Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology and Provincial Roman Archaeology
Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology / Prehistoric and Early Medieval Archeology
Prehistoric and Early Medieval Archeology investigates, in an interdisciplinary manner, the cultural development of humankind in Europe and neighboring regions from the Paleolithic to the Middle Ages, based on archaeological sources, primarily from non-literate cultures.
As Prehistoric Archaeology and Early Medieval Archeology are a historical and cultural disciplins that deal with the archaeological sources of Europe and, at times, neighboring continents, from the first appearance of humans as historical beings in the Paleolithic around 2 million years ago to the point of sufficient written records in the Early and High Middle Ages. For the most part, this concerns cultures without their own written testimonies. Increasingly, however, the archaeology of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period is also being considered as subfields of the discipline.
In close cooperation with historical, cultural, and natural science disciplines, Prehistoric and Early Historic Archaeology is interdisciplinary in nature. The aim of prehistoric and early historic research is to reconstruct past human living conditions using data obtained through archaeological methods. This results in close affinities with natural sciences such as anthropology, soil science, geology, geography, paleozoology, paleobotany, and vegetation history.
In the Bachelor’s program “Archaeology: Europe and the Near East,” introduced in 2009, the text-based disciplines of Near Eastern Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Provincial Roman Archaeology, as well as Late Antique and Byzantine Art History cooperate with Prehistoric and Early Historic Archaeology.
Key areas of teaching and research at the Munich institute, which includes a working group for vegetation history with laboratories, are:
Bronze Age and Early Iron Age in Southeastern, Eastern, Central, and Northern Europe; in particular research on cemeteries, hoards, and rituals, early steppe nomads, women in the pre-Christian metal ages, and social structures in the Bronze and Early Iron Age.
Medieval Archaeology; especially urban studies, archaeology of Late Antiquity, research on the Merovingian and Carolingian Empires, evidence of early Christianity in Western and Central Europe, questions of continuity between Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and numismatics.
Research on prehistoric cults and rituals.
The Neolithic of Central and Southeastern Europe.
Prehistoric and Early Historic landscape and settlement archaeology.
The relationship between humans and the environment in prehistoric and early historic times: the intensive human impact on the natural environment (vegetation, fauna, soils), which in Central Europe from the 6th millennium BC led to the transformation of natural landscapes into cultural landscapes, and their further reshaping through deliberate and state-controlled land development during the Roman occupation and in the Early Middle Ages, with effects extending to the present day.
Topics in Alpine archaeology.
Contact phenomena between Mediterranean high cultures and their prehistoric and early historic peripheral cultures, such as the Celts, Germanic peoples, or eastern steppe populations.
Introduction to methods for material and provenance analysis of archaeological finds and for landscape prospection aimed at locating new sites (e.g. aerial archaeology, magnetometer surveys, etc.).
The teaching program is practice-oriented (excursions, excavations, teaching with original finds, exhibition and museum practice exercises, insights into the work of the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments), with a view to the future professional fields of graduates.
Cooperation exists with the state heritage authorities, private archaeological excavation companies, as well as museums and research institutes in Germany and abroad.
