Human Development in Landscapes | People | Doctoral research student Ralph Großmann, M.A.

The Dialectic Relation of the Corded Ware and Bell-Beaker Culture in Middle Europe, in Context to Theoretical and Ethnographic Aspects.

The project with the current working title is an interdisciplinary investigation approaching its topic from three perspectives. Beaker Cultures will be illuminated from an archaeological as well as from an ethnographic and a structural/ethnological point of view.

With respect to my archaeological approach, the focus of this investigation concentrates on the 3rd millennium in the Rhein-Main-Fulda and Mittel-Elbe-Saale regions. This timespan belongs to the Last Neolithic period which follows the preceding Late Neolithic and continues into the Bronze Age period. The Beaker cultures extended throughout Europe with some primary areas. Burials of the Corded Ware Culture were situated mainly in Eastern Europe whereas those of the Bell Beaker phenomenon were singularly situated in Western Europe. Both cultures had their most pronounced area of contact in Central Europe. This research project has been developed taking both appearances into account, including generalised ideas on burial and material customs. In this context, the investigation takes single grave constructions, the orientation and position of the deceased as well as grave goods into consideration. The beaker serves as an inter-group element of the mentioned cultures. However, we recognize differences concerning shape, decoration and production technologies which may indicate group, region and time specific influences.

This thesis intends to reveal both the relationship between the Corded Ware and the Bell Beaker Cultures and their respective diachronic development and manifestations. There are three priority issues framing the analysis. First of all, how are the burial characteristics of spatial closeness and distance adapted from one culture to another? In this context is it possible to identify burials which contain elements from both cultures? Secondly, are we able to detect different burial categories within each culture based on burial customs and grave goods? Thirdly, can we detect groupings and regularities among beaker and amphora decoration motives? How are they to be interpreted?

In order to solve these issues, the author employs methods both from the natural sciences and the humanities. On the one hand a database including burial data represents the basis for the geographic and statistic analyses. On the other hand structural theories and ethnographic patterns serve as references in order to illuminate the semantic meanings of Neolithic burial customs.