Sophia Joray
Spatial organization and cultural practices in the Middle Bronze Age settlement of Gränichen-Lochgasse (AG). (working title)
Abstract
So far, only little is known about settlements of the Middle Bronze Age in Switzerland and Central Europe. On the one hand, this is due to the rather poor source situation until a few years ago and, on the other hand, to the focus of research history on lakeshore settlements of the Early and Late Bronze Age. In recent years, more and more sites with Middle Bronze Age settlement remains have come to light, especially in the canton of Aargau. The 10'000m2 site Gränichen-Lochgasse (AG) excavated in 2016-2017 is, together with Kehrsatz-Breitenacher (BE), the largest Middle Bronze Age settlement excavated so far. With its considerable area, the number and variety of archaeological features and finds, and the systematic scientific sampling, it forms the ideal basis to bring the Middle Bronze Age into the focus of research.
The dissertation is part of the research project 4496215 "MAGIA - Middle Bronze Age in Aargau: interdisciplinary evaluation" - a cooperation of the Prehistoric and Early Historic and Provincial Roman Archaeology of the University of Basel, the Integrative Prehistoric and Natural History Archaeology (IPNA) and the Cantonal Archaeology of Aargau. The subject of the dissertation is the evaluation of features and finds of the settlement Gränichen-Lochgasse. Based on this, questions concerning spatial organization (activity zones, settlement structure, etc.) and cultural practices (object and find biographies, taphonomy, action sequences, etc.) will be pursued. The elaboration of a theoretical framework, contributions to the development of methods for the evaluation of (prehistoric) mineral soil settlements as well as experiments on the fire overprinting of pottery will also be part of the dissertation.
Keywords
Archaeology, Middle Bronze Age, Settlements, Social Practice, Taphonomy.