Showcase 16
Open questions – What else is there to know?
In the course of 170 years of research, many questions about construction methods, everyday objects, nutritional basics and the cultural spread of the pile dwellers have been answered. Economic systems, environment and climate are now also understandable. However, some questions such as those about the pile dewellers origins, their appearance, social forms, religion and language as well as burial rites still pose a mystery. New forensic, chemical and geophysical methods such as earth resistance measurements, environmental DNA and lidar scanning can provide answers.
What was there to eat?
Where did the pile dwellers spend their childhood?
How old did they grow?
Where else did the pile dwellers leave their marks?
1
Human milk teeth | 3800 BC BC | Wangen-Hinterhorn | LAD
Where did the pile dwellers spend their childhood? Were they on the move? Where did they come from?
Bone finds from the oldest pile dwellings at Lake Constance as well as isotopes (distinct nuclear nuclides of the same chemical element) and proteins in teeth can answer these questions. Investigations are ongoing.
2
Lumps of birch tar with teeth marks | 3900 B.C. BC | Horn-Hornstaad Hörnle | APM
Chewing gum from the Stone Age
What colour did the pile dweller’s hair, skin and eyes have? What did they eat? DNA traces and saliva residues in a lump of birch tar provide clues. Further investigations are pending.
3
Human skull | ca. 852 BC | Bad Buchau-Wasserburg | APM
Age at the time of death: approx. 50 years | Gender: female | Height: approx. 162 cm | Body weight: approx. 50 kg |Height: approx. 162 cm | Body weight: approx. 50 kg | Diseases: Slight tilting of the head head
What did the woman look like? When did she live? How old was she? Was she healthy? How did she die?
Forensics and anthropology provide answers.
4
Facial reconstruction of the „Lady of Buchau“ based on forensicdata
Model: Astrid Preuschhofft-Güttler, APM
5
Bottom of a pot with grain porridge residues | Pottery, grain | 1600 BC | Bodman- Schachen | APM
The chemical analysis of food residues enables the detection of cereal porridge, fish soup, blue cheese, muesli, beer and much more …
6
Wheel-shaped pendant| Bronze | ca. 1300-900 BC | Immenstaad-Kippenhorn | MÜB
How was this bronze wheel made? Where did the metal come from?
Where was this bronze wheel made? Was it traded or bartered?
How was it attached? Does it represent a certain culture?
What is its symbolic meaning?
Was it worn by women, men or children?
Metal analysis, experimental archaeology, comparative archaeology, grave analysis and symbolic research can provide answers.
7
Lidar scanning
Where else did the pile dwellers leave their mark – maybe on land? Graves, ramparts, hilltop castles and paths can be identified from the air using laser scanning technology.
Lidar image of a group of burial mounds near Laubach | Source: LGL BW