Lithic Industry and Techno-Cultural Trajectories at the Turn of the 6th and 5th Millennia BC in Central Europe(WP 1 and 2): Lisa Bauer, PhD, Cotutelle Nanterre University (Anne Augereau and Solène Denis, dir.) and Erlangen University (Doris Mischka dir.)
Advanced documentation and GIS: Jérôme Louvet, Assistant Research Engineer, CNRS UAR 3225
External collaborators:
scientific control and local contexts expertise
Photo: H. Stäuble
Ivo van Wijk (left) and Luc Amkreutz (right), project leader and curator at the National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden: Experts on the Netherlands area(KA 1)
Doris Mischka, Professor at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, Erlangen-Nürnberg University: Expert on lithics, Expert on Bavaria (KA 3), PhD Director of Lisa Bauer
The MOBILITH project kick-off meeting took place in Paris and Nanterre on February 3rd and 4th, 2025. It brought together all collaborators, participants, and external experts. The program included an exhibition, lectures, and meetings…
As the MOBILITH project focuses on the mobility and migrations of early agro-pastoral populations, it was a unique opportunity to take the team to visit the exhibition Migrations, une odyssée humaine at the Musée de l’Homme!
After the exhibition at the Musée de l’Homme…
After the inspiring exhibition at the Musée de l’Homme, the team gathered to delve deeper into the project’s themes through a conference organised at the Michelet Institute in Paris (see Section Events). We had the chance to listen to two insipring talks:
Neolithic mobility as social practice – questions for the LBK
By Daniela Hofmann
Professor of Archaeology
Bergen University
Daniela Hofmann, Conference, Michelet, 3 February 2025
and
Women’s mobility in the Neolithic: the story from isotopes
By Penny Bickle
Professor of Funerary Archaeology
Department of Archaeology, University of York
Penny Bickle, Conference, Michelet, 3rd February 2025
February 4th took us to Nanterre, where we visited the UMR 8068 TEMPS laboratory — especially its impressive technothèque.
Technothèque of the UMR 8068 TEMPS
La construction de référentiels expérimentaux et ethnoarchéologiques est un axe historique du laboratoire laboratoire Technologie et Ethnologie des Mondes PréhistoriqueS (Temps), au sein duquel chaque chercheur est impliqué dans l’archéologie expérimentale et produit des données. Les recherches expérimentales répondent aux problèmes d’interprétation que pose l’étude du matériel archéologique, en référence aux grandes problématiques archéologiques telles que, par exemple, l’hominisation ou la néolithisation, les transitions, la circulation des objets et des personnes. L’expérimentation constitue un support utile de l’identification des techniques de fabrication et de la fonction des objets préhistoriques ainsi que de la caractérisation des habiletés et des savoir-faire techniques.
The formal meeting of the MOBILITH project was held on the 4th floor of the MSH Mondes in Nanterre. It was dedicated to presenting the project’s objectives, structure, and timeline. Participants and experts shared the current state of knowledge on the LBK/post-LBK transition in the key areas targeted by the project:
Belgium (by Solène Denis and Pierre Allard) Netherlands (by Luc Amkreuz and Ivo van Wijk) Aldenhoven Platte and beyond (by Solène Denis and Johanna Hilpert) Saxony (by Harald Stäuble) Bavaria (by Lisa Bauer) Moravia (by František Trampota)
Nathalie Le Tellier-Becquart introduced us to the principles of Open Science, and we discussed the structure of our databases as well as the tools that will support the implementation of the project.
Nathalie Le Tellier-Becquart introducing the Open Science Principles, Nanterre, MSH Mondes, 4th February 2025
We also took the opportunity to involve this gathering of Neolithic specialists in the new seminar series of L’Échangeur. František Trampota presented in this framework a talk entitled The Importance of Metabasite from the Jizera Mountains for the Emergence of the Early Neolithic in Temperate Europe.
In conclusion, this kick-off meeting offered a wide range of enriching activities. It was a wonderful opportunity for participants to get to know one another better and to lay the foundation for a rich and fruitful collaboration. A heartfelt thank you to everyone!
The MOBILITH team participated at the last Kiel Conference 2025, especially in the Session 26: Central Europe at the turn of 6th and 5th Millennia BC: crisis, restructuring or something else? Conveners: Václav Vondrovský, František Trampota, Martin Furholt.
The team presented two main papers:
Pierre Allard, Luc Amkreutz, Dominique Bosquet, Solène Denis, Isabelle Deramaix, Heike Fock, Louise Gomart, Caroline Hamon, Johanna Hilpert, Ivan Jadin, Silviane Scharl, Ivo van Wijk, Reevaluating the LBK to Post-LBK Transition on the Northwestern Edge of Central Europe: A Comparative Model
Lisa Bauer, Doris Mischka, Harald Stäuble, LBK to Post-LBK Trajectories in Saxony and Bavaria: Comparison of Two Models
Neolithic societies in Europe are primarily defined by their shift to food production, with agriculture acting as a driving force linking these communities to sedentism [1,2]. However, recent advances in biomolecular studies have led to a “mobility turn” in archaeological research, encouraging a fresh focus on movement within these societies [3]. This shift has been pivotal in refining rigid social models, acknowledging that migration was part of the behaviour of early Neolithic settlers, possibly driven by prestige-related factors [7].
à l’occasion de la réunion de lancement du projet ANR MOBILITH (Projet N° ANR-24-CE27-1795-01), nous organisons une conférence inaugurale qui réunira deux grandes spécialistes de la question de la mobilité chez les premières populations agropastorales d’Europe centrale : Dr. Penny Bickle (Université de York) et Dr. Daniela Hofmann (Université de Bergen).
Conférence ouverte à tous, le lundi 3 février 2025, de 16h30 à 18h30 à l’Institut Michelet, en anglais.
Afin de faciliter le contrôle d’accès au bâtiment, merci d’indiquer votre venue à solene.denis@cnrs.fr.
On the occasion of the kick-off meeting of the ANR MOBILITH project (Project No. ANR-24-CE27-1795-01), we are organizing an inaugural conference that will bring together two leading experts on mobility among the early agro-pastoral populations of Central Europe: Dr. Penny Bickle (University of York) and Dr. Daniela Hofmann (University of Bergen).
The conference is open to all and will take place on Monday, February 3, 2025, from 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM at the Institut Michelet, in English.
To facilitate access control to the building, please confirm your attendance by emailing solene.denis@cnrs.fr.