Settling and Moving: a biographical approach to interpreting patterns of occupation in LBA Circum-Alpine Lake-Dwellings

Lakeshore and wetland settlements of the Circum-Alpine region are well known for their excellent preservation of organic remains and their potential for accurate dating through dendrochronology. This settlement tradition spans from the Neolithic to the Early Iron Age, though several hiatuses in lake-dwelling construction are observed. Traditional models for the abandonment of lake settlements rely upon climatically deterministic models, linking declining climatic conditions to increasing lake-levels, which would have impacted upon settlements and forced the inhabitants to relocate. Recent studies of Neolithic lake-dwellings have indicated that social factors also influenced the development of these settlements, while the ‘social biography’ of settlements has been an area of increasing interest in terrestrial settlements. A review of selected Late Bronze Age (LBA) lake settlement illustrates the development sequence seen at many lake-dwellings from across the Circum-Alpine region. The proposal of a biographical model linking cultural influences to the development sequence observed in LBA lake-dwellings, and to the choice to abandon areas and relocate villages, offers further insights into the development of enigmatic settlements.

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10454/9540

Version

Accepted manuscript

Citation

Jennings BR (2012) Settling and Moving: a biographical approach to interpreting patterns of occupation in LBA Circum-Alpine Lake-Dwellings. Journal of Weltand Archaeology. 12(1): 1-21.

Link to Version of Record

https://doi.org/10.1179/jwa.2012.12.1.001

Type

Article