Cultural turning points of the Neolithic societies in the Upper and Middle Rhine and the surrounding low mountain ranges are currently being examined in a series of inter-connected MA and doctoral dissertations at University Mainz. These landscape-based studies generate their own data set but also draw on data provided by the respective state archaeological services. The aim is to produce a standardized data-base with fine-grained chronological information for one of the most important Neolithic landscapes where influences from Eastern and Western Europe met.

This data-base may be applied to a virtual landscape with the help of a GIS-system and combined with other information on landscape history as provided by archaeobotany, archaeozoology and paleoclimatology. The result will be a holistic history modeling in which the socio-political trajectories of Neolithic societies are analyzed in combination with economic and environmental studies.