The Elsfleth-Hogenkamp beach market during the Roman Iron Age and Migration Period. Interdisciplinary surveys undertaken to determine its settlement and economic structures and topographical changes in the first millennium AD

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Hauke Jöns
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: from 2015 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 270815881

Recent research on landing places and beach markets along the lower reaches of the Rivers Ems and Weser has yielded much new information about the economic and social organisation of north-western Germany during the Roman Iron Age and Migration Period. Of particular significance in this respect is the area where the River Hunte flows into the Weser, where a number of settlements are known with places suitable for ships to land and evidence of participation in supra-regional trade. Among these, the Elsfleth-Hogenkamp site is especially important because an extremely broad spectrum of high-quality metal objects was found there. The latest analysis of this material, undertaken as part of a PhD thesis, confirms both the existence of supra-regional trade contacts and intense activity by non-ferrous-metal craftsmen throughout the first half of the first millennium AD. The appearance of the buildings in this settlement and their structural organisation are still largely unknown since the find material was mainly collected from the surface or found by metal detectors. The project being applied for here therefore concentrates principally on geophysical and pedological investigations, together with archaeological sondages and scientific analyses of ceramics, which will help clarify the preservation conditions in the area of the site and determine what activities are reflected in the finds and features. In addition, metallurgical analyses will determine what crafts were practiced on the site, the origin of the metals worked and what goods were produced on the site. By including the find material and records from other sites of similar age in the vicinity, the role of the Elsfleth-Hogenkamp site within the local settlement pattern will also be analysed.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants