Revisiting the LBK Wells of Saxony
Revisiting the LBK Wells of Saxony (2018)
Revisiting the LBK Wells of Saxony is a written thesis, developed alongside field- and studio-work, during a Master of Fine Arts, at Sydney College of the Arts.
Since 1995 a collection of thirteen water wells from the Linearbandkeramik (LBK) of the Early Neolithic have been discovered during archaeological excavations in Saxony, Germany. Timber beams reinforced the walls of the wells, creating vertical tunnels reaching down into subterranean depths. The discovery of these structures rewrote local histories of carpentry, becoming the earliest known examples of joinery from Central Europe that are still in existence today. Due to reactions with air and water that cause wood to rot, timber constructions rarely survive for long. Sealed in an anaerobic environment, these wells were preserved underground for over 7,000 years, before their recent unearthing.
Following two research trips I undertook to Germany to visit the current well excavation – the first in June-July 2016, the second in March-June 2017 – and the studio processes that ensued, my research paper thinks through situations where material histories become mobilised during embodied encounters with site. Through creative practice I have worked at intersections between two fields of research – art and archaeology – in order to engage multifarious explorations of sited histories. During my fieldwork I developed a sited methodology that brought these two fields of knowledge and practice together, where writing, digging, restaging, and mark-making became methods of creative enquiry into the many histories present at the well excavation.
This project would not have been possible without the generosity and hospitality of countless people. Many thanks to the following individuals for their support: Bianca Hester, Mikala Dwyer, Harald Stäuble, Rengert Elburg, Thomas Reuter, Maria Cladders, Sabine Wolfram, Saskia Kretschmer, Frank Schell, Bernhard Muigg, Willy Tegel, Christoph Herbig, Wulf Hein, Jacqui Shelton, Laura Carthew, Kenzee Patterson, Clare Britton, Biljana Novakovic, Audrey Newton, Chris Sciuto, Vicki Gutierrez, Kate Beckingham, Barbara Campbell, Maggie Brink, Nerine Martini, Bridget Crone, Sam Nightingale, Alison Brookes, Andrew Keogh, Rebecca Dal Pra, Paul Gilders, Erin Keogh, and Clare Keogh. Thanks also to Landesamt für Archäologie Sachsen and Ergersheimer Experimente.
