This study wants to help Central Italy claim its place in Bronze Age studies and make a crossover between landscape and network approaches in archaeology. It starts from a methodological... Show moreThis study wants to help Central Italy claim its place in Bronze Age studies and make a crossover between landscape and network approaches in archaeology. It starts from a methodological consideration of archaeological synthesis in Bronze Age studies. Approaching landscapes as networks of places, this study advocates a data-rich form of synthesis of Bronze Age trajectories, one that avoids a selective focus on particular places. This data-rich synthesis of the Early Bronze Age in Central Italy takes all types of place making up cultural landscapes and social networks into account, in this case metalwork deposition, burial, cave use and settlement patterns. Following changing relationships between all of these places, network changes are charted and substantiated from the Copper Age to the Middle Bronze Age. What Central Italy offers to Bronze Age studies, is the emergence of metallurgical spheres based on regional copper sources at the transition from copper to bronze metallurgy. Therefore the focus lies on metalwork-related network changes that can be situated in the historical context of late Bell Beaker networks and, subsequently, the introduction of true bronze metallurgy in the form of Vollgriffdolche in the context of Early Bronze Age networks. The latter highlight the integration of distinctive metallurgical spheres into a single, larger Central Italian sphere, in the overall context of network changes at the Early-Middle Bronze Age transition. Early Bronze Age trajectories paved the way for the full integration of Central Italy in supra-regional connectivity in the Middle Bronze Age, fulfilling the condition of possibility of its strategic position between Europe and the Mediterranean. This study wants to help Central Italy claim its place in Bronze Age studies and make a crossover between landscape and network approaches in archaeology. It starts from a methodological consideration of archaeological synthesis in Bronze Age studies. Approaching landscapes as networks of places, this study advocates a data-rich form of synthesis of Bronze Age trajectories, one that avoids a selective focus on particular places. This data-rich synthesis of the Early Bronze Age in Central Italy takes all types of place making up cultural landscapes and social networks into account, in this case metalwork deposition, burial, cave use and settlement patterns. Following changing relationships between all of these places, network changes are charted and substantiated from the Copper Age to the Middle Bronze Age. What Central Italy offers to Bronze Age studies, is the emergence of metallurgical spheres based on regional copper sources at the transition from copper to bronze metallurgy. Therefore the focus lies on metalwork-related network changes that can be situated in the historical context of late Bell Beaker networks and, subsequently, the introduction of true bronze metallurgy in the form of Vollgriffdolche in the context of Early Bronze Age networks. The latter highlight the integration of distinctive metallurgical spheres into a single, larger Central Italian sphere, in the overall context of network changes at the Early-Middle Bronze Age transition. Early Bronze Age trajectories paved the way for the full integration of Central Italy in supra-regional connectivity in the Middle Bronze Age, fulfilling the condition of possibility of its strategic position between Europe and the Mediterranean. Show less
Prehistoric human diet can be reconstructed by the analysis of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and sulphur (S) stable isotopes in bone, whereas ancient mobility and provenance can be studied using the... Show morePrehistoric human diet can be reconstructed by the analysis of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and sulphur (S) stable isotopes in bone, whereas ancient mobility and provenance can be studied using the isotopes of strontium (Sr) and oxygen (O) in tooth enamel, and of sulphur in bone. Although thirty years have passed since the first application of the stable isotope method to European skeletal material, gaps in biochemical research have remained within German archaeology. This dissertation seeks to fill these gaps by providing novel evidence from multiple isotope analyses in different transitional periods of German prehistory, including the earliest Neolithic farmers of the Linearbandkaramik culture, the Early Bronze Age necropolis site of Singen, and the elite burial population from the Early Iron Age site of Magdalenenberg. To assess the local characteristics of Sr isotopes in south-western Germany, environmental samples (n=93) were collected and analysed from the different geological formations between the Black Forest and Lake Constance. As a result of this work, these reference data are now available for future research. A substantial dataset of C and N isotopes was obtained from the human populations from the Linearbandkeramik sites of Derenburg, Halberstadt and Karsdorf (n=97) in Central Germany. The data provides information on early Neolithic subsistence and individual diet, and can be connected to evidence from a previous palaeogenetic study on lactose intolerance. Furthermore, the analysis of contemporary fauna (n=45) provides novel evidence on Neolithic livestock management strategies. The reconstruction of ancient mobility using the isotopes of Sr, O and S provided information on human provenance at the Early Bronze Age cemetery site of Singen. While the population had been considered mobile because of exotic grave goods found at the site, biochemical evidence suggests all sampled individuals (n=29) originated and lived locally in the region of Lake Constance. A very distinct pattern was found at the Early Iron Age monumental tumulus site of Magdalenenberg in the Black Forest. The results of Sr, O and S analyses in the skeletal remains (n=90) of this elite Hallstatt Culture burial population suggest various regions of human origin. Only a small proportion of the people originated locally. The majority of the burial population is derived from the Black Forest highlands or from the plains towards Lake Constance. In some cases, individual origin could be assigned to specific areas in the Alps and Italy through the application of various isotope systems. Show less
