Address: Chair of Prehistory and Early History, Institute of History, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, D-93053 Regensburg, Germany ORCID 0000-0003-0834-5567
Enclosed rectangular farmsteads from the Hallstatt period in Central Europe are often cast as the... more Enclosed rectangular farmsteads from the Hallstatt period in Central Europe are often cast as the seats of high-status farmers, whose land and social standing could be inherited and consolidated. Excavations at Landshut-Hascherkeller in Bavaria reveal the developmental trajectory of one such site through the stratigraphic disentanglement of its numerous ditches. Here, the authors argue that the coalescence of two rectangular farmsteads into a larger settlement complex at Hascherkeller reflects the union of neighbouring families and the resultant massing of status. The article situates this process in a segmented social system that counterpoints the typified Hallstatt hierarchy, suggesting that two social structures coexisted in the Hallstatt culture.
In the occasionally lively debate about the social structure of the Central European Early Iron A... more In the occasionally lively debate about the social structure of the Central European Early Iron Age, the Herrenhof as the presumed seat of a high-status farmer now also plays a role. A rectangular farmstead of this type is the famous Hascherkeller site on the northern outskirts of Landshut. The first magnetic prospection ever conducted at such an archaeological structure was carried out here in 1978. The site became widely known for its distinctive complex appearance and the excavations undertaken there between 1978 and 1981 by Peter S. Wells, then assistant curator of European archaeology at the Peabody Museum of Harvard University.
After four decades, an opportunity arose to resume excavations in areas not explored at the time and bring them to a conclusion. The most important result of the recent field work, which was completed in 2022, is the stratigraphic disentanglement of the numerous ditches. The loess terrace, most likely, was initially divided by a ditch running across the terrain. This separating landscape feature may have been contemporaneous with the palisaded farmstead on the eastern edge of the study area. Later, the two rectangular ditched enclosures were constructed, probably the eastern one first. In another, more recent phase, they were joined together by connecting ditches to form a larger settlement complex. Already during the investigation, it was revealed that the middle one of the once assumed three rectangular farmsteads had never existed.
In addition, about 200 m further to the southwest, a similar double enclosure was discovered. Here, too, two rectangular enclosures were apparently joined by connecting ditches to form a larger settlement area in a more recent phase. About 5 km to the northeast, in the area of the hamlet Holzen not far from Altheim, a group of unconnected rectangular farmsteads dating from the Hallstatt period has recently been magnetically surveyed. These are characterized by a larger number of long, narrow pits indicating former house sites.
The following remarks focus on the latest excavation results and the role of the type of habitation known as Herrenhof in the Early Iron Age settlement system.
Das archäologische Jahr in Bayern 2023, 2024, 36–38.
Vor einem Jahrhundert waren aus Bayern drei neolithi sche Erdwerke bekannt: Altheim (entdeckt 191... more Vor einem Jahrhundert waren aus Bayern drei neolithi sche Erdwerke bekannt: Altheim (entdeckt 1911), Wallersdorf (1915) und Kothingeichendorf (1919). Sie boten bereits einen guten Eindruck von der vielfältigen Welt jungsteinzeitlicher Grabenwerke. In zeitlicher Hinsicht repräsentierten sie die Epochen des Alt-, Mittel-und Jung neolithikums. Unter formalen Gesichtspunkten handelte es sich sowohl um Einzelanlagen als auch um einen Erd werkskomplex. Außerdem zeigten die drei Anlagen ein unterschiedliches räumliches Verhältnis zu zeitgleichen Siedlungen. Im letzten Drittel des 20. Jahrhunderts stieg die An zahl bekannter Grabenwerke deutlich an. Die Luftbild archäologie hatte daran einen wesentlichen Anteil. In den mittelneolithischen Rondellen, den rechteckigen Altheimer Erdwerken oder den Chamer Kreisgraben anlagen wurden epochenspezifische Typen erkannt. Regelmäßige räumliche Verteilungsmuster sind für das Mittelneolithikum oder die Chamer Kultur belegt. Mittlerweile sind aus Bayern etwa 200 Erdwerke der Jungsteinzeit bekannt, zumeist aber nur ausschnitthaft. Hinsichtlich der Interpretation des Erdwerk-Phä nomens herrschte zunächst Klarheit. Entsprechend berichtete Friedrich Wagner 1928 im zweiten Band der Zeitschrift Antiquity über "Prehistoric Fortifications in Bavaria". Einen Umschwung der vorherrschenden An sichten leiteten 1962 Rudolf Albert Maiers "Fragen zu neolithischen Erdwerken Südbayerns" ein. In der Folge zeit wurden vorwiegend weltanschaulich-religiöse und sozial-ökonomische Zweckbestimmungen diskutiert sowie die Nachnutzung älterer Erdwerke und ihr mögli cher Funktionswandel erwogen.
Gemeinschaftlich errichtete Grabenwerke gab es an der Pfatter zwischen Mangolding und Mintraching... more Gemeinschaftlich errichtete Grabenwerke gab es an der Pfatter zwischen Mangolding und Mintraching im Laufe des Neolithikums mehrfach. Bei der archäologischen Spurensuche geben Ausgrabungen, Magnetometerprospektionen, Keramik- und Knochenfunde Aufschluss.
The lithic artefacts from Altheim, being regarded as essential for the interpretation of the site... more The lithic artefacts from Altheim, being regarded as essential for the interpretation of the site, have for a very long time attracted attention. Here we concentrate on the discoveries made during the excavation of sections of ditches in 2013-2020. Certain earlier observations were confirmed by the latest excavations, namely the high proportion of arrowheads among the flaked stone tools. A large number of the arrowheads were burnt. Many of them have broken tips, and all the analysed arrowheads with broken tips bear diagnostic impact fractures: stepterminating bending fractures or spin-off fractures specifically in the shape of small fractures on the edge between one surface of the arrowhead and the surface of the fracture of the tip. These suggest an angle of impact of the arrow into a hard surface of about 60°-70°. Broken and burnt arrowheads were found in the solid context of the structures. The context suggest that these arrowheads can be connected with conflict.
The paper focuses on observations of Late Bronze Age salt production at Tyrawa Solna in southeast... more The paper focuses on observations of Late Bronze Age salt production at Tyrawa Solna in southeastern Poland. The discoveries of the evaporation and combustion of brine by means of briquetage from the San area in the Eastern Beskids are put into relation with the current state of knowledge on contemporaneous salt production and the salt trade at this time beyond the ancient world. Furthermore, aspects of social and economic conditions in the first centuries of the last millennium BC relevant to the topic are considered.
Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 33, 2024, 49–61.
Recent archaeological excavations at two Early Neolithic settlements at Kamyane-Zavallia (Ukraine... more Recent archaeological excavations at two Early Neolithic settlements at Kamyane-Zavallia (Ukraine) and Nicolaevca V (Moldova) have provided new plant assemblages. The sites belong to the Linearbandkeramik culture (LBK) and represent its easternmost settlements. In these regions, charred plant macro-remains are still very rarely sampled for and investigated, so these results may shed light on the plant-based economy of the first farmers of this area. Both sites are located in the area of loess soils, in the border zone between deciduous woodland, woodland steppe and steppe. A dominance of Triticum monococcum (einkorn) was evident at both sites, preserved both as grains and chaff (spikelet bases and glume base). Other cereals, including cf. T. dicoccum (emmer), cf. T. timopheevii and Hordeum vulgare (barley) were less frequent. Among wild herbaceous plants, ruderal and segetal communities were represented by species commonly found at LBK sites, including Chenopodium album type, Fallopia convolvulus, Echinochloa crus-galli and Lapsana communis. The majority of these plants are edible and it is also likely that they were used as food. At both sites, remains of awns of Stipa sp. (feather grass) were found, which indicate the existence of grasslands and/or open woodlands in the vicinity. The charcoal assemblages were dominated by a few taxa, such as Fraxinus sp., Quercus sp. and Cornus sp., suggesting that there were some wooded steppe and deciduous forests. Selected plant macro-remains were radiocarbon dated and the results show that they are from ca. 5200−5000 cal BC. From the same archaeobotanical samples, snails were analysed and the resulting malacofauna shows a dominance of open-country snails as well as those which might indicate local agricultural practices at both settlements.
Vorträge des Niederbayerischen Archäologentages 40, 2023, 219–242.
Er ist zwar nicht der eponyme Fundort, dennoch gilt er neben dem Goldberg und dem Kyberg bei Ober... more Er ist zwar nicht der eponyme Fundort, dennoch gilt er neben dem Goldberg und dem Kyberg bei Oberhaching als Urtypus eines hallstattzeitlichen Herrenhofs: Landshut-Hascherkeller. Rainer christlein, der das Bodendenkmal bereits 1977 aus der Luft entdeckt hatte, machte es mit seiner bespielhaften Definition von hallstattzeitlichen Herrenhöfen bekannt 1. Aber auch die seinerzeit noch jungen Erkundungsmethoden der geo physikalischen Prospektion sowie der Luftbildarchäologie wurden in Landshut-Hascherkeller erfolgreich angewandt 2. Der Bau des Parkplatzes am Landshuter Nordfriedhof machte es 1978 notwendig, den Westteil des Komplexes zu untersuchen. Fast zeitgleich fanden Ausgrabungen im Baugebiet an der Kellerbergstraße statt. Zwischen 2019 und 2022 wurde der dazwischenliegende Bereich archäo logisch untersucht. Mittlerweile steht dort die Waldorfschule Landshut.
The paper treats a selection of lithic finds from Kamyane-zavallia (Kam'âne-zavallâ)-the easternm... more The paper treats a selection of lithic finds from Kamyane-zavallia (Kam'âne-zavallâ)-the easternmost Linearbandkeramik culture (LBK) site ever excavated. The lithic assemblage belongs to typical representatives of the early farming lithic industries in the region. It is characterized by prismatic cores for blade production, end-scrapers on fragmented blades and flakes, retouched blades, perforators, and a blade fragment with "sickle gloss". There is a single projectile point of unidentifiable morphology. The authors argue that there is no trace of "Mesolithic heritage" in the assemblage of Kamyane-zavallia. The assemblage finds close parallels in the sites of nicolaevca V, Dănceni I, and other LBK sites from Moldova and Romania.
In: Seven Millennia of Saltmaking. 3rd International Congress on the Anthropology of Salt, Gesaltza Añana / Salinas de Añana. Colección Valle Salado de Añana 3 (2022) 252–253.
The aim of the article is to characterize the early Neolithic settlement region of Targowisko in ... more The aim of the article is to characterize the early Neolithic settlement region of Targowisko in SE Poland. It is located on the northern edge of the Western Carpathians, 30 km east of Krakow. It functioned during the development of the entire Linear Pottery culture (LBK) and the subsequent Malice culture (MC), in the period from 5300 to 4500 BC. The focus was on the cultural transformation at the turn of the 6th to the 5th millennium BC. Cases of decisive cultural change (e. g. forms and ornamentation of ceramics, dwellings construction, directions of the supply of stone materials, the organization of inhabited space) and cases of continuity (elements of ceramics technology and flint production, continuation of settlement processes and subsistence strategy) were recorded. Cultural change is best represented by the symbolic realm and continuity in the utilitarian realm. These processes were projected onto a reconstructed, dynamic picture of environmental changes recorded in the palynological and geochemical material. Impulses from various cultural environments contributed to the formation of the MC, which proves its heterogeneous character and the complicated course of its genesis.
In: M. Dębiec, J. Górski, J. Müller, M. Nowak, A. Pelisiak, T. Saile, P. Włodarczak (eds.), From Farmers to Heroes? Archaeological Studies in Honor of Sławomir Kadrow. Universitätsforschungen zur prähistorischen Archäologie 376 (Bonn 2022) 43–64.
In Diemarden, a large Linienbandkeramik settlement complex was magnetically prospected in its ent... more In Diemarden, a large Linienbandkeramik settlement complex was magnetically prospected in its entirety. It is one of the few LBK settlement areas which hardly attracted later prehistoric activity and at the same time has so far been largely spared from modern destruction. The prospecting results show numerous Early Neolithic structures in great detail, including two earthworks and a large number of houses. Their ground plans are often so clearly visible in the grey-scale image that they can be classified typologically and chronologically. The building tradition in Diemarden fits well into the regional context, as comparisons with observations at neighbouring Early Neolithic settlements show.
In European and many African, Middle Eastern and southern Asian populations, lactase persistence ... more In European and many African, Middle Eastern and southern Asian populations, lactase persistence (LP) is the most strongly selected monogenic trait to have evolved over the past 10,000 years. Although the selection of LP and the consumption of prehistoric milk must be linked, considerable uncertainty remains concerning their spatiotemporal configuration and specific interactions. Here we provide detailed distributions of milk exploitation across Europe over the past 9,000 years using around 7,000 pottery fat residues from more than 550 archaeological sites. European milk use was widespread from the Neolithic period onwards but varied spatially and temporally in intensity. Notably, LP selection varying with levels of prehistoric milk exploitation is no better at explaining LP allele frequency trajectories than uniform selection since the Neolithic period. In the UK Biobank cohort of 500,000 contemporary Europeans, LP genotype was only weakly associated with milk consumption and did not show consistent associations with improved fitness or health indicators. This suggests that other reasons for the beneficial effects of LP should be considered for its rapid frequency increase. We propose that lactase non-persistent individuals consumed milk when it became available but, under conditions of famine and/or increased pathogen exposure, this was disadvantageous, driving LP selection in prehistoric Europe. Comparison of model likelihoods indicates that population fluctuations, settlement density and wild animal exploitation—proxies for these drivers—provide better explanations of LP selection than the extent of milk exploitation. These findings offer new perspectives on prehistoric milk exploitation and LP evolution.
In Transylvania, settlements of the Transdanubian Linienbandkeramik (LBK) are predominantly found... more In Transylvania, settlements of the Transdanubian Linienbandkeramik (LBK) are predominantly found in the Braşov Depression. Excavations at the LBK settlement of Olteni, located on the right bank of the Olt River, brought to light the fragmented remains of at least two ground plans of Early Neolithic longhouses. These are the first convincing evidence of such structures in Romania. The pottery allows dating the site to a later Notenkopf phase of the LBK. Among the ceramic pieces, a fragment of a small altar and several multiply perforated objects are particularly conspicuous; this is the first time sieves have been discovered in an LBK context in Romania. In addition, the Olteni site yielded the most extensive collection of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic plastic in the entire Eastern Bandkeramik milieu.
A Hungarian in Poland. On an Early Neolithic Figurine from Kosina 62 near Łańcut in Southeastern ... more A Hungarian in Poland. On an Early Neolithic Figurine from Kosina 62 near Łańcut in Southeastern Poland. – The figurine from Kosina represents the first find of an anthropomorphic sculpture in the style of the Alföld-LBK in the zone north of the Carpathians; it was made of local clay. Close connections across the Carpathians can be seen, for example, in the mutual import of pottery, the imitation of vessel decorations and the import of obsidian. The use of similar figurines on both sides of the Carpathians may indicate common worlds of belief and imagination.
The aim of this article is to deepen the discussion on the nature and mechanisms of culture chang... more The aim of this article is to deepen the discussion on the nature and mechanisms of culture change based on the analysis of newly acquired materials from the Targowisko settlement region. Three groups of materials were acquired (from narrow time horizons) related to the single-phase relics of Linienbandkeramik (Brzezie, site 40, and Targowisko, site 16) and Malice culture houses (Targowisko, site 14-15). The absolute chronology of the beginning of the late phase (III) LBK was established to be 5100-5000 BC, and the classic phase (Ib) of MC was dated to 4650-4550 BC. Selected threads of the cultural tradition (in the field of ceramic-making technology and ornamentation and flint-blade production technology) were passed on among families living in individual houses. Settlement analysis showed the relative instability of microregions, the increased mobility of small groups of people, and risky colonization attempts in Targowisko region. No evidence of direct, contemporaneous contact between the LBK and MC populations was found.
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Papers by Thomas Saile
After four decades, an opportunity arose to resume excavations in areas not explored at the time and bring them to a conclusion. The most important result of the recent field work, which was completed in 2022, is the stratigraphic disentanglement of the numerous ditches. The loess terrace, most likely, was initially divided by a ditch running across the terrain. This separating landscape feature may have been contemporaneous with the palisaded farmstead on the eastern edge of the study area. Later, the two rectangular ditched enclosures were constructed, probably the eastern one first. In another, more recent phase, they were joined together by connecting ditches to form a larger settlement complex. Already during the investigation, it was revealed that the middle one of the once assumed three rectangular farmsteads had never existed.
In addition, about 200 m further to the southwest, a similar double enclosure was discovered. Here, too, two rectangular enclosures were apparently joined by connecting ditches to form a larger settlement area in a more recent phase. About 5 km to the northeast, in the area of the hamlet Holzen not far from Altheim, a group of unconnected rectangular farmsteads dating from the Hallstatt period has recently been magnetically surveyed. These are characterized by a larger number of long, narrow pits indicating former house sites.
The following remarks focus on the latest excavation results and the role of the type of habitation known as Herrenhof in the Early Iron Age settlement system.