Tumulus Culture Burial Mounds in the Landscape - Krotoszyn Forest Area: the Beginnings of a New Project.

The project presented in this paper is concerned with the funeral rite of the Tumulus cultural community located on the border of Silesia and Greater Poland. Detailed multi-disciplinary analyses have been applied to a unique slice of the Bronze Age cultural landscape preserved within the cover of a 100-year old oak forest known as the Krotoszyn Forest. Preliminary research carried out by the author (rescue excavations, non-invasive prospection and airborne laser scanning) revealed the existence of 120 barrows, which are likely to be associated with the dominance of the Tumulus Culture in areas of south-west Poland. The information obtained by previous studies was included in the spatial database available to the author. It provides basic information on the location, state of preservation and the amount of burial mounds in the area of the Krotoszyn Forest. The main aim of the project is to carry out multi-dimensional spatial analysis in order to capture the relationship between the variables governing the environment and Tumulus Culture burials. The methodological approach adopted by the project consists of the GIS analysis of data obtained from the airborne laser scanning, palaeoenvironmental studies and the application of geophysical prospection. The project’s targets include the development of an interpretative model able to explain the rules of location and strategies of construction of the funeral space of the Tumulus Culture community. The proposed models will be drawn upon theoretical reflections related to the concept of landscape archaeology.