Waters. Conference proceedings for “Waters as a Resource” by Sandra Teuber, Anke Scholz, Thomas Scholten and Martin Bartelheim (Hrsg.):

This volume contains the conference contributions of scientists of the SFB 1070 presented at the conference “Waters as a Resource”, which was organized in cooperation with DEGUWA (Deutsche Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Unterwasserarchäologie e.V.) and took place in Tübingen from March 15th to 18th 2018.
The conference proceedings focus on different resources provided by waters or on the ResourceComplexes connected to them. After a brief reflection on theories and methods used within the SFB 1070 to study and understand resources, conceptions of water bodies in cultural anthropology and archaeology are compared using the examples of the Guadalquivir and Syr Darya Rivers. The third contribution investigates water management on islands and its influences on the identity of the islanders. The fourth chapter shows how seclusion on islands can be an important resource for island communities in the Strait of Sicily. Waters as means for identity formation in medieval monasteries is the focus of the fifth chapter, which is followed by a contribution that investigates the impact of maritime food sources on Viking Life.  The last study analyses Greek settlements in the Black Sea. All contributions illustrate how a new perspective on resources opens up new possibilities for interpretation.

The book is available as print version (Email to unispam prevention@pro-business.de) as well as Open Access Download.

Trade has connected distant regions throughout human history. It is hardly ever a simple exchange of material goods (raw materials, food, tools), but also involves the transfer of knowledge, practices and technologies (intangible resources). By looking at objects, archaeologists, geographers and anthropologists can understand the complexity of these exchange relationships. Thus, the following objects from the fields of economy, culture and food show the influence of trade on the development of social structures – and how the mobility of goods and people can be traced through time.

Exhibition: https://museum-ressourcenkulturen.de/en/exhibition/

Ur- und frühgeschichtliche Siedlungsdynamiken zwischen Gunst- und Ungunsträumen in Südwestdeutschland. Landschaftsarchäologische Untersuchungen zur Baar und den angrenzenden Naturräumen des Schwarzwaldes und der Schwäbischen Alb by Jan Johannes Miera:

Die Untersuchung von Mensch-Umwelt-Beziehungen gehört zu den Schwerpunkten der siedlungs- und landschaftsarchäologischen Forschung. Ur- und frühgeschichtliche Siedlungsdynamiken zwischen Gunst- und Ungunsträumen werfen eine Reihe von Fragen hinsichtlich der auslösenden Faktoren für die Erschließung und Wahrnehmung bzw. Nutzung von Landschaften mit unterschiedlichen agrarwirtschaftlichen Voraussetzungen auf. Im Fokus der vorliegenden Arbeit stehen eine theoretische und methodische Auseinandersetzung mit diesem Themenkomplex innerhalb der deutschsprachigen Prähistorischen Archäologie sowie eine Untersuchung von ur- und frühgeschichtlichen Siedlungsdynamiken anhand eines Fallbeispiels aus dem südwestdeutschen Raum. Ausgehend von einer archäologischen Quellenkritik werden mittels Geographischer Informationssysteme (GIS) Veränderungen in der Landnutzung auf der Baar und in angrenzenden Naturräumen der Südostabdachung des Mittleren Schwarzwaldes sowie der Schwäbischen Alb erfasst und mit Erkenntnissen aus anderen Untersuchungsregionen diskutiert. Die Datenbasis umfasst 1826 Fundstellen aus der Zeit vom Paläolithikum bis zum Ende des Hochmittelalters und wird durch AMS-Radiokarbondatierungen von Holzkohleproben und OSL-Datierungen von Sedimentproben aus Kolluvien ergänzt. Die Synthese dieser archäologischen und bodenkundlichen Daten ermöglicht es, die wechselnde Erschließung und Konzeptualisierung der Baar, des Schwarzwaldes und der Schwäbischen Alb zu erfassen. Durch die Berücksichtigung von theoretischen Ansätzen aus der Anthropologie und Geographie werden alternative Perspektiven für den archäologischen Umgang mit Gunst- und Ungunsträumen aufgezeigt.

The book is available as print version (Email an unispam prevention@pro-business.de) as well as Open Access Download.

On November 15 and 16, 2019, scientists from all over the world came to Schloss Hohentübingen for the conference "European Islands - Between Isolated and Interconnected Life Worlds. Interdisciplinary Long-Term Perspectives".

Islands make up only about 2% of the Earth's surface and yet the invention of shipping has brought these seemingly marginal areas into contact with countless trading partners and their respective languages, religions, information networks and goods, turning them into cultural powerhouses. The connection with the sea sometimes meant danger, for example from attacks by conquerors, pirates or sailors with infectious diseases and sometimes complete isolation, which in turn meant that there was no support from allies when resources were needed or settlements had to be rebuilt after storms. The insularity sometimes led to innovative solutions and different cultural practices that could not be found on the mainland.

The central question of this conference was how islands in the waters of Europe were used and understood by earlier societies, whereby the postcolonial term "European Islands" was critically questioned. It presented the cultural practices, social norms and solutions of the islanders for the many opportunities and challenges that they faced from 3000 BC. Faced up to 1800 n. Chr. Island-specific factors have been explored to better understand the fragile balance of life between scarcity and surplus, between local customs and global treaties, between dependency and independence, between security and insecurity, between control and power, and between physical, political or private life.

Due to the increasing digital networking, the rapidly increasing mobility of people and goods and the dramatic climatic changes, our earth seems to us more and more like an island. Many of the conference's questions can therefore provide answers to today's problems.

The soil science chair of Prof. Dr. Thomas Scholten was able to impress at the annual meeting of the Deutsche Bodenkundliche Gesellschaft. Doctoral student Sascha Scherer and Dr. Peter Kühn presented their research results about colluvial deposits in southwest Germany, which have been developed in close collaboration with archaeologists Benjamin Höpfer and apl. Prof. Dr. Thomas Knopf as part of the Project Division B02. Additionally, Sascha Scherer won first place by giving an excellent speech about his research topic in the soil-pitch.
Even the S-Project was present in the lecture series of the work group Digital Soil Mapping with lectures by Dr. Karsten Schmidt and doctoral student Tobias Rentschler. In addition, Dr. Sandra Teuber demonstrated the successful collaboration between archaeologists and soil scientists.
For the whole workgroup, this fruitful annual meeting concluded in a small city tour through Bern, guided by Prof. Dr. Thomas Scholten.

Michael Weidenbacher and Jonas Froehlich held a lecture on 15 May 2019 at an international conference in Ulm -

Not only have people changed their environment since the beginning of open-cast mining or in times of Stuttgart 21. An international meeting of the Societies for Medieval and Modern Archeology from Germany, Austria and Switzerland in  Ulm focused on landscape changes in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times.

In their lecture "No mountain without a castle - castles and their lords on the Swabian Alb“ Michael Weidenbacher and Jonas Froehlich from the SFB 1070 ResourceCultures dealt with landscape interventions by castles. For the nobility in the Swabian Alb castles had various functions: they were military bulwark, administrative center, as well as residential and meeting place. You can still see traces of these functions everywhere in the terrain. In Schlat near Göppingen fro example, where once stood a small castle in the village next to Mühlbach. The mill was presumably part of the castle and the mill race was probably used for daily fishing.

A Workshop on Documentation of Archaeological Material

In regard of a cultural memorandum between the university of Tübingen and Iranian Cultural Heritage, Handicraft and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO), from 2015 the Institute for Ancient Near Eastern Studies (IANES) as a part of a great project of SFB 1070 conducts archaeological and ethnological researches in the region southeast of Iran. In fact, Project A03 of SFB 1070 focuses on trade of semi-precious stones during the 3rd millennium BC between the southeast Iran and Mesopotamia. The project (SOJAS) undertakes archaeological, geological as well as anthropological investigations and documents the archaeological sites with new methods in archaeology.

For more information click here.