Differentiation of Agriculture und Environment as Basis of Early Monumentality in the Northern German Neolithic

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Agriculture and landscape are of central importance for understanding the phenomenon of the Neolithic Funnel Beaker Culture and the associated monumentality. In the frame of the priority programme "Early Monumentality and Social Differentiation" the archaeobotanical and palaeo-environmental analyses aim for evaluating the supply and use of natural resources, and to identify principles of agrarian economy. The conclusions will be compared to results of earlier and younger archaeological periods but also to contemporary groups in differing landscapes. Palaeo-ecological methods (palynology, sediment analyses, tephrochronology, analyses of macro-remains of wild and cultivated plants) are applied to reconstruct economic and environmental conditions in different temporal and spatial resolution (on-site and off-site studies). As a central project, the investigations will deal with sampies from different areas and excavations applying the same methods all over. By this strategy the micro-scale analyses of a single grave or settlement will result in a meso-scale compilation for a region and in a macro-scale interpretation for the area of the Northern German Funnelbeaker societies. Beside new information also already available data will be compiled in a central database. In the frame of this approach new dating and re-sampling of pollen records and of macro-remain sam pies is envisaged.