This abstracts is part of session #161:
Title:
Prehistoric rural settlement continuity on the Northern Franconian Jura. Archaeological and geoarchaeological insights from the site „Görauer Anger“ (Bavaria, Germany)
Content:
In prehistoric studies, Central European low mountain regions are usually described as unfavorable to settlement. A problematic water supply, low-yield soils, poor climatic conditions and a peripheral location that is hardly connected to trade routes are considered the main reasons for this. Since 2015, the University of Bamberg has been investigating rural settlement and land use in prehistoric times in a study area situated in the north-easternmost part of the Franconian Alb (Bavaria, Germany). The landscape is characterised by karstified plateaus with ridges, hilltops and depressions as well as deeply incised and narrow valleys. After the first part of the research project involved prospections and small-scale exploratory excavations to locate and date settlement sites, the work in the second part concentrates on two selected territories on the Alb plateaus. The lecture will present first results from one settlement area, where archaeological excavations took place at several selected sites along a prominent ridge in 2020. The so-called "Görauer Anger" revealed not only a strongly varying state of preservation of prehistoric settlement structures, but also an unexpected, long-lasting settlement continuity from the younger Middle Bronze Age to the Early LaTène period. Geoarchaeological investigations of colluvial deposits in footslope position south of the ridge confirm temporally matching landuse activities. Colluvial backfills in sinkholes and terrain depressions on the ridge that are no longer visible today also hold important information on landscape changes, their extent and chronology. Geophysical prospection methods such as magnetics or electrical resistivity tomography helped to find such structures, and a combination of find analysis, radiocarbon dating and OSL dating was used to differentiate the backfill history. The archaeobotanical data reveal a preferential use of oak and beech wood during the settlement period and a more open landscape from the Late Bronze Age onwards.
Keywords:
Rural Settlement, Landscape Archaeology, Geoarchaeology, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Low Mountain Range
Main authors:
Timo Seregély2
Co-author:
Katja Kothieringer1
Affiliations:
1 Digital Geoarchaeology, University of Bamberg
2 Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology, University of Bamberg
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