The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe

by Chris Fowler

  Visible manifestation of burials Isolated and rare burials

  Social stratification developing in the PPNB No apparent social stratification

  Cult buildings Absence of cult buildings

  Anthropomorphic statuary Absence of anthropomorphic statuary

  Abundance of figurines Rarity or absence of figurines

  Stone vessels Pottery

  CONCLUSION

  The Neolithization of the Mediterranean was not the single diffusion of a monolithic cultural, economic, and social model. Its spread is characterized by periodic breaks and the cultural transformation of the original model—especially in central Anatolia, then the western Aegean, and finally the western populations of the impressed ceramic family. The early Neolithic of the Mediterranean is therefore not a homogeneous entity but is culturally varied across space.

  REFERENCES

  Ammerman, A. and Cavalli-Sforza, L. 1984. The Neolithic transition and the genetics of populations in Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

  Aurenche, O. and Kozlowski, S. 1999. La Naissance du Néolithique au Proche-Orient. Paris: Errance.

  Bar Yosef, O. 2006. L’impact des changements climatiques du Dryas récent et de l’Holocène inférieur sur les sociétés de chasseurs-cueilleurs et d’agriculteurs au Proche-Orient. In E. Bard (ed.), L’Homme Face au Climat, 283–301. Paris: O. Jacob.

  Barfield, L. 2000. Commercio e scambio nel Neolitico dell’ Italia Settentrionale. In A. Pessina and G. Muscio (eds), La Neolitizzazione tra Oriente et Occidente, 55–66. Museo Friulano di Storia Naturale, Udine.

  Berger, J.-F. and Guilaine, J. 2006. The 8200 cal BP abrupt environmental change and the Neolithic transition: a Mediterranean perspective. Quaternary International 200, May 2009, 31–49.

  Bernabeu, J. 1989. La Tradición Cultural de las Ceramicas Impresas en la Zona Oriental de la Peninsula Iberica. Valencia: Servicio de Investigación Prehistórica.

  Bernabeu, J., Orozco Köhler, T., Castillo, A.D., Gomez Puche, M., and Molina Fernandez, F.-J. 2003. Mas d’Is (Peñaguila, Amicante): aldeas y recintos monumentales del Neolitico inicial en el valle del Serpis. Trabajos de Prehistoria 60, 39–59.

  Bernabo Brea, L. 1950. Il neolitico a ceramica impressa e la sua diffusione nel Mediterraneo. Rivista di Studi Liguri 3, 25–36.

  Biagi, P. 2003. A review of the Late Mesolithic in Italy and its implication for the Neolithic Transition. In P. Biagi and A. Ammerman (eds), The widening harvest. The Neolithic transition in Europe. Looking back, looking forward, 133–155. Boston: Archaeological Institute of America.

  Biagi, P. and Spataro, M. 2000. Plotting the evidence: some aspects of the Radiocarbon chronology of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the Mediterranean basin. Atti della Societá per la Preistoria e la Protostoria della regione Friuli Venezia Giulia XII, 15–54.

  Binford, L. 2000. Review of Faunal excavations in an Island Society: Pygmy Hippopotamus hunters of the Akrotiri peninsula, Cyprus. American Antiquity 65, 771.

  Broodbank, C. and Strasser, T.F. 1991. Migrant farmers and the Neolithic colonisation of Crete. Antiquity 65, 233–245.

  Cauvin, J. 1994. Naissance des Divinités, Naissance de L’ agriculture. Paris: Editions du CNRS.

  Colledge, S. 2001. Plant Exploitation on Epipaleolithic and Early Neolithic Sites in the Levant. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.

  Colledge, S. 2004. Reappraisal of the archaeobotanical evidence for the emergence and dispersal of the ‘founder crops’. In E. Peltenburg and A. Wasse (eds), Neolithic revolution. New perspectives on Southwest Asia in light of recent discoveries on Cyprus, 49–60. Levant Supplementary Series 1.

  Efstratiou, N., Karetsou, A., Banou, E., and Margomenou, D. 2004. The Neolithic settlement of Knossos. In G. Cadogan, E. Hatzaki, and A. Vasikilis (eds), Knossos: Palace, City, State, 12, 39–49. Athens: British School at Athens.

  Evans, J. 1964. Excavations in the Neolithic settlement of Knossos 1957-1960. Part I. The Annual of the British School at Athens 59, 132–240.

  Forenbaher, S. and Miracle, P. 2005. The spread of farming in the eastern Adriatic. Antiquity 79, 514–528.

  Fugazzola Delpino, M.-A., Pessina, A., and Tiné, V. 2002. Le Ceramiche Impresse nel Neolitico Antico. Italia e Mediterraneo. Rome: Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato.

  Galiberti, A. 2005. Defensola. Una Miniera di Selce di 7000 Anni Fà. Siena.

  Garfinkel, Y. 1999. The Yarmoukians: Neolithic Art from Sha’ar Hagolan. Jerusalem: Bible Lands Museum.

  Guilaine, J. 2003. De la Vague à la Tombe. La Conquête Néolithique de la Méditerranée. Paris: Seuil.

  Guilaine, J. and Briois, F. 2006. Shillourokambos and the Neolithization of Cyprus: some reflections. Eurasian Prehistory 4(1–2), 159–175.

  Guilaine, J. and Cremonesi, G. 2003. Torre Sabea. Un établissement du Néolithique Ancien en Salento. Collection de l’Ecole Française de Rome 315.

  Guilaine, J. and Le Brun, A. (eds) 2003. Le Néolithique de Chypre. Athens: Supplément 43 au Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique.

  Guilaine, J. and Manen, C. 2007. From Mesolithic to early Neolithic in the western Mediterranean. In A. Whittle and C. Cummings (eds), Going over: he Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in north-west Europe, 21–51. Oxford: British Academy.

  Guilaine, J., Manen, C., and Vigne, J.-D. 2007. Pont de Roque Haute. Nouveaux regards sur le Néolithique de la France méditerranéenne. Toulouse: EHESS/CRPPM.

  Jones, G.B.D. 1987. Apulia. London: Society of Antiquaries.

  Juan Cabanilles, J. and Marti, B. 2002. Poblamiento y procesos culturales en la Peninsula Iberica del VII al V mileno A.C. (8000-5000 BP). Una cartografia de la neolitización. In E. Badal, J. Bernabeu Auban, and B. Marti (eds), El Paisaje en el Neolitico Mediterráneo, 45–87. Valencia: Saguntum Extra, Universidad de Valencia.

  Kozlowski, J.K. 2007. Western Anatolia, the Aegean Basin and the Balkans in the Neolithization of Europe. In M. Spataro and P. Biagi (eds), A Short Walk through the Balkans: the First Farmers of the Carpathian Basin and Adjacent Regions, 39–52. Trieste: Società per la Preistoria e Protostoria della Regione Friuli-Venezia-Giulia.

  Le Brun, A. 1984. Fouilles récentes à Khirokitia (Chypre) (1977-1981). Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations.

  Le Brun, A. 1989. Fouilles récentes à Khirokitia (Chypre) (1983-1986). Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations.

  Le Brun, A. 1994. Fouilles récentes à Khirokitia (Chypre) (1988-1991). Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations.

  Le Mière, M. and Picon M. 1999. Les débuts de la céramique au Proche-Orient, Paléorient 24 (2), 5–26.

  Martini, F. 1996. I Complessi preneolitici in Italia meridionale: processi di differenziazione delle industrie litiche. In V. Tiné (ed.), Forme e Tempi Della Neolitizzazione in Italia Meridionale e in Sicilia, 35–47. Rossano: Rubettino.

  McCartney, C., Manning, S.W., Servell, D., and Stewart, S.S. 2007. The EENC 2006 field season. Excavations at Agia Varvara-Asprokremnos and survey of the local early Holocene landscape, 27–44. Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus.

  Maggi, R. 1997. Arene Candide. A Functional and Environmental Assessment of the Holocene Sequence. Rome: Memorie dell’Instituto Italiano di Paleontologia Umana 5.

  Manen, C. 2000. Le Néolithique Ancien Entre Rhône et Èbre. Analyse des Céramiques Décorées, thèse, EHESS, Toulouse (3 volumes).

  Müller, J. 1994. Das Ostadriatische Frühneolithikum. Die Impresso-Kultur und die Neolithisierung des Adriaraumes. Berlin: Volker Spiess.

  Özdoğan, M. and Başgelen N. 1999. Neolithic in Turkey. The cradle of civilization. Istanbul: Arkeoloji ve Sanat Yayinlari.

  Peltenburg, E. 2003. The colonisation and settlement of Cyprus. Investigation at Kissonerga-Mylouthkia (1976-1996), Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology. Säveladen: P. Aströms Forlag.

  Peltenburg, E. and Wasse, A. (eds) 2004. Neolithic revolution. New perspectives on southern Asia in light of recent discoveries on Cyprus: Council for British Archaeology in the Levant
.

  Perlès, C. 1990. Les Industries Lithiques Taillées de Franchthi (Argolide, Grèce). II. Les industries du Mésolithique et du Néolithique initial, Excavations at Franchthi Cave, 5. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

  Perlès, C. 2003. The Early Neolithic in Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  Pessina, A. and Muscio, G. (eds) 2000. La Neolitizzazione tra Oriente e Occidente. Udine: Museo Friulano di Storia Naturale.

  Pessina, A. and Tiné, V. 2008. Archeologia del Neolitico. L’Italia tra VI e IV Millennio A.C. Roma: Carocci.

  Reingruber, A. 2008. Die Argissa-Magula. Das Frühe und das Beginnende Mittlere Neolithikum im dichte Transägäischer Beziehungen. Bonn: R. Habelt.

  Schmidt, K. 2006. Sie bauten die ersten Tempel. München: Verlag C. H. Beck.

  Simmons, A.H. 1999. Faunal Extinction in an Island Society. Pygmy Hippopotamus Hunters in Cyprus. New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow: Kluwer Academy/Plenum Publishers.

  Sordinas, A. 1969. Investigations of the prehistory of Corfou during 1964-1966. Balkan Studies 10 (2), 393–424.

  Spataro, M. 2002. The first farming communities of the Adriatic: pottery production and circulation in the Early and Middle Neolithic. Trieste: Società per la Preistoria e Protostoria della Regione Friuli-Venezia-Giula 9.

  Theocharis, D.R. 1973. Neolithic Greece. Athens: National Bank of Greece.

  Tiné, S. 1983. Passo di Corvo et la Civiltà Neolitica del Tavoliere. Genova: Sagep.

  Tiné, S. 1999. Il Neolitico Nella Caverna delle Arene Candide (Scavi 1972-1977). Bordighera: Instituto ternazionale di Studi Liguri.

  Tiné, V. (ed.) 1996. Forme et Tempi della Neolitizzazione in Italia Meridionale et Sicilia (2 volumes). Rossano: Rubbettino.

  Trump, D. 1983. La grotta di Filiestru a Bonu Ighinu, Mara (SS). Sassari: Soprintendenza ai Beni Archeologici per le Province di Sassari e Nuoro.

  Tykot, R.H. 1992. The sources and distribution of Sardinian obsidian. In R.H. Tykot and T.K. Andrews (eds), Sardinian in the Mediterranean. A footprint in the sea, 57–70. Sheffield: Sheffield University Press.

  Van Willigen, S. 2006. Die Neolithisierung im nordwestlichen Mittelmeerraum. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.

  Weninger B., Alram-Stern, E., Bauer, E., Clare, L., Danzeglocke, U., Jöris, C., Berbatzki, C., Rollefson, G., Todorova, H., and van Andel, T. 2006. Climate forcing due to the 8200 BP Event observed at Early Neolithic sites in the eastern Mediterranean. Quaternary Research 66, 401–420.

  Zeder, M.A. 2008. Domestication and early agriculture in the Mediterranean Basin: origins, diffusion and impact. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 105(11), 597–604.

  CHAPTER 5

  CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

  WOLFRAM SCHIER

  INTRODUCTION

  EVER since Gordon Childe’s pioneering syntheses of the Neolithic in south-eastern and central Europe (Childe 1929), the movement of ideas and/or people has played a crucial role in research on the beginning of the Neolithic. It was soon recognized that wild predecessors of sheep, goat, and domesticated plant species are unknown in central and eastern Europe and were thus introduced. Childe’s view of Neolithic colonists migrating from the Near East remained unchallenged until the early 1980s, when a debate was initiated about the contribution of hunter-gatherers to Neolithization. German-speaking archaeology started this discourse a decade later (see ‘Demic diffusion or spread of ideas?’), and in eastern Europe migrationist models dominated until the 1990s. Whilst these issues have been debated most widely for the beginning of the Neolithic, they are considered here alongside the later spread and transfer of knowledge, technology, and ideology.

  THE SIXTH MILLENNIUM

  Neolithization of Central Europe

  The first food-producing population of central Europe, expanding into eastern Europe as far as western Ukraine, is archaeologically identifiable as the Linearbandkeramik (LBK). In its earlier phase its distribution stretches from the Rhine to Volynia and from north-western Hungary to central Poland and northern Germany (Fig. 5.1).

  FIG. 5.1. Distribution of earliest LBK, 5500–5300 BC (A) and early to late LBK, 5300–4900 BC (B). The dotted line indicates the northern limit of loess distribution. After Bogucki 2000, fig. 8.1.

  For several decades LBK research has been centred in the lower Rhine area, in northern Bohemia, and, increasingly, in the Paris basin. Except for Bohemia, these areas lie outside the core area of the earliest LBK (5600–5300 BC). A large-scale project dedicated to this formative stage of the central European Neolithic, conducted by Lüning between 1983 and 1993 (Lüning 1988; Kreuz 1990; Gronenborn 1997; Cladders 2001; Stäuble 2005) yielded a lot of new information about settlement, lithic distribution systems, dating, and regional variation of the earliest LBK. It could not, however, solve the question of the origin of LBK longhouses, which, unlike the domesticates, were unknown to the Starčevo–Körös culture of the Carpathian Basin and the Balkan peninsula (Bánffy 2004, 51–71).

  As early as 1960, Quitta suggested the hilly region around Lake Balaton, in northern Hungary, as the possible origin of the LBK, since only here could a contact zone with the Starčevo–Körös culture (6000–5400 BC) have existed (Quitta 1960). Only recently has intensive research and large-scale excavation at the site of Szentgyörgyvölgy–Pityerdomb, south of Lake Balaton, uncovered transitional material combining traits of both the Starčevo and earliest LBK, alongside domestic structures resembling the central parts of LBK longhouses (Bánffy 2004).

  New dates from north-west Hungary agree with the dates for the earliest LBK in the Vienna basin, at Schwanfeld (north Bavaria), or at Eitzum, 800km north-west of Lake Balaton (Stäuble 2005, 218–260; Lenneis and Stadler 2002). Thus, in contrast to the still popular ‘Wave of Advance’ model (Ammermann and Cavalli-Sforza 1973), no geographical gradient is recognizable in the distribution of dates, suggesting the rapid spread of this new way of life.

  Who was First? Earliest Farmers in Western Central Europe

  Regardless of the models used to explain their spread, the first domesticated animals (cattle, sheep/goat, pig), cereals (einkorn, emmer, spelt, naked barley), and pulses (pea, lentil) in central Europe are firmly associated with the LBK population. As early as 1982, however, Bakels published the first evidence of a species cultivated by LBK farmers on the Lower Rhine (Bakels 1982) which does not belong to the ‘Neolithic package’ ultimately derived from the Near East—poppy seeds (Papaver somniferum).

  Their implication was fully grasped only towards the end of that decade, when a new early Neolithic phenomenon was identified in south-west Germany, Alsace, and the Swiss Jura mountains—the La Hoguette group (Lüning et al. 1989), named after finds from the basal layer of a remote megalithic cairn in Normandy (Jeunesse 1987). East of the Rhine, this group occurs almost exclusively as ceramic intrusions in refuse pits of the earliest LBK; west of the Rhine and scattered across Alsace and north-western Switzerland, where no earliest LBK existed, isolated La Hoguette assemblages are known mainly from cave deposits. No houses or camp structures are associated with this group, but there is scant evidence for the keeping of sheep/goat and the cultivation of cereals (Strien and Tillmann 2001). La Hoguette pottery, with its impressed decoration and characteristic bone temper, could have been derived from west Mediterranean Cardial/Epicardial traditions (Stöckli 1995, 24–25; Gronenborn 1999, 138–140), and since wild poppy has a western Mediterranean home area (Bakels 1982, fig. 1), the La Hoguette farmers were suspected of having brought this cultivated plant of non-oriental origin into western central Europe.

  The dating evidence for the La Hoguette group is still rather scant due to the small number of attributable sites, but it pre-dates the earliest LBK. Thus, even two decades after the emergence of La Hoguette in the landscape of Neolithic research, the question remains open as to who were the first farmers along the Upper Rhine, where the rapid expansion of the earliest LBK stalled for two to three centuries. It cannot even be ruled out that the La
Hoguette group marks the westernmost end of a northern Eurasian tradition of pottery using Mesolithic populations.

  Demic Diffusion or Spread of Ideas? New Evidence about an Old Debate

  Before 1990 the Neolithization of central Europe was mainly seen as the result of colonizing farmers migrating into densely wooded areas. Considering the scarce evidence for late Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in the fertile loess regions, their role and participation in Neolithization appeared negligible. Sielmann’s (1971) Ökologiekreis hypothesis, a truly processual model, described the colonization process as an attempt by first farmers to minimize adaptation stress by searching for the ecological conditions most similar to their origin area. Lüning (1988) firmly maintained the colonization hypothesis in a broad synthesis on the LBK, and, using radiocarbon dates, suggested a rapid spread. He considered changes in mentality and society more likely causes than environmental factors.

  In the early 1990s the Neolithization debate was resumed with a shift of focus towards the indigenous Mesolithic population. Tillmann (1993) challenged the notion of LBK colonization, emphasizing continuity in lithic technology (mainly the primarily facetted striking platform) between the late Mesolithic and earliest LBK. He observed a different technique of core preparation in La Hoguette assemblages, which he traced back to another Mesolithic tradition of Swiss and southern French origin. Technological continuity in lithic production is thus seen as indicating the indigenous adaptation of a new subsistence strategy.

  On a regional scale, Kind (1998), influenced by the ‘availability’ model of Zvelebil and Rowley-Conwy (1984, 1986), argued for coexistence and interaction of earliest LBK, final Mesolithic, and La Hoguette groups in the Upper Neckar valley, south-west Germany. He suggested cultural diffusion and acculturation of indigenous complex hunter-gatherer communities, without completely ruling out immigration of small farming groups.