Abstract:
The archaeological site of Lauda-Koenigshofen, excavated 1998-2000 by the Amt für Denkmalpflege Baden-Württemberg, yielded one of the largest skeletal series of the Neolithic Corded-ware Culture (3rd mill. BC) ever.
The 91 individuals, interred around 2500 BC according to14C-dating, usually in single mound burials, provided an up to now unseen source for detailed anthropological studies. In particular they made it possible to pursue questions regarding lifestyle, subsistence, diet and social organisation – topics, that have eluded archaeological science for a long time because of the peculiar find situation.
Even though there are now some settlement sites known belonging to this culture, their number and distribution are in no way in due proportion to the high number of burial places in Eastern and Central Europe.
It seems quite possible, that the scarceness of permanent settlement sites and structures is not caused by means of preservation, but by the subsistence strategy and the way of life of the people who are characterized by this culture.
Quite a number of physical and demographic traits of the osteologically studied population seem to prove, that at least this group depended predominantly on herd-raising, probably with the corresponding transhumance or even nomadic lifestyle.
With this, we have one of the earliest evidences of this specialized subsistence strategy in Europe.