Call for papers for the annual meeting 2024 of the
DEGUWA – German Society for the Promotion of Underwater Archaeology e.V.
IN POSEIDON’S REALM XXIX
with the topic
The cultural heritage at and in Lake Constance
vorarlberg museum
from 8 May to 12 May 2024 at Bregenz, Austria
The archaeological cultural heritage around Lake Constance is the subject of the 29th DEGUWA conference. Cooperation partner and host is the Vorarlberg Museum in Bregenz, the Roman Brigantium: “In our scientific work, the exchange with scientists and cultural workers, the establishment of networks with museums, universities and research institutions at home and abroad is an indispensable guarantor of quality assurance. We have a special interest in cooperating with regional cultural institutions. The archaeological collection is well connected through many activities with archaeological research sites in the neighboring countries of Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Germany.”
The pile dwelling settlements at Lake Constance, the third largest lake in Central Europe, have been researched since 1856, and as early as 1928 the Lake Dwelling Museum was founded in Unteruhldingen as a result of a private local initiative. Since then, “wetland archaeology” has developed into a modern science with further development of its archaeological and vegetation-historical methods, which again
and again can come up with surprising research results on Neolithic settlement history and dynamics. The dugout canoe from Seerhein testifies to the use of watercraft on Lake Constance for the period from the Late Neolithic onwards.
In 2011, the ‘Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps’ became the first cultural asset under water to be placed under protection with the UNESCO World Heritage designation. This recognizes the outstanding importance of the prehistoric pile dwellings with the special preservation conditions under exclusion of atmospheric oxygen in wet and cool soil archives.
Already in 2008-2013, the lakeshore settlements with their cultural layers were the subject of a comprehensive survey on erosion and monument protection in order to identify hazards and risks and, if necessary, to develop necessary protective measures.
The project “Wrecks and the Deep Seaˮ, recently launched by the State Office for Monument Preservation Baden-Württemberg, aims to record, inventory and document the wrecks of Lake Constance at all depths. Reflection seismic profiles, underwater georadar measurements, airborne laser scanning as well as archaeological and natural science investigations give rise to new interpretations of the “Hügeli”, the enigmatic rock dumps in the shallow water zones in the Swiss and Bavarian areas of the lake.
Further topics of this conference are:
Medieval and modern cultural objects; problems of new search methods.
Reports on new research in other areas of nautical, underwater, and wetland archaeology in general are also welcome.
You are kindly invited to send your applications for papers or posters with title and a summary of up to 250 words (plus two figures) to the following e-mail address no later than October 30, 2023: mail@deguwa.org
All papers will be published in SKYLLIS – Journal of Maritime and Limnetic Archaeology and Cultural History.
Explanations of the scientific and an extensive social program, venues, accommodation, etc. will be provided in November 2023.
Current information at: http://www.deguwa.org
Please follow these links to download the conference poster and the call for papers.
