Dr. Jörg Linstädter

DFG-project "Assessing the recent subsidence of the central coastal Delta of Bangladesh by dating submerged kilns" (HA 4317/5‐1)

The delta of the Ganges‐Brahmaputra slowly subsides by subduction‐related tectonic subsidence (about 1 mm/a) and more rapidly due to compaction of the up to 60 m‐thick Holocene muds (estimated as 1‐ 4 mm/a). Two submerged kiln sites, 35 km apart from each other, with four to six box‐shaped kiln constructions are exposed by erosion at the current coast of the delta and are accessible during ebb tides. Their present exact position below sea level will be measured and the timing of submergence will be determined by luminescence dating of the kiln brick walls. The results are used to determine the continuous or stepwise subsidence of the coast. Few pilot data suggest the deepest eastern kiln (about 2 m below high tide) has been flooded 250 years ago (pottery dated by thermoluminescence) and, thus, the sites will yield information, which is of direct relevance for the modern delta. Furthermore, the kiln which were either used for pottery or for salt production will be sampled, documented and archived before their complete submergence or destruction by tropical cyclones.

publications:

Hanebuth, T.J.J., Kudrass, H.R. , Linstädter, J., Islam, Badrul & A. Zander (2013) Rapid Coastal Subsidence in the Central Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta (Bangladesh) Since the Seventeenth Century Deduced from Submerged Salt-Producing Kiln. Geology.

DFG-project CRC 806 “Our way to Europe” C2 “Early Holocene contacts between Africa and Europe and their Palaeoenvironmental Context”

The early Holocene of the Western Mediterranean is a period of dramatic cultural change. New patterns of subsistence emerge at the transition from the Epipalaeolithic to the Neolithic. The project focuses on the development of food-producing groups on both sides of the Mediterranean, their intercontinental connections, adaptation to different habitats as well as the effect of climate and environmental change on prehistoric land use.

In the Western Mediterranean, Epipalaeolithic groups played an important role in the transitional process. They are an element of continuity in our research area. Different models explain how these indigenous groups adopted technological innovations from Neolithic pioneers. Latter groups represent an element of discontinuity and are probably the source for most of the recorded cultural innovations. The appearance of different ceramic styles and subsistence strategies is the result of ethnic diversity and adaptations to different environments. The distribution of cardium (Franco-Iberian style) and noncardium impressed pottery excludes each other in the South of the Iberian Peninsula as well as in Northwest-Africa. A comparison of pottery distribution to bioclimatic zones displays a patterning of Cardial ceramics connected to subhumid and non-Cardial ceramics connected to semiarid conditions. Recent investigations in semiarid Morocco indicate that contacts within these bioclimatic zones were closer, even via the Mediterranean Sea, than to neighbouring areas of a different environmental setting. The patterning of these transcontinental networks seems crucial to us for the understanding of the neolithisation process in the Western Mediterranean as a whole. These new results cast a new light, and thus attention, on the African influences upon Southwest Europe.

At the same time, radiocarbon data of archaeological sites from Morocco show significant correlation with climate events like Bölling, Alleröd and Younger Dryas and the onset of the Holocene. The same is true to shifts in humidity, indicated by the variation of Saharan dust in Atlantic marine records. Oscillation of radiocarbon data may indicate fluctuations of human occupation. The project intends to analyse the pattern behind this process using archaeological data in combination with environmental data from archaeological sites, terrestrial archives (fluvial, limnic) and marine records. Furthermore, investigations of terrestrial archives will test the distribution of semiarid and subhumid zones at the time of Epipalaeolithic-Neolithic-transition.

link to homepage

publications:

Zapata, L., López-Sáez, J.A., Ruiz, M., Linstädter, J., Pérez Jordà, G., Morales, J., Kehl, M., Peña-Chocarro, L. (2013) Holocene environmental change in NE Morocco: Archaeological and Palaeobotanical evidences from Ifri Oudadane. The Holocene. DOI: 10.1177/0959683613486944 (link)

Morales, J., Pérez-Jordà, G., Peña-Chocarro, L., Zapata, L., Ruíz-Alonso, M., López-Sáez, J. A., Linstädter, J. (2013) The origins of agriculture in North-West Africa: macro-botanical remains from Epipalaeolithic and Early Neolithic levels of Ifri Oudadane (Morocco). Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 40, issue 6: 2659–2669. (link)

Linstädter, J. & H. Müller-Sigmund (2012) Abiotic raw material supply in the Neolithic of the Eastern Rif, Morocco. A preliminary report. Proceedings of the International Conference “Networks in the Neolithic. Raw materials, products and ideas circulation in the Western Mediterranean basin (VII-III a.C.)” 2011, Barcelona. (pdf)

Linstädter, J. & M. Kehl (2012) The Holocene archaeological sequence and site formation processes at Ifri Oudadane, NE Morocco. Journal of Archaeological Science 39, 3306-3323. DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2012.05.025 (pdf)

Linstädter, J., Medved, I., Solich, M. & G.-Chr. Weniger (2012) Neolithisation process within the Alboran territory: Models and possible African impact. Quaternary International 274: 219-232. DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2012.01.013 (link)

Linstädter J., Eiwanger, J., Mikdad, A. & G.-Chr. Weniger (2012) Human occupation of Northwest Africa: A review of Middle Palaeolithic to Epipalaeolithic sites in Morocco. Quaternary International 274: 158-174. DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2012.02.017. (pdf)

Roeloffs, A., Linstädter, J., Wiatr, T., Reicherter, K. & G.- Chr. Weniger (2011) Prospection of karstic caves using GIS and remote-sensing techniques for geoarchaeological research, NE-Morocco. Kölner Geographische Arbeiten 92: 121-130. (pdf)

Hutterer, R., Eiwanger, J., Linstädter, J. und A. Mikdad (2011) Konsum von Landschnecken im Neolithikum: Neue Daten aus dem östlichen Rif (Marokko). Beiträge zur Archäozoologie und Prähistorischen Anthropologie VIII: 29-34. (pdf)

Linstädter, J. (2011) The Epipalaeolithic Neolithic Transition in the Eastern Rif Mountains and the Lower Moulouya valley, Morocco. In: Juan F. Gibaja Bao, J. F., Carvalho, A. F.& N. F. Bicho (eds.) The last hunter-gatherers and the first farming communities in the south of the Iberian Peninsula and north of Morocco. Proceedings of the work shop Faro 2.-4.11.2009. (pdf)

Blog entrys of the C2 project on the CRC 806

& Neandertal Museum homepage

VW Foundation-project "Spätquartärer Landschafts- und Nutzungswandel im semiariden Nordosten Marokkos – eine geoarchäologische Rekonstruktion" (Changes in landscape and land-use in the semiarid NE-Morocco during the Late Quaternary)

The reconstruction of prehistoric human-environment-relations requires archaeological and geo-scientific expertise. Geological archives document landscape changes, but seldom show the underlying causes (whether human or environmental) for these changes, so that corresponding causal factors often remain speculative. Archaeological archives supply the data necessary to understand development of human communities, but clear indicators of causal mechanisms (human or environmental) are notoriously difficult to detect. In our geoarchaeological case studies we address such questions by interdisciplinary field-work.

The project aims at reconstructing and contrasting land-use and landscape-change between 11ka calBP (beginning of the Epipalaeolithic culture) and present times in the morphodynamically sensitive regions of Northeast-Morocco. The alluvial sediments of the Lower Moulouya have a key function in our studies. The stratigraphic linkage of geomorphological archives and buried (well-preserved) archaeological open-air sites allows a precise chronological linking of changes in settlement and subsistence pattern with variations of regional environmental parameters.

On the base of sedimentological, soil genetical, and chronometrical records a high resolution chronostratigraphy of the stratified high-flood sediments of the Lower Moulouya in NE-Morocco will be established. The 15m deep exposed Moulouya river sediments provide excellent conditions for the development of chronostratigraphic sequences. The high-flood sediments document both variations of the fluvial dynamics and supply direct environmental data for reconstruction of the Late Quaternary landscape development.

Thanks to the cañon-like erosion, the buried open-air sites in the Moulouya river sediments are well exposed. The archaeological recording of the material culture, as well as flora and fauna, allows a detailed reconstruction of prehistoric land-use patterns during the last 11ka. The stratigraphic connection of the archaeological data with the alluvial archives will give us ample opportunities for the envisaged reconstruction of prehistoric man-environment-relations.

publications:

Linstädter, J., Aschrafi M., Ibouhouten H., Zielhofer C., Bussmann J., Deckers K., Müller-Sigmund H., & R. Hutterer (2012) Flussarchäologie der Moulouya-Hochflutebene, NO-Marokko. Madrider Mitteilungen 53: 1-84.

Ibouhouten, H., Zielhofer, Chr., Mahjoubi, R., Kamel, S., Linstädter, J., Mikdad, A., Bussmann, J., Werner, P., Härtling, J. W. & K. Fenech (2010) Archives alluviales holocènes et occupation humaine en Basse Moulouya (Maroc nord-oriental). Géomorphologie: relief, processus, environnement, 1/2010. (link)

Ibouhouten, H., Mahjoubi, R., Mikdad, A., Kamel, S., Linstädter, J., Bussmann & Chr. Zielhofer (2009) Résultats préliminaires de l’étude Géoarcheologique des dépots fluviatiles de la Basse Moulouya (Rif Orintal, Maroc). Actes RQM4, Oujda, 2008: 62-74. (pdf)

DAI/KAAK-INSAP project "The Coastal Neolithic of Northern Morocco" Surveys and excavations of caves and open air sites in NE-Morocco

Surveys and excavations at the east Moroccan Mediterranean coast line trace back to a “demarginalisation project” of the Moroccan government. The steep and rocky coasts of the region were for long time one of the most inaccessible areas of the country. Towns like Al Hoceima were approachable just by dead-end streets crossing the Rif-Mountains from the South. The new coastal road, called “Rocade” now connects the Peninsula of Melilla with Al Hoceima and the Tangier-Peninsula on a direct way.

Several archaeological sites were touched by the road works (e.g. Ifri Ouzabour, Ifri Armas, Ifri Oudadane). The workings of the KAAK-INSAP mission in cooperation with the University of Cologne were concentrated on the area west of the estuary mouth of the Oued Kert about 40 km west of the towns of Melilla and Nador. The preservation state of the sites found during survey activities in 2005 by Josef Eiwanger (KAAK, Bonn) and Abdesalam Mikdad (INSAP, Rabat) is very variable.

link to homepage

publications:

Linstädter, J. (2010) Recherches recentes sur les sites en grotte du Neolithique ancient dans l’Ouest marocain. Memoires de scéance: Organisation et fonctionnement des premieres societes paysannes – structure de production ceramique. Toulouse 11./12.5.2007: 227-235. (pdf)

Lorenz, L. (2011) Ifri Armas – Ein Beitrag zur Erforschung des marokkanischen Frühneolithikums. Zeitschrift zur Archäologie außereuropäischer Kulturen 3, 91-125.

DFG-project CRC 389 ACACIA "Kultur- und Landschaftswandel im ariden Afrika" - Landscape and prehistoric land use in the Gilf Kebir (Southwest Egypt)

The Gilf Kebir Plateau is situated in the far Southwest of Egypt, to the South of the Great Sand Sea and about 650 km to the west of the Nile valley. Although nowadays part of one of the earth’s most arid deserts, the valleys of the Gilf Kebir offered favourable conditions for prehistoric settlement during the so-called “Neolithic wet phase” from the middle of the 7th to the middle of the 4th millennium BC.

Human occupation was favoured by the fact that wadis were blocked by north-south trending dunes which resulted in the formation of temporary lakes (playas) upvalley. Since the early eighties numerous sites in the vicinity of the playa and the barrier dune in the Wadi Bakht were excavated. They were dated in the Middle Neolithic (6500-4350 calBC) and the Late Neolithic (4350-3500 calBC).

Since the Middle and the Late Neolithic are clearly distinguished by their material culture, one of the research subjects is to find out whether the various lithic inventories can be related to different mode of production in regard t different strategies of land use.

link to homepage

publications:

Linstädter, J. (2007) Rocky islands within oceans of sand – Archaeology of the Jebel Ouenat / Gilf Kebir region, Eastern Sahara. In: Bubenzer, O., Bolten, A. & F. Darius (eds.) Atlas of environmental and cultural change in arid Africa. Africa Praehistorica 21: 34-37. (pdf)

Linstädter, J. (ed.) (2005) Wadi Bakht - Landschaftsarchäologie einer Siedlungskammer im Gilf Kebir (SW-Ägypten). Africa Praehistorica 18, 372 p. (link)

Linstädter, J. & S. Kröpelin (2004) Wadi Bakht revisited: Holocene climate change and prehistoric occupation in the Gilf Kebir region of the Eastern Sahara, SW Egypt. Geoarchaeology, vol. 19, no. 8: 753-778. (pdf)

1. research articles

2. monographs

3. editor

4. handbooks

5. reviews

ERC-project AGRIWESTMED “Origins and spread of agriculture in the south-western Mediterranean region”

Spanish National Council for Research (CSIC, Leonor Pena-Chocarro & José Antonio López Sáez) and University of Bilbao (Lydia Zapata)

Epipalaeolithic-Neolithic Transition in the Western Mediterranean

Universidade do Algarve, Faculdade de Ciencas humanas e sociais (Juan Francisco Gibaja Bao & Antonio Faustino Carvalho): "Os últimos caçadores-recolectores e as primeiras agrícolas do Sul da Península Ibérica e Norte de Marrocos"

Raw material sources of Early Neolithic Pottery in Northern Morocco

Institute for Mineralogy, University of Freiburg (Hiltrud Müller-Sigmund)

Origin of Domesticated African cattle

AG “Genetic Archaeology” University of Mainz (Ruth Bollongino) (link)