- Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Post-Ph.D. Research Grants, Department Memberadd
- Volcanic eruptions, Archaeology, Cultural Evolution, Linguistics, Anthropology, Disaster science, and 33 moreNatural Hazards, Laacher See Tephra, Disaster Studies, Climate Change Adaptation, Climate Change, Prehistoric Archaeology, Risk Management, Neanderthals (Palaeolithic Archaeology), Neandertals, Eemian interglacial, Archaeological Method & Theory, Risk and Vulnerability - Natural Hazards, Explosive volcanic eruptions, Natural experiment, Middle Palaeolithic, Middle Paleolithic, Arctic Archaeology, Phylogenetic comparative methods, Final Paleolithic, Mesolithic Archaeology, Societal Collapse, Risk and Vulnerability, Federmesser-Gruppen, Paleoclimatology, Lithic Technology, Palaeolithic Archaeology, Magdalenian, Mesolithic/Neolithic, Hunter-Gatherers (Anthropology), Natural Disasters, Art and the Anthropocene, Anthropocene, and Culture and the Anthropoceneedit
- I am a prehistoric archaeologist with a primary interest in the Palaeolithic. I work broadly within an extended evolu... moreI am a prehistoric archaeologist with a primary interest in the Palaeolithic. I work broadly within an extended evolutionary framework and employ a range of dating tools (c14, tephrochronology) in order to relate climate, environment, and culture change to each other. Currently, I focus especially on the methodological utility and impact of rapid environmental changes/natural hazards on past communities, with a particular empirical focus on the eruption of the Laacher See volcano 13k years ago in present-day Germany and the complicated ways in which it affected Late Palaeolithic societies in Europe.
I am also Editor-in-Chief of the Danish Journal of Archaeology (http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rdja).edit
Despite the alleged mastery of humans over nature, contemporary societies are acutely vulnerable to natural hazards. In interaction with vulnerable communities, these transform into catastrophes. In a deep historical perspective, human... more
Despite the alleged mastery of humans over nature, contemporary societies are acutely vulnerable to natural hazards. In interaction with vulnerable communities, these transform into catastrophes. In a deep historical perspective, human communities of many different kinds have been affected by numerous kinds of natural disasters that may provide useful data for scenario-based risk reduction measures vis-à-vis future calamities. The low frequency of high magnitude hazards necessitates a deep time perspective for understanding both the natural and human dimensions of such events in an evidence-based manner. This paper focusses on the eruption of the Laacher See volcano in western Germany about 13,000 years ago as an example of such a rare, but potentially highly devastating event. It merges Lee Clarke’s sociological argument for also thinking about such very rare events in disaster planning and David Staley’s notion of thinking historically about the future in order to ‘past-forward’ such information on past constellations of vulnerability and resilience. ‘Past-forwarding’ is here intended to signal the use of such deep historical information in concerns for contemporary and future resilience. This paper outlines two pathways for making archaeological information on past extreme environmental events relevant in disaster risk reduction: First, the combination of information from the geosciences and the humanities holds the potential to transform ancient hazards from matters of fact to matters of concern and, hence, to more effectively raise awareness of the issues concerned. Second, in addition to information on past calamities feeding into preparatory scenarios, I argue that the well-established outreach channels available to the humanities (museums, in particular) provide powerful platforms for communication to multiple publics.
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Large tanged points are known from several Final Palaeolithic technocomplexes in Europe. In different regions, they are known by different labels (e.g. Bromme points, Lyngby points, and Teyjat points) and are often given culturally and... more
Large tanged points are known from several Final Palaeolithic technocomplexes in Europe. In different regions, they are known by different labels (e.g. Bromme points, Lyngby points, and Teyjat points) and are often given culturally and hence chronologically diagnostic status as important fossiles directeurs, especially in northern Europe. The vast majority of these finds are from the surface or derive from less-than-secure contexts. Several recent papers have cast doubt on the validity of this artefact class as a taxonomically sensitive marker. Here, we further investigate this issue using 2D geometric morphometric techniques on a sample of published large tanged points from several key sites in northern Europe. This analysis reveals a substantial amount of shape variation within this artefact class and finds no support for distinctions between large tanged points derived from different cultural and/or chronological contexts. Our analysis thus strongly supports the notion that large tanged points do not function as useful culturally diagnostic marker artefacts. The earliest occurrences of Final Palaeolithic large tanged points date to late GS-2 or GI-1e (~15,000–14,000 cal BP), alongside arch-backed points. Their presence in later assemblages and technocomplexes such as the Brommean cannot therefore be considered as a derived or diagnostic feature. We suggest that this artefact class should rather be linked to weapon systems function (dart-points) different from the coeval arch-backed points (arrowheads) and that definitions of cultures based on these should thus be taken up for critical revision.
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Environmental catastrophes represent profound challenges faced by societies today. Numerous scholars in the climate sciences and the humanities have argued for a greater ethical engagement with these pressing issues. At the same time,... more
Environmental catastrophes represent profound challenges faced by societies today. Numerous scholars in the climate sciences and the humanities have argued for a greater ethical engagement with these pressing issues. At the same time, several disciplines concerned with hazards are moving towards formalized ethical codes or promises that not only guide the dissemination of data but oblige scientists to relate to fundamentally political issues. This article couples a survey of the recent environmental ethics literature with two case studies of how past natural hazards have affected vulnerable societies in Europe’s prehistory. We ask whether cases of past calamities and their societal effects should play a greater role in public debates and whether archaeologists working with past environmental hazards should be more outspoken in their ethical considerations. We offer no firm answers, but suggest that archaeologists engage with debates in human–environment relations at this interface between politics, public affairs and science.
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Around 13,000 years ago the Laacher See volcano, located in present-day western Germany, erupted catastrophically. This large and highly explosive eruption led to the deposition of fallout tephra over large parts of Central Europe. In... more
Around 13,000 years ago the Laacher See volcano, located in present-day western Germany, erupted catastrophically. This large and highly explosive eruption led to the deposition of fallout tephra over large parts of Central Europe. In addition, ejecta from the eruption dammed up the nearby River Rhine. The resultant lake flooded the low-lying landscapes nearby, and dam collapse during or shortly after the eruption sent flood-waves far downstream. Interestingly, the archaeological record of this period documents a variety of responses to this event along the proximal-to-distant transect, where the affected forager groups also would have varied in their specific economic strategies and their connectedness within contemporaneous bio-social networks. Disaster scientists working in recent settings fall into two broad schools: The ‘dominant’ approach that forefronts the physical properties of the hazardous event, and the ‘radical’ approach that focuses more on the political and ecological/economic constellations of the affected communities. This chapter reviews the effects of the Laacher See eruption on flora, fauna, and human foragers from ‘dominant’ and ‘radical’ perspectives inspired by the risk reduction research frameworks. In particular, it attempts to use the Laacher See event to reflect on why the affected hunter-gatherer communities in different parts of Europe were or were not vulnerable to such an environmental challenge. The main theme developed here is that mechanistic, i.e. dominant, explanations fall short of capturing the causes and temporalities of culture change set into motion by the Laacher See eruption. In addition, it shows that the most pronounced changes brought about by this eruption happened not in areas directly affected by the eruption of its fallout, but rather in an area isolated by it.
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Humans have a long relationship with volcanoes, volcanic eruptions and the landscapes they produce. At times this relationship has been calamitous and human communities, societies, civilisations even have been subject to volcanic... more
Humans have a long relationship with volcanoes, volcanic eruptions and the landscapes they produce. At times this relationship has been calamitous and human communities, societies, civilisations even have been subject to volcanic disasters. Formally, disasters can be defined as the result of the interaction of one or several hazards with human communities, resulting in loss of lives and/or livelihoods. This brief introduction frames the rationale for this volume. Whilst the individual chapters in this book aptly reflect the geological and societal specificities of the volcanic eruptions and the affected societies in question as well as the source material and approaches that can be used to study them, the aim of this book is also to highlight similarities and thus to facilitate comparison. In particular, this volume aims to distinguish itself from others that address past calamities by a dual focus: On the one hand it focuses on volcanic eruptions and their effects, and, on the other, it focuses on what these events can reveal of socio-ecological vulnerabilities that make the affected societies susceptible to harm in the first place.
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Investigation of an in-filled lake basin in Schünsmoor, Ldkr. Rotenburg (Wümme), northern Germany, reveals the discovery of ‘cryptotephra’ (non-visible volcanic ash) in biogenic sediments dating to the Late-glacial and early Holocene... more
Investigation of an in-filled lake basin in Schünsmoor, Ldkr. Rotenburg (Wümme), northern Germany, reveals the discovery of ‘cryptotephra’ (non-visible volcanic ash) in biogenic sediments dating to the Late-glacial and early Holocene periods (c.15.4 - 7.5 ka cal BP). Major element geochemistry of glass shards shows the tephra originates in Iceland from the Katla volcanic system. However, uncertainties in the bio-stratigraphic position and dating of the tephra in Schünsmoor mean it is not clear if more than a single tephra is present nor is it possible to correlate confidently to previously documented eruptions. Three potentially relevant correlates are identified: the Vedde Ash (c.12.1 ka cal BP), an eruption documented from many regions of Europe that dates from the Younger Dryas sub-stage; the Abernethy Forest AF555 tephra, previously identified in Scotland with a age of 11.79 - 11.20 ka cal BP; and the c. 8.0 ka cal BP Suðuroy Tephra, first observed in the Faroe Isles. Future tephrostratigraphic investigations may ultimately resolve the ambiguities identified in Schünsmoor, thereby allowing the tephra record to be placed in a wider European context.
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Jeg hilser den åbne debat af senglacialtidens kulturforhold i Sydskandinavien velkommen og benytter lejligheden til at knytte et par kommentarer til Kristoffer Buck Pedersens respons på mit oprindelige indlæg.
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After being completely depopulated during much of the Late Pleistocene, southern Scandinavia again became part of the human world around the middle of the 15th millennium before present (BP). The reindeer-hunters of the Hamburgian culture... more
After being completely depopulated during much of the Late Pleistocene, southern Scandinavia again became part of the human world around the middle of the 15th millennium before present (BP). The reindeer-hunters of the Hamburgian culture are associated with this first pioneer re-colonisation pulse, but there has been considerable debate about the particular kind of economic and mobility strategies practiced by these groups, and their cultural and biological relationship with the succeeding techno-complex in the region, the so-called Federmesser-Gruppen, remains controversial. This chapter presents a series of formal exploratory analyses addressing the culture-historical status of the pioneering techno-complexes in southern Scandinavia, their dating and possible mobility strategies. The results of these analyses suggest that the historically informative differences between the material culture of the Hamburgian and the Federmesser-Gruppen are so pronounced as to imply a significant culture-historical and/or demographic conjuncture, likely centred on the brief GI-d/Older Dryas cold/dry spell. Ethnographically derived demographic models are used to frame possible mechanisms for the demographic collapse of the initial pioneering groups at this time.
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Around 13,000 years ago, the Laacher See volcano (East Eifel volcanic field, Rhenish Shield) erupted cataclysmically. The thick tephra blanket in the eruption's near field covered and thereby preserved a large number of archaeological... more
Around 13,000 years ago, the Laacher See volcano (East Eifel volcanic field, Rhenish Shield) erupted cataclysmically. The thick tephra blanket in the eruption's near field covered and thereby preserved a large number of archaeological sites, ranging from very small to some of the largest and richest sites known from the Late Glacial. In this proximal region, there is a striking contrast in the number of sites prior to the eruption and the almost complete lack of sites dating to the period after the event, i.e. to Greenland Interstadial 1a. The preservative function of the tephra cover itself may explain this near-field pattern, but it is shown here that similar stratigraphic observations can also be made in the Laacher See eruption's mid field towards the west and, in particular, to the north-east. The aim of this paper is to review the stratigraphic relations of known archaeological sites outside the near field of the Laacher See event with a particular focus on the German Federal State of Hesse and adjacent areas of Lower Saxony and the Thuringian Basin. Here, a number of archaeological sites are known, where strata of Laacher See tephra cap human occupation. Most often, these sites are not reoccupied until much later in prehistory, suggesting that the eruption may have led either to a complete or a near-complete abandonment of the affected regions or, at the very least, to a major reorganisation of landscape-use.
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Archaeologists and historians have long investigated societal responses to climate change (see P. Palmer and M. Smith Nature 512, 365–366; 2014). These records are an underused resource in current climate adaptation research, but offer... more
Archaeologists and historians have long investigated societal responses to climate change (see P. Palmer and M. Smith Nature 512, 365–366; 2014). These records are an underused resource in current climate adaptation research, but offer scope for highly integrative meta-analyses that would be useful to climate scientists, science advisers and policymakers, and could provide important information for local outreach efforts. Risk-reduction researchers have pointed out that responses to climate change are a mix of contemporary industrial (technological) measures and pre-industrial (social and community-based) ones. However, the use of palaeoenvironmental data by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as a basis for drawing up future climate change scenarios is not matched by an equally sophisticated use of ‘palaeosocietal’ data for investigating human impacts and adaptive pathways. Archaeological and historical data could provide a solid evidence base for effective adaptations to climate change. Expanding the chronological scope of climate-adaptation research into deep time would vastly enlarge the database of available case studies without getting into the tricky issues of data access and legal sensitivity. In effect, this approach draws on natural experiments in history to learn from the past (see R. Van der Noort Climate Change Archaeology Oxford Univ. Press; 2013).
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The ecological tolerances ofNeandertals, their ability to subsist in the dense forests of full interglacials, and their capacity to colonize northern latitudes are the subject of ongoing debate. The site of Hollerup (northern Denmark)... more
The ecological tolerances ofNeandertals, their ability to subsist in the dense forests of full interglacials, and their capacity to colonize northern latitudes are the subject of ongoing debate. The site of Hollerup (northern Denmark) lies at the northern extreme of the Neandertal range. Dated by various techniques to the Eemian interglacial (MIS 5e), this site has yielded the remains of several purportedly butchered fallow deer (Dama dama). Taphonomic reanalysis of the remains from Hollerup and a handful of other Eemian-aged fallow deer skeletons cast doubt on the interpretation that they were humanly modified.We place this revised conclusion into the wider context of human settlement of southern Scandinavia during the Eemian. Other claims of Neandertal presence in the region rest on candidate Middle Paleolithic artifacts, all of which derive from surface contexts. With the fallow deer material removed as a secure indicator of Neandertal settlement of Denmark during the last interglacial, this lithic material must be viewed with renewed skepticism. While ecological and/or topographic factors may have played an important role in preventing Neandertals from penetrating into peninsular Scandinavia, we caution that geological, taphonomic, research-historical, and demographic factors may have significantly distorted our picture of their occupation in this region.
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The niche construction model postulates that human bio-social evolution is composed of three inheritance domains, genetic, cultural and ecological, linked by feedback selection. This paper argues that many kinds of archaeological data can... more
The niche construction model postulates that human bio-social evolution is composed of three inheritance domains, genetic, cultural and ecological, linked by feedback selection. This paper argues that many kinds of archaeological data can serve as proxies for human niche construction processes, and presents a method for investigating specific niche construction hypotheses. To illustrate this method, the repeated emergence of specialized reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) hunting/herding economies during the Late Palaeolithic (ca 14.7–11.5 kyr BP) in southern Scandinavia is analysed from a niche construction/triple-inheritance perspective. This economic relationship resulted in the eventual domestication of Rangifer. The hypothesis of whether domestication was achieved as early as the Late Palaeolithic, and whether this required the use of domesticated dogs (Canis familiaris) as hunting, herding or transport aids, is tested via a comparative analysis using material culture-based phylogenies and ecological datasets in relation to demographic/genetic proxies. Only weak evidence for sustained niche construction behaviours by prehistoric hunter–gatherer in southern Scandinavia is found, but this study nonetheless provides interesting insights into the likely processes of dog and reindeer domestication, and into processes of adaptation in Late Glacial foragers.
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Research Interests: Archaeology, Technology, Cultural Transmission (Evolutionary Biology), Social Learning Theory, Theory, and 13 morePedagogy, Material Culture, Teaching, World Archaeology, Learning, Case Study, Imitation, Cultural transmission, Learning Activities, Next Generation, Production Line, Apprenticeships, and Data Gathering
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Slotted bone tools are an iconic example of composite tool technology in which change in one of the components does not require changing the design of the other parts. Commonly, slotted bone tools are seen through the lens of lithic... more
Slotted bone tools are an iconic example of composite tool technology in which change in one of the components does not require changing the design of the other parts. Commonly, slotted bone tools are seen through the lens of lithic technology, highlighting organizational aspects related to serial production of insets, reliability and maintainability. In this framework, slotted bone tool technology is associated with risk aversion in demanding environmental settings. Here, we provide the first overview of radiocarbon-dated slotted bone tools in northernmost Europe and the East European Plain, including 17 new direct dates on pitch glue, and show that the Late Pleistocene to Middle Holocene period of inset slotted bone tool use in this area shows marked variation and idiosyncrasy in associated lithic technology against a trend of continuously warming climate. We suggest that historical specificity and path-dependence, rather than convergent evolution, best explain the variability seen in slotted bone tool technology in the studied case, and that slotted bone tools in general formed an organizationally flexible, adaptable and hence likely adaptive technological solution that met a wide variety of cultural and technological demands.
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Environmental uncertainty, climate change, and ecological crisis loom large in the present and permeate scenarios of potential futures. To understand these predicaments and prepare for potentially catastrophic scenarios, there have been... more
Environmental uncertainty, climate change, and ecological crisis loom large in the present and permeate scenarios of potential futures. To understand these predicaments and prepare for potentially catastrophic scenarios, there have been repeated calls to explore the diverse human-climate relations of human societies in the past. The archeological record offers rich datasets on human-environment articulations reflected in artifacts, ecofacts, and their relational entanglements. Much of these human-environment conjugations are, in the absence of written records, only accessible archeologically, yet that discipline has played little role in the "environmental turn" of the humanities or the climate change debate. In an effort to articulate archeological research traditions with these concerns, we frame the notion of the paleoenvironmental humanities (pEH): a deep-time training ground for current ideas and theories on the interrelationship of human behavior, climate, and environmental change. The key objective of the pEH is to offer a rejoinder between ecological reduction-ism and the adoption of full-scale environmental relativism, opening up new interpretive and comparative terrain for the examination of human-climate relations. We probe the potential of this perspective by drawing on insights from Pleistocene archeology. The long-term temporalities of the Pleistocene, we argue, promote alternative imaginaries of the human-climate nexus and draw attention to similarly long-term futures. We end our proposal with a reflection on the responsibility of archeological practitioners to balance hopeful narratives of human adaptability with those of societal collapse, countering the emergent linkage between climate skepticism and right-wing nationalism, and to bring such issues to public attention. This article is categorized under:
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During road construction work, material attributed to the Final Palaeolithic was discovered at Skovmosen I, near Kongens Lyngby on Zealand, eastern Denmark. Although it is regularly mentioned in reviews of the southern Scandinavian Final... more
During road construction work, material attributed to the Final Palaeolithic was discovered at Skovmosen I, near Kongens Lyngby on Zealand, eastern Denmark. Although it is regularly mentioned in reviews of the southern Scandinavian Final Palaeolithic, the Skovmosen I assemblage has hitherto remained poorly described. We here review the site’s discovery history and its context. Aided by a three-dimensional digital recording protocol, this article details the assemblage composition and its technology. The assemblage is comprised of tanged points, scrapers and burins, alongside blades and cores as primary reduction products.
Although evidently disturbed by the road construction that led to the site’s discovery, the material likely reflects the remains of a small Final Palaeolithic locale, where diverse activities were carried out.
Although evidently disturbed by the road construction that led to the site’s discovery, the material likely reflects the remains of a small Final Palaeolithic locale, where diverse activities were carried out.
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All too often archaeological objects are found as stray finds. As such, they have little or no contextual information, which often makes them difficult to handle analytically and in terms of their exhibition appeal. As a consequence, they... more
All too often archaeological objects are found as stray finds. As such, they have little or no contextual information, which often makes them difficult to handle analytically and in terms of their exhibition appeal. As a consequence, they often languish un-researched in museum storerooms and there is the critical risk that such objects fall victim to the ongoing curation crisis and are deaccessioned due to a perceived lack of value. Therefore, in this paper we aim to illustrate the applicability of an extended biographical approach to such legacy material by studying the changing character of the Ulbi dagger, an Early Mesolithic flint-edged bone dagger, in its both archaeological and modern contexts. By using both a combination of traditional archaeological methods, coupled with a critical analysis of past illustrations, the dagger went from an isolated, undated, and unique object to a tool with a complex life history extending more than 9000 years. Our analysis reveals multiple stages of manufacturing and ornamentation including the presence of possible anthropomorphic figures. Use-wear analysis also allows us to address the object's likely primary function. Finally, we speculate about its deposition and discuss previously overlooked post-recovery episodes of damage and repair.
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Sedan 2013 genomför Lunds universitet semi-nariegrävningar i Uppåkra väster om Gamla Trelle-borgsvägen i Staffanstorps kommun, söder om Lund. Syftet är att undersöka lämningar från yngre och äldre järnålder, och ett antal förhisto-riska... more
Sedan 2013 genomför Lunds universitet semi-nariegrävningar i Uppåkra väster om Gamla Trelle-borgsvägen i Staffanstorps kommun, söder om Lund. Syftet är att undersöka lämningar från yngre och äldre järnålder, och ett antal förhisto-riska ugnar, stenpackningar, härdar och kokgro-par har grävts och dokumenterats (se t ex Lars-son et al. 2018). I september 2017 påträffades ett antal flintföremål som typologiskt tillhör en sen-glacial/tidig preboreal jägarkultur. En tångespets i flinta-en så kallad Lyngbyspets-tillvaratogs i vad som bedömdes vara steril morän (fig. 1). Geo-logen Svante Björck (Lunds universitet) inspek-terade fyndplatsen och konstaterade att lagret bestod av eroderad morän och att ytan sannolikt utgjort en markyta efter det att inlandsisen drag-it sig tillbaka från området för cirka 16 000 år sedan (Björck 1996; Stroeven et al. 2015). Detta antagande styrks av iakttagelsen att större stenar i moränen uppenbarligen har vindslipats. Plat-sen för fynden ligger relativt högt i landskapet i en västsluttning. Uppåkraplatån utgör idag den högsta punkten mellan Sege å och Höje å, och utsikten över dagens öppna odlingslandskap är mycket god. Det var den också under senglacial tid när landskapet utgjordes av en tundra, tids-mässigt följt av en halvöppen björkskog och se-nare, under yngre Dryas, av en öppen parktundra med björkträd i skyddade lägen. En sank yta i åkern cirka 200 m västerut skulle kunna vara res-terna efter ett dödishål som under den aktuella perioden möjligen utgjort ett vattenhål för mig-rerande renar. Lagret där spetsen hittades i innehåller inga fynd från senare perioder. Till skillnad från de stenpackningar från järnåldern som överlagrar fyndplatsen saknas obrända ben av tamdjur, kera-mik och metallartefakter i lagret. Den cirka 10 cm långa spetsen är tillverkad av ett robust, spetsigt spån. Tången har formats av en konsekvent, uni-facial retusch från den ventrala sidan vid spånets plattformsrest. Detta innebär att den tydliga slag-bulan är bevarad, något som är diagnostiskt för den sydskandinaviska brommetraditionen (Riede 2017 och där anf. litt.). En liten tungfraktur (lan-guette) (Inizan et al. 1999, s. 172) vid spetsen har 47 Korta meddelanden Fornvännen 114 (2019)
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Epistemology and research history significantly shape scientific understandings, debates, and publication strategies, albeit often implicitly. In Palaeolithic archaeology in particular, these factors are rarely examined in depth. Here, we... more
Epistemology and research history significantly shape scientific understandings, debates, and publication strategies, albeit often implicitly. In Palaeolithic archaeology in particular, these factors are rarely examined in depth. Here, we present a historiographic analysis of how research history has influenced the debate concerning the possible Neanderthal occupation in Scandinavia. We provide a qualitative discussion of this contentious research field as well as a citation network analysis that visualizes, quantifies, and hence clarifies some of the underlying conceptual, geographic, and temporal patterns in the development of the debate. Our results show significant regionalism as a structuring principle driving this debate as well as a basic rift between professional and avocational archaeologists in how they interpret and publish the available data. We also identify a troubling lack of cross-referencing, even when taking language barriers into account. We argue that the debate about Neanderthal occupation in Scandinavia has been shaped (negatively) by the following phenomena: regionalism, nationalism, lack of research and researchers, non-cumulative work, publication in Nordic languages, science by press release/sensationalism, and a lamentable trend towards arguments ad hominem. In order to take this research field forward, we propose an epistemological turn towards a cumulative, international, and hypothesis-driven agenda based on renewed research efforts and novel citizen science tools.
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In this contribution, we address a major puzzle in the evolution of human material culture: If maturing individuals just learn their parental generation's material culture, then what is the origin of key innovations as documented in the... more
In this contribution, we address a major puzzle in the evolution of human material culture: If maturing individuals just learn their parental generation's material culture, then what is the origin of key innovations as documented in the archeological record? We approach this question by coupling a life-history model of the costs and benefits of experimentation with a niche-construction perspective. Niche-construction theory suggests that the behavior of organisms and their modification of the world around them have important evolutionary ramifications by altering developmental settings and selection pressures. Part of Homo sapiens' niche is the active provisioning of children with play objects — sometimes functional miniatures of adult tools — and the encouragement of object play, such as playful knapping with stones. Our model suggests that salient material culture innovation may occur or be primed in a late childhood or adolescence sweet spot when cognitive and physical abilities are sufficiently mature but before the full onset of the concerns and costs associated with reproduction. We evaluate the model against a series of archeological cases and make suggestions for future research.
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Aim: In this paper, we investigate the role of climate and topography in shaping the distribution of Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) at different spatial scales. To this end, we compiled the most comprehensive data set on the... more
Aim: In this paper, we investigate the role of climate and topography in shaping the distribution of Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) at different spatial scales. To this end, we compiled the most comprehensive data set on the distribution of this species during the Last Interglacial optimum (MIS 5e) available to date. This was used to calibrate a palaeo-species distribution model, and analyse variable importance at continental and local scales. Location Europe and Irano-Turanian region (20° N to 70° N, 10° W to 70° E). Methods We used archaeological records and palaeoclimatic and topographic predictors to calibrate a model based on an ensemble of generalized linear models fitted with different combinations of predictors and weighted background data. Area under the curve scores computed by leave-one-out were used to assess variable importance at the continental scale, while local regression combined with recursive partition trees was used to assess variable importance at the local scale. Results Annual rainfall and winter temperatures were the most important pre-dictors at the continental scale, while topography and summer rainfall defined habitat suitability at the local scale. The highest habitat suitability scores were observed along the Mediterranean coastlines. Mountain ranges and continental plains showed low habitat suitability values. Main conclusions The model results confirmed that abiotic drivers played an important role in shaping Neanderthals distribution during the Last Inter-glacial. The high suitability of the Mediterranean coastlines and the low suit-ability values of most sites at the northern and eastern distribution limits (Germany, Hungary, Ukraine) challenge the notion of Neanderthals as a species with preference for colder environments.
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Biocultural theory is an integrative research program designed to investigate the causal interactions between biological adaptations and cultural constructions. From the bi-ocultural perspective, cultural processes are rooted in the... more
Biocultural theory is an integrative research program designed to investigate the causal interactions between biological adaptations and cultural constructions. From the bi-ocultural perspective, cultural processes are rooted in the biological necessities of the human life cycle: specifically human forms of birth, growth, survival, mating, parent-ing, and sociality. Conversely, from the biocultural perspective, human biological processes are constrained, organized, and developed by culture, which includes technology , culturally specific socioeconomic and political structures, religious and ideological beliefs, and artistic practices such as music, dance, painting, and storytelling. Establishing biocultural theory as a program that self-consciously encompasses the different particular forms of human evolutionary research could help scholars and scientists envision their own specialized areas of research as contributions to a coherent , collective research program. This article argues that a mature biocultural paradigm needs to be informed by at least 7 major research clusters: (a) gene-culture coevolution; (b) human life history theory; (c) evolutionary social psychology; (d) anthropological research on contemporary hunter-gatherers; (e) biocultural socioeconomic and political history; (f) evolutionary aesthetics; and (g) biocultural research in the humanities (religions, ideologies, the history of ideas, and the arts). This article explains the way these research clusters are integrated in biocultural theory, evaluates the level of development in each cluster, and locates current biocultural theory within the historical trajectory of the social sciences and the humanities.
Research Interests: Cultural Studies, Social Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology, Gene Culture Coevolution, Human Evolution, and 26 moreHistory of Ideas, Social and Cultural Anthropology, History of Science, History and Philosophy of Biology, Cultural Theory, History of Social Sciences, Evolutionary Anthropology, Literary Theory, Biocultural Anthropology, Literature And Science, History and Philosophy of the Human Sciences, Dual Inheritance Theory (Archaeology), Evolutionary psychology (Evolution), Literary Darwinism Or Evolutionary Literary Theory, Adaptive function of literature and the other arts, Biocultural theory, Consilience, Evolution and Human Behavior, Evolutionary Aesthetics, Literary Theory and Criticism, Two Cultures, Science and Culture, History and Philosophy of Social Sciences, Other interests: Philosophy of Science, Evolution Theory, Social and Evolutionary Psychology., Evolution of Hominin and Human Behaviour, and Human Life History Theory
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In a recent Antiquity debate, Todd Braje and respondents discuss the merits or otherwise of the recently proposed and hotly contested geological ‘Age of Man’—the Anthropocene. These papers make a useful contribution to the rapidly growing... more
In a recent Antiquity debate, Todd Braje and respondents discuss the merits or otherwise of the recently proposed and hotly contested geological ‘Age of Man’—the Anthropocene. These papers make a useful contribution to the rapidly growing literature on this epoch-in-the-making (cf. Swanson et al.). Recent publications by members of the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG; http://quaternary.stratigraphy.org/workinggroups/anthropocene/) suggest a start date for this epoch of c. 1950 (Zalasiewicz et al.; Waters et al.; Zalasiewicz & Waters ), the adoption of which would challenge archaeology as a discipline concerned with deep-time socio-ecological dynamics.
Research Interests:
When dealing with the northern boundary of Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) and the question of whether or not they dispersed into Southern Scandinavia, two contradictory hypotheses can be identified. The first, and also the most... more
When dealing with the northern boundary of Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) and the question of whether or not they dispersed into Southern Scandinavia, two contradictory hypotheses can be identified. The first, and also the most widely endorsed, hereafter, hypothesis A, argues primarily that Nean-derthals did not occupy regions above 55 N because of 1) climatic constraints and 2) dispersal barriers. The second, hypothesis B, argues that they possibly occasionally dispersed above 55 N, but that factors such as 1) research-and/or 2) taphonomic bias are responsible for their archaeological invisibility. Here, we report an evaluation of these competing hypotheses. To this end, we reconstruct the environment for the time period and region of interest (the Last Interglacial Complex and Northern Germany and Southern Scandinavia), based on three lines of evidence: palaeoenvironmental reconstruction combined with a novel habitat modelling approach, a review of relevant archaeological localities, and a discussion of the possible impacts of both research biases and the taphonomic effects on the archaeological data. We focus particularly on the climatic and geological explanatory factors relevant to the two hypotheses. Our results are inconsistent with the claim that climatic constraint and/or a lack of suitable habitats can fully explain the absence of Neanderthals in Southern Scandinavia during the Eemian Interglacial and Early Weichselian Glaciation. We do, however, find evidence that a geographic barrier may have impeded northerly migrations during the Eemian. The evidence reviewed here suggests that both research bias and taphonomy e consistent with hypothesis B e could account for the archaeological invisibility of Neanderthals in Southern Scandinavia, highlighting the need for further strategic survey and/or excavation efforts in the region.
Large tanged points are known from several Final Palaeolithic technocomplexes in Europe. In different regions, they are known by different labels (e.g. Bromme points, Lyngby points, and Teyjat points) and are often given culturally and... more
Large tanged points are known from several Final Palaeolithic technocomplexes in Europe. In different regions, they are known by different labels (e.g. Bromme points, Lyngby points, and Teyjat points) and are often given culturally and hence chronologically diagnostic status as important fossiles directeurs, especially in northern Europe. The vast majority of these finds are from the surface or derive from less-than-secure contexts. Several recent papers have cast doubt on the validity of this artefact class as a taxonomically sensitive marker. Here, we further investigate this issue using 2D geometric morphometric techniques on a sample of published large tanged points from several key sites in northern Europe. This analysis reveals a substantial amount of shape variation within this artefact class and finds no support for distinctions between large tanged points derived from different cultural and/or chronological contexts. Our analysis thus strongly supports the notion that large tanged points do not function as useful culturally diagnostic marker artefacts. The earliest occurrences of Final Palaeolithic large tanged points date to late GS-2 or GI-1e (~15,000–14,000 cal BP), alongside arch-backed points. Their presence in later assemblages and technocomplexes such as the Brommean cannot therefore be considered as a derived or diagnostic feature. We suggest that this artefact class should rather be linked to weapon systems function (dart-points) different from the coeval arch-backed points (arrowheads) and that definitions of cultures based on these should thus be taken up for critical revision.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Transitions, such as the one from the Upper to Late Palaeolithic in Europe, are episodes of cultural and demographic change, which raise questions about possible causal connections between environmental changes and human behaviour. The... more
Transitions, such as the one from the Upper to Late Palaeolithic in Europe, are episodes of cultural and demographic change, which raise questions about possible causal connections between environmental changes and human behaviour. The workshop The Upper-Late Palaeolithic Transition in Western Central Europe. Typology, Technology, Environment and Demography, organised by the Collaborative Research Centre 806, focused on discussing and disentangling these aspects. Experts from seven European countries reported the current state of knowledge and recent research on typology, technology, ecology, and population dynamics during the Upper to Late Palaeolithic transition (14,700 – 13,500 calBP) in north-western Europe. The presentations concerning the methods of palaeodemography included examples from the European Palaeolithic and Neolithic.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Around 13,000 years ago the Laacher See volcano, located in present-day western Germany, erupted catastrophically. This large and highly explosive eruption led to the deposition of fallout tephra over large parts of Central Europe. In... more
Around 13,000 years ago the Laacher See volcano, located in present-day western Germany, erupted catastrophically. This large and highly explosive eruption led to the deposition of fallout tephra over large parts of Central Europe. In addition, ejecta from the eruption dammed up the nearby River Rhine. The resultant lake flooded the low-lying landscapes nearby, and dam collapse during or shortly after the eruption sent flood-waves far downstream. Interestingly, the archaeological record of this period documents a variety of responses to this event along the proximal-to-distant transect, where the affected forager groups also would have varied in their specific economic strategies and their connectedness within contemporaneous bio-social networks. Disaster scientists working in recent settings fall into two broad schools: The ‘dominant’ approach that forefronts the physical properties of the hazardous event, and the ‘radical’ approach that focuses more on the political and ecological/economic constellations of the affected communities. This chapter reviews the effects of the Laacher See eruption on flora, fauna, and human foragers from ‘dominant’ and ‘radical’ perspectives inspired by the risk reduction research frameworks. In particular, it attempts to use the Laacher See event to reflect on why the affected hunter-gatherer communities in different parts of Europe were or were not vulnerable to such an environmental challenge. The main theme developed here is that mechanistic, i.e. dominant, explanations fall short of capturing the causes and temporalities of culture change set into motion by the Laacher See eruption. In addition, it shows that the most pronounced changes brought about by this eruption happened not in areas directly affected by the eruption of its fallout, but rather in an area isolated by it.
Research Interests:
... Konner, Melvin, and Marjorie Shostak.“Timing and Management of Birth among the! Kung: Biocul-tural Interaction in Reproductive Adaptation.” Cultural Anthropology 2 (1)(1987): 11–28. Shostak, Marjorie. ... Odling-Smee, FJ, KN Laland,... more
... Konner, Melvin, and Marjorie Shostak.“Timing and Management of Birth among the! Kung: Biocul-tural Interaction in Reproductive Adaptation.” Cultural Anthropology 2 (1)(1987): 11–28. Shostak, Marjorie. ... Odling-Smee, FJ, KN Laland, and MW Feldman. ...
Research Interests:
Page 1. 7 Quartär 57 (2010) : 7-24 New information on the Havelte Group site Ahrenshöft LA 58 D (Nordfriesland, Germany) - Preliminary results of the 2008 fieldwork Neue Informationen zum Fundplatz der Havelte-Gruppe Ahrenshöft LA 58 D ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Stratified Late Glacial find localities are rare on the Great North European Plain. The natural scientific dating of finds pertinent to the settlement history of this region therefore provides a good and often the only way of constructing... more
Stratified Late Glacial find localities are rare on the Great North European Plain. The natural scientific dating of finds pertinent to the settlement history of this region therefore provides a good and often the only way of constructing a substantial chronological framework for the interpretation of finds and sites, in particular as the bulk of the material derives from older excavations. The methodological refinements in radiocarbon dating over the last 50 years now allow a much more targeted sample selection as well as more precise dating. This paper presents new 14C results from the important Late Glacial sites of Borneck and Klein Nordende and uses these new dates as a basis for discussing the settlement history in the region.
Research Interests:
During late Greenland Interstadial 1 (the Allerød chronozone), southern Scandinavia witnessed an abrupt cultural transition. This period marks the end of Late Magdalenian/Final Palaeolithic Federmessergruppen in the region, and the... more
During late Greenland Interstadial 1 (the Allerød chronozone), southern Scandinavia witnessed an abrupt cultural transition. This period marks the end of Late Magdalenian/Final Palaeolithic Federmessergruppen in the region, and the beginning of the Bromme culture. The latter is characterised by a restricted territorial range, loss of bow-arrow technology, and a general reduction in material culture complexity. Different hypotheses for the origin of the Bromme culture have been put forward, variously stressing local continuity or discontinuity. Different environmental and cultural factors have been suggested to force the observed changes, but crucially their precise timing remains elusive. Here, we review competing hypotheses for this cultural transition, and evaluate them using an audited regional database of the available 14C dates. We construct a series of Bayesian calibration models using the IntCal09 calibration curve to clarify timings of cultural continuity/discontinuity, probable duration of different techno-complexes, and relationships between environmental changes and material culture transitions. Our models suggest that the Bromme culture emerged late in the Allerød, and that the Laacher See-eruption most probably forced this cultural event horizon.
Research Interests:
J. Holzkämper / I. Kretschmer / A. Maier / M. Baales / A. von Berg / J. A. A. Bos / M. Bradtmöller / K. Edinborough / S. Flohr / L. Giemsch / S. B. Grimm / J. Hilpert / A. J. Kalis / T. Kerig / D. Leesch / J. Meurers-Balke / L. Mevel / J.... more
J. Holzkämper / I. Kretschmer / A. Maier / M. Baales / A. von Berg / J. A. A. Bos / M. Bradtmöller / K. Edinborough / S. Flohr / L. Giemsch / S. B. Grimm / J. Hilpert / A. J. Kalis / T. Kerig / D. Leesch / J. Meurers-Balke / L. Mevel / J. Orschiedt / M. Otte / A. Pastoors / P. Pettitt / E. Rensink / J. Richter / F. Riede / Schmidt / Isabell / R. W. Schmitz / S. Shennan / M. Street / Y. Tafelmaier / M.-J. Weber / K. P. Wendt / G.-C. Weniger / A. Zimmermann, The Upper-Late Palaeolithic Transition in Western Central Europe. Typology, Technology, Environment and Demography. Report on the workshop held in Rösrath, 21st - 24th June 2012. Archäologische Informationen 36, 2014, in press.
Abstract: Transitions, such as the one from the Upper to Late Palaeolithic in Europe, are episodes of cultural and demographic change, which raise questions about possible causal connections between environmental changes and human behaviour. The workshop The Upper-Late Palaeolithic Transition in Western Central Europe. Typology, Technology, Environment and Demography, organised by the Collaborative Research Centre 806, focused on discussing and disentangling these aspects. Experts from seven European countries reported the current state of knowledge and recent research on typology, technology, ecology, and population dynamics during the Upper to Late Palaeolithic transition (14,700 – 13,500 calBP) in north-western Europe. The presentations concerning the methods of palaeodemography included examples from the European Palaeolithic and Neolithic.
Abstract: Transitions, such as the one from the Upper to Late Palaeolithic in Europe, are episodes of cultural and demographic change, which raise questions about possible causal connections between environmental changes and human behaviour. The workshop The Upper-Late Palaeolithic Transition in Western Central Europe. Typology, Technology, Environment and Demography, organised by the Collaborative Research Centre 806, focused on discussing and disentangling these aspects. Experts from seven European countries reported the current state of knowledge and recent research on typology, technology, ecology, and population dynamics during the Upper to Late Palaeolithic transition (14,700 – 13,500 calBP) in north-western Europe. The presentations concerning the methods of palaeodemography included examples from the European Palaeolithic and Neolithic.
Research Interests:
The exact pattern, process and timing of the human re-colonization of northern Europe after the end of the last Ice Age remain controversial. Recent research has provided increasingly early dates for at least pioneer explorations of... more
The exact pattern, process and timing of the human re-colonization of northern Europe after the end of
the last Ice Age remain controversial. Recent research has provided increasingly early dates for at least pioneer
explorations of latitudes above 54˚N in many regions, yet the far north-west of the European landmass, Scotland, has
remained an unexplained exception to this pattern. Although the recently described Hamburgian artefacts from
Howburn and an assemblage belonging to the arch-backed point complex from Kilmelfort Cave have established at
least a sporadic human presence during earlier stages of the Lateglacial Interstadial, we currently lack evidence for
Younger Dryas/Greenland Stadial 1 (GS-1) activity other than rare stray finds that have been claimed to be of
Ahrensburgian affiliation but are difficult to interpret in isolation. We here report the discovery of chipped stone
artefacts with technological and typological characteristics similar to those of the continental Ahrensburgian at a locality
in western Scotland. A preliminary analysis of associated tephra, pollen and phytoliths, along with microstratigraphic
analysis, suggest the artefacts represent one or more episodes of human activity that fall within the second half of GS-1
and the Preboreal period.
the last Ice Age remain controversial. Recent research has provided increasingly early dates for at least pioneer
explorations of latitudes above 54˚N in many regions, yet the far north-west of the European landmass, Scotland, has
remained an unexplained exception to this pattern. Although the recently described Hamburgian artefacts from
Howburn and an assemblage belonging to the arch-backed point complex from Kilmelfort Cave have established at
least a sporadic human presence during earlier stages of the Lateglacial Interstadial, we currently lack evidence for
Younger Dryas/Greenland Stadial 1 (GS-1) activity other than rare stray finds that have been claimed to be of
Ahrensburgian affiliation but are difficult to interpret in isolation. We here report the discovery of chipped stone
artefacts with technological and typological characteristics similar to those of the continental Ahrensburgian at a locality
in western Scotland. A preliminary analysis of associated tephra, pollen and phytoliths, along with microstratigraphic
analysis, suggest the artefacts represent one or more episodes of human activity that fall within the second half of GS-1
and the Preboreal period.
Research Interests: Geoarchaeology, Bayesian Models, Tephrochronology, Tephrostratigraphy, Geoarchaeology and Lithic Studies, and 5 moreGeoarchaeology and Paleoenvironmental Reconstructions, Radiocarbon Dating (Archaeology), Late Glacial Archaeology, Paleoenvironments, Tephrachronology, Hunter Gatherer Archaeology, and Ahrensburgian
TAG 2016 Session 24: Thinking through archaeology and the environmental humanities Titel: Environmental humanities: towards a field archaeology of the Anthropocene Christina Vestergaard & Felix Riede The notion of the Anthropocene in... more
TAG 2016
Session 24: Thinking through archaeology and the environmental humanities
Titel: Environmental humanities: towards a field archaeology of the Anthropocene
Christina Vestergaard & Felix Riede
The notion of the Anthropocene in which cultural and environmental histories collapse into one another, provides a focal point for the Environmental Humanities. In light of the current discussion regarding the Anthropocene, this paper explores this new geological epoch from an archaeological – and specifically a field-archaeological – point of view. The Anthropocene has been proposed as an epoch in which humans have become the dominating force shaping global geological and ecological dynamics. At present, a lively debate runs as to the very validity and the time of onset of this ‘Age of Humans’. One of the most convincing starting points is the ‘Great Acceleration’ of the gargantuan capitalism-driven rise in fossil fuel extraction and chemical signature of human activity that began around 1950. Curiously, from an archaeological dating perspective, 1950 also marks the year 0 – the present – what follows after is the future. By this token, the product of environmental and contemporary archaeologies could indeed be classified as an ‘Archaeology of the Future’. While some archaeologists already have involved themselves in the debate regarding the onset of the Anthropocene, these contributions have rarely been based on archaeological field-work. This paper presents results of archaeological fieldwork at the former lignite mining site of Søby in central Denmark specifically designed to capture the coupled geological, ecological and cultural entanglements of the Anthropocene. The Søby locale, we argue, presents a local microcosm of a potential global future of unintended consequences, economic overexploitation and humanly induced environmental catastrophe.
Session 24: Thinking through archaeology and the environmental humanities
Titel: Environmental humanities: towards a field archaeology of the Anthropocene
Christina Vestergaard & Felix Riede
The notion of the Anthropocene in which cultural and environmental histories collapse into one another, provides a focal point for the Environmental Humanities. In light of the current discussion regarding the Anthropocene, this paper explores this new geological epoch from an archaeological – and specifically a field-archaeological – point of view. The Anthropocene has been proposed as an epoch in which humans have become the dominating force shaping global geological and ecological dynamics. At present, a lively debate runs as to the very validity and the time of onset of this ‘Age of Humans’. One of the most convincing starting points is the ‘Great Acceleration’ of the gargantuan capitalism-driven rise in fossil fuel extraction and chemical signature of human activity that began around 1950. Curiously, from an archaeological dating perspective, 1950 also marks the year 0 – the present – what follows after is the future. By this token, the product of environmental and contemporary archaeologies could indeed be classified as an ‘Archaeology of the Future’. While some archaeologists already have involved themselves in the debate regarding the onset of the Anthropocene, these contributions have rarely been based on archaeological field-work. This paper presents results of archaeological fieldwork at the former lignite mining site of Søby in central Denmark specifically designed to capture the coupled geological, ecological and cultural entanglements of the Anthropocene. The Søby locale, we argue, presents a local microcosm of a potential global future of unintended consequences, economic overexploitation and humanly induced environmental catastrophe.
Research Interests:
In association with Future Earth and Berghahn Books’ series Catastrophes in Context it is our pleasure to host you at an intentionally intimate and intense symposium on the archaeological perspectives on and contribution to understanding... more
In association with Future Earth and Berghahn Books’ series
Catastrophes in Context it is our pleasure to host you at an
intentionally intimate and intense symposium on the archaeological
perspectives on and contribution to understanding
calamities and their cultural aftermaths, to be held at Aarhus
University’s Moesgård Museum just outside Aarhus in Denmark
(see www.moesgaardmuseum.dk/en) and the university’s central
city campus on October 10-12, 2018, that is, just before the
UN’s International Day for Disaster Reduction on Oct 13.
We have carefully selected leading and emerging scholars
concerned with the impacts, responses and consequences of
climate change, extreme environmental events, earthquakes,
eruptions or the like on past societies globally and with widely
differing social and economic constellations. This conference is
part of a larger grant by the Danish Council for Independent
Research, which supports the Laboratory for Past Disaster
Science (projects.au.dk/lapadis/).
Catastrophes in Context it is our pleasure to host you at an
intentionally intimate and intense symposium on the archaeological
perspectives on and contribution to understanding
calamities and their cultural aftermaths, to be held at Aarhus
University’s Moesgård Museum just outside Aarhus in Denmark
(see www.moesgaardmuseum.dk/en) and the university’s central
city campus on October 10-12, 2018, that is, just before the
UN’s International Day for Disaster Reduction on Oct 13.
We have carefully selected leading and emerging scholars
concerned with the impacts, responses and consequences of
climate change, extreme environmental events, earthquakes,
eruptions or the like on past societies globally and with widely
differing social and economic constellations. This conference is
part of a larger grant by the Danish Council for Independent
Research, which supports the Laboratory for Past Disaster
Science (projects.au.dk/lapadis/).
Research Interests:
Based on archaeological and anthropological data on the socio-political effects of two historically distant extreme occurrences in nature, we explore how certain types of events unsettle progressive chronology to the extent of... more
Based on archaeological and anthropological data on the socio-political effects of two historically distant extreme occurrences in nature, we explore how certain types of events unsettle progressive chronology to the extent of establishing periodic intervals of circular and repetitive temporality; ‘islands of time’. The article is built around a comparison of the socio-temporal repercussions of two extreme natural events: the El Niño-related flooding that hit southern Mozambique early in 2000 CE and the Thera eruption on Crete around 1600 BCE. Using the former as a ‘transtemporal hinge’ for connecting otherwise disparate temporal occurrences, we show how event episodes like the Mozambique floods and the Thera eruption twist free from the hold of linearity by continuously ‘looping’ time around themselves and thereby (re)actualising their own conditions of existence. In our analysis, the empirical point of contact between the two cases is architecture and how negotiations of the built environment reflect temporal looping.
Research Interests:
Archaeology, we often claim, studies past humans, their actions, and interrelations. Yet, we excavate and describe static material remains of these past humans and at best crystallisations their actions-artefacts and features-that we... more
Archaeology, we often claim, studies past humans, their actions, and interrelations. Yet, we excavate and describe static material remains of these past humans and at best crystallisations their actions-artefacts and features-that we interpret by comparing them with other findings and by invoking ethnographic analogies. Our underlying views, ideas and concepts of the past very much shape what we make of the available archaeological information. Because our imaginations of past life weight in so heavily on our archaeological interpretations and because the evidence is often sparse, poorly dated and highly fragmented, a reflexive approach is especially important in early periods such as the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic, yet the sensitivity and awareness of underlying paradigms is better developed and more openly discussed in later prehistoric or historical periods. In order to make our science more reflective, we aim to discuss the following set of questions (open to expansion): • How do we get from archaeological remains to people? Do we even get to people or rather talk about anonymous social formations? • What concepts and theories do we use? How might received Palaeolithic/Mesolithic cultural taxonomies reflect recent political or other processes that have little to do with prehistoric reality? And do such received vocabularies structure our interpretations? • Are we in need of a more thorough and critical history of science for European Palaeolithic and Mesolithic archaeology? • How to develop and install new concepts across different domains and fields of research? • Is it useful to draw more explicitly on philosophy of science, STS and the emerging field of interdisciplinary science studies? • Is the borrowing of ideas and concepts from other disciplines and discursive contexts still useful and appropriate to answer big and long-standing question? What are the dangers of this practice and how self-determined does Palaeolithic and Mesolithic research need to be?
Research Interests:
Review of: Gillings, M., Hacıgüzeller, P. & Lock, G. (eds) (2019). Re-Mapping Archaeology. Critical Perspectives, Alternative Mappings. London: Routledge. 324pp, 14 chapters, 76 figures, 27 full-colour pages. ISBN 978-1-138-57713-8 (hbk);... more
Review of: Gillings, M., Hacıgüzeller, P. & Lock, G. (eds) (2019). Re-Mapping Archaeology. Critical Perspectives, Alternative Mappings. London: Routledge. 324pp, 14 chapters, 76 figures, 27 full-colour pages. ISBN 978-1-138-57713-8 (hbk); 978-1-351-26772-4 (ebk).
Research Interests:
https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/weathered-history/hwJiMeBlg6zDLg The online exhibition "Weathered History" of the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO) visualises climate history for the first... more
https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/weathered-history/hwJiMeBlg6zDLg
The online exhibition "Weathered History" of the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO) visualises climate history for the first time using objects from 12,000 years of human history. On display are diverse testimonies from a wide range of countries, from cave paintings to sometimes curious technical inventions such as the 'dandy horse' and weather reports on cigarette packets from Hong Kong. The exhibition, which is available in German and English, was realised in cooperation with the CRIAS working group of the international research network Past Global Changes (PAGES).
Humans have always been confronted with changing environmental conditions and climate changes. Extreme weather events such as droughts, floods and storms or natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions often brought destruction and death. They imprinted themselves on the memory of the survivors and left more or less visible traces in art, science and everyday life. The exhibition "Weathered History" follows some of these traces. Some objects may be surprising witnesses to the memory of weather catastrophes; but they also show how skilfully historical societies adapted to climate changes. The selection of objects is global, but there are remarkable pieces from the German-speaking countries in particular: The oldest drinkable wine in the world, which owes its creation to a millennial summer; a miniature horn made of clay for protection against thunderstorms from Martin Luther's childhood home or the bell that inspired Friedrich Schiller to write his famous poem of the same name.
The online exhibition was curated by GWZO staff members Diana Lucia Feitsch and Dr Martin Bauch, who leads the VW Foundation-funded Freigeist Junior Research Group "The Dantean Anomaly (1309-1321)" at the Institute. The team examines rapid climate change at the beginning of the 14th century and its effects on late medieval Europe. "What is unique about the exhibition is that no one ever tried to present a history of climate change with objects. Every researcher knows the one or the other object, but they have never been brought together. We tried to do that in a selection. I think we have successfully assembled the collective knowledge of a large professional community from the humanities and natural sciences“, says Martin Bauch. The greatest difficulty in realizing the exhibition was the current tense global pandemic situation. "It has been a challenge to clarify publication rights from around the world and get images with a decent resolution in these pandemic times," Diana Lucia Feitsch says, "with archives and libraries closed or hardly available for requests."
On the GWZO's YouTube channel, the two curators provide a more detailed insight into the exhibition "Weathered History", which can now be visited online. For example, they explain their motives for creating this exhibition and present their personal favourite piece. The interview is the first episode of the new in-house GWZO video series "Ostblick", which allows insights into the work at the GWZO even under pandemic conditions. | https://youtu.be/lnjQroBDZtM
The online exhibition "Weathered History" of the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO) visualises climate history for the first time using objects from 12,000 years of human history. On display are diverse testimonies from a wide range of countries, from cave paintings to sometimes curious technical inventions such as the 'dandy horse' and weather reports on cigarette packets from Hong Kong. The exhibition, which is available in German and English, was realised in cooperation with the CRIAS working group of the international research network Past Global Changes (PAGES).
Humans have always been confronted with changing environmental conditions and climate changes. Extreme weather events such as droughts, floods and storms or natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions often brought destruction and death. They imprinted themselves on the memory of the survivors and left more or less visible traces in art, science and everyday life. The exhibition "Weathered History" follows some of these traces. Some objects may be surprising witnesses to the memory of weather catastrophes; but they also show how skilfully historical societies adapted to climate changes. The selection of objects is global, but there are remarkable pieces from the German-speaking countries in particular: The oldest drinkable wine in the world, which owes its creation to a millennial summer; a miniature horn made of clay for protection against thunderstorms from Martin Luther's childhood home or the bell that inspired Friedrich Schiller to write his famous poem of the same name.
The online exhibition was curated by GWZO staff members Diana Lucia Feitsch and Dr Martin Bauch, who leads the VW Foundation-funded Freigeist Junior Research Group "The Dantean Anomaly (1309-1321)" at the Institute. The team examines rapid climate change at the beginning of the 14th century and its effects on late medieval Europe. "What is unique about the exhibition is that no one ever tried to present a history of climate change with objects. Every researcher knows the one or the other object, but they have never been brought together. We tried to do that in a selection. I think we have successfully assembled the collective knowledge of a large professional community from the humanities and natural sciences“, says Martin Bauch. The greatest difficulty in realizing the exhibition was the current tense global pandemic situation. "It has been a challenge to clarify publication rights from around the world and get images with a decent resolution in these pandemic times," Diana Lucia Feitsch says, "with archives and libraries closed or hardly available for requests."
On the GWZO's YouTube channel, the two curators provide a more detailed insight into the exhibition "Weathered History", which can now be visited online. For example, they explain their motives for creating this exhibition and present their personal favourite piece. The interview is the first episode of the new in-house GWZO video series "Ostblick", which allows insights into the work at the GWZO even under pandemic conditions. | https://youtu.be/lnjQroBDZtM