Project Details
Projekt
Row grave cemetery, farmstead burials and settlement of Lauchheim. Exemplary analysis of an early medieval local society
Subject Area
Prehistory and World Archaeology
Term
from 2018 to 2023
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 394737649
Lauchheim-Wasserfurche with more than 1300 burial represents the largest excavated row grave cemetery in Southwest Germany still today. In combination with ca. 80 graves within the settlement Mittelhofen and the already analysed settlement itself, it offers the unique opportunity to reconstruct an early medieval local society. Such an extensive and detailed local study has not been achieved yet. Archaeologically, the already completed and extensive documentation of the row grave cemetery, including the common recording of finds and features, complemented by textile archaeology and many computer tomography data, will be analysed, and complemented by the manageable number of finds and features from the farm stead burials. Both will be linked up with the finished settlement study and interim reports of the row grave cemetery already made. Anthropologically, the finalised documentation of sex, age and pathologies of both burial places will be analysed in detail, supplemented by an archaeozoological study.The aim of the project is the final and comprehensive interpretation of this unique source material, following specific research questions. The project data base of the row grave cemetery, including all information, represents the central starting point - in order to develop and evaluate complex interpretations by network and GIS analysis. They will include directly the farm stead burials as well as the connected settlement features. By an open space concept, different ranges, levels and contexts shall be detected, leading to a more manifold and - by differentiation into several phases - a more dynamic reconstruction than made before. Beyond Lauchheim it has to be analysed and evaluated, to what extent the developed model of an early medieval local society can be transferred to other places and regions. With this proposal, the research and the projects on early medieval Lauchheim, undertaken during the last 30 years, will be finished.This proposal is combined with three further projects. They deal with craftmanship and inner structures of early medieval settlements in Alamannia (Valerie Schoenenberg), with the archaeology of early medieval manorial systems (Thomas Meier) and with local priests and church organisation in the Southwest (Steffen Patzold). The combination of some empirical studies and different records will offer new insights. Together we want to formulate an empirically saturated and theoretically well-grounded model of early medieval local societies in Alamannia, based on the current state of research in historiography and archaeology.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
