This book is a presentation of the basic concept of social, environmental and cultural connectivity in past societies, as embodied in a diversity of disciplines in the Cluster of Excellence ROOTS. Thus, rather pragmatically driven ideas of socio-environmental connectivities are described, which form the basis of the Cluster of Excellence in its research.
A discussion of the fluidness of the term ‘connectivity’ and the applicability of the concept opens the arena for diverse interpretations. With various case and concept studies, the reader may advance into the perspectives that develop from the new interdisciplinary interaction. These include both rarely considered dependencies between nomadic and urban lifestyles, and aspects of water supply and water features, which represent an area of connectivity between the environment and agglomerated human settlement structures. Moreover, diachronic aspects are presented in various studies on the role of connectivities in the development of social inequality, the use of fortification or also waste behavior, and the creation of linguistic features in written media.
In sum, facets of connectivity research are revealed that are also being investigated in numerous other disciplines with further results in the Kiel Excellence Cluster ROOTS.
Preface of the series editors
Lutz Käppel, Johannes Müller, Wolfgang Rabbel
Preface of the volume editor
Johannes Müller
Introduction
Social, environmental, and cultural connectivity: A concept for an understanding of society and the environment
Johannes Müller, Lutz Käppel, Andrea Ricci, Mara Weinelt
On the concept of connectivity
V.P.J. Arponen
Nodes of connectivity: The role of religion in the constitution of urban sites in nomadic Inner Asia
Jonathan Ethier, Christian Ressel, Birte Ahrens, Enkhtuul Chadrabaal, Sampildonov Chuluun, Martin Oczipka, Henny Piezonka
Water supply, settlement organisation and social connectivity
Annette Haug and Ulrich Müller
An archaeological perspective on social structure, connectivity and the measurements of social inequality
Tim Kerig, Johannes Bröcker (†), René Ohlrau, Tanja Schreiber, Henry Skorna, Fynn Wilkes
Connectivity and fortifications
Oliver Nakoinz, Anna K. Loy, Christoph Rinne, Jutta Kneisel, Tanja Schreiber, Maria Wunderlich, Nicole Taylor
Connecting linguistics and archaeology in the study of identity: A first exploration
John Peterson, Nicole Taylor, Ilja A. Seržant, Henny Piezonka, Ariba Hidayet Khan, Norbert Nübler
The dimensions of refuse: Discard studies as a matter of connectivity
Jens Schneeweiß
Ideology and identity in grammar: A diachronic-quantitative approach to language standardisation processes in Ancient Greek
Ilja A. Seržant and Dariya Rafiyenko
Johannes Müller (PhD, University of Freiburg, 1990) is a Professor and Director of the Institute for Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology at Kiel University, Germany. He is the founding director of the Johanna Mestorf Academy, Speaker of the Collaborative Research Centre “Scales of Transformation: Human-environmental Interaction in Prehistoric and Archaic Societies” and of the Excellence Cluster “ROOTS – Social, Environmental, and Cultural Connectivity in Past Societies”.
He conducts research on Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe, including the challenge of interlinking natural, social, life sciences, and the humanities within an anthropological approach of archaeology. Intensive fieldwork was and is carried out in international teams, e.g., on Tripolye mega-sites in Eastern Europa, the Late Neolithic tell site of Okolište in Bosnia-Hercegovina, different Neolithic domestic and burial sites in Northern Germany, and Early Bronze Age sites in Greater Poland. Ethnoarchaeological fieldwork has been conducted, e.g., in India. Within the Kiel Graduate School “Human Development in Landscapes”, now the Young Academy of ROOTS, and the Scandinavian Graduate School “Dialogues of the Past”, Johannes Müller promotes international PhD projects.
