Protohistory – department 1st millenium AD
The time from the birth of Christ to the High Middle Ages (encompassing the Roman Iron Age, Migration period, Merovingian period, Carolingian period, Viking Age and Early Middle Ages) constituted a period of radical change and continuous renewal for the people of the North Sea/Baltic region.
The North Germanic cultures evolved and developed their specific characteristics in conflict with the Roman Empire and its succession states and later also with Christian missionary efforts. This led to the emergence of a homogeneous communication space within the region, the combined elements of which can be understood archaeologically by way of numerous lines of evidence. The geographic region extending from Norway to Northern Germany and from England to Poland can, at least temporarily, be defined as belonging to the same cultural sphere. Reconstruction, by interdisciplinary means, of various chronological horizons, research into the transformation of the everyday lives of people, their religion and world views and their multifaceted mutual connections among one another, is the task of the ZBSA department »1st Millennium«.
Various international and partially diachronically established projects are presently involved in research into cult and central places, trading centres and castles, aspects of economy and transport by sea and by land, graves and their artefact contents, the connections of the elite and technological transference as well as the distribution and significance of the German figurative language.
Primary research subjects
Military aspects/conflicts
Emergence of elites and the display of elites
Settlement and territory
Cultural transformations
