Prehistoric Man-Environment Relationships in the Gypsum Karst of the Windsheimer Bucht, Northern Bavaria. Dolines as Archives for Settlement and Landscape History

弗兰科尼亚西部石膏岩溶地区的陷坑作为一个独立的考古遗迹类别，仅在几十年前才成为德国南部史前研究的焦点。Windsheimer Bucht的“Dolinenbefunde”（来自dolines的考古发现）提供了对该地区定居历史的独特见解。在史前时期，不同形成和充填阶段的喀斯特洼地被人类反复光顾，但它们在空间利用背景下的功能迄今尚未得到详细的研究。本研究项目的总体目标是以跨学科的方法重建旧石器时代晚期至金属时代晚期Windsheimer Bucht聚落地区的人与环境关系。根据目前的观点，吉普斯凯普景观，迄今为止一直被认为是不适合定居的，它位于法国黄土地区古代定居区的边缘，只是暂时的定居。该项目打算调查人类活动的影响和土地利用及其与自然环境变化的关系，这可以从地层推断出来。这样就可以得到不同史前时期景观发展和聚落历史的模型概念。另一个重要目标是在土地使用和环境发展的框架内调查自然和人为引起的沉积过程。调查区域的空间概念包括三个相互连接的景观隔间：Marktbergel附近的石膏岩溶的天坑；附近的山坡和山顶提供了大量的考古发现，以及溪流山谷和盆地。拟建项目包括一个考古单元、一个土壤地理单元和一个考古-土壤地理单元。考古部分的目的是在工作区域遗址的基础上重建Windsheimer Bucht石膏岩溶景观的历时性聚落和土地利用，并通过解释石灰线的各自功能。此外，重点是重建人类影响发生前的自然条件，以及评估人类引起的土壤和景观变化。作为我们跨学科方法的主要成果，重建了可验证的古地形图像，并将其与史前土地利用联系起来。在巴伐利亚北部，我们第一次打算将5000多年的占领和定居中断序列与环境变化的历史联系起来。

The sinkholes of the gypsum karst areas of western Franconia came into the focus of prehistoric research in Southern Germany as an independent category of archaeological monuments only a few decades ago. The well documented so-called „Dolinenbefunde“ (archaeological finds from dolines) of the Windsheimer Bucht provide exceptional insights into the settlement history of the region. Karst depressions in various stages of formation and infilling were repeatedly frequented by man in prehistoric times, however their function in the context of space utilisation could so far not be investigated in detail. The overall objective of this research project is to reconstruct the man-environment relationships in the settlement area of the Windsheimer Bucht from the Late Palaeolithic to the later Metal Ages in an interdisciplinary approach. According to the current opinion the Gipskeuper landscape, which has hitherto been regarded as unfavourable for settlement and which is located on the margin of the ancient settlement area of the Franconian loess areas, was settled only temporarily. The project intends to investigate anthropogenic impact and land-use and its relation to natural environmental changes, as can be inferred from the stratigraphies of dolines. In this way, model concepts of landscape development and settlement history shall be obtained for different prehistoric periods. Another essential objective is the investigation of the natural and human-induced sedimentation processes of the dolines in the frame of land-use and environmental developments. The spatial concept of the investigation area encompasses three interconnected landscape compartments: the sinkholes of the gypsum karst near Marktbergel; nearby slopes and hilltops that provide extensive archaeological findings as well as stream valleys and basins. The intended project comprises an archaeological, a soil geographical, and a joint archaeological – soil geographical unit. The aim of the archaeological part is to reconstruct the diachronic settlement and land-use of the gypsum karst landscape of the Windsheimer Bucht on the basis of the sites in the working area as well as by interpreting the respective function of the dolines. Furthermore, the focus is placed on the reconstruction of the natural conditions before human impact took place, as well as on the assessment of human induced soil and landscape changes. As a major outcome of our interdisciplinary approach, verifiable pictures of the palaeotopography are reconstructed and related to the prehistoric land-use. For the first time in Northern Bavaria, we intend to relate a more than 5000-year sequence of occupation and settlement discontinuity to the history of environmental change.