Between archaeology and anthropology: Imagining Neolithic settlements

Modelling of the Neolithic settlements space of the Central Danubian Europe, regardless of its landscapeor village scopes, is always linked with longhouses. This is supposed to be a feature which structured the culture ofearly farmers. Two important aspects of the Neolithic house – its profane social complexity on one hand, and itssacred quality on the other – have been highlighted many times. But on what data can we infer its originalappearance, function and duration? The find context is limited in terms of the original wooden construction, thearchaeological imprint of which consists solely in a system of post holes. The aim of this text is therefore to presentthe existence of ethnographic parallels of the Central European Neolithic longhouses. Our purpose is certainly notto create direct analogies, but to induce basic imagination. Three particular cultural areas and the local populationsshow that the dwelling form could have had many features (e.g. construction of post, rectangular ground plan, roofform) in common with the original Neolithic houses. Both ethnographic and ethnoarchaeological evidence also re-open the issue of the so far unconfirmed construction properties of the long Neolithic houses (e.g. constructionmaterial, floor level). Other, culture dependent features observed at ethnographic cases (number of inhabitants,length flexibility, and lifespan) could contribute to creation of archaeologically testable interpretation model

Archaeology of slavery from cross-cultural perspective

Slavery is difficult to ascertain in the archaeological record, especially because of the lack of material evidence. Using the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample of 186 societies, our aim was to find indirect and easily identifiable indicators of the presence of slavery. The results show links between slavery and the expected and familiar domains (e.g., warfare, polygyny, social and political integration) as well as its relationship to metallurgy, which can be considered an innovative finding. This text attempts to explain and give context to the metallurgy relationship with historical examples related to the exploitation of slaves during various stages of the operational chain of metal production. These include raw material extraction, production of charcoal, and construction or reconstruction of smelting furnace

Post-marital residence patterns in LBK: Comparison of different models

Many ideas about post-marital residence rules in the society of the first farmers in the European temperate zone (Linear Pottery Culture, ca. 5500–4900 cal BC) have been proposed. The prevailing hypothesis is patrilocality and community exogamy, based on strontium isotope, modern DNA, ancient DNA, linguistic and anthropological evidence. However, presenting several different anthropological models and comparing them with strontium isotope results from two LBK cemeteries (Vedrovice and Nitra), we argue that other post-marital residence rules such as ambilocality, avunculocality, shifting residence or predominant matrilocality were also possible. Arguments set in contradiction to one-sided interpretation of strontium isotope results include a possible practice of polygyny, abduction of young women and non-inhumation burials. A hypothetical model combining patrilocality and matrilocality on different social and geographical levels is proposed