Urban archeology

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Urban archeology is the archaeological research into the history of cities that still exist today. In Germany, the term mostly refers to the research of medieval cities, in which the archeology of the Middle Ages was heavily involved in the post-war period . The initiative for this comes from the part of the building and monument preservation , which has increasingly recognized the importance of the "archive under the pavement".

Phases

According to the history of the post-war period after the Second World War , urban archeology went through several phases:

  • Pre-war period: occasional investigations by lay archaeologists, mostly as site observation
  • Reconstruction: in the war-torn cities, the opportunity was used on various occasions to accompany the reconstruction archaeologically. Investigations were carried out with limited resources and under the pressure of reconstruction. Examples are urban archeology in Frankfurt am Main or in Ulm (research center for urban history). In many cases, the excavations were not published because their evaluation turned out to be difficult.
  • The car-friendly city : In the 1960s and 1970s, the inner cities began to be restructured in favor of car traffic. The creation of underground garages led to extensive ground encroachments. Urban archeology working groups or priority programs emerged in numerous cities. In addition to Lübeck , there are also Braunschweig , Göttingen and Cologne , and since the 1980s Constance and Freiburg im Breisgau .
  • In the former GDR, the investments made after the fall of the Wall meant a boost for urban archeology, which could be used in many places and which made a significant contribution to the establishment of modern archeology .

In the Rhineland, but also in Western and Southern Europe, urban archeology is primarily concerned with the ancient findings of Roman times and here works together with the provincial Roman archeology .

The topics of urban archeology are generally development and topography of cities, but also everyday life in different epochs.

literature

  • Office for Prehistory and Early History (Bodendenkmalpflege) of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (Ed.): Urban archeology in Germany and neighboring countries. Lübeck writings on archeology and cultural history 14, Bonn 1988
  • Archaeological State Museum Baden-Württemberg (Ed.): City air, millet porridge and mendicant monks. The city around 1300. Stuttgart 1992
  • Günter P. Fehring : Urban archeology in Germany. in: Archeology in Germany. Special issue, Stuttgart 1996
  • Barbara Scholkmann : The contribution of archeology to the exploration of the city in the Staufer period. in: Society for Staufer History (Hrsg.): City in the Staufer time. Writings on Staufer History and Art 11, Göppingen 1991, pp. 79-105.
  • Heiko Steuer (Ed.): On the way of life in the city around 1200. Results of medieval archeology. in: Journal for Archeology of the Middle Ages, supplement 4, Cologne, Graz 1986
  • Heiko Steuer / Gerd Biegel (ed.): Urban archeology in northern Germany west of the Elbe. in: Journal for Archeology of the Middle Ages, supplement 14, Bonn 2002
  • Matthias Untermann : Archeology in the City. in: B. Kirchgässner / H.-P. Becht (ed.): City and archeology. City in history. Publications of the South-West German Working Group for Urban History Research 26, Stuttgart 2000