Books by Nils Müller-Scheeßel
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Tübinger Texte 3 (Rahden/Westfalen 2000). , 2000
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Edited Books by Nils Müller-Scheeßel
Furholt, M. et al. (eds) Archaeology in the Žitava Valley I. The LBK and Želiezovce settlement site of Vráble. Leiden: Sidestone Press (Scales of Transformation in Prehistoric and Archaic Societies 9), 2020
The early Neolithic site of Vráble (5250-4950 cal BCE) is among the largest LBK settlement agglom... more The early Neolithic site of Vráble (5250-4950 cal BCE) is among the largest LBK settlement agglomerations in Central Europe, and exceptional within the southwest Slovakian area. Geophysical surveys revealed more than 300 houses, grouped into three contemporary neighbourhoods, one of which is delineated by a complex ditched
enclosure system. This enclosure is associated with a large number of human remains, which reveal new patterns of burial and deposition practices. This volume presents the first part of the results of an international research project that was started in 2012 and aims to explore the social implications of settlement concentration in the context of early farming communities, on the background of subsistence patterns and landscape use.
This is the first volume of “Archaeology in the Žitava valley”, and it presents the finds, features and data uncovered and synthesised from our archaeological, pedological, geophysical, archaeobotanical, anthropological, zoo-archaeological and stable isotope studies on the site of Vráble “Veľké Lehemby” and “Fárske” in southwest Slovakia.
These data are used to reconstruct the social and economic patterns and social processes, highlighting a growing tension between incentives of cooperation and sharing vs. monopolisation of resources and individual interests, driving the 300-year history of this site until its total abandonment. While the history of Vráble is unique, it holds clues for a better understanding of the overall, central European phenomenon of large, enclosed settlements of the later LBK, their association with rituals and violence involving human bodies, and the end of the LBK social world.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Menschen – Kulturen – Traditionen 13 (Rahden/Westf. 2013), 2013
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Tübinger Arch. Taschenbücher 9 (Münster u. a. 2011), 2011
In den 1970er und 1980er Jahren fand noch ein recht reger Austausch zwischen Archäologie und Gesc... more In den 1970er und 1980er Jahren fand noch ein recht reger Austausch zwischen Archäologie und Geschichtswissenschaft über Fragen der Zusammenarbeit statt. Dabei bildete sich der Konsens, dass die einstmals als Handlungsmaxime ausgegebene Parole vom »Getrennt marschieren, vereint schlagen!« nicht als methodologischer Leitfaden für die interdisziplinäre Zusammenarbeit taugt. Leider ist der Austausch über die Grundlagen der Interdisziplinarität zwischen den Fächern seitdem fast vollständig abgeebbt und findet allenfalls noch im Bereich der Archäologie des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit statt.
Der vorliegende, aus einer Tagung im Jahr 2007 hervorgegangene Band hat das explizite Ziel, den eingeschlafenen Dialog neu zu beleben und den gemeinsamen Fluchtpunkt von Archäologie und Geschichtswissenschaft wiederzufinden. Der Band versammelt 14 Beiträge von Vertretern der Geschichtswissenschaft und der Prähistorischen Archäologie, der Ägyptologie und der Vorderasiatischen Archäologie, die die Quellenproblematiken der jeweiligen Disziplinen genauso wie konkrete Schwierigkeiten bei der interdisziplinären Zusammenarbeit diskutieren.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Tübinger Arch. Taschenbücher 7 (Münster u. a. 2010), 2010
Die vor wenigen Jahren etablierte Disziplin der Architektursoziologie richtete ihren Blick bislan... more Die vor wenigen Jahren etablierte Disziplin der Architektursoziologie richtete ihren Blick bislang hauptsächlich auf moderne und postmoderne Gesellschaften. Das Ziel des vorliegenden Bandes besteht darin, eine Brücke zu vormodernen, so genannten elementaren, vernakulären oder traditionellen Architekturen zu schlagen. Dabei liegt der Fokus insbesondere auf Wohngebäuden und Siedlungskonfigurationen, durch die das AIItagsleben und die Sozialstrukturen am stärksten geprägt und repräsentiert werden. Auf dern Gebiet der Wohnarchitektur besteht großer Forschungsbedarf, da den Prestige- und Monumentalbauten bisher überproportional viel Aufmerksamkeit gewidmet wurde. Erst die gemeinsame Betrachtung von Palästen und Armenvierteln, von Ternpelanlagen und Wohnhütten ermöglicht aber einen angemessenen Zugang zur sozialen (Um-)Welt vergangener und gegenwärtiger Kulturen.
Das Buch, zu dem Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler aus Architektursoziologie, Ur- und Frühgeschichte, Mittelalterarchäologie und Ethnologie beigetragen haben, liefert eine breite Palette transdisziplinärer, kuiturvergleichender, theoretisch fundierter und empirisch abgesicherter Aufsätze zu einem neuen Forschungsfeld.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Tübinger Arch. Taschenbücher 5 (Münster u. a. 2006), 2006
Identität ist eines der großen Themen des kultur- und sozialwissenschaftlichen Diskurses der Gege... more Identität ist eines der großen Themen des kultur- und sozialwissenschaftlichen Diskurses der Gegenwart. Der vorliegende Band, der aus einer Veranstaltung der Arbeitsgemeinschaft „Theorie in der Archäologie“ im Jahre 2002, entstanden ist, lotet aus, ob und in welcher Form dieser Begriff auf die Archäologie übertragen werden kann. Die Autoren befassen sich mit unterschiedlichen Facetten sozialer Identität. Die ethnische Identität, die in den fachwissenschaftlichen Auseinandersetzungen die meisten Kontroversen auf sich zieht, erfährt hierbei besondere Aufmerksamkeit. Die Erörterungen der soziologischen Grundlagen des Identitätsbegriffs erfolgen anhand konkreter Anwendungsbeispiele. Die Autoren entwickeln in ihren Beiträgen eigene Modellvorschläge und stellen Methoden vor, sich der Identitätsproblematik archäologisch zu nähern. Die zeitliche Spannbreite der Fallbeispiele reicht vom Neolithikum bis zum Mittelalter.
Dieser Band bietet einen Einstieg in die aktuelle sozialwissenschaftliche wie auch archäologische Diskussion um Identität, soziale Gruppen und Ethnos und stellt die künftige archäologische Auseinandersetzung mit diesen Themen auf eine methodisch solide Grundlage.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Papers by Nils Müller-Scheeßel
Ethnographisch-Archaeologische Zeitschrift, 2024
This paper sheds light on two crucial phases of Franz Boas’s life linked to Kiel: his early acade... more This paper sheds light on two crucial phases of Franz Boas’s life linked to Kiel: his early academic pursuits leading to his PhD in 1881 and his return fifty years later to deliver a lecture that would become a seminal text in the fight against racism. Boas initially arrived in Kiel in 1879 and completed his PhD on the optical properties of water in 1881. During that time, he had to deal with anti-Semitism, sometimes even with the rapier. In 1931, Boas returned to Kiel University to receive an honorary doctorate for his achievements. At this occasion, he gave a lecture entitled ‘Race and Culture,’ which directly opposed the racist ideologies gaining traction in Germany. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Boas wrote an open letter to Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg, bemoaning the restrictions on freedom and the anti- Semitic actions in Germany. As a result, Boas was blacklisted, and his books were removed from the Kiel University Li- brary, even allegedly burnt. Irrespective of his global significance as a founding father of four-field anthropology, Boas’s connection with Kiel remains little known, perhaps long overshadowed by Kiel University’s reluctance to address its problematic past.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Nadia Balkowski/Kerstin Hofmann/Isabel Hohle/Almut Schülke (Hrsg.), Mensch – Körper – Tod. Der Umgang mit menschlichen Überresten im Neolithikum Mitteleuropas (Leiden 2023), 2023
Innerhalb des wissenschaftlichen Diskurses zur Behandlung der Toten zur Zeit der Bandkeramik (ca.... more Innerhalb des wissenschaftlichen Diskurses zur Behandlung der Toten zur Zeit der Bandkeramik (ca. 5450–4950 calBC) ist in den letzten Jahren eine deutliche Verschiebung festzustellen. Nachdem über viele Jahre hinweg die Bestattung in ‚regulär‘ erscheinenden Gräberfeldern die Wahrnehmung bestimmt hatte, waren zunächst die immer häufiger beobachteten Siedlungsbestattungen in den Fokus gerückt. In letzter Zeit sind die Fundstellen mit Spuren von Gewaltanwendung an deren Stelle getreten (Asparn, Talheim, Herxheim, Halberstadt), wobei man den Eindruck erhält, als ob die Interpretationen nicht makaber genug sein können. Aus unserer Sicht kann der südwestliche Teil der bandkeramischen Siedlung von Vráble / Südwestslowakei zu dieser Diskussion einen signifikanten Beitrag liefern. Bei Ausgrabungen im Bereich eines Erdwerks wurden sowohl Individuen entdeckt, die einem ‚regulär‘ erscheinenden Bestattungsritual unterzogen worden waren, wie auch solche, die innerhalb des Grabens ohne Aufwand deponiert erscheinen und zudem postmortale Manipulationen (Entfernung des Schädels) aufwiesen. Ein genauerer Blick auf die Befundsituation zeigt allerdings, dass diese Trennung weniger eindeutig ist, als sie zunächst scheint. Wir diskutieren die anthropologischen Ergebnisse und die Charakteristika der Skelettpopulation im Vergleich mit gleichzeitigen Kollektiven aus Gräberfeldern und Siedlungen, um vor allem der Frage nachzugehen, inwieweit bei den Bestattungspraktiken sozio-kulturelle Auswahlkriterien wirksam waren.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Eisenzeitliche Erinnerungskulturen. Zum Umgang eisenzeitlicher Gemeinschaften mit Relikten der Vergangenheit, edited by R. Schumann, M. Augstein, J. Fries-Knoblach, S. Gentner, M. Kirchmayr, M. Kohle and H. Wendling, 2023
Absolute dating in the Hallstatt period is limited by the scarcity of dendrochronological dates a... more Absolute dating in the Hallstatt period is limited by the scarcity of dendrochronological dates and the perception that 14C dating is futile, due to the calibration plateau between c.750 and 400 cal BC. We present the results of new AMS 14C dates from a stratified burial sequence at Dietfurt an der Altmühl ”Tennisplatz”. This sequence is situated entirely on the ‘Hallstatt plateau’, but by combining 14C dating with taphonomic and horizontal as well as vertical stratigraphic information, we provide an absolute estimate for the Ha C-Ha D transition and for burials with characteristic metal grave-goods. At Dietfurt the Ha C– Ha D transition probably occurred before 650 cal BC, and defining objects for Ha D1 like a fibula with loop (Schlangenfibel S4) date well before 620 BC, the currently accepted start of Ha D. We discuss three scenarios for this remarkable result: 1) human errors during excavation, sampling etc.; 2) regional differences in start of Ha D across the Hallstatt world; 3) an earlier overall start of Ha D than currently assumed. While we exclude systematic errors (scenario 1), scenarios 2 and 3 both seem possible.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Archaeol Anthropol Sci, 2022
This study is first attempt to refine Early Iron Age absolute chronology, specifically the timing... more This study is first attempt to refine Early Iron Age absolute chronology, specifically the timing of the Hallstatt C-D transition in southern Germany, using Bayesian chronological modelling of radiocarbon (14 C) dates. The Hallstatt period (c.800-450 BC) marks the transition from prehistory to proto-history in Central Europe. The relative chronological framework for Hallstatt burials developed by the mid-twentieth century is still used today, but absolute dating is limited by the scarcity of dendrochronological dates and the perception that 14 C dating in the Hallstatt period (HaC-HaD) is futile, due to the calibration plateau between c.750 and 400 cal BC. We present new AMS 14 C dates on 16 HaC-HaD burials from a stratified sequence at Dietfurt an der Altmühl 'Tennisplatz' (Bavaria, Germany). This sequence is situated entirely on the 'Hallstatt plateau', but by combining 14 C dating with osteological, stratigraphic, and typological information, we demonstrate that the plateau is no longer the 'catastrophe' for archaeological chronology once envisaged. Taking into account dendrochronological dating elsewhere, we show that at Dietfurt, the HaC-HaD transition almost certainly occurred before 650 cal BC, and most likely between 685 and 655 cal BC (68.3% probability), several decades earlier than usually assumed. We confirm the accuracy and robustness of this estimate by sensitivity testing. We suggest that it is now possible, and essential, to exploit the increased precision offered by AMS measurement and the IntCal20 14 C calibration curve to re-evaluate absolute chronologies in Early Iron Age Europe and equivalent periods in other regions.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The social organisation of the Vinča culture settlements, 2021
K. Rassmann/M. Furholt/N. Müller-Scheeßel/J. Müller, The social organisation of the Vinča culture... more K. Rassmann/M. Furholt/N. Müller-Scheeßel/J. Müller, The social organisation of the Vinča culture settlements. New evidence from magnetic and archaeological excavation data. In: M. Radivojević/B. W. Roberts/M. Marić/J. Kuzmanović Cvetković/T. Rehren (Hrsg.), The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia (Oxford 2021) 455–459.
New large-scale magnetic surveys of Vinča period settlements can provide fresh insights into the social organisation of Late Neolithic communities. In the following chapter we compare the results of such surveys of a large region of southeastern Europe with
the regional archaeological study conducted in the Bosnian Visoko valley (Müller et al. 2013a) in order to correct previous estimations of settlement sizes and population numbers and to discuss the internal social composition of Vinča period settlements.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
A. Kozubová/E. Makarová/M. Neumann (Hrsg.), Ultra velum temporis. Venované Jozefovi Bátorovi k 70. narodeninám. Slovenská archeológia Supplementum 1. Nitra: Archeologický ústav SAV, 2020
During recent research in the Upper Žitava valley, previously unknown Early Bronze Age fortificat... more During recent research in the Upper Žitava valley, previously unknown Early Bronze Age fortifications were discovered near Hul and Vlkas. They probably represented the seat of relatively small social groups. In the Žitava valley only the site Vráble-Fidvár grew beyond this early stage into a large settlement of an area of up to 12 ha. In the course of a process of synoicism, the other sites were abandoned voluntarily or involuntarily, and the social groups there probably moved to Vráble. We may assume that this has also led to social division and hierarchisation, with the newcomers being dominated by the small group that had initially occupied Vráble. At the end of the Early Bronze Age in the course of a kind of dioicism, the large settlement of Vráble was abandoned. Afterwards, small settlements again dominated the settlement pattern.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
M. Furholt, I. Cheben, J. Müller, A. Bistáková, M. Wunderlich, N. Müller-Scheeßel (ed.), ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE ŽITAVA VALLEY I The LBK and Želiezovce settlement site of Vráble, 2020
The large scale magnetic prospection (2008‑2012) near Vráble on the sites of ‘Fidvár’ and Velky L... more The large scale magnetic prospection (2008‑2012) near Vráble on the sites of ‘Fidvár’ and Velky Lehmby covered an area of around 150 ha and revealed three Neolithic settlements of the Linear Pottery Culture as well as numerous remains of later periods like the Lengyel Culture, Early Bronze Age and Roman Period. The paper presents an overview of the magnetometer data of the three Neolithic settlements. Thanks to the ongoing excavations that started in 2010 a selection of typical archaeological features like elongated pits of houses, settlement pits and ditches can be compared with the magnetometer data. This context enables us to improve the analysis and interpretation of the magnetometer data and to optimise the estimation of the number of houses and the evaluation of quantitative data like the size of
elongated pits and their orientation. Keywords: Magnetic prospections, LBK, Lengyel, Early Bronze Age
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Archaeology in the Žitava Valley I. The LBK and Želiezovce settlement site of Vráble, 2020
Furholt, M. et al. (eds) Archaeology in the Žitava Valley I. The LBK and Želiezovce settlement si... more Furholt, M. et al. (eds) Archaeology in the Žitava Valley I. The LBK and Želiezovce settlement site of Vráble. Leiden: Sidestone Press (Scales of Transformation in Prehistoric and Archaic Societies 9), pp. 95–157.
We document and describe the archaeological features excavated at the sites of Vráble ‘Veľké Lehemby’/‘Farské’ (Nitriansky kraj, Slovakia) during the years 2012‑2017. The data are organised around the houses, which are represented by a table recording their architectural elements, the accompanying lateral long pits and other structures.
The main descriptive category is the ‘object’, which represents an interpretational unit of features (which can be, for example, cuts or different fill layers). We also account for the find quantities, relative chronological dating based on pottery ornamentation, and 14C dating based on Bayesian modelling. We also describe the features associated with the enclosure around the southwestern neighbourhood.
Find the complete book in Open Access at: https://www.sidestone.com/books/archaeology-in-the-zitava-valley-i
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE ŽITAVA VALLEY I: The LBK and Želiezovce settlement site of Vráble, 2020
A chapter from the book ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE ŽITAVA VALLEY I: The LBK and Želiezovce settlement sit... more A chapter from the book ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE ŽITAVA VALLEY I: The LBK and Želiezovce settlement site of Vráble.
All three neighbourhoods at the Neolithic site of Vráble ‘Veľké Lehemby’/‘Farské’ (Nitriansky kraj, Slovakia) yielded human remains. The largest number was discovered in the 2017 campaign, which centred on two of the entrances through the enclosure around the south-western area. The assemblage comprises the remains of at least 19 individuals. While some of the skeletons lay on their side, either right or left, with hands in front of the face or in the lap, a large variety of other modes of treatment were present as well. Two individuals were found in long pits of houses, and ten individuals were deposited in ditch sections. Perimortem damage detected on the skeletal remains was most probably a result of post-mortem manipulation of the bodies shortly after death, either by small animals or by humans. This suggests that the bodies were probably left uncovered for a short period of time or placed in a shallow pit and buried under a thin covering layer (earth, shrouds, etc.). From at least three individuals, the head had been removed some time after deposition. Except for elderly individuals, all adult age categories are represented in the sample, with the prevalence of prime-aged individuals (25-35 years). Interpersonal violence is indicated by one case of healed cranial trauma. Other traumas are associable with either accidents or interpersonal violence. Palaeopathological and stable isotope analyses suggest that the special treatment of the individuals found in irregular positions may be connected with their social status.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Uploads
Books by Nils Müller-Scheeßel
Edited Books by Nils Müller-Scheeßel
enclosure system. This enclosure is associated with a large number of human remains, which reveal new patterns of burial and deposition practices. This volume presents the first part of the results of an international research project that was started in 2012 and aims to explore the social implications of settlement concentration in the context of early farming communities, on the background of subsistence patterns and landscape use.
This is the first volume of “Archaeology in the Žitava valley”, and it presents the finds, features and data uncovered and synthesised from our archaeological, pedological, geophysical, archaeobotanical, anthropological, zoo-archaeological and stable isotope studies on the site of Vráble “Veľké Lehemby” and “Fárske” in southwest Slovakia.
These data are used to reconstruct the social and economic patterns and social processes, highlighting a growing tension between incentives of cooperation and sharing vs. monopolisation of resources and individual interests, driving the 300-year history of this site until its total abandonment. While the history of Vráble is unique, it holds clues for a better understanding of the overall, central European phenomenon of large, enclosed settlements of the later LBK, their association with rituals and violence involving human bodies, and the end of the LBK social world.
Der vorliegende, aus einer Tagung im Jahr 2007 hervorgegangene Band hat das explizite Ziel, den eingeschlafenen Dialog neu zu beleben und den gemeinsamen Fluchtpunkt von Archäologie und Geschichtswissenschaft wiederzufinden. Der Band versammelt 14 Beiträge von Vertretern der Geschichtswissenschaft und der Prähistorischen Archäologie, der Ägyptologie und der Vorderasiatischen Archäologie, die die Quellenproblematiken der jeweiligen Disziplinen genauso wie konkrete Schwierigkeiten bei der interdisziplinären Zusammenarbeit diskutieren.
Das Buch, zu dem Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler aus Architektursoziologie, Ur- und Frühgeschichte, Mittelalterarchäologie und Ethnologie beigetragen haben, liefert eine breite Palette transdisziplinärer, kuiturvergleichender, theoretisch fundierter und empirisch abgesicherter Aufsätze zu einem neuen Forschungsfeld.
Dieser Band bietet einen Einstieg in die aktuelle sozialwissenschaftliche wie auch archäologische Diskussion um Identität, soziale Gruppen und Ethnos und stellt die künftige archäologische Auseinandersetzung mit diesen Themen auf eine methodisch solide Grundlage.
Papers by Nils Müller-Scheeßel
New large-scale magnetic surveys of Vinča period settlements can provide fresh insights into the social organisation of Late Neolithic communities. In the following chapter we compare the results of such surveys of a large region of southeastern Europe with
the regional archaeological study conducted in the Bosnian Visoko valley (Müller et al. 2013a) in order to correct previous estimations of settlement sizes and population numbers and to discuss the internal social composition of Vinča period settlements.
elongated pits and their orientation. Keywords: Magnetic prospections, LBK, Lengyel, Early Bronze Age
We document and describe the archaeological features excavated at the sites of Vráble ‘Veľké Lehemby’/‘Farské’ (Nitriansky kraj, Slovakia) during the years 2012‑2017. The data are organised around the houses, which are represented by a table recording their architectural elements, the accompanying lateral long pits and other structures.
The main descriptive category is the ‘object’, which represents an interpretational unit of features (which can be, for example, cuts or different fill layers). We also account for the find quantities, relative chronological dating based on pottery ornamentation, and 14C dating based on Bayesian modelling. We also describe the features associated with the enclosure around the southwestern neighbourhood.
Find the complete book in Open Access at: https://www.sidestone.com/books/archaeology-in-the-zitava-valley-i
All three neighbourhoods at the Neolithic site of Vráble ‘Veľké Lehemby’/‘Farské’ (Nitriansky kraj, Slovakia) yielded human remains. The largest number was discovered in the 2017 campaign, which centred on two of the entrances through the enclosure around the south-western area. The assemblage comprises the remains of at least 19 individuals. While some of the skeletons lay on their side, either right or left, with hands in front of the face or in the lap, a large variety of other modes of treatment were present as well. Two individuals were found in long pits of houses, and ten individuals were deposited in ditch sections. Perimortem damage detected on the skeletal remains was most probably a result of post-mortem manipulation of the bodies shortly after death, either by small animals or by humans. This suggests that the bodies were probably left uncovered for a short period of time or placed in a shallow pit and buried under a thin covering layer (earth, shrouds, etc.). From at least three individuals, the head had been removed some time after deposition. Except for elderly individuals, all adult age categories are represented in the sample, with the prevalence of prime-aged individuals (25-35 years). Interpersonal violence is indicated by one case of healed cranial trauma. Other traumas are associable with either accidents or interpersonal violence. Palaeopathological and stable isotope analyses suggest that the special treatment of the individuals found in irregular positions may be connected with their social status.
enclosure system. This enclosure is associated with a large number of human remains, which reveal new patterns of burial and deposition practices. This volume presents the first part of the results of an international research project that was started in 2012 and aims to explore the social implications of settlement concentration in the context of early farming communities, on the background of subsistence patterns and landscape use.
This is the first volume of “Archaeology in the Žitava valley”, and it presents the finds, features and data uncovered and synthesised from our archaeological, pedological, geophysical, archaeobotanical, anthropological, zoo-archaeological and stable isotope studies on the site of Vráble “Veľké Lehemby” and “Fárske” in southwest Slovakia.
These data are used to reconstruct the social and economic patterns and social processes, highlighting a growing tension between incentives of cooperation and sharing vs. monopolisation of resources and individual interests, driving the 300-year history of this site until its total abandonment. While the history of Vráble is unique, it holds clues for a better understanding of the overall, central European phenomenon of large, enclosed settlements of the later LBK, their association with rituals and violence involving human bodies, and the end of the LBK social world.
Der vorliegende, aus einer Tagung im Jahr 2007 hervorgegangene Band hat das explizite Ziel, den eingeschlafenen Dialog neu zu beleben und den gemeinsamen Fluchtpunkt von Archäologie und Geschichtswissenschaft wiederzufinden. Der Band versammelt 14 Beiträge von Vertretern der Geschichtswissenschaft und der Prähistorischen Archäologie, der Ägyptologie und der Vorderasiatischen Archäologie, die die Quellenproblematiken der jeweiligen Disziplinen genauso wie konkrete Schwierigkeiten bei der interdisziplinären Zusammenarbeit diskutieren.
Das Buch, zu dem Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler aus Architektursoziologie, Ur- und Frühgeschichte, Mittelalterarchäologie und Ethnologie beigetragen haben, liefert eine breite Palette transdisziplinärer, kuiturvergleichender, theoretisch fundierter und empirisch abgesicherter Aufsätze zu einem neuen Forschungsfeld.
Dieser Band bietet einen Einstieg in die aktuelle sozialwissenschaftliche wie auch archäologische Diskussion um Identität, soziale Gruppen und Ethnos und stellt die künftige archäologische Auseinandersetzung mit diesen Themen auf eine methodisch solide Grundlage.
New large-scale magnetic surveys of Vinča period settlements can provide fresh insights into the social organisation of Late Neolithic communities. In the following chapter we compare the results of such surveys of a large region of southeastern Europe with
the regional archaeological study conducted in the Bosnian Visoko valley (Müller et al. 2013a) in order to correct previous estimations of settlement sizes and population numbers and to discuss the internal social composition of Vinča period settlements.
elongated pits and their orientation. Keywords: Magnetic prospections, LBK, Lengyel, Early Bronze Age
We document and describe the archaeological features excavated at the sites of Vráble ‘Veľké Lehemby’/‘Farské’ (Nitriansky kraj, Slovakia) during the years 2012‑2017. The data are organised around the houses, which are represented by a table recording their architectural elements, the accompanying lateral long pits and other structures.
The main descriptive category is the ‘object’, which represents an interpretational unit of features (which can be, for example, cuts or different fill layers). We also account for the find quantities, relative chronological dating based on pottery ornamentation, and 14C dating based on Bayesian modelling. We also describe the features associated with the enclosure around the southwestern neighbourhood.
Find the complete book in Open Access at: https://www.sidestone.com/books/archaeology-in-the-zitava-valley-i
All three neighbourhoods at the Neolithic site of Vráble ‘Veľké Lehemby’/‘Farské’ (Nitriansky kraj, Slovakia) yielded human remains. The largest number was discovered in the 2017 campaign, which centred on two of the entrances through the enclosure around the south-western area. The assemblage comprises the remains of at least 19 individuals. While some of the skeletons lay on their side, either right or left, with hands in front of the face or in the lap, a large variety of other modes of treatment were present as well. Two individuals were found in long pits of houses, and ten individuals were deposited in ditch sections. Perimortem damage detected on the skeletal remains was most probably a result of post-mortem manipulation of the bodies shortly after death, either by small animals or by humans. This suggests that the bodies were probably left uncovered for a short period of time or placed in a shallow pit and buried under a thin covering layer (earth, shrouds, etc.). From at least three individuals, the head had been removed some time after deposition. Except for elderly individuals, all adult age categories are represented in the sample, with the prevalence of prime-aged individuals (25-35 years). Interpersonal violence is indicated by one case of healed cranial trauma. Other traumas are associable with either accidents or interpersonal violence. Palaeopathological and stable isotope analyses suggest that the special treatment of the individuals found in irregular positions may be connected with their social status.
Demography is a central factor to understand the social economic development of a settlement as large as Vráble. Using the magnetic plans of the entire site, combined with targeted excavations and extensive coring programs, we develop a chronological model. This is based on 14C dates and the orientation of houses, which show a strong correlation, indicating a gradual change in orientation towards the left of 13° per 100 years. The internal use of space and the number of houses to estimate the mean number of inhabitants of the settlement and change in this number over time. The reconstruction of population numbers in different processes and strategies during the settlement history of Vráble (Nitriansky kraj, Slovakia). Including the regional context of the Upper Žitava Valley, we find a possible over-exploitation of arable land, and inter-site mobility and agglomeration processes at Vráble are to be seen in this light. The increasing population density of the northern neighbourhood of the settlement is interpreted as reflecting its increasing economic dominance at the cost of the others. We interpret the construction of the enclosure in the south-western neighbourhood as an attempt to counter this dominance. While this attempt was mederatly sucessful for a few generations, the entire settlement eventually went into decline.
which were influenced by and were influencing different social spheres of the settlement community. While we can trace differentiated subsistence strategies at the level of individual farms, as well as at the level of neighbourhoods, we can also see strong indicators for the importance of collective and communal mechanisms, as well as practices of sharing. These are indicated by the presence of specific storage pits and the communal building of an enclosure. We interpret these communal activities not only as indicators for structures of social security and solidarity, but also as indicators of growing social tensions and possibly conflicts over the course of the settlement history. We argue that the settlement was abandoned as a result of an
intensification of these tensions, leading towards the deliberate separation of one of the neighbourhoods and the development of social inequality, expressed through differentiated burial rites. The social and political structure of Vráble dissolved at the beginning of the 5th mil. BCE and was followed by a decentralised and dispersed system of sites during the subsequent period of Lengyel communities.
An introduction
Edeltraud Aspöck, Alison Klevnäs and Nils Müller-Scheeßel
During excavations we often encounter mortuary deposits which show evidence of disturbance. Graves, especially inhumation burials as opposed to cremations, readily show signs of disorder. Human bones may be displaced and intermingled with grave goods, or traces of pits or damage to coffins or other containers may show that others have been digging before the archaeologists arrived. This book explores past human interactions with mortuary deposits, delving into the different ways graves and human remains were approached by people in the past and the reasons that led to such encounters. The primary focus of the volume is on cases of unexpected interference with individual graves soon after burial, that is, re-encounters with human remains which do not seem to have been anticipated by those who performed the funerary rituals and constructed the tombs. But in addition, re-use of graves at later stages is also discussed in some of the case studies, as well as practices concerning double or collective graves in which reopening and manipulation of previous deposits is required when the “new” dead are added. Multiple types of post-depositional practices may frequently be seen in the same period and region and sometimes at the same burial site or even in a single grave.
The observation that graves were often deliberately disturbed in the past is long-standing, but the phenomenon has not been a popular subject for research, until recently remaining on the margins of archaeological discourse. Undisturbed mortuary deposits show how bodies were deposited, which grave goods and furniture were there originally and – subject to natural taphonomic alterations – frequently offer collections of valuable artefacts for study and display. As “closed contexts”, undisturbed graves have long been valued as important methodological tools for establishing typologies and chronologies. For social analysis of cemeteries, complete sets of grave goods and skeletal evidence that is as exhaustive as possible are basic requirements. In “disturbed” graves we cannot say for certain the number or types of grave goods that were once deposited and, if an interment has been heavily interfered with, we may not know how the body was placed, and in some cases not even how many individuals were initially present. Accordingly, for most of their history, disturbed graves were generally deemed interesting and worth analysis only according to the degree that they still showed evidence of the original deposition. However, paradigms in mortuary archaeology have changed: recent research has moved away from researching the normative and the typical, and with this move interest in post-depositional practices has been rising (e.g. Aspöck 2008; Murphy 2008).
One consequence of the perception of all deliberate re-entries into burials in the past as essentially damage to the archaeological record was limited interest in the reasons for post-depositional interferences in graves. The go-to explanation was that ancient “grave robbers” in search of valuables would be accountable for the traces of disturbance seen by modern excavators in most if not all cases (Fig. 1.1; Fig. 1.2). Indeed, as this book shows, this interpretation was invoked whether it was Early Medieval cemeteries in Europe or the tombs of the Maya that were found disturbed. Thus for a long time an understanding prevailed that in the past, graves were seen – at least by the robbers and their affiliates – principally as hoards of objects valuable and useful to the living for materialistic reasons. And since motives for “grave robbing” seemed plain and self-explanatory, the behaviour as such never aroused much interest in scholarly discourse. This paradigm remained a vigorous part of archaeological narratives for a long time, indeed perhaps still remains so. It has been influential in particular in periods with large-scale occurrence of grave reopening and object removal, notably the Early Bronze Age of central Europe and the Early Middle Ages of western and central Europe, and was only occasionally challenged by those looking into the evidence more closely.
In the last decade or so, in-depth research has begun into what is now preferably described under more neutral categories such as “post-burial interventions”, “grave reopening” or “post-depositional practices”. Both the new interest and new terminology are based on awareness that the reopening of a grave is in many cases by no means a criminal act, nor laden with the negative sentiment implied by the term “robbery”. For these reasons, we avoid the term “grave robbery” when presenting a range of recent approaches to the topic in this volume, even though it is sometimes intended as simply a technical term for past interference with mortuary deposits. We contend that “grave robbery”, used equally for the description of archaeological evidence and its interpretation, mixes different stages of the research process and is therefore misleading. It also depletes interpretative power in those contexts in which reopening does in fact appear to have been motivated by illicit acquisition, which themselves provide opportunities to interrogate ideas about the dead and their kin as property-holders. Instead, we prefer more neutrally descriptive terms such as “reopening”, “deliberate disturbance” or “manipulation”. These sometimes come across as awkward neologisms, especially when the individuals who reopened graves are denoted as “reopeners” or “manipulators”, but these alternative terms help to avoid preconceptions about the nature and motives of reopening across contexts. Use of such alternative terms has become more and more commonplace in studies critical of previous models of interpretation.
The papers gathered here give new insights into the forms and motivations for past re-entries into graves in archaeological contexts across the world. They demonstrate that the reopening of burials in the past is an important source for past cultural practices, embedded in social notions of what is proper, what is necessary and what is possible. In the remainder of this introduction we will first introduce previous research and outline how the study of post-depositional practices emerged as a new subfield in funerary archaeology. Then comes discussion of methodological developments in the excavation, analysis and interpretation of reopened graves. Finally we give an overview of different types of practices for which graves were reopened, discussed in relation to the case studies in this volume. We will focus on recent developments – and the challenges which they entail – which make this area of research a fascinating and rewarding topic.
This paper explores to what extent orientations of houses can contribute to chronological questions and to the cultural and social contextualisation in the Neolithic of Europe in general and societies with pottery styles labeled as Vinča and LBK in particular. First of all, the question is investigated to what extent systematic errors in the orientation of houses can contribute to the clarification of intra-site chronologies in tells and flat settlements of Southeastern Europe, as just recently proved for Linear Pottery Culture settlements. These systematic, counterclockwise deviations represent a cognitive phenomenon known as 'Pseudoneglect', which can be used to reconstruct e.g. relative-chronological sequences of houses in archaeo-magnetic plans. Beyond such fine-scaled variability, at a regional level, basic orientations of houses prove to be surprisingly durable and stable indicating their normative character and high ideological significance. Within Southeast Europe, regional standardisations can be distinguished for example with the 'basic Balkan orientation' and the 'Upper Tisza orientation'. With regard to the relations between the Vinča and 'the LBK′ we would like to highlight two points: Remarkable is, on the one hand, the high diversity of house orientations in the presumed area of formation of 'the LBK'. Accordingly, human groups of different origins might have been involved in this formation process. On the other hand, it seems that not only human groups from the Balkan but also those from the upper Tisza region played a significant role in the formation and spread of the LBK.
Our research at the large LBK settlement site of Vráble, southwest Slovakia, revealed dynamics of social integration and antagonisms unfolding in an agglomerated, early farming community. During its lifespan from 5250 to 4950 BC, it constantly grew until around 5050 BC it was inhabited by about 70 contemporaneous longhouses. We found that Vráble consisted of markedly autonomous farmstead units that were held together by village-wide social institutions including sharing and communality. Nevertheless, from the beginning, a contradiction between particular farmstead and collective village and neighbourhood interests existed and rose. Towards the end of the village's existence, around 5075 BC an elaborate enclosure was constructed around one of the three neigbourhoods, actively blocking contact with the others. Along this enclosure, human bodies were deposited, showing a social categorization that we interpret as relating to social inequality. This rising level of conflict and emerging social inequality was, we argue, not sustainable under the conditions of early farming societies and led to the village's abandonment at 4950 BC.
This paper shows that local differences in house orientation in settlements from the Early Neolithic in Central Europe reflect a regular chronological trajectory based on Bayesian calibration of 14 C-series. This can be used to extrapolate the dating of large-scale settlement plans derived from, among other methods, geophysical surveys. In the southwest Slovakian settlement of Vrá ble, we observed a progressive counterclockwise rotation in house orientation from roughly 32˚to32˚to 4˚over4˚over a 300 year period. A survey of published and dated village plans from other LBK regions confirms that this counterclockwise rotation per settlement is a wider Central European trend. We explain this observation as an unintentional, unconscious but systematic leftward deviation in the house builders' cardinal orientation, which has been termed "pseudoneglect" in studies of human perception. This means that whenever houses were intended to be oriented towards a specific direction and be parallel to each other, there was an error in perception causing slight counterclockwise rotation. This observation is used as a basis to reconstruct dynamics of Early Neolithic settlement in the Slovakian Z ˇ itava valley, showing a rapid colonization, followed by increased agglomeration into large villages consisting of strongly autonomous farmsteads.
und der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Theorien in der Archäologie e.V. (AG
TidA e.V.)
auf der Tagung des West- und Süddeutschen Verbandes für
Altertumsforschung (WSVA)
vom 1. bis 5. April 2019 in Würzburg