Row grave cemetery, farmstead burials and settlement of Lauchheim. Exemplary analysis of an early medieval local society
Final Report Abstract
Lauchheim provides European Early Medieval Archaeology with a variety of new insights and opportunities for comparison. A uniquely complex picture of the burial practices and the networks of relationships of the local population can be reconstructed from the unparalleled, large number of objects from the graves. For the first time, this is possible not only for the entire period of use but also with precise chronological differentiation, thus allowing developments and dynamics to be described precisely. Its inhabitants resided at the same location for 600 years, even if the settlement initially consisted of loosely scattered homesteads, later evolved into a denser settlement, before finally only two large homesteads remained. Although the site has changed in terms of its structure and extent, it had not been relocated. Whilst Early Medieval cemeteries and settlements have also been excavated elsewhere, sometimes extensively and in some cases completely, Lauchheim stands out. Here a settlement and close by cemetery could both be investigated. However, the obvious assumption that the two sites are directly related to each other has proven to be deceptive. The periods of use - 5th-7th century for the large cemetery and 6th-12th century for the settlement - only partly overlap. There must have been at least one earlier settlement nearby whose deceased were buried in the large cemetery. If a population-figure is to be extrapolated from the 1,400 deceased buried at the burial ground, assuming a new generation every 25 years and a period of use of 250 years (i.e. ten generations), a settlement of approximately 140 inhabitants may have existed during the 6th and 7th centuries. Did they all live in the excavated settlement, or were other sites also occupied? How big were the economic units and family groups? Similar, but reverse, questions can be asked regarding the 77 deceased buried within the settlement: since the relatively small number of graves can only represent part of the inhabitants of the second half of the 7th and 8th centuries, further graves must have been dug elsewhere. One can only speculate as to where this might have been. Projects of comparable size to the Lauchheim investigations - excavation and evaluation of a contemporary cemetery and associated settlement - will rarely be repeated as this would require the fortuitous concurrence of excellent preservation of archaeological remains, their discovery and the availability of archaeological resources. The exemplary value of the Lauchheim project, offering indeed new perspectives for Early Medieval Archaeology, is thus all the higher.
Publications
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Digitale Modellierungen frühmittelalterlicher Reihengräberfeldstrukturen am Beispiel Lauchheim ‚Wasserfurche‘. Grabtiefen und der Ort sozialer Repräsentation. Zeitschrift für Archäologie des Mittelalters 46, 2018 (2019), 1–26
Michael Kempf & Susanne Brather-Walter
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Lauchheim II.1.
Höke, Benjamin; Gauß, Florian; Peek, Christina & Stelzner, Jörg
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Secondary hypertrophic osteoarthropathy in a male from the Early Medieval settlement of Lauchheim, Germany. International Journal of Paleopathology, 20, 72-79.
Flohr, Stefan; Jasch, Isabelle; Langer, Antje; Riesenberg, Martin; Hahn, Julia; Wisotzki, Axel; Kierdorf, Horst; Kierdorf, Uwe & Wahl, Joachim
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Sekundäre Hypertrophe Osteoarthropathie – ein seltener Befund aus dem merowingerzeitlichen Lauchheim „Mittelhofen“ (Baden-Württemberg). Beiträge zur Archäozoologie und Prähistorischen Anthropologie XI (Langenweißbach 2018) 135–143
Isabelle Jasch-Boley; Antje Langer; Julia Hahn; Martin Riesenberg; Stefan Flohr & Joachim Wahl
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Wie man den Meister lohnt … Ein chronologischer und qualitativer Vergleich der Schwerter aus Lauchheim. In: Alfried Wieczorek / Klaus Wirth (Hrsg.), Von Hammaburg nach Herimundisheim. Festschrift Ursula Koch. Mannheimer Geschichtsblätter Sonderveröffentlichung 11 (Heidelberg 2018) 127–141
Benjamin Höke & Jörg Stelzner
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Lauchheim II.2.
Höke, Benjamin; Gauß, Florian; Peek, Christina & Stelzner, Jörg
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Was die Knochen sagen. Archäologie in Deutschland 3, 2019, 34–37
Carola Berzin; Isabelle Jasch-Boley & Joachim Wahl
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Die Siedlungsbestattungen aus Lauchheim „Mittelhofen“ – Erste Ergebnisse der anthropologischen Untersuchung. Beiträge zur Archäozoologie und Prähistorischen Anthropologie XII (Langenweißbach 2020) 93–103
Isabelle Jasch-Boley; Ingo Stork & Joachim Wahl
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Lauchheim I.
Krausse, Dirk; Brather, Sebastian; Scheschkewitz, Jonathan; Ebinger, Nicole & Stork, Ingo (Eds.)
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Lauchheim II.3.
Höke, Benjamin; Gauß, Florian; Peek, Christina & Stelzner, Jörg
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Lauchheim II.4.
Höke, Benjamin; Gauß, Florian; Peek, Christina & Stelzner, Jörg
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Pathogen genomics study of an early medieval community in Germany reveals extensive co-infections. Genome Biology, 23(1).
Bonczarowska, Joanna H.; Susat, Julian; Mühlemann, Barbara; Jasch-Boley, Isabelle; Brather, Sebastian; Höke, Benjamin; Brather-Walter, Susanne; Schoenenberg, Valerie; Scheschkewitz, Jonathan; Graenert, Gabriele; Krausse, Dirk; Francken, Michael; Jones, Terry C.; Wahl, Joachim; Nebel, Almut & Krause-Kyora, Ben
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Siedlung und Gräberfeld von Lauchheim. Neue Ergebnisse und Perspektiven. Zeitschrift des Historischen Vereins für Schwaben 114, 2022, 163–210
Susanne Brather-Walter & Benjamin Höke
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Lauchheim IV.
Höke, Benjamin & Straeter, Anna
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The physical constitution of Lauchheim “Mittelhofen”’s subadults in the Merovingian period. Anthropologischer Anzeiger, 80(4), 481-499.
Jasch-Boley, Isabelle I.F. & Wahl, Joachim
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Die Masse macht’s – Lauchheim als Forschungsprojekt. In: THE hidden LÄND – Wir im ersten Jahrtausend (Oppenheim am Rhein 2024) 150–157
Susanne Brather-Walter; Sebastian Brather & Benjamin Höke
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Frühmittelalterliche Reihengräberfelder – Soziale Gruppen und ihre Selbstdarstellung. In: THE hidden LÄND – Wir im ersten Jahrtausend (Oppenheim am Rhein 2024) 134–149
Susanne Brather-Walter; Sebastian Brather & Benjamin Höke
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Netzwerken im Frühmittelalter – Die Entwicklung von (Austausch)Beziehungen in Lauchheim. In: THE hidden LÄND – Wir im ersten Jahrtausend (Oppenheim am Rhein 2024) 160–165
Susanne Brather-Walter & Benjamin Höke
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Unsichtbares sichtbar gemacht – Blockbergung und Röntgencomputertomografie. In: THE hidden LÄND – Wir im ersten Jahrtausend (Oppenheim am Rhein 2024) 158–159
Nicole Ebinger & Benjamin Höke
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Lauchheim III. Die frühmittelalterliche Siedlung Lauchheim ‚Mittelhofen‘. Forschungen und Berichte zur Archäologie in Baden-Württemberg 25 (Wiesbaden 2025)
Valerie Schoenenberg
