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The recent discovery of several late Linearbandkeramik (LBK) sites in Central Europe, including Vrable in south-west Slovakia, has revealed evidence for increasing diversity in Neolithic mortuary practices, which may reflect inter-community war and sociopolitical crisis at the end of the LBK. Here, the authors combine osteological and radiocarbon analyses of inhumations from Vrable. Rather than a straightforward sign of inter-community conflict and war, this development reflects a culmination of internal conflict and a diversification in the ritual treatment of human bodies. The emerging variability in LBK methods of manipulating and depositing dead bodies can be interpreted as an experimental approach in how to negotiate social conflicts and community boundaries. Keywords: Central Europe, Slovakia, Neolithic, Linearbandkeramik, mortuary practice, Introduction The Linearbandkeramik (LBK, c. 5500-4950 cal BC) is considered one of the few examples of a Neolithic culture with an individualised, clearly gendered and elaborate mortuary tradition (Robb & [...]

Joanna Bruck's (2021) article is a timely intervention into the current debate about the use of ancient DNA (aDNA) data to reconstruct prehistoric kinship, based on the archaeological record. Her [...]

B.A. OLSEN, T. OLANDER & K. KRISTIANSEN (ed.). 2019. Tracing the Indo-Europeans: new evidence from archaeology and historical linguistics. Oxford: Oxbow; 978-1-78925-270-5 paperback 25 [pounds sterling]. Reviewing this book was [...]

The internal layout of early settlements can provide insight into social organisation and the processes of Neolithic expansion into Europe. Analysis of variables describing 71 sites revealed a spectrum extending between two distinct settlement types that can be regionally and chronologically situated. The very early 'Anatolian village' in the south-east exhibits multi-level organisation, reflected in concentrated residence and temporal stability; the younger (post 6000 BC) 'Balkan village' in the north-west represents a new model with less centralised control of space and a less permanent layout. Between these types is a transitional domain of more heterogeneous, and ever-changing settlement layouts, which is characterised as a 'third space' of hybridised traditions. Keywords: Europe, Neolithic, settlement, social organisation, correspondence analysis, Introduction The earliest Neolithic settlements in Europe were founded around 6500 cal BC in Greece and north-western Turkey, and they seem to have their roots in Anatolia (Brami & Heyd [...]

This paper critically examines how power is understood and used in archaeological interpretation of prehistoric societies. We argue that studies on power within archaeology have been haltered in their interpretive potential, frequently limited to individualizing coercive power with androcentric connotations. We explore new avenues of power through a retrospective view. Drawing on ideas first conceptualized by Hannah Arendt, while also incorporating theoretical ideas from collective action, anarchistic theory and the affective turn, we argue that power as a phenomenon and explanation within archaeology can be refined and nuanced when approached through a lens of collective agency and the affective potential of material culture. This connects, furthermore, to how we today see and act on changing power dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the relative fractions of remanent and induced magnetization of the fillings of neolithic long pits in order to develop remanent magnetization as an additional parameter for the archaeological interpretation of magnetic maps. We determine the Koenigsberger ratio – the ratio between induced and remanent magnetization intensities – for key targets by combining magnetic mapping with downhole measurements of susceptibility, numerical modelling, and inversion computations. The susceptibility data were acquired in drill holes along profiles crossing the targets identified by magnetic mapping. The targets of this exemplary study are house‐accompanying pits at the Linearbandkeramik site Vráble 'Farské'. For this purpose, we conducted auger drillings with a point distance of 25 cm and measured the susceptibility with a downhole susceptometer. The resulting two‐dimensional susceptibility distributions were used to calculate synthetic magnetic anomalies corresponding to the case of solely induced magnetization. The comparison to the observed magnetic data showed a considerable discrepancy that can only be explained with remanent magnetization. To determine the Koenigsberger ratio we developed a new interpretation approach, using parts of the measured susceptibility distribution as a basis function. The free parameters of this numerical problem are determined by non‐linear inversion. We applied the novel approach to six exemplary profiles and found Koenigsberger ratios between 1.6 and 10.5 with the majority of the values being smaller than 4. These values apply to soil volumes with susceptibility values larger than 27–160 × 10‐5 SI. Laboratory measurements on soil samples were used to examine the possible causes of the observed magnetization. The analyses suggest that the increase in susceptibility and remanent magnetization in the pits is caused by an increase of the population of magnetotactic bacteria and deposition of magnetized material, followed by the alignment of the ferrimagnetic iron compounds in the waterlogged environment of the pits and accumulation of viscous remanent magnetization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our research at the large LBK settlement site of Vráble, southwest Slovakia, revealed dynamics of social integration and antagonisms unfolding in an agglomerated, early farming community. During its lifespan from 5250 to 4950 bc, it constantly grew until around 5050 bc it was inhabited by about 70 contemporaneous longhouses. We found that Vráble consisted of markedly autonomous farmstead units that were held together by village-wide social institutions including sharing and communality. Nevertheless, from the beginning, a contradiction between particular farmstead and collective village and neighbourhood interests existed and rose. Towards the end of the village's existence, around 5075 bc an elaborate enclosure was constructed around one of the three neigbourhoods, actively blocking contact with the others. Along this enclosure, human bodies were deposited, showing a social categorization that we interpret as relating to social inequality. This rising level of conflict and emerging social inequality was, we argue, not sustainable under the conditions of early farming societies and led to the village's abandonment at 4950 bc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows that local differences in house orientation in settlements from the Early Neolithic in Central Europe reflect a regular chronological trajectory based on Bayesian calibration of 14C-series. This can be used to extrapolate the dating of large-scale settlement plans derived from, among other methods, geophysical surveys. In the southwest Slovakian settlement of Vráble, we observed a progressive counter-clockwise rotation in house orientation from roughly 32° to 4° over a 300 year period. A survey of published and dated village plans from other LBK regions confirms that this counter-clockwise rotation per settlement is a wider Central European trend. We explain this observation as an unintentional, unconscious but systematic leftward deviation in the house builders' cardinal orientation, which has been termed "pseudoneglect" in studies of human perception. This means that whenever houses were intended to be oriented towards a specific direction and be parallel to each other, there was an error in perception causing slight counter-clockwise rotation. This observation is used as a basis to reconstruct dynamics of Early Neolithic settlement in the Slovakian Žitava valley, showing a rapid colonization, followed by increased agglomeration into large villages consisting of strongly autonomous farmsteads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since aDNA research suggested a marked gene influx from Eastern into Central Europe in the 3rd millennium bc , outdated, simplistic narratives of massive migrations of closed populations have re-appeared in archaeological discussions. A more sophisticated model of migration from the steppes was proposed recently by Kristiansen et al. As a reaction to that proposal, this paper aims to contribute to this ongoing debate by refining the latter model, better integrating archaeological data and anthropological knowledge. It is argued that a polythetic classification of the archaeological material in Central Europe in the 3rd millennium reveals the presence of a new complex of single grave burial rituals which transcends the traditional culture labels. Genetic steppe ancestry is mainly connected to this new kind of burials, rather than to Corded Ware or Bell Beaker materials. Here it is argued that a polythetic view on the archaeological record suggests more complicated histories of migration, population mixtures and interaction than assumed by earlier models, and ways to better integrate detailed studies of archaeological materials with a deeper exploration of anthropological models of mobility and social group composition and the molecular biological data are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Long-held ideas concerning early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik (LBK) settlements in central Europe have been thoroughly challenged in recent years, for example, regarding their internal organisation or the use-life of individual houses. These topics have now also been addressed with the help of large radiocarbon (14C) datasets. In the light of this discussion, we present findings of our ongoing research at Vráble in south-western Slovakia. Intensive prospection by fieldwalking, geophysics and sedimentology, complemented by targeted excavations and archaeobotanical investigations, aims to unravel social and temporal relationships between three adjacent LBK settlements. A total of 23 of the c.300 houses revealed by geophysical prospection have been dated. Bayesian chronological modelling of this dataset, comprising 109 14C ages from 104 samples, indicates that the three LBK settlements at Vráble coexisted, and that overall the LBK settlement lasted for c. 200–300 years. Our results imply a 'short' use-life for individual houses (median c.20–30 y), suggesting that relatively few houses were inhabited simultaneously. Our data suggest that the overall LBK population at Vráble might have increased over the course of occupation, but probably never exceeded 200–300 individuals, based on the number of houses that could have been occupied contemporaneously. We compare the Vráble evidence with Bayesian chronologies for other LBK sites, and discuss the implications of these findings for models of population agglomeration and recognising the environmental impact of early farming communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the regions of southern Scandinavia and northern Germany, within the Neolithic (c. 4100–1700 BCE), two episodes of intensified monumental burial construction are known: Funnel Beaker megaliths mainly from c. 3400–3100 BCE and Single Grave burial mounds from c. 2800–2500 BCE. So far, it remains unclear whether these boom phases of monumental construction were linked with phases of economic expansion, to phases of economic changes or to periods of economic crisis: do they precede and stimulate periods of economic growth? Or are they a social practice that results from social changes within the societies? To approach these research questions, we will use mainly information on the intensity of monumental construction phases, artefact depositions, environmental changes and changes in subsistence strategies as proxies for comparative studies. Our database comes from the southern Cimbrian Peninsula and adjacent areas. Being one of the most intensively archaeologically researched regions of Neolithic Europe, this region provides robust data sets. As a result, the study demonstrates that during the Funnel Beaker period, economy and ritual were closely interlinked, while disconnected in the Single Grave period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Walled sites attributed to the Xiongnu steppe empire (2nd century b.c.–1st century a.d.) constitute the earliest investments in explicitly non-mortuary built environments among pastoralists of the Mongolian Steppe. These permanent constructions are important precedents to the medieval towns of subsequent steppe empires, yet very little of the complete layouts and surrounding remains of the large enclosures are understood. Our investigations of the walled site at Kherlen-Bars in eastern Mongolia are among the first surveys to fully document all aspects above and below ground across an entire Iron Age walled site area. In addition to detailed documentation of the large structures, our geomagnetic prospections and digital elevation modeling brought to light numerous small sub-surface and subtle-surface features that show such early walled sites, often deemed virtually empty, to be far more complex and diachronic in their formation processes and possible functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the newly available ancient DNA data have shaken a lot of archaeological debates, they have, despite their enormous potential, not yet had any meaningful impact on the way we view prehistory. Instead of using this new data-source to explore new questions, or at least to re-assess the old ones, aDNA results have been tacked onto some of the most outdated narratives in European prehistory, stemming from the early twentieth century. The simplified Steppe migration narrative builds upon long-outdated culture-historical concepts, sloppy classification work, and a reliance on a monothetic culture concept which was convincingly deconstructed 50 years ago by David Clarke. In this paper, a polythetic approach to the material of the third millennium BC presents a different picture of the period. Additionally relying on a practice-based approach to how new transregional objects and practices are integrated into local contexts, it is argued that these two adjustments to our approach to the archaeological material can significantly improve the aDNA-archaeology dialogue, and better integrate the different datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New human aDNA studies have once again brought to the forefront the role of mobility and migration in shaping social phenomena in European prehistory, processes that recent theoretical frameworks in archaeology have downplayed as an outdated explanatory notion linked to traditional culture history. While these new genetic data have provided new insights into the population history of prehistoric Europe, they are frequently interpreted and presented in a manner that recalls aspects of traditional culture-historical archaeology that were rightly criticized through the 1970s to the 1990s. They include the idea that shared material culture indicates shared participation in the same social group, or culture, and that these cultures constitute one-dimensional, homogeneous, and clearly bounded social entities. Since the new aDNA data are used to create vivid narratives describing 'massive migrations', the socalled cultural groups are once again likened to human populations and in turn revitalized as external drivers for socio-cultural change. Here, I argue for a more nuanced consideration of molecular data that more explicitly incorporates anthropologically informed mobility and migration models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to explore the consequences of a new emphasis on migration and mobility to our views of European Neolithic societies. As a starting point, the modern notion of wholeness as a premise for our conceptualisation of social groups (such as settlement communities, or cultures) and social phenomena (such as migration) is criticized as a constituent flaw governing current approaches used to interpret prehistoric social organisation and its connection to the archaeological record. This critique results in the proposition of an alternative view on prehistoric social organisation in Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Europe as well as a novel approach to the relation between distribution patterns of material culture found in the archaeological record and prehistoric spatial social organisation. By using a practice theoretical approach to material culture manufacture, two hypotheses are proposed: namely that 1) the social composition of Neolithic communities should, in general, be seen as socially heterogeneous and fluid and that 2), in opposition to what is widely assumed, a marked homogeneity of material culture in a region (the basis of definitions of ‘archaeological cultures’) must be read as an expression of marked social heterogeneity within local settlement units. Instead of reifying archaeological cultures and taking their regional homogeneity as an indication of social homogeneity, it is proposed that the homogeneity of material culture in a region corresponds to the rate of population circulation resulting in a more socially heterogeneous composition of local residence groups. Finally, to complement this generalised view, a methodological approach by which to further explore the potentially very diverse phenomena of population circulation is proposed by using the data available in the archaeological record and the rich anthropological literature on migration and mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)