 So welcome to my presentation, Fire, Water, Mountain, on Ritual Sides on High Alpine Lakeshores. I will start with the results of excavations from the years 2016 to 2018 at Lake Alcus, where black charcoal-rich layers indicate a ritual site for burnt offering. Based on these examples and other similar sites on lakeshores in the Alpine region, I want to discuss the small part of the general phenomenon of Alpine brandopfer bletze. After this, I will finish with food for thought about natural places as ritual sites. The area under study is in the region of the Hohendauern mountain range in the eastern part of the Alcs. Lake Alcus is a high Alpine lake at 2,400 meters altitude. It is surrounded by mountain peaks over topping the lake, the highest of them above 3,000 meters altitude. Excess is possible from the Isle Valley or above mountain reaches. It is part of a high mountainous landscape, also including plateaus and another lake. Archaeological work has been carried out in this area since 2006. The project led by Harald Stadler of the Department of Archaeologies at the University of Innsbruck investigates the use of high Alpine sites from Alpine grazing to aspects of ritual covering a time span of 4,000 years. I'm writing my master thesis on the results of the excavation work. On the timeline, some findings of surveys using metal detectors are pictured ranging from a Bronze Age dagger blade and a pin with a spherical head to Roman imperial age fibula and beer heads to medieval horseshoes and modern small finds. The sacrificial site is located on the southern shore of the lake on a small hill. The view is directed to the water as the lake is surrounded by mountains on three sides and facing the valley. There is a large rounded up boulder locking the view and closing in the site. Two hills and their flanks reaching to the shore of the lake were examined in more detail. While on the eastern one named Structure 6 only a few pieces of pottery could be found the western one named as Structure 5 seems to be the main ritual site. Two trenches on the top of the hill brought to light layers of stones and charcoal. In the cross section a shallow pit is visible I've marked it on the presentation. Here the mass of coal and stones are piled up. In this area small pieces of cultivated bones are scattered. Calcinating is a process happening when the collagen inside the bone is burned out in great heat and only the white calcium is left. This kind of find appears regularly at similar sites and is interpreted as indicator for bloody sacrifices. The red and yellow points in the layout plan indicate Roman period finds in this area but more of them later. The green dots indicate pieces of ceramic. The only diagnostic pieces found from this trench are pictured on the left hand side three pieces of a reddish pottery with a nub. On the northern side of the hill facing Lake Alkus a single layer of stone slabs surrounded by soil mixed with charcoal could be indicated. Here different phases can be traced. The first phase is constituted by charcoal rich soil mixed with shirts of chucks and pots. The burnt residue seemed to be washed downwards the hillside coming from the top of the hill. This is implied by the pattern of the shirts that follow a depression in the hillside as the red dots illustrate. Also rounded up fractures and slurred decoration indicate a secondary relocation of the shirts I've pictured some of them on the presentation. The area had been covered up with stones as it is visible in the picture. Above this layer single pieces of ceramic could be found. The stones are partially altered through heat so similar fires, smaller fires can be assumed also on the hillside in the later phase. The ceramic found on this side consists of shirt of Lauging pottery dating to the late Bronze Age from 1200 to 1000 BC. Most prominent are pieces from richly decorated chucks and pots as you can see. A second activity phase is visible through simple Polish bowls. They find parallels to early Iron Age sites dating to the 8th century BC. Surveys using metal detectors showed 16 free bullets from late Latin to Roman period together with shoe nails. Shirts of a single pot seem to be buried at the top of the hill. The fibula range from middle Latin type a widespread type which was in use between the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD to Roman period types of fibula which are quite common in the area and the large soldiers fibula you can see the large one on the top. Two fibula from the crusader type reached to the 4th century AD. The wider area is embedded in a cultural landscape used from the Bronze Age onwards. The Plato-Bocce Bowl is approached on a path to Lake Alcus. Here a second votive site had been excavated. I have marched it with a star. A dating to late Bronze Age or early Iron Age time is suggested here for the older phase. In the second phase from latest Latin to Roman period from the 1st century BC to the 2nd century AD the site is visited again. The rites include activities for fire as also here root charcoal and pieces of lint and quartite indicate they were used for fire striking. In the second phase the still visible stone structure of the earlier sacrificial site might have been appreciated by the people visiting the area. These people came as shepherds as a hut connected to bends in the central area of the high plateau indicates. It could be identified as a late Latin to early Roman period shepherds hut with is dated through dendrodating in a period of 80 to 40 BC. Similar sites can be found in the eastern central region of the Alps as well as one at Lac des Sarniers in the western Alps. Well, the sites at Lakeshores in the central Alps have a focus on the late Bronze Age period Lauguen A from 1,000 to 200 to 1,000 BC at Lac des Sarniers see 14 dates indicate human presence at the top of an artificial mound between 800 to 500 BC. Well, the main focus is here in the late Latin period. At Lac des Sarniers pits contain charcoal rich material and pottery shirt. One of them is covered up with stones. A mapping of late Bronze Age burnt sacrificial sites beginning in the last quarter of the second millennial BC shows a concentration of sites in the central Alps from the southern Alps to the Alpine foothills. These sites of roti fires are characterized by residues from fire. Objects interpreted as offerings and calcinated bones creating the phenomenon of brandopfer bletze. Central are bloody sacrifices of livestock. Additional offering like field crops, offering of fluids, fruits and incenses can also be assumed. Brandopfer bletze occur from later early Bronze Age around 1,700 BC onwards to Iron Age. Some even going past Roman occupation to the 3rd century AD with small finds like coins. Many of the sites interpreted as a brandopfer bletze are topographical outstanding positions. One possibility is on the shore of high Alpine lakes and five such lakes matching finds are known. At the Schwarzsee in Philandus, three smaller lakes lay on a high mountain plain. At the shore of one of them, a layer with charcoal as well as paving made from stones with phrases of heat could be documented. Calcinated bones deriving mostly from sheep and goats, body parts with little meat are represented over proportionally. Pieces of pottery were spread in the area. Partially, they could be reassembled to hold pots and jars. The most common type of pottery also are these pots and jars from the Laun type and one needle and pieces of slag complete the votives. The site has been visited with interruptions from the 13th century BC to the 8th or 7th century BC. In an area with rich ore deposits, a Bronze Age smelting site is nearby. The pieces of slag might indicate a connection. The Grubensee is on a high plateau on 2,400 meters altitude. It is surrounded by mountain peaks that limit the view. A layer of burnt residues is covered by stone slabs, which is dated by pieces of late Bronze Age pottery of the Laugen Age type, mostly pots, jugs, and bowls. Marks of calcinated bones are found in the younger Iron Age phase. A needle dating to the 12th century BC had be found deposited one meter away from the lake. A single Chateau Saphibula dates to the second half of the 5th to the start of the 4th century BC. Stray metal finds around the ring of stone. Maybe an Iron Age burning altar started the 2nd century BC. From a high plateau nearby, structures from the 9th century onwards indicate alpine pasturing. The site at Schölberg-Göger is notable for the preserved wooden shovels. More than hundreds of those were detected in a boggy ground. They date to the 9th to 6th century BC, a still visible mound in the area would have overlooked the now-sealeded up lake. On this mound, oval pits are filled up with charcoal-rich material and covered up with stones. Here, pieces of pottery from the type Laugen Age and a needle had been found. Activities in the area date from 1200 to 500 BC. From Lake Anwas, only stray finds are known. On the southeast shore of the lake, a tip with strewn ceramic had been discovered. Some pieces show characteristics of Laugen-Mellon type pottery. You can see them. Without further excavations, a sacrificial site can't be stated with any certainty as not all characteristics of a brand-of-a-blood are matched. But the location of this type of pottery in 2500 meters altitude is quite suspicious. At Lake Sand, the holy lake, a small mound at the southern shore of the lake or traces of charcoal, the ceramic points also to Lake Bronze Age here. Some pieces may also have an early Iron Age date. One needle can only be dated to Bronze Age. The other one is Lake Bronze Age. Lake Sand lays on a pathway to a mountain top called Peak where ceramics from Lake Bronze Age to early Iron Age had been found. The brand-of-a-blood at high alpine lakeshores are connected through a ritual centered around bloody sacrifices of animals, mainly sheep and goats, and fire, respectively, the burning of votive offerings. All share the appearance of ceramic of the type Laugen-A with an emphasis on chucks and pots. Those delicately decorated Laugen-Chucks are sometimes interpreted as sacred due to their characteristic knobs also as feminine, a topic that demands further discussion. In the valley, they are also found in settlements while transport of the delicate vessels in high-altitudinal sites for practical use is at least an economic. The ritual is taking place at an outstanding location at the margins of the cultivated land. All lakes mentioned are only accessible through our limited time of the year. As the pictures of Lake Alcos demonstrate, they have changing expressions. Maybe I'll go back so you'll see them better. With different weather and seasons, the sites themselves are simple, often only small mounds archeologically. The rights taking place can be proved only by the remains of activity as the charcoal layers and the shirts of pottery. The sites at high alpine lakeshores bring together the aspect of water, often connected to the idea of a doorway to an underworld and mountainous sites seen as their ways to heaven. In the combination of both aspects, they express a double liminality with a filter enforced by the effect of fire and the burial of remains under stones. Central actions of the cult seems to be the actions that take place during the ritual, like the burning fire, the objects and animals that are brought from the valley and above all the place itself. Thank you for your attention and I'm looking forward to the discussion panel and further questions.