Displacement, readaptation and cultural continuity: a lake-dwelling perspective

When we study a cultural phenomenon, we often tend to isolate and consider it from a diachronic perspective. Even within the phenomenon itself, we sometimes neglect its evolutionary aspect; where it originated, how it developed and, most importantly, its continuity within a specific time span. There are barely any phenomena which do not lack chronological homogeny. Obscure periods within a single cultural group or society are in fact quite common. This is particularly true as far as the lake-dwelling phenomenon in the Alpine region is concerned. It fact, throughout its occurrence (forty-third to seventh centuries BC), human occupation on lacustrine areas was not continuous. There were periods when the lake shores were totally abandoned, and others when they were intensively settled (Menotti 2001). The reasons why these hiatus occurred might have varied each time (cultural or environmental factors), but what is known for sure is that those communities had to change their lifestyle (sometimes drastically) in order to readapt to the new environment.