This is an open access book. Unique in its scope, this book provides for the first time a Southern European perspective on prehistoric wetland settlements and their natural environment. These are dwellings originally built in humid locations, i.e. on shores and in shallow water areas of lakes, bogs, marshes, rivers, estuaries and lagoons. The relevant archaeological remains are in most cases waterlogged and offer outstanding preservation conditions for organic materials and are moreover in close proximity to uninterrupted natural archives (e.g. lake or mire sediments), which allows for a broad range of transdisciplinary research approaches. The sites discussed in this book date from the Neolithic and the Bronze Age (c. 55001000 BC), and are located in nine countries of Southern Europe, i.e. Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Albania, Greece and Bulgaria.

Four dimensions of prehistoric wetland settlements are explored in the book the archaeological, the dendroarchaeological, the palaeoecological and the bioarchaeological: Part I is dedicated to archaeology, i.e. the excavation of settlement remains, their transdisciplinary exploration as well as their interpretation; Part II deals with dendroarchaeology and its contribution to the understanding of occupation sequences and regional chronologies; and Part III concerns uninterrupted off-site palaeoecological records of past ecosystem change, including humanenvironment interactions, as well as bioarchaeological on-site approaches to subsistence strategies and land use practices.

Prehistoric Wetland sites of Southern Europe showcases how different disciplines and areas of expertise from the humanities and the natural sciences meet on an equal footing to elaborate coherent pictures of the past. Besides a cross-section of research statuses of different archaeological sites, currently ongoing research as well as novel, hitherto unpublished case studies and findings are made accessible to the international research community. Drawing on a wide range of expert contributions from both archaeology and the natural sciences, this book targets scholars, professionals, and students from the fields of prehistoric archaeology and palaeo-sciences, and is furthermore of interest to cultural-heritage stakeholders.

Serves as an interdisciplinary overview on the subject Presents the scientific research approaches taken by archaeology, dendrochronology, palaeoecology and bioarchaeology Provides a frame of reference for further research Published open access

Inhalt
Prehistoric Wetland Sites of Southern Europe. Archaeological Matter, Environmental Context, Research Potential, and Threats to Preservation.- From Lagoon to River: Bank Management at the Submerged Late Bronze Age Settlement of La Motte (Agde, France).- Wetland Archaeology in Northern Italy: An Overview.- The Early Neolithic Lake-Shore Settlement of 'La Marmotta' at Lake Bracciano (Anguillara Sabazia, Rome, Italy): A Critical Overview of the Current State of Research, and a Discussion of Selected Aspects.- An Introduction to the Submerged Prehistoric Pile-Dwelling in Zambratija Bay on the Croatian Adriatic Coast.- Neolithic and Bronze Age Pile-Dwellings at Lake Ohrid: Under-water Excavations at Ploa Miov Grad (North Macedonia).- The Lakeside Settlement of Sovjan (Southeastern Albania) Dur-ing the Bronze Age in the Light of New Chronological Data.- Neolithic Lake Settlements in Western Macedonia, Greece: New Evidence from Dispilio and Amindeon Basin.- Prehistoric Wetland Settlements ofthe Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.- An Excursus to East Asia: Prehistoric Wetland Settlements of Zhejiang Province, China.- Dendrochronology and Bayesian Radiocarbon Modelling at the Early Neolithic Site of La Draga (Banyoles, NE Spain).- Dendrochronology of Italian Pile-Dwellings: The Challenge of Filling the Gaps between 5000 and 1000 BC.- Pile-Dwellings at Ljubljansko Barje, Slovenia: 25 Years of Den-drochronology.- Wetland Dendrochronology: An Overview of Prehistoric Chro-nologies from the Southwestern Balkan.- A Palaeoecological Perspective on the Environmental Impact of Prehistoric Societies in Europe with Emphasis on Greece and the Southern Balkans.- Isolino Virginia (Lake Varese, Italy): New Archaeobotanical Re-search at the Earliest Pile-Dwelling of the Circumalpine Area.- Archaeobotanical Investigations at the Mid-5th Millennium BCE Pile-Dwelling Site of Ploa Miov Grad, Lake Ohrid, North Mac-edonia.