Fiavè, Rendena, Laugen-Melaun – Ein Beitrag zur prähistorischen Alpwirtschaft im Ost- und Zentralalpenraum

Abstract

The use of alpine meadows as pastures for domestic animals and the production of dairy products are still permanent features of alpine farming today. Thanks to numerous research projects aimed at finding the origins of alpine transhumance, the archaeological evidence, particularly with regard to the 2nd and 1st millennia BC, has significantly increased in recent times. The distribution over time and space has revealed interesting trends with regard to alpine structures that can be linked to livestock farming. Bronze Age wetland settlements in the southern foothills of the Alps play a decisive role in that they are yielding evidence of dairy farming and a formative early phase of alpine economy. Over the course of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, the formation of the Laugen-Melaun Culture brought about significant changes, which, amongst other things, led to the evolution of an alpine economy in the actual sense.