Archaeobotanical and geoarchaeological investigations of changing economic systems and environmental conditions at prehistoric settlements in the river landscape of the middle Lahn valley (Gemeinde Weimar, Lkr. Marburg-Biedenkopf)

本研究项目的目的是以魏玛(Lahn)周围的Lahn河谷史前聚落为例，研究黑森低山地区中石器时代和中世纪之间史前农业系统和环境条件的特点和变化。为此，根据考古发现汇编了一个广泛的数据集，其中包括大约71000种植物学分类的栽培和野生植物的遗骸。正在对这些数据进行的评估已经提供了关于新石器时代、青铜时代和中世纪拉恩河谷聚落阶段的农业和作物种植的结果。该项目的这一部分将随着哈尔斯塔特和拉廷时期的成果而结束。随后历时比较的目标是调查栽培植物和农业方法的使用变化以及增加土地利用对植被复盖发展的影响。关于Lahn和Allna谷底定居区的特殊位置是否决定或影响了定居点的农业这一问题，出于方法上的原因，调查达到了极限。拉恩河谷的史前聚落，就像大部分相关的农业区一样，受制于当地水道不断变化的河流动态。这些可能对农业和畜牧业以及定居点的发展产生了重大的直接或间接影响。然而，在魏玛(拉恩)周围的研究区域，这些影响仍未被探索。因此，我打算通过地质考古调查来补充和推广农业发展的成果。对沉积物和考古聚落地层的地学分析是了解自然对过去经济和聚落地区的影响以及人为环境变化并更好地评估其意义的重要起点。扩大科学项目的基础是对考古和科学数据的独特收集，自1991年开始考古发掘以来，黑森州考古局的工作人员以及申请人收集了这些数据。继续提案的目的是评价关于山谷地质结构以及河流和洪水动态的现有发现，并将其与关于史前和早期农业系统和环境条件变化的考古植物学结果联系起来。

The aim of the current research project is to obtain results on the characteristics and change of prehistoric agricultural systems and environmental conditions between the Mesolithic and Middle Ages in the Hessian low mountain region using the example of prehistoric settlements in the Lahn valley around Weimar (Lahn). For this purpose, an extensive data set comprising remains of about 71000 botanically classified cultivated and wild plants was compiled from archaeological findings.The ongoing evaluation of these data already provides results on agriculture and crop cultivation in the Neolithic, Bronze Age and Medieval settlement phases in the Lahn Valley. This section of the project will come to an end with the results of the Hallstatt and Latène periods. The investigation of changes in the use of cultivated plants and agricultural methods and the effects of increasing land use on the development of vegetation cover are objectives of the subsequent diachronic comparison. Regarding the question of whether the special location of the settlement area in the valley floor of Lahn and Allna determined or influenced the agriculture of the settlements, the investigation reaches its limits for methodological reasons. The prehistoric settlements in the Lahn Valley, just as large parts of the associated agricultural areas, were at the mercy of the changing river dynamics of the local watercourses. These may have had a significant direct or indirect influence on agriculture and livestock farming, as well as on settlement development. However, in the study area around Weimar (Lahn) these influences are still unexplored. Therefore, I intend to supplement and extend the results on agricultural development by geoarchaeological investigations. The geoscientific analysis of sediments and archaeological settlement strata is an important starting point for understanding natural influences on past economic and settlement areas, as well as anthropogenic environmental changes, and for better assessing their significance. The basis for the expansion of the scientific project is the unique collection of archaeological and scientific data which has been collected since the beginning of the archaeological excavations in 1991 by staff members of the State Archaeological Service of Hesse as well as by the applicant. The aim of the continuation proposal is to evaluate the existing findings regarding the geological structure of the valley and the river and flood dynamics and to link them to archaeobotanical results on the changes in prehistoric and early agricultural systems and environmental conditions.