Bioarchaeological analyses reveal long-lasting continuity at the periphery of the Late Antique Roman Empire.

The Basel-Waisenhaus burial community (Switzerland) has been traditionally interpreted as immigrated Alamans because of the location and dating of the burial ground - despite the typical late Roman funeral practices. To evaluate this hypothesis, multi-isotope and aDNA analyses were conducted on the eleven individuals buried there. The results show that the burial ground was occupied around AD 400 by people belonging largely to one family, whereas isotope and genetic records most probably point toward a regionally organized and indigenous, instead of an immigrated, community. This strengthens the recently advanced assumption that the withdrawal of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian limes after the "Crisis of the Third Century AD" was not necessarily related to a replacement of the local population by immigrated Alamannic peoples, suggesting a long-lasting continuity of occupation at the Roman periphery at the Upper and High Rhine region.

One man's trash is another man's treasure. Interdisciplinary examination of taphonomic aspects of ceramic sherds, animal bones and sediments from the La Tène period settlement at Basel-Gasfabrik.

As part of an interdisciplinary research project on the Late La Tène period settlement at Basel-Gasfabrik, ceramic sherds, animal bones and archaeological sediments from different archaeological structures (one large pit, two ditches and four archaeological layers) were examined in respect of 21 taphonomic features (proxies). These proxies, in turn, were linked to different processes that can leave traces on objects or sediments: primary use, mechanical stress, heat impact, water, redeposition, exposure, covering and postdepositional processes. The different proxies were compared using a statistical procedure. Our results show significant differences between the different features with regard to taphonomic alteration. For example, ceramic sherds and animal bones from archaeological layers show severe alteration due to exposure, whilst a good and uniform preservation within the pit points to its rapid filling. Furthermore, there is evidence of middens which probably served as material depots. Our results suggest that waste was not simply seen as rubbish, but was stored as a resource. Therefore, materials could take different "paths", each of which resulted in specific taphonomic processes (alterations). The interdisciplinary approach taken in this project has provided new insight into the complex but probably clearly defined handling of various materials at Basel-Gasfabrik, thus allowing us to visualise part of the cultural biography of things.