Propylaeum

The pyre site in Herzebrock-Clarholz – dating to the Migration Period – is a real archaeological rarity, even beyond the region. In addition, 22 graves from the 4^th and 5^th century were examined here. Apparently, the burial ceremony itself was of central importance for the bereaved, because a considerable part of the grave goods and bones remained at the place of cremation and was not deposited in the graves. This has crucial implications for reconstructions of the societies of the time, which often rely on grave goods.
The long occupation of the burial ground in Beelen from the 3^rd to the 7^th century indicates a continuity of settlement beyond the end of the Roman Imperial period. The sites in Beelen and Herzebrock-Clarholz indicate a population that was sometimes influenced more by Frankish and sometimes more by Saxon models. There is, once again, no evidence for the now outdated thesis of the forcible southern expansion of the Saxons and the inclusion of Westphalia in the Saxon sphere of power since the end of the 7^th century.
This thesis was accepted as a dissertation at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster in 2008.

The early to high medieval deserted village of Twesine is situated at the foot of the mountain plateau of Eresburg Castle – today's Obermarsberg. Twesine has a special significance for the history of Westphalia, as early relics of copper smelting were discovered here. The waste products of copper and iron extraction are found in Twesine in a dump up to 60 cm high and 3000 m² in size. They bear witness to all stages of metal processing for which the deposits at Obermarsberg were exploited. Kristina Nowak-Klimscha investigates whether the settlement and the wide-ranging metallurgical knowledge available here, together with Eresburg Castle, became a pawn in Charlemagne's power and economic-political interests during the Saxon Wars.
This thesis was accepted as a dissertation at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum in 2014.

Deserted sites – rural settlements abandoned in the Middle Ages – are an important but often neglected factor in the development of today's cultural landscape. The research of the author Rudolf Bergmann, which is supported by the European funding program LEADER, is dedicated to these deserted sites. For the first time all references to the abandoned places of the Middle Ages in the area of the modern Hochsauerland and Ostsauerland around the six towns of Brilon, Hallenberg, Medebach, Marsberg, Olsberg and Winterberg are brought together in one volume.
The main part of the work is a catalog of almost 400 pages. There, for each former settlement, historical evidence, cartographic information, geographic features and archaeological finds are reproduced in detail.
The data impressively prove that the Hochsauerland was already largely developed by settlers in the early Middle Ages and it was not until the beginning of the early modern period that a massive depopulation took place due to a variety of factors.

It is not only in Westphalia that the scientific study of rural building remains from the Middle Ages is a desideratum of archaeological and building history research. Almost all of the buildings are made of wood, which is now decayed and therefore much more difficult to examine than the surviving monumental witnesses of medieval architecture made of stone.
Angelika Speckmann has now closed this gap and, for her up-to-date and detailed evaluation, has compiled over 300 ground plan findings from the 6th to the 13th century. She prepared them in a uniform manner, analysed them and thus made them comparable and usable for a quick overview.
A glossary with a definition of all technical terms used makes the volume a helpful reference work. Excursuses on the craftsmen who built the houses, on reconstructions and on the durability of the various buildings complete the publication.
This thesis was accepted as a dissertation at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster in 2007.

Early medieval cemeteries are rare in Westphalia, even more so in the Ruhr area. Therefore, it was particularly gratifying that in Dortmund-Asseln, during a systematic excavation, fourteen female and ten male individuals could be examined in predominantly undisturbed and, by Westphalian standards, well preserved and excellently equipped inhumation graves. In addition, a horse grave and a dog grave were unearthed. Despite the most difficult soil conditions, the excavator Bernhard Sicherl achieved a maximum of information about the archaeological features, which – combined with the rich find material – provide an excellent basis for the analysis of the graves. The cemetery of Dortmund-Asseln is of particular importance, because models for conceivable social structures could be worked out here on a small scale, which can also contribute to the understanding of ways of life in other places in the Merovingian Period.

The “Heidengraben” on the Swabian Alb comprises the remains of a Late Celtic fortified settlement of the 2^nd and 1^st centuries BC. Archaeological finds and remains of ramparts visible above ground illustrate the supra-regional importance and the spatial dimensions of the Celtic oppidum, which is one of the largest in Central Europe.
On the occasion of new plans for the touristic enhancement of the large scale monument “Heidengraben”, an international colloquium was held in Grabenstetten in autumn 2013. The results of this conference are presented in this volume. The contributions deal with central questions of the reconstruction of archaeological features. However, the range of topics is not limited to specialised archaeological problems, but also deals with core aspects of a tourism concept. In this context, numerous experts from various scientific institutions and museums present “best practice” projects from Germany and Austria.