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Three variants are recognized:
The Western Linear Pottery variant, the first known, was assigned the name Linearbandkeramik in the German language by the initial investigators. This name has remained the same since then and is not likely to change. English names have changed often. The earliest generally accepted name was Danubian, which is only rarely used now, since the death of its originator, V. Gordon Childe. Currently most names are attempts to translate Linearbandkeramik into good English. No name has the authority and universality of Linearbandkeramik. The problem continues. A number of cultures ultimately replaced the Linear Pottery culture over its range, but there is no one-to-one correspondance between its variants and the replacing cultures. The culture map instead is complex. Some of the successor cultures are the Hinkelstein , Großgartach , Rössen , Lengyel , Cucuteni , and Boian-Maritza . Extent and duration The LBK at maximum extent ranged from about the line of the Seine — Oise ( Paris Basin ) eastward to the line of the Vistula and upper Dniester , and southward to the line of the upper Danube down to the big bend. An extension ran through the Western Bug River valley, leaped to the valley of the Dniester, and swerved southward from the middle Dniester to the lower Danube in eastern Romania , east of the Carpathians . The LBK did not begin with this range and only reached it toward the end of its time. It began in regions of densest occupation on the middle Danube ( Bohemia , Moravia , Hungary ) and spread over about 1500 km along the rivers in 360 years. The rate of expansion was therefore about 4 km per year, which can hardly be called an invasion or a wave and does not offer much support to theories of population replacement. A model of gradual colonization is perhaps most apt. The LBK was concentrated somewhat inland from the coastal areas; i.e., it is not evidenced in Denmark or the northern coastal strips of Germany and Poland , or the coast of the Black Sea in Romania . The northern coastal regions remained occupied by Mesolithic cultures exploiting the then fabulously rich Atlantic Salmon runs. There are lighter concentrations of LBK in the Low Countries , such as at Elsloo , and at the mouths of the Oder and Vistula . Evidently, the Neolithics and Mesolithics were not excluding each other; in fact, some use the concepts of "permeable border" or "mosaic" to describe the northern interface between the two. A good many C-14 dates have been acquired on the LBK. One Calibration analysis (under external links below) sets 68.2% confidence limits at about 5430-5040 BC; that is, 68.2% of possible dates allowed by variation of the major factors that influence measurement, calculation and calibration fall within that range. The 95.4% Confidence Interval is 5600-4750 BC. Analyses of this type depend on the data, which continues to vary, and therefore should be taken as a rough guideline only. The reader should be aware also that 31.8% and 4.6% of the dates would fall outside the stated ranges. Overall it is probably safe to say that the Linear Pottery culture spanned several hundred years of continental European prehistory in the late 6th and early 5th millennia BC, with local variations. Data from Belgium indicates a late survival of LBK there, as late as 4100 BC. The pottery styles of the LBK allow some division of its window in time:
Note that the early and middle LBK are considered the Early Neolithic. In Childe's Danubian scheme (according to the Ehrlich reference below), the early Neolithic LBK was Danubian Ia, while the stroked phase was Danubian Ib. It was considered an irregular survival of I in II, the Middle Neolithic. The LBK phase was identical to Gimbutas' early LBK. II refers to the cultures that replaced LBK, but today you might find the Stroked lumped in with II and the Ia, Ib distinction dropped. As the culture is to some degree of greater interest, being the first of agricultural Europe, the process of discovery and definition continues. Some writers and investigators may use alternative names, such as early and earliest, etc. No name is the single authoritative point of view (except for Linearbandkeramik). Origins Most scholars derive the LBK culture from the Starcevo-Körös culture of Northern Serbia and Hungary , but some would argue for an autochthonous development out of the local Mesolithic cultures. Supporting the Starcevo-Körös origin is the fact that the LBK appeared earliest ca. 5600-5400 BC on the middle Danube in the Starcevo range. Presumably, the expansion northwards of early Starcevo-Körös produced a local variant reaching the upper Tisza that may have well been created by contact with native Epi-Paleolithic people. This small group began a new tradition of pottery, substituting engravings for the paintings of the Balkan cultures. The site of Brunn am Gebirge just south of Vienna seems to document the transition to LBK. The site was densely settled in a long house pattern approximately 5550-5200. The lower layers feature Starcevo-type plain pottery, with large number of stone tools made of material from near Lake Balaton, Hungary. Over the time frame, LBK pottery gradually increases, animal husbandry increases, and the use of stone tools decreases. The demographics question remains open. There is now genetic evidence about the population of the LBK. A comparison of Mitochondrial DNA from 24 LBK skeletons at 16 locations in Germany , Austria and Hungary by Peter Forster of the University Of Cambridge , Joachim Burger of the Johannes Gutenberg University Of Mainz , and others, finds that the LBK population left only a minute genetic trace among moderns, a surprising result considering their impact on the environment and development of culture in Europe. The explanation of the researchers is that the LBK population was never a very large one, and that they settled in a mosaic pattern, assimilating larger numbers of Mesolithic s. They were, so to speak, the heralds of a new way of life adopted by the general population of Europe. Demographic analysis of the human remains, however, indicate a 20-30% rise in the number of 5-19-year-olds in the cemeteries, an event termed the Neolithic Demographic Transition (NDT). It is thought to represent in increase in birth rate. If the genetic evidence is being accurately interpreted, the population that increased cannot have been primarily immigrant. The rare genetic types would suggest an immigration. The previous non-genetic arguments for immigration were strong: sheep and goats were imported from southeast Europe, LBK settlement patterns were radically different from the Mesolithic, the pottery appeared fully developed, and the culture is uniform, which is not what you would expect of local Mesolithic traditions. In this regard, the relationship of the LBK immigrants to the indigenes has acquired increasing interest. Critics of the peaceful entry theory, appearing most lately as the "Gimbutas model", subscribe to a forced entry theory, similar to the "killer ape" ideas of Robert Ardrey . Were the LBK people warlike and did they enter Europe in war? In answering this question in the affirmative, the advocates of the killer invader theory often confuse the earlier entry with the later exit of the LBK culture. It had to defend itself against incoming cultures (who spoke Indo-European Languages ) and was destroyed by them or came under the dominion of them. The obvious sites of massacres and defensive works belong mainly to this human interface and not the earlier. The archaeology tells a varied story. There were some walls and ditches indicating the necessity for some defence. But against whom? The fortifications are not the general rule and can just as well be explained by local contention. For the most part the settlements were unfortified. Claims that the adze was a significant war weapon and that the arrowheads were used for war contrast with the contemporaneous Indo-European cultures, who were imbued with a long-standing interest in war. The Indo-Europeans had several kinds of arrowheads and spearpoints, honored their chiefs with cup-crashing funeral skoals, and buried their less fortunate children with daggers at their sides, and the chiefs with daggers in their hands. The LBK does not evidence this general interest. Many scholars are building a new model based on the "invisible presence" of the Mesolithics. Most of them, such as the Ertebølle Culture , owned pottery. In contrast to former belief, they were hunting the horse and wild cattle in the open forests of Atlantic Period Europe. They may have adapted to new ways and assimilated to the immigrants so rapidly as to be "invisible" to archaeology now; that is to say, there are traces of possible non-LBK elements in many LBK sites, such as Limburger pottery with LBK pottery in LBK trash pits. No evidence at all, of course, would require a presupposition of non-existence, according to the principle of scientific economy. Important sites include Nitra in Slovakia ; Bylany in the Czech Republic ; Langweiler and Zwenkau in Germany ; Brunn Am Gebirge in Austria ; Elsloo , Sittard , Köln-Lindenthal , Aldenhoven , Flomborn and Rixheim on the Rhine; Lautereck and Hienheim on the upper Danube; Rössen and Sonderhausen on the middle Elbe. Variants Early or Western Linear Pottery culture The term, Linear Band Ware, is a mnemonic of the pottery's decorative technique. The "Band Ware" or Bandkeramik part of it began as an innovation of the German archaeologist, Friedrich Klopfleisch (1831-1898), in his work, published in 1882, ''"Die Grabhügel von Leubingen, Sömmerda und Nienstädt. Voraufgehend: allgemeine Einleitung. Charakteristik und Zeitfolge der Keramik."'' But, in selecting the words "Band" and "Linear", the initial investigators were depending à priori on certain assumptions:
Since Starcevo-Körös pottery was earlier than the LBK and was located in a contiguous food-producing region, the early investigators looked for precedents there. Much of the Starcevo-Körös pottery features decorative patterns composed of convolute bands of paint: spirals, converging bands, vertical bands, and so on. The LBK appears to imitate and improve these convolutions with incised lines; hence the term, linear, to distinguish painted band ware from incised band ware. The name depends on specialized meanings of "linear" and "band", whether in English or in German. Unfortunately these words without the qualifiers do not describe the decoration. There are few bands going around the pottery and the lines are mainly not straight. In short, there was no need to categorize the pottery as being a northern variant of some other pottery. Perhaps better descriptive names might have been chosen, but it is too late now. The same can be said of many other concepts and names of science. LBK pottery consists of simple cups, bowls, vases and jugs, without handles, but some with lugs or pierced lugs. They were obviously designed as kitchen dishes, or for the immediate or local transport of food and liquids. Patterns are repeated motifs: spirals, rectangles, triangles, chevrons. For the most part they are not placed within bands, but rather, the entire surface of the pot is the artist's field. As is true today, they probably represent the "nice dishes" that are desirable to family matriarchs. Eastern Linear Pottery culture The Bükk Culture belonged to a dense pocket of Cro-magnon type people inhabiting the Bükk mountains of Hungary (inner western Carpathians) and the upper Tisza and its tributaries. The surrounding Neolithic was mainly of a more gracile Mediterranean type, with a Cro-magnon admixture as another possibility. As to whether the Cro-magnons were a remnant squeezed into this pocket, there is no sign of conflict there and the Cro-magnons were doing rather well in the obsidian trade. They were, so to speak, the wealthy men of the European Neolithic. The Cro-magnons did acquire the Neolithic from the Starcevo culture to the south. In the Szatmar Culture prior to 5500 BC, the Cro-magnons modified their Mesolithic ways and took on Starcevan artifact types and pottery styles, and the same can be said of the succeeding Tiszadob Culture of roughly 5200-5000. By 5000 the LBK had replaced the Starcevo in the surrounding region and it influenced the Cro-magnons in the Bükk culture. Bükk pottery is the finest ware of the LBK. It has a larger variety of forms: tall stands, jars with feet, globular bowls, and so on. Their fabric is tempered with sand, as opposed to the chaff of the western LBK. The walls of the pots are thin and delicate. Decoration consists of LBK patterns composed of bands that are both painted and engraved with fine lines. Colors are white, red and yellow, just the ones to brighten and make warm a successful household. The patterns are more complex, more regular and evidence more care in their execution. Some of the patterns are probably symbols. The Cro-magnons also owned abstract human figurines, in which geometric forms represent people. These are covered with symbols. The source of Bükk culture wealth is the fine obsidian of which the mountains are an abundant source. The Cro-magnons probably encouraged each other to settle there and take up the ethnic trade. Workshops for the manufacture of obsidian tools are common. They are identified by the hundreds of tools littering the floor of the site, which must have been a shed. These workshops were near homes. They probably represent a family business. In some cases jars of knives stand ready for export. The knives are sorted by size. An abundance of Spondylus shells in the graves suggests that this collectible was used for currency. Their ultimate source was the Mediterranean. These Cro-magnons, as opposed to the Mesolithics of the Atlantic coast, are probably best regarded as men of the world, dominating the market for stone tools from their mountain retreats. Image:Vizeses-Lillafured-Miskolc-Hungary-Europe.jpg|Lillafüred falls in the Bükk (beech) mountains. Note the beeches in the foreground. Image:Obsidian.jpg|Obsidian Image:Szeged-tisza4.jpg|Tisza or Theiss Image:Carpathian flysch cm03.jpg|Stone in the Polish Carpathians The Bükk people lived a very different life from the residents of the long houses. Bükk homes are individual and rectangular, a few meters wide and about twice as long. Many are dug into the earth as wholly or partly subterranean. Others are wholly aboveground, wattle and daub construction. The Bükk people sited their homes on hills, slopes, or in ravines. They used caves for sacred purposes, but may have lived there as well. When not engaged in manufacture and trade, the Bükk people shared the same garden economy as the western variant. To the light game of the open forests they added the fierce aurochs. When death came they buried the deceased in the village, sometimes under the house. Such a custom implies a belief in spiritual continuity and lends to the family a dimension in time as well as space. In the village resided simultaneously both the living family and the spirits of their deceased. Late Dniester-Bug (or Bug-Dniester) culture The Dniester-Bug culture was the culture that developed in the black-soil region of Moldavia and Ukraine around the Dniester and Southern Bug rivers in the Neolithic . Over approximately 1500 years, 6500-5000 BC, the culture metamorphosed into quite different phases, but the population remained about the same. What is most noteworthy about the Neolithic in this region is that it developed autochthonously from the Mesolithic there. The earlier phases are pre-pottery. The people in this region reinvented the wheel, so to speak. They relied predominantly on hunting Aurochs , Red Deer , Roe Deer and Boar , and fishing for Roach , Eels and Pike . Claims of early farming are not supported by archaeological evidence. At about 5800 BC they began to make a native pottery, mainly jars, flat-bottomed or pointed-bottomed, decorated in patterns of wavy lines. Influence from the Starcevo struck the native culture changing it drastically. Pottery suddenly became like that of the Starcevo culture and the wild grass was abandoned in favor Einkorn , Emmer and Spelt , already popular in south Europe. At some time after 5500, the Starcevo lost its influence in favor of one from the LBK. LBK people probably did enter the region from the upper Dniester and overran it as far south as the lower Danube. The pottery became like the LBK. Native stone subterranean houses were replaced by long houses. The LBK that overran this region was a specific phase. At around 5270 BC calibrated, at the most populous peak of the LBK, judging from the number of dates obtained as a rough guideline, the pottery in eastern Austria acquired a new decorative style, termed Notenkopfkeramik by its German discoverers. In English it means "Notehead Pottery." Notehead is a good English word also but a little obscure. Most use "musical note" to translate Notenkopf. In this style the incised broken line, one or two incisions wide, replaces the convolute bands of the early LBK. The lines may wander, as did the convolute bands, forming square maeanders, or they may go around the pot in zig-zag motifs, resembling bars of music. At the intersection of every broken line is a double or single deep puncture, the "notehead." An unbroken but punctured ring of one or more lines circle(s) the top of the piece. The style appears to be a modification of the LBK bands. The style quickly spread into Poland through Slovakia, where it found the Western Bug. Moving along this corridor, they entered Ukraine and Romania along the Dneister and Prut. It is not known further west. This specific culture acquired a very dense population, which in later times became the Cucuteni-Tripolye. That culture in turn was the last to fall to the Indo-Europeans after prolonged resistance. The population density remained, descending into the Slavic formation region of prehistory and the common Slavic or pre-migration region of late ancient history. Economy Land utilisation The LBK people settled on fluvial terraces and in the proximities of rivers. They were quick to identify regions of fertile loess. On it they raised a distinctive assemblage of crops and associated weeds in small plots, an economy that Gimbutas called a "garden type of civilization." The difference between a crop and a weed in LBK contexts is the frequency. Crop foods are:
Species that are found so rarely as to warrant classification as possible weeds are:
Image:Triticum dicoccum.jpg|Triticum dicoccum Image:Usdaeinkorn1 Triticum monococcum.jpg|Triticum monococcum Image:NCI snow peas.jpg|Pisum sativum Image:Illustration Lens culinaris0.jpg|Lens culinaris The emmer and the einkorn were sometimes grown as maslin, or mixed crops. The lower-yield einkorn predominates over emmer, which has been attributed to its better resistance to heavy rain. Hemp and Flax (Linum usitatissimum) gave the LBK people the raw material of rope and cloth, which they no doubt manufactured at home as a cottage industry. From Poppies (Papver somniferum), introduced later from the Mediterranean, they must have manufactured palliative medicine. This assemblage is most like that of the Starcevo and is not like that further east in Bulgaria, according to a comparative study by Kreuz and others. The LBK people were stock raisers as well, with Cattle favored, though Goats and Swine are also recorded. Like farmers today, they must have used the better grain for themselves and the lower grades for the animals. The ubiquitous Dog s are present here too, but scantly. Substantial wild faunal remains are found. The LBK supplemented their diets by hunting Elk , Deer and Boar in the open forests of Europe as it was then. One in-depth GIS study by Ebersbach and Schade of an 18 sq. km region in the wetlands region of Wetterau, Hesse , turned up some economic findings on the LBK as it was there that probably have some general relevance. Using surface finds and studying the pollen as well as bringing to bear geographical and ecological studies of the resources, they were able to trace the land use in detail and discover the limiting factor, which bears directly on the economic motivations of the LBK people. In the study region 82% of the land is suitable for agriculture, 11% for grazing (even though wetland) and 7% steep slopes. The investigators found that the LBK occupied this land for about 400 years. They began with 14 settlements, 53 houses, 318 people using the wetlands for cattle pasture. Settlement gradually spread over the wetlands, reaching a maximum of 47 settlements, 122 houses, 732 people in the late period. At that time all the available grazing land was in use. Toward the end, the population suddenly dropped to initial levels, even though much of the arable land was still available. The investigators conclude that cattle were the main economic interest and available grazing land was the limiting factor in settlement. This model of the Wetterau might well explain the spread of LBK. The Neolithic of the Middle East featured urban concentrations of people subsisting mainly on grain. Beef and dairy products on the other hand were the mainstay of LBK diet. When the grazing lands were all in use they moved elsewhere in search of them. This is consistent with an origin of European domestic cattle in the Balkans / Anatolia . As the relatively brief window of the LBK falls roughly in the center of the Atlantic Climate Period , a maximum of temperature and rainfall, a conclusion that the spread of wetlands at that time encouraged the LBK immigration is to some degree justified. Tool kit The tool kit was appropriate to the economy. Flint and Obsidian were the main materials used for points and cutting edges. There is no sign of metal. For example, they harvested with sickles manufactured by inserting flint blades into the inside of a curved piece of wood. One diagnostic tool, the " Shoe-last Celt ", was made of a ground stone chisel blade tied to a handle. You pulled the blade over a piece of wood by the handle, removing flakes, similar to a plane. Augurs were made of flint points tied to a stick that could be rotated. Scrapers and knives are found in abundance. The use of flint pieces, or Microliths , descended from the Mesolithic , while the ground stone is characteristic of the Neolithic . These materials are evidence both of specialization of labor and commerce. The flint used came from southern Poland; the obsidian, from the Bükk and Tatra mountains. Settlements in those regions specialized in mining and manufacture. The products were exported to all the other LBK regions, which must have had something to trade. This commerce is a strong argument for an ethnic unity between the scattered pockets of the culture. Image:Kurtkowiec i czerwone.jpg|West Tatra mountains. Note the wet meadows and the stone. Image:Slovakia-West Tatras-Rohace 6.JPG|West Tatras, Slovakia Image:Flint.jpg|Flint Image:Flintstone.jpg|Flint Settlement patterns The unit of residence was the Long House , a rectangular structure, 5.5 to 7 m wide, of variable length; for example, a house at Bylany was 45 m. Outer walls were wattle-and-daub, with pitched thatched roofs, supported by rows of poles, three across. At least part of the house may have been used for animals, as a fenced enclosure adjoined one end. Ditches went along part of the outer walls, especially at the enclosed end. Their purpose is not known, but they probably are not defensive works, as they were not much of a defense. More likely, the ditches collected waste water and rain water. A large house with many people and animals would have had to have a drainage system. One can conceive of a smelly end, where the animals and latrines were located, and a domestic end. Easy access to fresh water also would have been mandatory, which is another reason why settlements were in bottom lands near water. A number of wells from the times have been discovered, with a log-cabin type lining constructed one layer at a time as the previous layers sank into the well. The long houses were gathered into villages of 5-8 about 20 m apart, placed on 300-1250 acres. Nearby villages formed settlement cells, some as dense as 20 per 25 sq km, others as sparse as 1 per 32 sq km. Such a pattern hints of a society composed of extended families, each to its long house, organized into village clans in a tribal region. Perhaps this pattern is the original model of the tribal system of early European history; that is, it can be argued that it is pre-Indo-European. The Indo-European settlements were quite different. The villages were sometimes fortified with a deep ditch and a stockade. Ditches of this sort in at least one LBK settlement contained weapon-traumatized skeletons, but the date would be critical in determining whether they were traumatized by resistive Mesolithics or invading Indo-Europeans or neither, but just went to recapture stolen sheep or some similar motive.(1) LBK houses were occupied for about 30 years. Analysis of the pottery finds reveals that each house had its own tradition. The occurrence of pottery primarily in female graves indicates that the women of the long house probably made the pottery. These circumstances argue for matrilocal residence; that is, on marriage a male joined his wife's family. Religion As with prehistoric cultures in general, the details of actual Belief Systems maintained by the people who practiced the Linear Ware culture are poorly understood relative to beliefs and religions of historical periods. All we have to go on are the symbol systems evidenced by the art, the reconstruction of the prehistoric language (if available; for the LBK culture, it is not yet), the reconstructed traces of the ancient beliefs in historical beliefs, and knowledge of the customs of modern peoples with similar cultures. The extent to which prehistoric beliefs formed a systematic Religious canon is also the subject of some debate, as is all prehistoric culture. Nevertheless, comparative, detailed, scientific study of associated Artefact s and Iconography has led to the proposal of models. The major such model, in more recent times championed by noted late archaeologist Marija Gimbutas (but dating to the beginning of European archaeology), emphasizes a perceived prevalence of female (or Androgynous ) figurines and Symbol s. These are taken as being indicative of a matristic or '' Matrifocal '' society (and not necessarily '' Matriarchal '', since a more balanced and less domineering structure is put forward), accompanied with the veneration of ' Mother Goddess(es) ' symbolising the forces of nature and fertility. Critics of this model counter that a large minority of Neolithic figurines are not identifiably female, and that the interpretation of these figurines as objects of worship is not in fact warranted. The critics, however, have not addressed the main evidence of thousands of representations of females and natural forces associated with females on the pottery, as well as the majority of the figurines. Gimbutiene's systematic approach did so. Refer to the supporting articles linked above. Funerary customs The early European Neolithic featured burials of women and children under the floors of personal residences. Remains of adult males are missing. Many female archaeologists interpret these circumstances as indicating that women held a special place of honor, but men did not. Although such a view has not been shown to be false, it can be questioned on the grounds of its being biased in favor of matriarchy and matriliny. At very least, it is safe to say that Neolithic culture featured sex discrimination in funerary customs, and that women and children were important in ideology concerning the home. What happened to men at death remains to be discovered. Burials beneath the floors of homes continued until about 4000 BC. However, in the western variety, the cemetery also came into use at about 5000 BC. LBK cemeteries contained from 20 to 200 graves arranged in groups that appear to have been based on kinship. Males and females of any age were included. Both Cremation and Inhumation were practiced. The inhumed were placed in flexed position in pits lined with stones, plaster or clay. Cemeteries were close to, but distinct from, residential areas. The presence of grave goods indicates both a sex discrimination and a dominance discrimination. Male graves included stone celts, flint implements and money or jewelry of spondylus shells. Female graves contained many of the same artifacts as male graves, but also most of the pottery and containers of ochre. The goods have been interpreted as gifts to the departed or personal possessions. The beliefs that governed their inclusion remain unknown. Only about 30% of the graves have goods. This circumstance probably rightly has been interpreted as some sort of distinction in Dominance , but the exact nature is not known. If the goods were gifts, then some were more honored than others; if they were possessions, then some were wealthier than others. Gimbutiene chose to see the male honorees as skilled craftsmen and the females as important and honored persons of a "gylany". The latter term is to be conceived as the social arrangement of matriarchy without the -archy; that is, women do not dominate as do men in patriarchy, but the society is nevertheless matrilineal and matrilocal, practicing metronymy, with women held in respect and awe for their reproductive powers. Gimbutiene believed the gylany to be egalitarian. This is not the only possible interpretation. Missing is detailed and certain knowledge of the customs. The Indo-European hypothesis, on the other hand, that the LBK was the first of the Indo-Europeans in Europe, now has genetic evidence with which to contend. Gimbutiene opposed it mainly on the grounds that there is no sign of the Indo-European chief. The late Dniester-Bug variety developed a distinct and somewhat different method of burial. They dug communal trenches in which to place the dead without distinction as to age or sex. The trench was elongated to include new burials. Views of the previous century European prehistory was a topic of great interest throughout the entire 20th century. Even the most cursory treatments in the texts do not fail to make interpretive assertions about the LBK culture under one of its many names. That century formed the kernel of today's ideas but it also left a legacy of partially or wholly outdated hypotheses, which the reader is likely to encounter in the books of the times. Here are some formerly current views. Due to the influence of V. Gordon Childe in his floruit, the term universally used in English was Danubian, although some authors complain of its inappropriateness, because the culture was not confined to the Danube. Eastern and western variants were recognized. Toward the middle of the century the first carbon dates began to be available, but they were rare and uncalibrated. Like the other prehistoric cultures of pre-radiocarbon-dating days, the dates were too late by 500 to 1000 years. For example, the early Danubian was often dated to 4500-4000, a range that is sometimes repeated today. Late Danubian ran as late as 2000 BC, it was thought. Today's plenitude of calibrated dates show that by 4500 the show was long over, so to speak, and the actors were leaving by the stage door. The tradition in general regarded the LBK as an "oriental" phenomenon being passed on through "Balcanic" or "Balkanic" intermediaries; to wit, the Balkan Neolithic. As Childe was a Marxist , and the Marxists were orientalizers; that is, ancient Greek culture owed its existence to and took its cast from the cultures of the orient, in this view, the anthropological archaeologists (but not the classical, who maintained their own carefully protected bastion) went for the migration idea. Europe was uninhabited or negligibly tenanted by a few hunters and fishers. Thus the Danubians, our ancestors, came ultimately from the Tigris-Euphrates region. The ultimate root of this view is the Biblical story of the Tower Of Babel , when the Lord prevented men from building a tower to heaven by destroying the tower and scattering them across the earth speaking different languages. If the Danubians were so scattered they must have come from the orient; hence, Danubian was an oriental culture. Fundamentalists tend to repeat the argument even today; that is, Danubian culture "proves" the Biblical story. Genetic analysis was as unimaginable to the scientists of the times as the world of Star Trek was to its viewers. James Henry Breasted brought anthropological theory to the Biblical concept with his Fertile Crescent , a region comprising the Middle East from Iraq to Egypt where the great white race innovated the world's first agriculture, whence the Danubians obtained it. Robert Braidwood substituted the Nuclear Zone for the Fertile Crescent. The former was a hilly region around the crescent where man first harvested wild grasses. From here agriculture was carried by migration and colonization into rustic, nearly untenanted Europe. Braidwood had a tendency to view Childe's " Neolithic Revolution " almost as an organic whole, an innate ability, which , when it arrives, brings all food production with it, and before it does, is unknown. He never explored the idea much that there could be other nuclear zones even earlier in other parts of the world, which were food-specific and did not result in great advances of civilization, or that food production could be present but confined to a few items in Mesolithic cultures. As with tool use, it is hard to find a sharp dividing line. Some of the lower animals, such as some species of ants, cultivate food. As Braidwood's nuclear zone worked best for grain, sheep and goats, archaeologists assumed the Danubians would be mainly interested in grain cultivation, would need to clear the forest, building grassland there, and would move on when the land was exhausted. One reads assertions that they did not hunt and fish and kept only a few animals to round out their diet. The bones and the pollen tell a different story, as is described above. Some forest was cleared and there is some charcoal from slash-and-burn methods. For the most part the Atlantic Period forest remained to be destroyed by cold in the subsequent Sub-boreal period. Grass pollen is notably in deficit. The LBK culture utilized wetlands extensively and were interested in pasture for their cattle, on which they relied heavily. Hunting and fishing was still a major source of food. New directions Investigators have turned up some new evidence that is not sufficiently substantial or universal to make positive assertions, but does indicate directions to be explored. The occurrence of a slight trace of emmer wheat in Germany dated to about 6100 BC may indicate the indigenes there, and possibly elsewhere, had some food production capability. More finds need to be recorded. By comparing the proportions of Barium and Strontium in the teeth and bones of humans and domestic animals with the proportions found in the environment, it is possible to hypothesize whether a given human or animal was raised in the region. Not many individuals have been analyzed yet, but swine seem to have remained on the farm, while sheep and goats were pastured elsewhere, possibly the highland forests. A human interment in the outer ditch of a village indicates the individual was an outsider. Another location featured a higher proportion of female outsiders than male outsiders, an instance that may support a patrilocal system. Conclusions of this nature contradict other evidence and are perhaps premature. Collection of additional data over many sites is definitely warranted and will be watched for with great interest. The wild animal remains include rare wild horse, which, along with rare horse finds in the indigenous culture, suggests that some horses survived in the forests of Europe. As Russian- and Chinese-speaking investigators begin to take more of an interest in the topic, additional research results indicate the use of pottery was widespread in the Mesolithic from east Europe to Japan, where it may have begun. We may well be on the brink of an entirely new model of the Neolithic Revolution, taking into account the far east, but it needs time to mature. Modern References (1) Jonas Christensen 2004 “Warfare in the European Neolithic,” ''Acta Archaeologica'' 75:142,144, 136)
Past References
The jacket on ''Prehistoric Societies'' claims that the book "presents all that is known" ... "of social and political organization in the Neolithic", from which the reader can see how far the field has come since then. External links Overall:
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