The middle Latène wooden bridge and settlement near Kirchhain-Niederwald (Hessen) and their place in the settlement landscape of the Amöneburger Basin: Interdisciplinary research into environmental conditions, economic basis and supra-regional connections in the Latène period

• Applicant: Dr. Christa Meiborg
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: from 2012 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 232500278

The find spots in the vicinity of the unique Middle Latène-period pile bridge near Kirchhain-Niederwald were the starting point for research on the bridge structure as well as settlement structure, environmental conditions, the economic basis and supra-regional contacts in the Middle Latène period in the Hessian highlands, about which little was known. Thanks to the application of interdisciplinary methods important results could be obtained. - It was possible to reconstruct the bridge in detail. Different types of pile construction were used, suggesting that they were adapted to the varying character of the river bed. - During the archaeological evaluation it was possible to prove that the river crossing had several phases as a result of direct reaction to changing local conditions. - Geomorphological analysis facilitated the reconstruction of the Iron Age river course and the topographical relief. - For the first time pollen analyses provide information on vegetation and land use in the Amoeneburg Basin during the last millennium BC. - The analysis of animal excrement provided first insights into the nutrition of farm animals and evidence for an early pastoral farming in Iron Age Europe. - For the first time in the area of the highlands could the analysis of botanical macro-remains from features in wet soils contribute to research on agriculture and plant use. - Settlement analysis resulted in better dating of more than one third of all Iron Age findspots in the Amoeneburg Basin, and thus to a finer-grained picture of settlement development. - GIS-based modelling of potential lines of communication added a number of routes to the existing reconstruction of old routes that fit in well with the settlement picture. While the scientific analysis of the development of vegetation and landscape include results for the Urnfield period, evidence for anthropogene interventions can only be provided for the following period. Settlement activity in the vicinity of the findspot started during the Hallstatt period, and continued until the end of the Middle Latène period. As a result, during the analysis an extremely extensive set of data and results was produced that goes beyond the focus of the Middle Latène period. We would like to use archaeological and scientific methods to evaluate this dataset in order to render visible the development of the pattern of settlement and landscape within the last millennium BC. Against the background of the history of the development of the landscape, the relationships between settlement patterns and potential routes in the Amoeneburg Basin will be examined in greater chronological depth and visualised in the form of maps of settlement patterns and communication routes. We would like to present the results from the environs of the site of the bridge in vegetation and land use maps.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Ines Balzer