Research Projects

  • (A-6-1) Lossow near Frankfurt (Oder) - An early Iron Age cult site

    The task of this project was to analyze pottery finds of the late Bronze Age hillfort of Lossow to determine the extent to which production centers and distribution regions were connected with central places. The project built on research results obtained during the first funding period of Topoi.

  • (A-6-10) Glass Production of the 3rd and 4th century AD in Komariv, Ukraine

    The settlement of Komariv is associated with extensive production of glass vessels, which required corresponding know-how and employed Roman production methods. The initial studies in this project focued on the site itself and an analysis of the glass fragments salvaged from there.

  • (A-6-2) The Analysis of Spheres of Exchange in Southern Iran

    This research project analyzed 5th millennium pottery from the Iranian site of Tepe Sohz which was excavated briefly in the early 1970s. The goal of the pottery analysis was to evaluate two competing models for the socio-economic and political development of 5th millennium BCE societies in southwestern Iran, one proposal by William Sumner (1994) and the other by Abbas Alizadeh (1988, 2010). Both models assign craft specialization an important position. However, while Alizadeh attributes such specialization to surplus from herding activities, Sumner claims that it is due to a surplus stemming from agriculture.

  • (A-6-3) Distribution systems of ceramics of the Neolithic to Islamic period from the Middle Euphrates Valley in Northern Syria

    The focus of the project was the determination of production sites of pottery, the ceramics’ distribution and consumption spaces in a clearly spatially limited area, part of a river valley, over time.

  • (A-6-4) Wheel-thrown pottery of the Imperial Period in Barbaricum

    This project investigated the emergence and development of wheel-thrown pottery in the Germanic Babaricum from the second half of the 2nd c. AD. In the course of the study, a large series of surviving ceramics underwent geochemical and other archaeoceramological analyses, in order to determine the spatial distribution of the various production sites. The goal of the project was to reveal the economic structures underlying this distribution.

  • (A-6-5) Meroitic fine ceramics: production, distribution, use

    This project studied a pottery workshop and the associated ceramics in Musawwarat es-Sufra, a unique sacral site of the Meroitic period (3rd century BC to 4th century AD) in Sudan. A propos this material, the project investigates a wide range of aspects concerning the production, distribution and use of Meroitic pottery.

  • (A-6-6) The economic landscape of the Hellenistic, Roman and late antique Bithynia. Iznik Intensive Survey Project

    Despite of the abundant epigraphic sources from the urban center Nikaia/Nicaea and its extensive and well-connected agricultural hinterland, archaeological information on the regional rural landscape and settlement pattern are very scarce. The historic-geographic definition of the chora of Iznik has been based almost exclusively on the epigraphic evidence, shedding light on the socio-economic role of the village communities in the territorial organization. The research questions addressed in the framework of the project concerned the archaeological definition of the local rural settlement history, sites typology and function (villae, farms, and villages), land use and resource exploitation, production and distribution of food and ceramic commodities from the Hellenistic to the Late Antique period. For this purpose a body of integrated landscape archaeological methods including remote sensing techniques, archaeomorphological analysis, extensive and intensive fieldwork in test areas, as well as GIS-based mapping and spatial analysis was used.

  • (A-6-7) Distribution and production locations of Nabataean fine ceramics

    This research project explored the emergence and distribution of Nabataean fine ceramics in the 2nd century BC – 4th century AD. It was investigated to what extent the typical type of ceramic is to be classified as an identity marker of Nabataean culture and society.

  • (A-6-8) Distribution of ceramics in the large settlement of Corneşti-Iarcuri and its settlement history

    This research project seeked to carry out a comprehensive study of ceramic products from the prehistoric settlement of Iarcuri (Romania) based primarily on chemical analysis of ceramics. The study aimed to shed light on questions concerning the centralized/decentralized production, distribution and influence of ceramics.

  • (A-6-9) Tell el-Amarna

    The Amarna Project consisted of two separate projects, which are both concerned with socio-cultural aspects of the site, including the manufacture and import of pottery (see https://www.topoi.org/project/a-6-9-1/ ) and glass.

Dissertations

Third-party Funded Project