Early farming life 7000 years ago: a reconstruction

Within the last decades the reconstruction of the whole life became a main theme of research for the early Neolithic. For a long time this period was not of big interest in Austria. Therefore the level of research rested far below the central European standard and until now it only could nearly be reached in some small sections. One of the aims of the proposed project is to diminish the gap between the state of research in Austria and Central Europe for the early Neolithic. It even seems possible to get some new important results of common European interest because of some very good conditions for the planned investigations. Within the last 20 years finally several big scale excavations for early Neolithic settlements were effected, most of them rescue excavations and only few research excavations, where documentation, registration of finds and sampling could be done at the required level nowadays. Two recent excavations that sort of LBK sites are the basis of the project: the "special" site of Rosenburg (1988 - 1994) and the settlement of Mold (1995 - 2005). These two sites are only at a distance of 4 km. Within the project analysis of the high amount of mostly well preserved animal`s bones, big sets of archaeobotanical samples and of the flints are planned. Further all plans of these excavations should be digitised to allow find-distribution analysis with the aid of the WinSerion 1.0 programme. The drawings of the ceramics, registered and numerically coded described outside the project, will be scanned and put into the "Montelius" picture databank to give the opportunity of their analysis by "dynamic typology". A set of 14C- measurements on bone samples should give dates for the expected settlement phases. All these investigations together will clear up the figure the different parts of the settlement played and also the function of the areas around the houses. The comparative analysis of the two most distinct sites of each other promises substantial results. Further comparative analysis are planned for LBK sites in the immediate surroundings (about 5 km diameter). Geomagnetic surveys should be done on three of them as well as on the non excavated surfaces of the Mold site to find out about the dimensions and possible surrounding ditches of these settlements. There is systematic field survey in course yet and the surface finds collected that way together with all the new information should allow to detect the functional structure of the supposed "settlement`s community" or another model of interaction within this micro-region.

Within the last decades the reconstruction of the whole life became a main theme of research for the early Neolithic. For a long time this period was not of big interest in Austria. Therefore the level of research rested far below the central European standard and until now it only could nearly be reached in some small sections. One of the aims of the proposed project is to diminish the gap between the state of research in Austria and Central Europe for the early Neolithic. It even seems possible to get some new important results of common European interest because of some very good conditions for the planned investigations. Within the last 20 years finally several big scale excavations for early Neolithic settlements were effected, most of them rescue excavations and only few research excavations, where documentation, registration of finds and sampling could be done at the required level nowadays. Two recent excavations that sort of LBK sites are the basis of the project: the "special" site of Rosenburg (1988 - 1994) and the settlement of Mold (1995 - 2005). These two sites are only at a distance of 4 km. Within the project analysis of the high amount of mostly well preserved animal`s bones, big sets of archaeobotanical samples and of the flints are planned. Further all plans of these excavations should be digitised to allow find-distribution analysis with the aid of the WinSerion 1.0 programme. The drawings of the ceramics, registered and numerically coded described outside the project, will be scanned and put into the "Montelius" picture databank to give the opportunity of their analysis by "dynamic typology". A set of 14C- measurements on bone samples should give dates for the expected settlement phases. All these investigations together will clear up the figure the different parts of the settlement played and also the function of the areas around the houses. The comparative analysis of the two most distinct sites of each other promises substantial results. Further comparative analysis are planned for LBK sites in the immediate surroundings (about 5 km diameter). Geomagnetic surveys should be done on three of them as well as on the non excavated surfaces of the Mold site to find out about the dimensions and possible surrounding ditches of these settlements. There is systematic field survey in course yet and the surface finds collected that way together with all the new information should allow to detect the functional structure of the supposed "settlement`s community" or another model of interaction within this micro-region.