Timeless Tales: Secrets of the Past and the Sea

In archaeology, burials are important sources of knowledge about the past. In the context of the Linear Pottery Culture (5500 – 4900 BCE) during the Neolithic, burial features stand out. Cemeteries and settlement areas are, in most cases, separated spatially. However, the two could intermix with each other, resulting in an overlap between the realms of the living and the dead. The living and the dead were not truly separated during the Neolithic. This connection is seen through, amongst other things, the intense manipulation of human remains by the living population. There are several cases of this observed throughout central Europe, for example, at the archaeological site of Vráble in Slovakia. Individuals were buried in a variety of ways. However, most of the excavated individuals have one thing in common: the heads have been removed. Through this case study and looking into similar cases, we explore what the individual burials and mass graves tell us about the treatment of the dead during the Linear Pottery culture.

Have you ever heard about copepods? They are small crustaceans that can be found everywhere in the Ocean. But just because they are small does not mean they are not important! Let’s go on a journey exploring the shallow coastal waters and depths of the Ocean where these tiny crustaceans live. Join a marine biologist on her ocean-bound field trip, feel the wind in your hair and the waves beneath you while you learn why we cannot survive without these tiny creatures that perhaps you did not even know existed before.

Flappers, jazz, street fights: the 1920s and the period of the first German Republic are characterized by their diversity and contradictions like no other. The specific modernity of the time was evident not only in the new technical possibilities but also, above all, in the area of culture. This offered women, in particular, a new place in the public eye. While some danced the Charleston to jazz in short dresses, others swung their fingers over their typewriters and paved the way for a generation of new female writers: Political, loud, and present.