Archaeobotanical and geoarchaeological investigations of changing economic systems and environmental conditions at prehistoric settlements in the river landscape of the middle Lahn valley (Gemeinde Weimar, Lkr. Marburg-Biedenkopf)

• Applicant: Dr. Ralf Urz
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: from 2016 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 320416838

The aim of the current research project is to obtain results on the characteristics and change of prehistoric agricultural systems and environmental conditions between the Mesolithic and Middle Ages in the Hessian low mountain region using the example of prehistoric settlements in the Lahn valley around Weimar (Lahn). For this purpose, an extensive data set comprising remains of about 71000 botanically classified cultivated and wild plants was compiled from archaeological findings.The ongoing evaluation of these data already provides results on agriculture and crop cultivation in the Neolithic, Bronze Age and Medieval settlement phases in the Lahn Valley. This section of the project will come to an end with the results of the Hallstatt and Latène periods. The investigation of changes in the use of cultivated plants and agricultural methods and the effects of increasing land use on the development of vegetation cover are objectives of the subsequent diachronic comparison. Regarding the question of whether the special location of the settlement area in the valley floor of Lahn and Allna determined or influenced the agriculture of the settlements, the investigation reaches its limits for methodological reasons. The prehistoric settlements in the Lahn Valley, just as large parts of the associated agricultural areas, were at the mercy of the changing river dynamics of the local watercourses. These may have had a significant direct or indirect influence on agriculture and livestock farming, as well as on settlement development. However, in the study area around Weimar (Lahn) these influences are still unexplored. Therefore, I intend to supplement and extend the results on agricultural development by geoarchaeological investigations. The geoscientific analysis of sediments and archaeological settlement strata is an important starting point for understanding natural influences on past economic and settlement areas, as well as anthropogenic environmental changes, and for better assessing their significance. The basis for the expansion of the scientific project is the unique collection of archaeological and scientific data which has been collected since the beginning of the archaeological excavations in 1991 by staff members of the State Archaeological Service of Hesse as well as by the applicant. The aim of the continuation proposal is to evaluate the existing findings regarding the geological structure of the valley and the river and flood dynamics and to link them to archaeobotanical results on the changes in prehistoric and early agricultural systems and environmental conditions.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants