Population density, communication structures and areas of tradition of Funnel Beakter societies

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During the 4th millennium BC in northern Central Europe, social changes took place leading to the erection of monumental architecture. By the analysis of archaeological objects and architecture on a high scale level, these complex sceneries are investigated. The aim is to model demographic processes, the consistence of communication structures, and areas of tradition between continuity and change. The detailed analysis of the architecture of megalithic graves is based on the processing of single architectural features. The diversity in the combination of single features shows regional differences and spatial patterns. The biography of monuments contains their erection, modifications in construction, changes in their function, and more generally, the process of alterations of funeral and burial rites. The crucial question of the Frankfurt working group is how far the megalithic architecture indicates cultural and social traditions and the nature of social structures of neolithic societies. Standardized data collections, especially of ceramic and stone artifacts, allow the comparability of objects in time and space. Thereby spatial patterns suitable for the reconstruction of statics and dynamics of communication structures and areas of tradition can be discovered. The Kiel working group is using cultural differences as an indicator for communication structures, analyzing them by comparing typological differences in the inventories of megalithic and nonmegalithic graves, settlements, and earthworks on different spatial scales (local, regional, and supra-regional). In the first part of the project, a broad database of inventories from megalithic and flat graves, as well as from settlements, could be collected. In the second part of the project, this database is used to establish a fine chronology for the material and to analyze communication structures within hundred-year time slices. The main issues in this work are analyzing communication groups and networks, plus their characterization concerning centrality and heterogeneity. The working group in Cologne focuses, from a pan-European perspective, on the size of the group burying collectively, the maximum group size (in proportion to the size and catchment area of enclosures) and the social stratification of the corresponding group. Past observations point to an inverse proportional relationship between the number of people buried collectively and the social stratification of the corresponding group. Monumental tombs are especially labour intensive when erected for a single individual, whereas one might suppose that, in case of collective burials, the incoming workload is lower in proportion to the corresponding number of deceased. Considering the early monumental tombs in Europe, there is often a phase in which the single deceased is emphasized. This phase is often followed by a stage with collective burials, in which the community seems to have been important. For such a stage, the Neolithic settlement structures in South-West Germany and Switzerland (where collective burials have also been excavated) are exemplary. The main goal of this project is to investigate whether, by means of comparison, variables are recognizable which stimulate cyclicality and path dependency in one direction or another.