Birgit Gehlen

University of Cologne | UOC · Institute of Prehistory and Early History

Now extinct, the aurochs (Bos primigenius) was a keystone species in prehistoric Eurasian and North African ecosystems, and the progenitor of cattle (Bos taurus), domesticates that have provided people with food and labour for millennia¹. Here we analysed 38 ancient genomes and found 4 distinct population ancestries in the aurochs—European, Southwe...

The European Final Palaeolithic witnessed marked changes in almost all societal domains. Despite a rich body of evidence, our knowledge of palaeodemographic processes and regional population dynamics still needs to be improved. In this study, we present regionally differentiated estimates of absolute numbers and population densities for the Greenla...

Ancient genomic analyses are often restricted to utilising pseudo-haploid data due to low genome coverage. Leveraging low coverage data by imputation to calculate phased diploid genotypes that enable haplotype-based interrogation and SNP calling at unsequenced positions is highly desirable. This has not been investigated for ancient cattle genomes...

Ancient genomic analyses are often restricted to utilising pseudo-haploid data due to low genome coverage. Leveraging low coverage data by imputation to calculate phased diploid genotypes that enable haplotype-based interrogation and SNP calling at unsequenced positions is highly desirable. This has not been investigated for ancient cattle genomes...

Analysis of prehistoric lithic artefacts helps to answer a wide array of questions concerning archaeological contexts and prehistoric human behaviour. During three projects, we studied the origin of the raw materials of 32 inventories from the Late Glacial and Early Holocene in northwest and southern Germany. The basal petrographic analysis was con...

Abstract The Mesolithic of temperate Europe is characterized by large differences in the various areas under consideration. Nevertheless, similarities in burial practices and diet show that many regions were in contact with each other. This is directly demonstrated by shell-beads, which were taken along or exchanged over long distances. The same ca...

This paper aims at introducing a recent European collaborative project dedicated to lithic studies of the Neolithic. It unites a group of archaeologists from France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, who belong to different research traditions. Our first meetings stressed the need for a cross-border dialogue and a common lan...

http://www.prehistoire.org/515_p_57109/acces-libre-seance-17-en-mouvement-on-the-move-in-bewgung.html The impressive corpus of recently published research on the Final Palaeolithic of Europe contrasts with few studies explicitly dealing with the demography of these hunter-gatherer communities. Our paper presents new results on population estimates...

So-called ‘antler headdresses’ - red deer (Cervus elaphus) skulls with antlers specifically modified by humans - were identified early as a typical phenomenon of Early Mesolithic sites in the North European Lowlands. In addition to clearly processed pieces with artificial perforations, longitudinally split antlers and heavy processing of their surf...

Since July 2013, the project D4 of the Collaborative Research Centre 806 at the University of Cologne has dealt with the Mesolithic in western Germany. During the first phase of this research, the primary tasks were to establish a regional chronology for the Middle Stone Age on the one hand, and the mapping of all known sites in the Rhineland and W...

Microlith types are of crucial significance for relative dating of Mesolithic assemblages as well as for assigning them to cultural traditions. This is especially important for assessing inventories from surface collections and old excavations. Here we present a new way of multivariate analysis to relate microlith type spectra to chronology. Our da...

The recovery and analysis of ancient DNA and protein from archaeological bone is time-consuming and expensive to carry out, while it involves the partial or complete destruction of valuable or rare specimens. The fields of palaeogenetic and palaeoproteomic research would benefit greatly from techniques that can assess the molecular quality prior to...

In recent years, new insights into the Final Palaeolithic and Mesolithic in North Rhine-Westphalia have been gained. The Early Mesolithic human remains of the Blätterhöhle in Hagen should be mentioned specifically as they even attracted international attention. Here, a stratigraphic sequence containing hearth remains and lithic assemblages from the...

Inspired by the international conference ‘Creuser au Mésolithique – Digging in the Mesolithic’ in Châlon-en-Champagne in March 2016, the authors started a compilation of Mesolithic pits in Germany. Although it is still incomplete, some statements can already be made. Nearly 80% of the single pits known come from settlement contexts. The majority wa...

Die Funde der Speläologen des Arbeitskreises Kluterthöhle e.V. von 2004 und die Grabungen der Jahre 2006–2017 haben in der Blätterhöhle frühmesolithische und jung- bis spätneolithische Menschenrestezutage gefördert. Durch die archäologischen Ausgrabungen seit 2006 konnte auch auf dem Vorplatz der Höhle eine überregional bedeutende Abfolge mesolithi...

The 26th Annual Meeting of the German Mesolithic Workgroup took place in Wuppertal from 10-12 March 2017 and was organised and hosted by Annabell Zander (University of York) and Birgit Gehlen (CRC 806, University of Cologne). In sum, more than 70 academics, students and amateur archaeologists from 8 different countries attended this conference. The...

During archaeological surveys in the Overath-Ginsterfeld area in spring 2014, nearly five hundred finds were measured. About one third of these objects date back to the Stone Age period. The Mesolithic finds probably belong to the Rhine-Meuse-Schelde Culture of the earlier Middle Mesolithic period, Phase A (7600–6500 B. C.), whereas the Neolithic f...

This publication will be free to open access in 2018. Ein durch meso- und neolithische Oberflächenfunde bekannter Fundplatz in Overath war Ziel von Untersuchungen, die klären sollten, ob Grabungen im Vorfeld eines geplanten Gewerbegebietes notwendig würden. Die Geländebegehungen und Bohrungen der Universität zu Köln in Kooperation mit dem LVR-Amt f...

The project D4 of the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 806 at the University of Cologne deals with the study of the Mesolithic in North Rhine-Westphalia. The cultural transition from Final Palaeolithic to Early Mesolithic, the “Mesolithization”, forms one important research focus of the Mesolithic unit. This research focus currently consists of...

Poster presented at the 5th Annual Meeting of ESHE, London, 10th – 12th September 2015. Since its discovery in the late 1980s Bedburg-Königshoven has generally been seen as the oldest directly dated Mesolithic site in the southern central part of the Northern European Lowlands. Pollen analysis suggested that the sub-aquatic gyttja layer containing...

The 23rd Annual Meeting of the German Mesolithic Workgroup took place in the district office at Landshut, from 21–23 March 2014 at the invitation of the district of Landshut. The meeting was attended by more than 60 scientists, students and amateur archaeologists from Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland and Denmark. A total of 20 p...

The study presents and evaluates a process to enhance residue AMS radiocarbon dating with a focus on contaminant confinement. Methods applied include 1) optical residue and use-wear analyses, 2) experimental designs addressing cleaning treatments to mitigate impact of contaminants, 3) preparation and extraction of residues from (mostly) previously...

Full manuscript available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440315 Abstract: In this study we present and assess a process to enhance archaeological residue AMS dating by focusing on contaminant confinement. The sequence of methods applied consists of: 1) optical residue observation, 2) experimental designs addressing cleani...

Poster presented at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Hugo Obermaier Society for Quaternary Research and Archaeology of the Stone Age, 7th – 11th April 2015, Heidenheim (Baden-Württemberg), Germany. Since its discovery in the late 1980s Bedburg-Königshoven has generally been seen as the oldest directly dated Mesolithic site in the southern central par...

The following article serves as a summary of the present State of research on the mesolithic period in Germany based on the evaluation of 27 excavated sites and a total of 57 surveyed layers. Although not all published assemblages are included in the study, the results are still representative. The data were compiled by the authors within the fram...

Mesolithic Studies have always played a less pronounced role in German prehistory. Wrongly so: It w a s during this period that all geographica! regions were settled by human beings for the very first time; at a regional level the natural environment called for, and made possible, new subsistence strategies which led to technological and social in...

Analyses of stable isotopes have become an indispensable methode for reconstructing the diet of Mesolithic populations. In doing so, they further provide information regarding possible differences within communities, which are possibly an expression of social factors. At present, the analyses of skeletal material from the Sites of Hoedic and Teviec...

As far as both the Mesolithic and early Neolithic are concerned, the area that is now Greece provides the missing link between Asia Minor and the Balkans on the one hand and the western Mediterranean on the other. It is thus the key region for any discussion of the Neolithic transition in Central and Western Europe. By approx. 7000 calBC, at the la...

In 2012, the 21st annual meeting of the German Mesolithic Workgroup took place in Detmold at the invitation of the Lippisches Landesmuseum. More than 40 scientists and students of pre- and early history as well as interested amateur archaeologists from Germany, but also from neighbouring countries, took part in this meeting. Altogether, there were...

In her doctoral thesis, Birgit Gehlen considers in detail the Late Mesolithic period and the transition to the Early Neolithic period in various regions in the southern half of Europe. The starting point for her examination of the subject are two Late Mesolithic stone-artefact inventories from Forggensee in southern Bavaria, which are at present un...

The problems associated with the transition to the Neolithic period cannot be solved by simply examining selected fi nds and their contexts or by holding on to the traditional paradigms developed in the course of earlier research. Like all other sciences, archaeology experiences continuous growth and modification in the sum of our accumulated knowl...

The site Blätterhöhle in Hagen was discovered during a spelaeological exploration in 2004. The cave itself was almost completely filled with sediments. The excavations brought human skeletons of at least seven individuals, animal bones and stone tools to light. A trial trench next to the entrance resulted in the discovery of a find layer dating to...

The site Blätterhöhle in Hagen was discovered during a spelaeological exploration in 2004. The cave itself was almost completely filled with sediments. The excavations brought human skeletons of at least seven individuals, animal bones and stone tools to light. A trial trench next to the entrance resulted in the discovery of a find layer dating to...

The following paper examines the climatic and cultural changes that occurred in the Eastern Sahara during the Holocene. The evidence is given from different areas of the absolute desert located on the Abu Muhariq Plateau (Djara), in the Abu Ballas scarp-land (Eastpans) in the Great Sand Sea (Regenfeld) and in the Gilf Kebir (Wadi el Bakht, Wadi el...