NEW Wetland Archaeology Publication: The End of the Lake-Dwelling in the Circum-Alpine Region

NEW!

The end of the lake-dwellings in the Circum-Alpine region  Edited by Professor Francesco Menotti, NewsWARP European Coordinator, University of Bradford, UK

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Available from Oxbow Books:
http://www.oxbowbooks.com/oxbow/the-end-of-the-lake-dwellings-in-the-circum-alpine-region.html

Available from Amazon.com in U.S.A.: http://www.amazon.com/The-end-lake-dwellings-Circum-Alpine-region/dp/1782978607

After more than 3500 years of occupation in the Neolithic and Bronze Age, the many lake-dwellings’ around the Circum-Alpine region ‘suddenly’ came to an end. Throughout that period alternating phases of occupation and abandonment illustrate how resilient lacustrine populations were against change: cultural/environmental factors might have forced them to relocate temporarily, but they always returned to the lakes. So why were the lake-dwellings finally abandoned and what exactly happened towards the end of the Late Bronze Age that made the lake-dwellers change their way of life so drastically? The new research presented here draws upon the results of a four-year-long project dedicated to shedding light on this intriguing conundrum. Placing a particular emphasis upon the Bronze Age, a multidisciplinary team of researchers has studied the lake-dwelling phenomenon inside out, leaving no stones unturned, enabling identification of all possible interactive socio-economic and environmental factors that can be subsequently tested against each other to prove (or disprove) their validity. By re-fitting the various pieces of the jigsaw a plausible, but also rather unexpected, picture emerges.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
List of contributors
List of figures
List of tables

Chapter 1: The lake-dwelling phenomenon: myth, reality and…archaeology
Francesco Menotti

Chapter 2: Bronze Age lacustrine settlements in the Circum-Alpine region: chronology, architectural styles, occupational patterns, and much more
Joachim Köninger

Chapter 3: Dendrochronology and Bronze Age lake-dwellings on both sides of the Alps: from chronology to dendrotypology, highlighting settlement developments and structural woodland changes
Andre Billamboz and Nicoletta Martinelli

Chapter 4: Climatic variations in the Circum-Alpine area during the period 4500-2500 cal BP, as reflected by palaeohydrological changes
Michel Magny

Chapter 5: Micromorphological studies on wetland site formation processes: additional help for a better understanding of the lake-dwellings’ final disappearance
Philipp Wiemann and Philippe Rentzel

Chapter 6: Vegetation history and plant economy in the Circum-Alpine region Bronze Age and early Iron Age environments: stability or major changes?
Marlu Kühn and Annekäthi Heitz

Chapter 7: Animal husbandry and hunting activities in the Late Bronze Age Circum-Alpine region
Barbara Stopp

Chapter 8: Bronze Age trade and exchange through the Alps: influencing cultural variability?
Benjamin Jennings

Chapter 9: The 3500-year-long lake-dwelling tradition comes to an end: what is to blame?
Francesco Menotti

Index

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