Research Groups

Strategic research priority 1: Man in the Landscape: Transformations of Settlement Patterns and Lifestyles brings together three research groups working on the following topics:

1. Landscape Archaeology in Coastal Areas;
2. Technologies in Prehistory and Protohistoric Period;
3. Urban and Manor Material Culture in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period.

They analyse the terrestrial and submerged natural and cultural landscapes of the eastern Baltic Sea area, coastal settlement and changes in human lifestyles from the earliest prehistory to the Early Modern period.

Taking into account the changes that took place around the Baltic Sea as a whole, 13 researchers and three doctoral students examine the economy and technology of the communities that settled in the south-eastern coasts of the area, the regional and interregional migrations of people in the area, and the interaction and transformation of cultural and ideological processes. The objects of their research are archaeological sites that were used for residential, defensive and economic activities, sacred sites, burial sites and material culture.

They combine the methods and approaches of archaeology and history with data from the natural sciences, including geology, palynology, zooarchaeology, and macrobotany, and apply chemical, physical and biomedical research methods.

Strategic research priority 2: Social and Cultural Change in the Southeast Baltic Region from the Middle Ages to the Present Day brings together four research groups working on the following topics:

1. Social Transformations in Contact Zones;
2. War and Society in the 20th Century;
3. Cultures of Remembrance and Historical Imagination;
4. Jewish and Antisemitism Studies.

They contribute to shedding light on the major changes that transformed societies and cultures in the south-eastern Baltic Sea area, especially the impact of the fundamental processes of Christianisation, confessionalisation, modernisation and nationalisation, from an interdisciplinary perspective and in the context of the entire Baltic Sea region.

Here, 16 researchers and 10 doctoral students study the impact of mediaeval and early modern changes in Western Europe on the development of political, economic, cultural and confessional systems, the influence of nationalism on the transformation of pre- and post-national identities and cultural change, the impact of wars and conflicts on the transformation of societies, and the militarisation of societies in the age of nationalism.

They apply the research tools of history, sociology and other humanities and social sciences to analyse discourse, communication change, social change and cultural interaction. Their research focuses not only on contemporary regions, but also on regions that have developed historically.