Martin HinzArchaeology / Quantification / Digital Humanities

Martin Hinz

Martin Hinz

work:
Institut für Archäologische Wissenschaften
Universität Bern
Mittelstrasse 43
CH - 3012 Bern
martin.hinz@iaw.unibe.ch
http://www.iaw.unibe.ch/
+41 31 631 58 26

private:
mail@martinhinz.info
http://www.martinhinz.info

About me

I am an archaeologist whose research focuses on prehistoric archaeology, working on the prehistory of northern Central Europe / South Scandinavia and the Swiss lakeshore settlements, interested in human-environmental interactions and population development in the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Currently I am a senior researcher (Oberassistent) at the Institute for Archaeological Sciences (IAW) at the University of Bern.

I am editor of the Journal of Neolithic Archaeology and of the Journal of Glacial Archaeology, and also member of the editorial board of the Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology. I am also convener of the CAA SIG Scientific Scripting Languages in Archaeology and secretary of the CAA National Chapter Switzerland.

I regard quantitative methods as essential for archaeological research. That is why they represent a substantial aspect of my toolkit. This includes statistical analysis, spatial technologies (including GIS and spatial statistics), and dynamic modeling. You may find some screencasts and other posts regarding statistical method on this website.

Interests:

  • Archaeology of the Neolithic and early Bronze Age
  • Quantitative methods and statistics
  • Theoretical archaeology
  • Lakeshore settlements (‘Pile Dwellings’)
  • Megalithic
  • Radiocarbon dates
  • Demographic analysis
  • Spatial Statistics/Simulations
  • Software development for archaeological applications
  • Reproducible Research & Open science

Education:

  • MA in Archaeology, 2008
    • Kiel University
  • PhD in Archaeology, 2011
    • Kiel University

Publications (since 2015)

2023

  1. Heitz, C., Wunderlich, M., Hinz, M., & Furholt, M. (Eds.). (2023). Rethinking Neolithic Societies. New Perspectives on Social Relations, Political Organization and Cohabitation (Vol. 5). Sidestone Press.
  2. Dixon, E. J., Taylor, W., Hinz, M., & Hafner, A. (2023). Glacial Archaeology Goes Viral. Journal of Glacial Archaeology, 6, 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1558/jga.25722
  3. Brunner, M., Rutishauser, S., Hinz, M., Hübner, C., Laabs, J., & Medaric, I. (2023). Geophysikalische Untersuchungen der prähistorischen Grabhügel Abschlag/Mörderhübeli in Neuenegg. Jahrbuch Des Archäologischen Dienstes Des Kantons Bern, 2023, 174–182. https://doi.org/10.48350/186321
  4. Paquin, S., Albouy, B., Hinz, M., & Burke, A. (2023). Going New Places: Dispersal and Establishment of the Aurignacian Technocomplex in Europe During the Marine Isotopic Stage 3 (MIS 3). In Themes in Contemporary Archaeology (pp. 47–59). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34336-0_3
  5. Affolter, J., Wehren, H., Heitz, C., Stapfer, R., Emmenegger, L., Hinz, M., Thierrin-Michael, G., & Hafner, A. (2023). Linking Neolithic lakeshore settlements through raw material of siliceous artefacts. Journal of Lithic Studies, 10(1), 33 p. https://doi.org/10.2218/jls.4446
  6. Albouy, B., Paquin, S., Hinz, M., Wren, C. D., & Burke, A. (2023). The Last of Them: Investigating the Palaeogeography of the Last Neanderthals in Europe (Marine Isotopic Stage 3). In Themes in Contemporary Archaeology (pp. 27–45). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34336-0_2

2022

  1. Hinz, M., & Heitz, C. (2022). Unsupervised Classification of Neolithic Pottery From the Northern Alpine Space Using t-SNE and HDBSCAN. Open Archaeology, 8(1), 1183–1217. https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2022-0274
  2. Deza-Araujo, M., Morales-Molino, C., Conedera, M., Henne, P. D., Krebs, P., Hinz, M., Heitz, C., Hafner, A., & Tinner, W. (2022). A new indicator approach to reconstruct agricultural land use in Europe from sedimentary pollen assemblages. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 111051. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2022.111051
  3. Affolter, J., Emmenegger, L., Hafner, A., Heitz, C., Hinz, M., Stapfer, R., & Wehren, H. (2022). From flint provenance to mobility studies: New raw material determinations from Late Neolithic wetland sites at Lake Biel and Lake Constance. Quaternary International. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2021.05.027

2021

  1. Taylor, W. T. T., Dixon, E. J., Hafner, A., & Hinz, M. (2021). New Directions in a Warming World. Journal of Glacial Archaeology, 5, 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1558/jga.20547
  2. Weinelt, M., Kneisel, J., Schirrmacher, J., Hinz, M., & Ribeiro, A. (2021). Potential responses and resilience of Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age societies to mid-to Late Holocene climate change on the southern Iberian Peninsula. Environmental Research Letters, 16(5), 055007. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abd8a8
  3. Heitz, C., Laabs, J., Hinz, M., & Hafner, A. (2021). Collapse and Resilience in Prehistoric Archaeology: Questioning Concepts and Causalities in Models of Climate-Induced Societal Transformations (pp. 127–199). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81103-7_5
  4. Hinz, M. (2021). Megaliths, causewayed enclosures and social space in North Central Europe. In V. Ard, E. Mens, & M. Gandelin (Eds.), Mégalithismes et monumentalismes funéraires : passé, présent, futur (pp. 277–318). Sidestone Press.
  5. Heitz, C., Hinz, M., Laabs, J., & Hafner, A. (2021). Mobility as resilience capacity in northern Alpine Neolithic settlement communities. Archaeological Review from Cambridge, 36(1), 75–106. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.79042

2020

  1. Brunner, M., von Felten, J., Hinz, M., & Hafner, A. (2020). Central European Early Bronze Age chronology revisited: A Bayesian examination of large-scale radiocarbon dating. PLOS ONE, 15(12), e0243719. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243719
  2. Hinz, M. (2020). Sensitivity of Radiocarbon Sum Calibration. Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology, 3(1), 238–252. https://doi.org/10.5334/jcaa.53
  3. Schirrmacher, J., Kneisel, J., Knitter, D., Hamer, W., Hinz, M., Schneider, R. R., & Weinelt, M. (2020). Spatial patterns of temperature, precipitation, and settlement dynamics on the Iberian Peninsula during the Chalcolithic and the Bronze Age. Quaternary Science Reviews, 233, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106220
  4. Hafner, A., Hinz, M., Mazurkevich, A. N., Dolbunova, E. V., & Pranckenaite, E. (2020). Introduction: Neolithic and Bronze Age pile dwellings in Europe. In A. Hafner, E. Dolbunova, A. Mazurkevich, E. Pranckenaite, & M. Hinz (Eds.), Settling waterscapes in Europe The archaeology of Neolithic and Bronze Age pile-dwellings. (Vol. 1, pp. 1–6). Propylaeum.
  5. Hafner, A., Dolbunova, E., Mazurkevich, A., Pranckenaite, E., & Hinz, M. (Eds.). (2020). Settling waterscapes in Europe The archaeology of Neolithic and Bronze Age pile-dwellings. (Vol. 1). Propylaeum.

2019

  1. Hinz, M., Schirrmacher, J., Kneisel, J., Rinne, C., & Weinelt, M. (2019). The Chalcolithic–Bronze Age transition in southern Iberia under the influence of the 4.2 kyr event? A correlation of climatological and demographic proxies. Journal of Neolithic Archaeology, 21, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.12766/jna.2019.1
  2. Schmid, C., Seidensticker, D., & Hinz, M. (2019). c14bazAAR: An R package for downloading and preparing C14 dates from different source databases. Journal of Open Source Software. https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.01914
  3. Feeser, I., Dörfler, W., Kneisel, J., Hinz, M., & Dreibrodt, S. (2019). Human impact and population dynamics in the Neolithic and Bronze Age: Multi-proxy evidence from north-western Central Europe. The Holocene, 0(0), 0959683619857223. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683619857223
  4. Arponen, V. P. J., Dörfler, W., Feeser, I., Grimm, S., Groß, D., Hinz, M., Knitter, D., Müller-Scheeßel, N., Ott, K., & Ribeiro, A. (2019). Environmental determinism and archaeology. Understanding and evaluating determinism in research design. Archaeological Dialogues, 26(01), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1380203819000059
  5. Stapfer, R., Heitz, C., Hinz, M., & Hafner, A. (2019). Interdisciplinary examinations carried out on heterogeneous coarse ceramics from Neolithic lakeside settlements in the Northern Alpine Foreland (3900–3500 BCE): Analysis strategy and preliminary results from a test series using pXRF. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 25, 217–238. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2019.03.018
  6. Maria Wunderlich, Johannes Müller, & Martin Hinz. (2019). Diversified monuments: A chronological framework of the creation of monumental landscapes in prehistoric Europe. In Müller, Johannes, M. Hinz, & Wunderlich, Maria (Eds.), Megaliths – Societies – Landscapes (Number 18, pp. 25–29). Habelt.
  7. Müller, Johannes, Hinz, M., & Wunderlich, Maria. (2019). Megaliths – Societies – Landscapes (Number 18). Habelt.
  8. Martin Hinz, Johannes Müller, & Maria Wunderlich. (2019). The monumentalisation of European landscapes. In Müller, Johannes, M. Hinz, & Wunderlich, Maria (Eds.), Megaliths – Societies – Landscapes (Number 18, pp. 21–23). Habelt.

2018

  1. Schmid, C., Seidensticker, D., Knitter, D., Hinz, M., Matzig, D., Hamer, W., & Schmütz, K. (2018). c14bazAAR: Download and Prepare C14 Dates from Different Source Databases. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=c14bazAAR
  2. Mueller-Scheessel, N., Hinz, M., Schmid, C., Rinne, C., Knitter, D., Hamer, W., Seidensticker, D., Faupel, F., Tietze, C., & Grunert, N. (2018). mortAAR: Analysis of Archaeological Mortality Data. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=mortAAR
  3. Hinz, M., Schmid, C., Knitter, D., & Tietze, C. (2018). oxcAAR: Interface to ’OxCal’ Radiocarbon Calibration. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=oxcAAR
  4. Hinz, M. (2018). From Hunting to Herding? Aspects of the Social and Animal Landscape during the Southern Scandinavian Neolithic. In A. Haug, L. Käppel, & J. Müller (Eds.), Past Landscapes: The Dynamics of Interaction between Society, Landscape, and Culture (pp. 207–233). Sidestone Press. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2538016
  5. Stapfer, R. B., Heitz, C., Hinz, M., & Hafner, A. (2018). Portable Röntgenfluoreszenzanalytik (pXRF): Mit dem "Labor in der Hand" der Vergangenheit auf der Spur. In T. Burri & R. B. Stapfer (Eds.), Naturwissenschaftliche Methoden in der Archäologie (Vol. 75, pp. 136–155). Naturforschende Gesellschaft Bern. https://doi.org/10.7892/boris.126318
  6. Hinz, M., Furholt, M., & Mischka, D. (2018). Putting Things into Practice: Pragmatic Theory and the Exploration of Monumental Landscapes. In A. Haug, L. Käppel, & J. Müller (Eds.), Past Landscapes: The Dynamics of Interaction between Society, Landscape, and Culture (pp. 87–106). Sidestone Press. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2538019

2017

  1. Dreibrodt, S., Furholt, M., Hofmann, R., Hinz, M., & Cheben, I. (2017). P-ed-XRF-geochemical signatures of a 7300 year old Linear Band Pottery house ditch fill at Vráble- Ve’lké Lehemby, Slovakia - House inhabitation and post-depositional processes. Quaternary International, 438, 131–143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2017.03.054
  2. Rohde Krossa, V., Moros, M., Leduc, G., Hinz, M., Blanz, T., & Schneider, R. (2017). Regional climate change and the onset of farming in northern Germany and southern Scandinavia. The Holocene, 27(10), 1589–1599. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683617702223

2016

  1. Arponen, V. P. J., Mueller, J., Hofmann, R., Furholt, M., Ribeiro, A., Horn, C., & Hinz, M. (2016). Using the Capability Approach to Conceptualise Inequality in Archaeology: the Case of the Late Neolithic Bosnian Site Okolite c. 5200-4600 BCE. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 23(2), 541–560.

2015

  1. Nakoinz, O., & Hinz, M. (2015). Modelle in der Archäologie. In B. Thalheim & I. Nissen (Eds.), Wissenschaft und Kunst der Modellierung: Kieler Zugang zur Definition, Nutzung und Zukunft (Number 64, pp. 219–250). de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1185312
  2. Müller, J., Hinz, M., & Ulrich, M. (2015). Bell Beakers – chronology, innovation and memory: a multivariate approach. In M. P. Prieto Martinez & L. Salanova (Eds.), The Bell Beaker Transition in Europe: Mobility and local Evolution during the 3rd Millennium BC (pp. 57–68).
  3. Weinelt, M., Schwab, C., Kneisel, J., & Hinz, M. (2015). Climate and societal change in the western Mediterranean area around 4.2 ka BP. In H. Meller, H. W. Arz, R. Jung, & R. Risch (Eds.), 2200 BC - Ein Klimasturz als Ursache für den Zerfall der alten Welt: 7. Mitteldeutscher Archäologentag vom 23. bis 26. Oktober 2014 in Halle.
  4. Hage, F., Schafferer, G., & Hinz, M. (2015). Common motivation, different intentions? A multiscalar approach to the megalithic architecture of the Funnel Beaker North Group. In L. Laporte & C. Scarre (Eds.), The Megalithic Architectures of Europe.
  5. Hinz, M. (2015). Growth and Decline? Population dynamics of Funnel beaker societies in the 4th millenium BC. In K. Brink, S. Hydén, K. Jennbert, L. Larsson, & D. Olausson (Eds.), Neolithic Diversities : Perspectives from a conference in Lund, Sweden (Vol. 65, pp. 43–51).
  6. Hinz, M., & Kirleis, W. (2015). Stability in a changing world: insights from settlement intensity patterns and archaeobotany. In L. Laporte & C. Scarre (Eds.), The Megalithic Architectures of Europe.
  7. Hinz, M., & Müller, J. (2015). The Absolute Speed of Change: Multidimensional Scaling and Innovation Rates. Archaeometry, 57(3), 560–581.

For full publication list visit publications

Latest Blog Post

  • Dec 19, 2021 14C Calibration with JAGS

    Intro

    In this post I would like to continue what I have published already 4 years ago. This time I want to show how to calibrate a ¹⁴C-date using well-known Bayesian tools, specifically JAGS. JAGS stands for Just Another Gibbs Sampler, and is a program for analysing ‘Bayesian hierarchical models using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation’. This makes it clearly overqualified for our simple task, but it nicely shows a different perspective on the problem and also makes obvious the possibilities of how to extend this task even further.

  • Jan 23, 2017 14C Calibration the Bayesian way

    Appetizer

    With what follows I want to demonstrate that the basic functionality of Oxcal is reflected in this tiny bit of code:

    calf<-approxfun(intcal13[,1],intcal13[,2])

likelihood <- function(proposal){dnorm(calf(proposal),bp,std)}

#Setup
collector <- bp <- 3600; std <- 30; last_prob <- likelihood(bp)

for (i in 1:10000) {
  proposal <- rnorm(1, tail(collector,1), 3*std)
  proposal_prob <- likelihood(proposal)
  
  if ((proposal_prob/last_prob) > runif(1))
  {
    last_prob <- proposal_prob
  } else {
    proposal <- tail(collector,1)
  }
  
  collector <- c(collector, proposal)
}
  • Jun 3, 2016 14C Calibration 1

    Calibration of 14C dates is one of the more common tasks an archaeologists has to do. I will not go into the details of the details why calibration is necessary here (maybe in another post), but I want to give in this post and in some follow ups hands on instruction how a calibration can be archieved using R. This series will be published also at the ISAAKiel-Repository.

Find more at the blog section…

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