Looking into houses: analysis of LBK ceramic technological change on a household level

International audienceExcavations on the Neolithic site of Balatonszárszó-Kis-erdei-dűlő, located in western Hungary in central Transdanubia, on the southern shore of Lake Balaton, revealed several thousand features. On the basis of material culture and architectural features, the settlement can be assigned to the Central European Linearbandkeramik culture (LBK; ca. 5,350–5,000/4,900 cal. BC). Apart from pits, traces of 48 houses were discovered. At least 14 other sets of features could also be interpreted as houses, mainly through the presence of characteristic elongated pits.In the first model of the site’s development, five pottery style groups were distinguished on the basis of stylistic elements such as shape and decoration. These style groups show a spatial pattern within the settlement. Their major characteristics are easy to correlate with traditional typochronological units of the LBK in the western Carpathian Basin. Although chronological relevance can be attributed to the groups, certain typological and stylistic attributes had a long duration and appear in different style groups.For the purposes of this study, eight houses and their associated features were selected. The ceramics from these features are characte- ristic of each style group. The aim was to examine the technology of ceramics, in particular choices in raw materials and intentionally added tempers, as well as building techniques.During a previous analysis of ceramics from the settlement, 461 sherds were chosen for macroscopic analysis, from which 131 samples were selected for further petrographic thin section analysis. Of these samples, 99 come from the eight houses and pits examined in this study. These features produced a total of 9,161 sherds. As part of the analysis of vessel building techniques, all the available material from the examined houses was assessed, out of which 109 vessels could be attributed to a forming method.Ceramic petrographic results show that there is a clear change in ceramic technology at household level. The earliest houses of the site show little variability in choices of raw materials and tempers, while houses of Style groups 2–5 show increased choice in raw materials and purposefully added tempers. As far as vessel fashioning is concerned, an opposite trend can be observed. Style group 1 ceramics show considerable variety in technical practices, with at least three forming methods, while ceramics in Style groups 2–3 and 5 are characterized by only one or two forming methods. Thus it seems that variability in building methods slightly decreased towards the end of the settlement.Ceramic technological changes could be identified on a household level, providing an insight into settlement dynamics. These patterns in the use of raw materials/tempers and building methods may be related to the fact that producers came from different learning net- works and had different conceptions of how to build a culturally appropriate vessel. The strength of analysing ceramic technologies on a household level is that we are able to model where ceramic technological changes first appeared within a given settlement and we can assess the nature of these changes. In turn, these patterns can be correlated with typochronology and the analysis of other types of material culture from the part of the site where the changes appeared. In this way we can improve our understanding of settlement dynamics and social changes

Rows with the neighbours: the short lives of longhouses at the Neolithic site of Versend-Gilencsa

Longhouses are a key feature of Neolithic Linearbandkeramik (LBK) settlements in Central Europe, but debate persists concerning their usage, longevity and social significance. Excavations at Versend-Gilencsa in south-west Hungary (c. 5200 cal BC) revealed clear rows of longhouses. New radiocarbon dates suggest that these houses experienced short lifespans. This paper produces a model for the chronology of Versend, and it considers the implications of the new date estimates for a fuller understanding of the layout and duration of LBK longhouse settlements

Seeking the Holy Grail: robust chronologies from archaeology and radiocarbon dating combined

The strengths of formal Bayesian chronological modelling are restated, combining as it does knowledge of the archaeology with the radiocarbon dating of carefully chosen samples of known taphonomy in association with diagnostic material culture. The risks of dating bone samples are reviewed, along with a brief history of the development of approaches to the radiocarbon dating of bone. In reply to Strien (2017), selected topics concerned with the emergence and aftermath of the LBK are discussed, as well as the early Vin≠a, Ra∫i∏te and Hinkelstein sequences. The need for rigour in an approach which combines archaeology and radiocarbon dating is underlined

The Alsónyék story: towards the history of a persistent place

First paragraph: The papers presented above in this volume have provided formally modelled date estimates for the development of Alsónyék, phase by phase, from the Starčevo to the Lengyel periods. In this final discussion paper, we now aim, first, to bring together all the chapters of the long story into a single narrative, and to attempt a detailed interpretation of its long persistence, which is of a kind so far rather unfamiliar in prehistory. That enables us, secondly, to discuss the Alsónyék story in more interpretive terms, in relation to notions of persistent place, community, aggregation and coalescence, and with an eye on the broader tempo of change. In doing this, we will tack between the site-specific evidence from Alsónyék and wider comparisons from ethnography and recent history, far beyond Transdanubia in both time and space. Thirdly, we will use our formally modelled date estimates from the Lengyel period at Alsónyék to trace the intensity of occupation and of the trajectory of population increase and decline at the site. In discussing the dramatic growth of the settlement in the Lengyel period, we will also, finally, consider some of its possible causes and conditions, but this has to be seen in the context of the ongoing post-excavation research of the Alsónyék project, in which it is important to underline that many basic analyses still remain to be completed. We will end, nonetheless, by looking ahead to key research questions for the future

Transforming Traditions of Material Culture : Spatial and temporal patterns in pottery style, production and use during the second half of the 6th millennium cal BC in south-eastern Transdanubia and beyond

International audienceOne of the most salient traits of a major milestone in European history, the shift to a Neolithic life-style in Central Europe and the associated social changes, was the emergence of pottery production. The main goal of the research project described here is the study of Neolithic pottery production from a complex perspec- tive and the addressing of the associated distinctive social activity types and potential range of meanings during the period from the late Starčevo to the appearance of the Lengyel culture (5500–4900 cal BC). The springboard for our project was the series of intensely investigated sites in southern Transdanubia, a region that acted as a contact zone between the Neolithic communities of Central Europe and the northern Balkans, and thus played a key role in the neolithisation of Central Europe. The research findings from this region are complemented and compared with the data from various sites along the Danube. Aside from our academic colleagues, our research results can be of interest to the broader public too, and our reconstruc- tions of various artefacts and the documentation of our archaeological experiments can be later used as illustrations to museum exhibits. The expected results can be fitted into the broad picture outlined by other research conducted on these sites and offer an exceptionally detailed picture of how the region’s settlements developed during the second half of the 6th millennium BC