Johann Friedrich Tolksdorf

Environmental on‐site records covering the late La Tène culture in the late 2nd century BC and early 1st century AD are rare in southern Germany. On a local level such records could help to address the question if and when a settlement gap occurred in southern Germany between the late La Tène culture in the late 1st century BC and the onset of Roman colonisation in the late 1st century AD. Various scenarios have been proposed, ranging from complete depopulation of some areas to the collapse of primarily larger settlements accompanied by only a partial decline of land‐use intensity, up to a settlement continuity that remains obscured by taphonomic filters and insufficient typochronological resolution. Precisely dated environmental on‐site records covering the beginning of this time period therefore provide crucial evidence. Here, we present a multi‐proxy analysis (macrobotanical remains, palynology, archaeozoology and entomology) of the sediments within a wooden well structure built after 133 BC in the highly fertile Nördlinger Ries area, Bavaria. The initial record reflects nearby settlement activities, including husbandry and agriculture. A secondary use of the structure for processing of nettle is likely. The upper infill layers provide a pollen sequence that shows a rapid decline of taxa related to human activity, accompanied by species indicative of ecological succession on abandoned patches of land. We conclude that settlement activities in this region declined drastically during the 1st century BC. Our results support the hypothesis of regional depopulation in southern Germany prior to the establishment of the Roman province of Raetia.

Death is a timeless, inevitable fact of human biology and the only explanation for the absence of burials from a distinct archaeological time period is therefore most likely caused by a low visibility due to the burial mode in combination with taphonomic processes. In respect of the favourable soils and the archaeological record piled up by decades of research, the absence of burials from the second half of the 4th millennium BC in the Nördlinger Ries area is remarkable but in line with the general scarce burial evidence from this time period in Southern Germany. Here we present a group of trapezoid structures discovered in the alluvial plain of the Eger valley near Nördlingen. Based on cremated human bones found in one of these structures we suggest the structures to have been collective burial chambers. Both the function and layout strongly resemble comparable grave chambers in Southwest Germany and may indicate that the Ries area was part of a wider tradition of non-megalithic burial structures.

The archaeological record for the Altheim culture (approx. 38th -35th century BC) in SW Germany is highly biased. While a small number of waterlogged sites have provided material for very detailed analyses of settlement activities and economy within this environmental setting, evidence for settlement activities outside these specific topographic situations is extremely sparse. The same applies to burial features that have been identified from eight sites which are predominantly isolated burials that have not revealed any clear modus concerning orientation, grave goods or spatial organization. Here we present results from a site situated in the Nördlinger Ries (Bavaria) that has yielded a total of eight burials of this culture together with a small number of contemporary settlement features including the rare example of a well. Our results corroborate the absence of any strict orientation or a defined set of grave goods in this culture and no spatial organization of the burials could be observed.

Tin is an essential raw material both for the copper–tin alloys developed during the Early Bronze Age and for the casting of tableware in the Medieval period. Secondary geological deposits in the form of placers (cassiterite) provide easily accessible sources but have often been reworked several times during land‐use history. In fact, evidence for the earliest phase of tin mining during the Bronze Age has not yet been confirmed for any area in Europe, stimulating an ongoing debate on this issue. For this study, a broad range of methods (sedimentology, pedology, palynology, anthracology, OSL/14C‐dating, and micromorphology) was applied both within the extraction zone of placer mining and the downstream alluvial sediments at Schellerhau site in the upper eastern Erzgebirge (Germany). The results indicate that the earliest local removal of topsoil and processing of cassiterite‐bearing weathered granite occurred already in the early second millennium BC, thus coinciding with the early and middle Bronze Age period. Placer mining resumed in this area during the Medieval period, probably as early as the 13th century AD. A peak of alluvial sedimentation during the mid‐15th century AD is probably related to the acquisition of this region by the Elector of Saxony and the subsequent promotion of mining.

Knowledge of historic changes in vegetation, relief, and soil is key in understanding how the uplands in central Europe have changed during the last millennium, being an essential requirement for measures on forest conversion and nature conservation in that area. Evidence of forest‐clearing horizons from the medieval period could be systematically documented at four low‐ to mid‐altitudinal sites (360–640 meters above mean sea level) in the Harz (Harz Mountains), Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains), and Českomoravská vrchovina (Bohemian‐Moravian Highlands). Subfossil trees with traces of human cutmarks and burning were recovered from buried wet‐organic soils (paleosols) within a context of mining and settlement archaeology, applying a multiproxy‐approach by using data from archaeology, paleobotany, geochronology, dendrochronology, and pedology. Tree stumps and trunks, as well as small‐scale wood remains represent an in situ record of local conifer stands (spruce, fir, and pine). Some deciduous tree taxa also occur. Dating of the tree remains yielded ages from the 10th/11th to the 13th/14th centuries A.D. After deforestation, the tree remains were buried by technogenic and alluvial–colluvial deposits. The reconstructed conifer‐dominated woodlands on wet soils mirror the local vegetation structure immediately before the medieval deforestation. As such wet sites are common in the uplands, conifers were significantly present in the natural vegetation even at mid and lower altitudes.

Only very view well features dating to the late 3rd millenium BC have been discovered so far from Central Germany. Here we present the results of palaeobotanical, sedimentological and archaeological analyses performed on three small well features from the Roitzschjora site. Our results prove that these group of features could serve as valuable palaeoenvironmental on-site records in spite of their poor preservation and small extent. The may espacially contribute to our general understanding of water management in comparatively dry environments and a more realistic assessment of the vulnerablity of these societies to small-scaled hydrological changes.

Bioturbation and intrusive ecofacts are major concerns for the analysis of archaeological sites in wetland environments. Post-sedimentary influence of beavers (Castor fiber) is described for a well dated Late Palaeolithic archaeological record situated in a floodplain in Northern Germany. An extensive burrow system was documented and analysed according to its spatial dimensions and sedimentological properties; it was interpreted to be the result of beaver activity. Palynological analyses proved a Mid-Holocene origin of the infill material and helped in understanding the history of site formation. In addition, a pointed piece of wood was examined and identified as ecofact, which had been gnawed by a small rodent, possibly Arvicola amphibius (water vole). Our study thus illustrates the potential complexity of post-sedimentary site-alteration, describes the sub-surface morphology of a burrow system in a wetland context and documents risks for erroneous archaeological interpretation.

This contribution presents about 30 painted pebbles from Le Mas d’Azil which have been recently detected in the Staatliches Museum für Archäologie à Chemnitz (Germany). This study retraces the history of these pieces since their discovery at the site and demonstrates that they have been directly donated, in 1899, by the excavator Édouard Piette to the royal collection of prehistory at Dresden. The identification of their origin makes it unlikely that they represent forgeries and offer an important addendum to the existing inventory of these emblematic pieces of French prehistory.