Migration or landscape fragmentation in Early Medieval eastern France? A case study from Niedernai

Modelling of archaeological remains in the landscape is a common tool in multidisciplinary research projects that focus on the movement of material and people. The interactions of human, material, and environmental spheres, however, depend on the scale, permeability and availability of the environment. This article deals with the construction and range of activity spheres in Early Medieval eastern France. A transformation period necropolis at Niedernai that dates to the 5th and early 6th century shows long-term settlement continuity with regional communication networks and local land-use strategies among other locally scattered communities. The consistently populated site-catchment in the Upper Rhine Valley was chosen to estimate the theory of large migration processes in the 5th century. Spatial analyses of GIS-based environmental and remotely sensed geomorphological data derived from satellite imagery were conducted. Social structure and social organisation changed at the transition from the Imperial Period to the Early Medieval Ages, affecting land use strategies and economic developments. Larger infrastructural networks were replaced by small-scale dwelling assemblages indicating local spheres of influence in a rather fragmented landscape.