Articles by Thomas Doppler
Based on a series of new radiocarbon dates we examine the vertical mobility of cattle in the Alps... more Based on a series of new radiocarbon dates we examine the vertical mobility of cattle in the Alps by means of strontium isotope analysis on samples from the prehistoric settlement of Ramosch-Mottata (Canton of Grisons, Switzerland). By identifying variations in the strontium isotope ratios of highcrowned cattle molars, we investigate the seasonal use of alpine pastures (vertical transhumance) and changes in cattle husbandry practices between the early and later stages of the site's occupation. Combined with the evidence of multiple high-altitude sites, indications of dairying and ethnoarcheological observations, we see an economic shift and a reorganization of domestic animal exploitation from the early to the late Bronze/early Iron Age in the Alps.
Within a project exploring the difference which high-precision chronologies make for narratives o... more Within a project exploring the difference which high-precision chronologies make for narratives of the European Neolithic, this paper examines the place of material culture in the flow of social existence. In contrast to approaches based on imprecise chronologies and stressing gradual change, we examine increasingly high-resolution dendrochronological data in the Neolithic of the northern Alpine foreland, where sharp boundaries between material styles were not in evidence. While 60-year filters allow a more differentiated analysis of the relative distribution of Cortaillod and Pfyn pottery, higher-resolution dendrochronology enables a very detailed narrative of the rapid introduction of Corded Ware in the Lake Zürich area, highlighting significant differences between eastern and western Switzerland. At the scale of individual sites, Concise shows continuity of the local potting tradition, despite repeated episodes of outside influence. At the short-lived site Arbon Bleiche 3, pottery changes much less than diet. This reveals a complex pattern of exactly contemporary diversity, seen even more sharply at the very briefly occupied settlement of Bad Buchau Torwiesen II. To get at agency within the flow of social life, we need as much temporal and spatial detail as possible, close attention to the material and approaches that allow for nuanced narratives.
The settlement record of the Neolithic of the northern Alpine foreland is used to address the que... more The settlement record of the Neolithic of the northern Alpine foreland is used to address the question of what difference having high-resolution chronology — in this case principally provided by dendrochronology — makes to the kinds of narrative we seek to write about the Neolithic. In a search for detailed histories, three kinds of scale are examined. The longer-term development of cultural patterns and boundaries is found to correlate very imprecisely with the character and architecture of settlements. Individual houses and settlements were generally short-lived, suggesting considerable fluidity in social relations at the local level. Greater continuity can be found in the landscape, perhaps involving more than individual communities. We argue that the particular history of the northern Alpine foreland is best understood by interweaving multiple temporal scales, an approach that will need to be extended to other case studies.
Carbon isotope analysis (δ13C) was performed on collagen extracted from 54 domestic cattle (Bos t... more Carbon isotope analysis (δ13C) was performed on collagen extracted from 54 domestic cattle (Bos taurus) and 20 red deer (Cervus elaphus) bones from the Neolithic (3913-2586 BC) and Bronze Age (1950-950 cal. BC) layers of the lakeshore site Zurich-Mozartstrasse located in the lower Lake Zurich basin, Switzerland. We observed shifts in the δ13C of both domestic cattle and red deer over two millennia. Mean δ13C values of red deer changed from -24.1 ± 0.7‰ to -22.5 ± 0.3‰, while mean δ13C values of domestic cattle showed minor changes from -22.7 ± 1.3‰ to -22.1 ± 0.3‰. Our data suggest that in the early 4th millennium BC the landscape was densely forested with red deer feeding in closed habitats and cattle grazing in more open landscapes. Forest was also a food resource for some young cattle as indicated by the lower δ13C values of non-adult relative to adult animals. This points to a greater diversity of herding strategies and feeding techniques compared to the later periods. The landscape was still rather forested towards the mid-3rd millennium BC, with no obvious changes in the habitat use of the large herbivores. However, the carbon isotopes suggest a clearly reduced forest cover in the 2nd millennium BC with red deer using similar open feeding grounds as domestic cattle. Our study demonstrates that the stable carbon isotope composition of archeological bone material from large herbivores can provide integrative constraints on paleoenvironmental and vegetation changes, prehistoric animal management and land-use.
PAST - The newsletter of the Prehistoric Society, 2015
Jahrbuch Archäologie Schweiz, 2015
Annuaire de la Société d'Histoire du Sundgau, 2014
De 2005 à 2011, une équipe d'archéologues français et suisses est venue chaque année effectuer un... more De 2005 à 2011, une équipe d'archéologues français et suisses est venue chaque année effectuer une fouille dans un modeste abri
sous roche du Jura alsacien, l'abri Saint-Joseph à Lutter. Ils y ont découvert de nombreux vestiges témoignant d'occupations multiples qui s'échelonnent entre 8500 av. J.-C., à l'ère des hasseurs-cueilleurs, et les premières décennies de l'ère chrétienne. Cette opération fait écho à la fouille, trente ans auparavant, de l'abri du Mannlefelsen à Oberlarg, qui avait illustré avec éclat l'intérêt et le potentiel des abris sous roche du Jura alsacien. Nous allons en résumer ici les principaux résultats tels qu'ils se présentent dans l'état actuel d'avancement des recherches et essayer de montrer en quoi ils font progresser nos
connaissances sur l'histoire du sud de l'Alsace.
Waterlogged sites represent an invaluable source of archaeo logical data. Houses dated to exact c... more Waterlogged sites represent an invaluable source of archaeo logical data. Houses dated to exact calendar years by dendrochro nology yield countless artefacts and well preserved organic remains. In 150 years of research, a wealth of economic, environmental and chronological information on the circumalpine Neolithic and Bronze Age has been accumulated. The social historical potential of these sites has however been largely neglected, which is in part due to widely held preconceptions on prevailing social conditions drawn from common knowledge rather than research. Due to uniformly large houses arranged in rows, communities are generally perceived as being egalitarian and economically uniform.
The Pfahlbauland exhibition at Landiwiese in Zurich in 1990 was an important event for the Swiss ... more The Pfahlbauland exhibition at Landiwiese in Zurich in 1990 was an important event for the Swiss experimental archaeology community. On 27 March 2010, the board of the Working Group on Experimental Archaeology in Switzerland (AEAS-GAES) invited a panel of experts to hold a public debate in Olten on whether the incentives that had existed at the time still played their part, how they were now constituted and what the future perspectives were.
L'objectif de cet article a été de dresser la cartographie des différentes entités culturelles du... more L'objectif de cet article a été de dresser la cartographie des différentes entités culturelles du 5 ème millénaire avant notre ère entre Rhin et Méditerranée, à partir de l'inventaire des sites qui ont livré des assemblages céramiques et/ou des datations absolues. Deux grandes périodes ont été individualisées. La première, entre 4800 et 4400, se caractérise par la quasi-absence de données pour la Suisse et le sud-est de la France, tandis que dans la plaine du Rhin supérieur de nombreuses découvertes permettent de suivre l'évolution des cultures danubiennes. La seconde période, entre 4400 et 4000, présente une situation plus équilibrée, toutes les régions comprenant des corpus significatifs. La céramique permet alors de distinguer trois grandes sphères culturelles: le monde danubien au nord, le Chasséen au sud et, intercalés entre les deux, l'Egolzwil, le Saint-Uze et le faciès de Gonvillars. Les interactions entre ces trois sphères sont limitées et les frontières relativement bien marquées. Zusammenfassung Im vorliegenden Artikel wird das Verbreitungsbild der kulturellen Einheiten gezeichnet, die für das 5. Jtsd. v. Chr. zwischen Rhein und Mittelmeer belegt sind. Als Basis dienen Fundstellen, die Keramikkomplexe und/oder absolute Datierungen geliefert haben. Zwei grosse Zeitabschnitte werden sichtbar: In der ersten Phase (4800-4400 v. Chr) fehlen Belege aus der Schweiz und Südostfrankreich fast völlig, wogegen die zahlreichen Funde aus der Oberrheinebene es erlauben, die Entwicklung der donauländi-schen Kulturen nachzuzeichnen. Im zweiten Abschnitt (4400-4000 v. Chr.) ist die Situation ausgeglichener, da alle Regionen aussagekräftige Komplexe geliefert haben. Die Keramik erlaubt es, drei Kulturräume zu unterscheiden: den Bereich der donauländischen Kulturen im Norden, das Chasséen-Gebiet im Süden und dazwischen das Areal mit Egolzwiler Kultur, Saint-Uze-Gruppe und Gonvillars-Fazies. Der Austausch zwischen diesen drei Räumen ist beschränkt, weshalb die Grenzen relativ klar fassbar sind. Riassunto L'articolo intende circoscrivere le aree di diffusione dei gruppi culturali attestati durante il V millennio a.C. tra il Reno e il Mediterraneo. I dati sono ricavati da quei siti che annoverano complessi ceramici e/o datazioni assolute. Si distinguono due grandi periodi. Nel primo periodo (4800-4400 a.C.) mancano quasi completamente le attestazioni dalla Svizzera e dalla Francia sudorientale, mentre i numerosi ritrovamenti dal bassopiano renano permettono di seguire l'evoluzione delle culture danubiane. Il se-condo periodo (4400-4000 a.C.) offre un'immagine più equilibrata e tutte le regioni presentano complessi significativi. La ceramica permette di distinguere tre sfere culturali: l'ambito delle culture danubiane a nord, il Chasseano a sud e, nel mezzo tra i due, la cultura di Egolzwil, il gruppo di Saint-Uze e la facies di Gonvillars. Le interazioni tra queste tre sfere sono limitate e le frontiere relativamente ben definite. * Publié avec le concours du Musée national suisse.
Zusammenfassung -Die Entdeckung eines Tonstempels in der spätmesolithischen Fundstelle von Arconc... more Zusammenfassung -Die Entdeckung eines Tonstempels in der spätmesolithischen Fundstelle von Arconciel/La Souche ist von grösster Bedeutung für die seit vielen Jahren intensiv geführte Diskussion zum Ablauf der Neolithisierung Mittel-und Westeuropas. Das verzierte Objekt aus gebranntem Ton findet seine besten Vergleichsstücke im Frühneolithikum Südosteuropas, und ist deshalb in zweifacher Hinsicht bedeutsam: Es lässt vermuten, dass zwischen dem Schweizer Mittelland und Südosteuropa gegen Ende des 7. Jahrtausends v. Chr. Kontakte bestanden haben und deutet dadurch an, dass bereits in dieser Zeit mit frühneolithischen Einflüssen im mitteleuropäischen Spätmesolithikum zu rechnen ist. Im Kontext der seit mehreren Jahren geführten Debatte zu vorneolithischem Getreideanbau in Mittel-und Westeuropa ist der Tonstempel von besonderem Interesse, da er als weiteres Indiz für die Hypothese eines «initialen Neolithikums» verstanden werden kann.
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Articles by Thomas Doppler
sous roche du Jura alsacien, l'abri Saint-Joseph à Lutter. Ils y ont découvert de nombreux vestiges témoignant d'occupations multiples qui s'échelonnent entre 8500 av. J.-C., à l'ère des hasseurs-cueilleurs, et les premières décennies de l'ère chrétienne. Cette opération fait écho à la fouille, trente ans auparavant, de l'abri du Mannlefelsen à Oberlarg, qui avait illustré avec éclat l'intérêt et le potentiel des abris sous roche du Jura alsacien. Nous allons en résumer ici les principaux résultats tels qu'ils se présentent dans l'état actuel d'avancement des recherches et essayer de montrer en quoi ils font progresser nos
connaissances sur l'histoire du sud de l'Alsace.
sous roche du Jura alsacien, l'abri Saint-Joseph à Lutter. Ils y ont découvert de nombreux vestiges témoignant d'occupations multiples qui s'échelonnent entre 8500 av. J.-C., à l'ère des hasseurs-cueilleurs, et les premières décennies de l'ère chrétienne. Cette opération fait écho à la fouille, trente ans auparavant, de l'abri du Mannlefelsen à Oberlarg, qui avait illustré avec éclat l'intérêt et le potentiel des abris sous roche du Jura alsacien. Nous allons en résumer ici les principaux résultats tels qu'ils se présentent dans l'état actuel d'avancement des recherches et essayer de montrer en quoi ils font progresser nos
connaissances sur l'histoire du sud de l'Alsace.
Preface
Introducing Economic Archaeology: Examples from Neolithic agriculture and Hallstatt princely tombs
Tim Kerig
Theories of Consumption
Perspectives from economic anthropology
Martin Rössler
The society in the making
The house and the household in the Danubian Neolithic of the Central European lowlands
Arkadiusz Marciniak
The value of things - The production and circulation of Alpine jade axes during the 5th – 4th millenia in a European perspective
Pierre Pétrequin, Serge Cassen, Michel Errera, Lutz Klassen, Anne−Marie Pétrequin, Alison Sheridan
From the Alps to Brittany and Scandinavia: The grand tour in the Neolithic
Magdalena S. Midgley
The economics of Neolithic swidden cultivation: Results of an experimental long−term project in Forchtenberg (Baden−Württemberg, Germany)
Wolfram Schier, Otto Ehrmann, Manfred Rösch, Arno Bogenrieder, Mathias Hall, Ludger Herrmann, Erhard Schulz
Land use and food production in Central Europe from the Neolithic to the medieval period - Change of landscape, soils and agricultural systems according to archaeobotanical data
Manfred Rösch
Evaluation of economic activity through palynological data: Modelling agricultural pressure on landscape (REVEALS and LOVE)
Jutta Lechterbeck
Quantitative approaches to reconstructing prehistoric stock breeding
Renate Ebersbach
Coping with crises I: Subsistence variety and resilience in the Late Neolithic lakeshore settlement Arbon Bleiche 3 (Switzerland)
Thomas Doppler, Sandra Pichler, Brigitte Röder, Jörg Schibler
Coping with crises II: The impact of social aspects on vulnerability and resilience
Brigitte Röder, Sandra Pichler, Thomas Doppler
Dispersed communities and diverse strategies
Late Neolithic economy on the Polish Lowland (3500−2500 BC)
Marzena Szmyt, Janusz Czebreszuk
Short settled Neolithic sites in the mountains − economy or religious practice? Case studies from the Polish Carpathians and German Mid−Mountains
Pawel Valde−Nowak
Prehistoric flint mining and the enigma of early economies
Jacek Lech
Bronze Age copper production in the Alps:
Organisation and social hierarchies in mining communities
Rüdiger Krause
Bohemia as a model territory for research on transport and trade in prehistory
Vladimír Salač
The Hellenistic to Roman Mediterranean: A proto−capitalist Revolution?
John Bintliff
Technology, land use and transformations in Scandinavian landscapes, c. 800–1300 AD 295
Ingvild Øye
Performance in experimental archaeology -
Any possibility for unambiguous statements?
Roeland Paardekooper
Summing it up: What is the intermediate total in European economic archaeology?
Tim Kerig, Andreas Zimmermann
List of contributors
contrast to approaches based on imprecise chronologies and stressing gradual change, we examine increasingly high-resolution dendrochronological data in the Neolithic of the northern Alpine foreland, where sharp boundaries between material styles were not in evidence. While 60-year filters allow a more differentiated analysis of the relative distribution of Cortaillod and Pfyn pottery, higher-resolution dendrochronology enables a very detailed narrative of the rapid introduction of Corded Ware in the Lake Zürich area, highlighting significant differences between eastern and western Switzerland. At the scale of individual sites, Concise shows continuity of the local potting tradition, despite repeated episodes of outside influence. At the short-lived site Arbon Bleiche 3, pottery changes much less than diet. This reveals a complex pattern of exactly contemporary diversity, seen even more sharply at the very briefly occupied settlement of Bad Buchau Torwiesen II. To get at agency within the flow of social life, we need as
much temporal and spatial detail as possible, close attention to the material and approaches that allow for nuanced narratives.