The Pixelated Past: Predictive Models and Prehistoric Pathways of the Middle Neolithic in Central Germany

This dissertation presents the results of a pedestrian field survey in the microregion around the Middle Neolithic Goseck rondel. Predictive models created in GIS were tested against archaeological material gathered through the survey. A previously unknown Stroke Ornamented Pottery site was located through this fieldwork. Predictive models for rondel sites were also created, and a satellite survey located two previously unknown rondel candidate sites. Spatial analyses were conducted in GIS to compare settlement structure diachronically through the Middle Neolithic. Included in these analyses was the creation of transportation networks for each of three Middle Neolithic cultures. This research begins to fill in the vast empty spaces between site points through analysis of embodied pathways that bind these places together. A set of spatial analyses were used to test if an archaeological site may have been subjected to a spatial taboo. This approach represents a new line of research into the archaeology of social memory.