barrier to human mobility. On the contrary, they were a point of passage
and a cultural crossroad for millenniums, being a natural bridge and not a border, thus furnishing connections
between Calabria and Basilicata and between the Ionian and the Tyrrhenian sea.
***
Il presente volume, naturale compimento del primo incontro tenutosi a San Lorenzo Bellizzi il 16 e 17
aprile 2016, intende costituire il punto di partenza per iniziare a concepire l’area montuosa del Pollino
nella sua interezza. Il libro è stato possibile grazie al coinvolgimento e all’incontro dei principali gruppi
di ricerca che, nel corso degli ultimi decenni, hanno concorso a scrivere l’archeologia e la storia più antica
di questo territorio. Attraverso i diversi contributi qui proposti ci si prefigge, per la prima volta, di
orientare la ricerca archeologica verso una percezione diversa del Massiccio del Pollino che non deve e
non può costituire una barriera ma deve tornare a rivestire la funzione avuta per millenni, quella di punto
di passaggio e crocevia di culture, ponte naturale e non barriera, fra la Calabria e la Basilicata, fra il Mar
Ionio e il Tirreno.
ethnographic perspectives on the spatial configuration of a long-term Mediterranean triad.
Organisers: Peter Attema & Wieke de Neef
This session is dedicated to a historically fundamental cornerstone of the Mediterranean economy, mobile pastoralism, and an important precondition for its functioning, salt. Both are indispensable for the production of an easily preserved and traded commodity, hard cheese. Two previous EAA sessions (2011 and 2012) focused on upland pastoral sites, published in the edited volume “Summer Farms: Seasonal exploitation of the uplands from prehistory to the present” (2016, Sheffield Archaeological Monographs 16, edited by John Collis, Mark Pearce and Franco Nicolis). In his contribution “Hard cheese: Upland pastoralism in the Italian Bronze and Iron Ages”, Mark Pearce stressed the importance of the production of hard cheese for upland land use in later Italian prehistory, as well as the central role of salt in animal husbandry and cheese-making.
In this session, we aim to look beyond the upland summer farms and focus on the exchange networks in which they were embedded. We welcome papers that explore the spatial configuration of pastoral mobility of all ranges in combination with access to markets where salt could be obtained (if not at the source itself), where dairy products could be traded (if not directly to consumers) and ways in which the triad was organized. We aim at a mix of ethnographic, ethnoarchaeological and archaeological perspectives from around the Mediterranean basin.
In this session, we aim to look beyond the summer farms, and focus on the exchange networks in which they were embedded. We welcome papers that explore the spatial configuration of pastoral mobility of all ranges in combination with access to markets where salt could be obtained (if not at the source itself), where dairy products could be traded (if not directly to consumers) and ways in which the triad was organized. We aim at a mix of ethnographic, ethnoarchaeological and archaeological perspectives from around the Mediterranean basin.
Deadline for abstract submission: 11 February
We will take the concept of ‘marginality’ and examine how this can be applied to our scientific practice: at the edges of our own disciplines (geophysics, geochemistry, landscape and survey archaeology), and see what the benefits are when we explore the edges of the map, both literally and figuratively. The many challenges of these landscapes (too wet, too dry, too fragmented, too sparsely inhabited) cause problems for our methodological approaches but also for our interpretative schemes; and we must remember that marginality is in the eye of the beholder. Ultimately, when we rise to the challenge of these ‘terra incognita’, we have a more complete picture of landscape use, vital to landscape-scale interpretations, but also that these peripheral environments actually make us test, improve and in some cases overturn our methodologies and bring us to the edges of what is possible.
Keywords: methodology, landscape archaeology, geophysics, geochemistry, prospection, theory
As a case study, we will present preliminary results from our research in southern Italy. The Rural Life in Protohistoric Italy project of the University of Groningen (The Netherlands) investigates 160 small protohistoric surface scatters recorded during 10 years of field walking surveys in the mountainous inlands of Calabria. Guided by a stratified sampling approach, we conducted detailed re-surveys, geophysical surveys, material re-studies, soil mapping and small test pits on representative examples of site types. This strategy is aimed at mitigating detection and research biases, and allows us to integrate detailed on-site studies with interpretations on landscape scale. We focus on a site type usually not included in models of Bronze Age settlement dynamics, but which occurs in almost all Mediterranean survey projects: the small protohistoric ceramic scatter.
In the paper, we will focus on the “Final Bronze Age crisis” signaled by Renato Peroni and others. We will show that Peroni’s influential model of settlement contraction in the last phase of the Bronze Age on the Ionian coast is based on targeted non-systematic surveys focused on remarkable locations. By contrast, we have documented a dense distribution of single habitations with storage facilities – a remarkable non-centralized settlement “boom”. We argue that detailed investigations of small protohistoric surface scatters may unlock more greyscales to turning points in the Bronze Age.
Ephemeral protohistoric remains are recorded in most Mediterranean landscape archaeology projects, yet they are rarely investigated beyond the mapping stage. In our research area, the Raganello basin in northern Calabria, the majority of the 250 known archaeological sites consists of small (less than 10m diameter) concentrations of poorly preserved handmade pottery, dating to the Bronze and Iron Ages (2000-800 B.C.). These were mapped during more than 15 years of field walking surveys by the Groningen Institute of Archaeology and occur throughout the landscape, from the foothills surrounding an (uninvestigated) coastal
In this paper, we will demonstrate how detailed studies on a small scale increase our understanding of site-specific function and formation, while at the same time being incorporated in a landscape-scale approach. Our targeted site studies integrate datasets from high-resolution re-surveys of known surface scatters, geophysical detection techniques, detailed re-studies of problematic survey material categories, and minimally invasive ground-truthing through corings and test pits. We can extrapolate these local data to a larger scale by sampling representative examples of different site types. This typology is based on landscape zones and properties of material categories. Furthermore, the landscape level of investigations includes large-scale magnetic prospection in different parts of the research area, combined with geomorphological and pedological studies in order to explain post-depositional processes and site preservation. A LiDAR dataset is used for GIS-based analysis of slope processes.
To illustrate our approach we will present a case study of a dense rural settlement pattern in a particular section of the foothill zone, datable to the Final Bronze Age (1100-950 B.C.). Re-surveys of previously investigated areas, combined with re-studies of finds categories, have already increased the number of FBA scatters by more than a third. Magnetic gradiometry prospection revealed the presence of rectangular building-sized anomalies dispersed throughout the area, whereas test pits have confirmed the temporal and spatial association between FBA surface remains and these rectangular structures. The implications of these results for regional heritage management, which is still very site-oriented, will be raised.
Our current investigations are aimed at a better understanding of rural settlement and land use in the metal ages, and at investigating and evaluating multiple detection methods for ephemeral archaeological remains of these periods. We base these investigations on a site classification which is not based on preconceived site types. This classification uses both landscape zones and properties of the material assemblage to define nine site types, three of which occur in the mountainous zone. A sampling approach is used to select specific examples of these types for detailed investigations that include high-resolution re-surveys of the surface archaeology, the application of multiple archaeo-geophysical techniques, pedological, palaeo-environmental and geomorphological studies, the application of targeted test pits, and studies of specific pottery types, wares and fabrics.
With the fieldwork stage of the Rural Life project finished as of autumn 2013, we can now present some preliminary results of this work. Our approach has allowed us to trace elements of the rural settlement history from the Eneolithic to the brink of the Iron Age, culminating in a large FBA ‘open village’ located in the foothill zone. We are also beginning to understand how landscape affordances and post-depositional processes have conditioned both the land use history and the formation and discovery of the archaeological record of the Raganello Basin. The paper will present and illustrate these ongoing studies, and suggest some preliminary conclusions regarding long-term changes in its population and land use.
of activity: the Bronze Age, the Late Classical and Early Hellenistic period, and the Early Modern era. The types of sites range from settlements, small and large, simple or complex, to individual features either connected with settlements or in isolation. Such a classification of sites is a heuristic device which, when used with the landscape classification, should help to understand the varying use of the landscape and the balance
between cultivation and pastoralism across the lowlands and the hillsides. Ultimately, however, the patterns observed can only properly be interpreted when brought into the broader context of
the northwestern Crimea – this is the focus of an upcoming book publication on the DSP project."
Dutch and Belgian archaeologists started fieldwork in the Mediterranean almost a century after Caspar Reuvens became the first archaeology professor and active excavator in the Netherlands. Carl Vollgraff worked in Greece (Argos, Thessaly) from 1902 onwards and in 1905 Jean Capart initiated excavations in Egypt (Sakkara). Only decades later did Mediterranean fieldwork become part of the academic curriculum. By the 1960's, the field had developed from a few courses on Classical Art into an independent academic discipline, with a dozen university chairs of Classical and Mediterranean Archaeology all over the Low Countries.
How did Mediterranean Archaeology develop as an academic discipline in the Netherlands and Belgium? Who were the key players, where did they work, what did they investigate? What
were the most important intellectual and methodological currents? How was the archaeology of the Mediterranean related to other disciplines in the humanities, the social sciences and the natural sciences? What were the similarities and differences in approach and narrative between the Low Countries and their neighbours? What were the differences in research focus and approaches between the Netherlands and Belgium?
This English-language symposium intends to bring together research on the history of Mediterranean Archaeology as practiced in the Low Countries in the 19th and 20th centuries.
There is a limited number of seats, please reserve your place at symposium@mediterrane-archeologie.nl!