Added December 7, 1998. Updated February
9, 2006, 21:34 hours.
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Version 5.04
The
Earliest Bandkeramik
By
Maximilian O. Baldia
(Copy Right © 2000 - February 9, 2006. All rights reserved)
The purpose of this text is to provide a general overview
of the culture and is intended as a resource for students and teachers of
European Archaeology.
Location
The genesis of the first full-fledged farmers of Central Europe
is sought in Transdanubia, western Hungary,
and adjacent regions of the Danube Basin
(Map, Map). This
leads to the notion of a Danubian culture complex. These Danubian
farmers existed between about 5700/5500 – 5000 cal BC (Chronological
Table).
They are known primarily by the German term “Linearbandkeramik”
or “Linienbandkeramik” abbreviated (LBK). Literally translated this means Linear Band
Ceramics or Linear Band Pottery (often incorrectly termed Linear
Pottery). The name stems from the characteristic design of linear bands gracing the
early pottery. The culture is now usually referred to simply as Bandkeramik. The Bandkeramik
was first recognized by the German archaeologist F. Klopfleisch
in 1884.
The Bandkeramik’s origins
are sought in Hungary,
where there are two variants: the
western or Transdanubian Bandkeramik in western Hungary
and adjacent regions, and the eastern variant, found along the Tisza River
and its tributaries in the Great Hungarian Plain (Aldföld)
of eastern Hungary
(Map). This Alföldi
Vonaldíszes Kerámica (AVK) or Alföld
Linear (Decorated) Pottery theoretically developed at the same time as the
western Bandkeramik, here termed LBK. Ultimately, the LBK overtook
the AVK, spreading agriculture mostly along the loess
soil region
from the Seine Bay
on the North Sea in France
in the west to Ukraine,
and from the south of the Hungarian border to the Odra (Oder) Delta close to the Baltic Sea
in Poland.
The general chronology of one of the LBK
is well established due to numerous C14 dates. Dates for the AVK are more limited and the widely reported Hungarian
chronology would technically place it into the Later
Bandkeramik. However, most of the regional Bandkeramik groups are defined through pottery
styles (typologies). For example, up to twelve phases have been defined in the Czech
Republic.
Others simply divide the culture into the Earliest, Early, and Later
Bandkeramik. Even this classification is not
fully congruent with available C14 dates. For this reason, I have
divided the culture merely into the Early Bandkeramik
(5700/5500 – 5400/5300 cal BC), and a Later Bandkeramik
(5300 – 5000 cal BC) on theoretical.
The LBK and the AVK is
discussed under the Earliest Bandkeramik as
well as the later Later
Bandkeramik. (In stead of Earliest Bandkeramik, the term Early Bandkeramik
may be more appropriate, since I suspect that the beginning of the Bandkeramik is nor yet properly documented due to the
archaeological techniques applied to its research.)
The Bandkeramik farmers used domesticated plants, including emmer
and einkorn wheat, barley (more in the east than in the west), peas,
flax, and poppy. Millet and lentil are identified (Jochim
2000:186). According to Bogucki (1995a) cattle predominate, but sheep
and goat were also kept. Very few pigs and wild animals
appear in the archaeological record. However, in Hungary
and Austria
sheep (sheep/goat?) predominate in early sites.
Most of the species were first domesticated in the Near East and are
closely related to the origin of farming in Europe.
However, there are interesting exceptions. Among them is broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum),
which appears early in the southeastern Europe, and is
already present the Körös culture [Starčevo -Körös-Criş (Starcevo-Koros-Cris)]
of southeast Hungary.
Yet, broomcorn millet was supposedly first domesticated in China
or Central Asia, not the Near East.
Evolution
The Farming Expansion Hiatus and the Origin of the Danubian
Farmers
The origin of the Danubinan
farmers is closely tied to the beginning of farming in Europe.
The Bandkeramik is believed to evolve from the Starčevo -Körös-Criş (Starcevo-Koros-Cris)
and Vinča cultures, which brought farming
to the northern edge of the Balkan Peninsula. It has
long been argued that their farming originated
in the Fertile Crescent, spreading into Europe via Greece
and the Mediterranean coast. Peter Bogucki (1995a,
1997,
2000) views this spread as a kind of Diaspora, occurring between 8,000 and
5,000 years ago. He sees this phenomenon as two processes: “the migration
and dispersal of farmers and the adoption of crops and livestock by indigenous
foragers.” In keeping with the model of a Diaspora, the pottery technology
and the agricultural economy are traditionally viewed as a package that arrived
in the Balkans from the Near East.
In Hungary,
it is stipulated that the expansion of the agricultural complex halted at the
edge of the Starčevo
-Körös-Criş (Starcevo-Koros-Cris)
culture’s northern and
western frontier in the Carpathian
Basin
for up to a 1000 years. The northern frontier is thought to coincide with the
limits of the Mediterranean climate zone, which covers parts of Hungary,
as well as former Yugoslavia,
Italy, southern
France, and Spain.
Beyond this area, not all Near Eastern cultigens may have grown readily. This
is especially the case beyond the southeastern Carpathian
Basin and the Alps.
Yet, it is precisely the region, in which much of the LBK
unfolded. Therefore, a hiatus in the expansion of agriculture into the
supposedly wooded north and west has been proposed. To supplant the Mesolithic
way of life in these areas, the combination of domesticates and perhaps the
farming techniques themselves may have had to undergo changes. Perhaps these
changes are reflected the LBK’s use of domesticated
poppy, thought to be derived from the wild stands along the Mediterranean coast
of Italy,
Southern France
and Spain.
Similarly, the reported emphasis
on cattle breeding over sheep and goats and the likely considerable use of domesticated flax from the Near
East, may have developed during the hiatus.
Issues
Unfortunately, it is difficult to demonstrate a hiatus
based on C14 dates, which do not always correlate with the pottery
typology. Nonetheless, the first evidence of agriculturists in southeast Hungary
must date to 6100 – 6000 cal BC, if not earlier
(see also The Origin of Agriculture, The Hungarian Mesolithic/Neolithic
Transition, Starčevo-Körös-Criş
[Starcevo-Koros-Cris]. This would mean a 300 to
500 year hiatus.
In addition, new claims suggest that domesticates preceded
the LBK in the west. For example, much has been made
of a single domesticated flax seed
(Lineum usitatissum),
along with cereal pollen (Triticum sp.)
from coring samples near Zürich,
Switzerland (e.g. Price
2000), and certain weeds that are associated only flax fields. Claims of pollen
for domesticated plants, predating the projected arrival of the LBK in the Middle Rhein (Rhine)
River, could add weight to this still scanty evidence (e.g. Price at al. 2001).
Similarly, the traditional notion that the pottery
indicates a clear link with the Near East has come under
scrutiny. Analysis of the earliest painted pottery from the Near
East and Southeast Europe (e.g. Schubert 1999) indicates there
is no direct link. Only the triangle motive of the Thessalian
Sesklo ornamentation could be based in the
Anatolian bull-motive. For this reason, it seems that pottery style, house
architecture, and the economy, may best be considered separately.
One is forced to conclude that in the areas crucial to the
understanding of the spread of the first agricultural societies in Europe
archaeological methods and theories are not always able to produce the kind of
detailed information necessary to answer crucial questions (cf. Tringham 2000).
Some of these difficulties were already apparent for Starčevo
during the excavation of the type-site (Ehrich 1977).
The process of Europe’s neolithization
is still difficult to delineate although the expansion is still thought to
occur via two broadly definable movements. The spread of agriculture and
farming was a more complex process than initially thought by researchers, such
as Ammerman and Cavalli-Sforza
(1971, 1973, 1984) and Renfrew (1987; cf. Price 2000a, Tringham 2000).
The Mesolithic – Neolithic Transition
The current literature is replete with speculation that
the LBK and AVK are the
result of some kind of interaction between an autochthonous Mesolithic
population and the bearers of the agricultural economy.
For eastern Hungary,
the Mesolithic – Neolithic transition
is seen as an acculturation between the foragers and Starčevo-Körös-Criş
populations and nearby Mesolithic foragers.
It is argued that this led to the formation the AVK
around 5330 cal BC,
perhaps via the intermediate Körös-Szatmár
group, which developed on the northern fringes of Körös.
The LBK is suggested to develop
from Late Starčevo
-Körös-Criş roots and/or Serbian Vinča influences in Transdanubia
(Hungarian: Dunántúl; literally: across the Danube)
(Map 3, Map 4). Here too the Hungarian archaeologist Eszter Banffy hypothesizes that Late Mesolithic forager groups
controlled lithic resources on the northernmost limit
of the late Starčevo culture. The
interaction may have caused the formation of the oldest Transdanubian
LBK. The stone tools from the oldest Austrian LBK site of Brunn
am Gebirgefrom point in the same direction. The
tools were mostly trapezoids flaked primarily from locally available radeolite.
In other areas of Central
Euope, such as the Czech
Republic, contacts are still being
investigated. In the Czech lowlands the Mesolithic sites are deflated and
cannot provide stratigraphic evidence to resolve the question. However, the stratigraphy of caves in northern Bohemia
is interpreted as suggesting a hiatus between Mesolithic and LBK (J. Svoboda, V. Cílek and L. Jarošova 1998; J. Svoboda, personal communication July
2000).
Dating: The Early/Earliest LBK Pottery (ca.
5600/5500 – 5300 cal BC)
The LBK has been divided into
various regional phases, based on pottery typology. However, “even the
approximate ordering of C14 dates into an Middle or Late Bandkeramik is hardly possible.”
Perhaps, the most interesting discrepancy is that most of the oldest dates come
from Germany
and pertain to the LBK, while the AVK
of eastern Hungary
is said to start around 5330 cal BC. Even the preferred LBK
start date of 5500 cal BC in Germany
does not fully bridge this gap.
It is maintained that the earliest LBK
pottery occurs in Hungary
around 5700 cal. BC (Price et al. 2001). Among the so called Earliest Bandkeramik sites is Brunn
am Gebirgefrom Site II, on the outskirts of Vienna,
Austria. The LBK pottery here is characterized primarily by roughly made
ceramics tempered with organic material. This pottery has no linear band
decoration. Instead, there are slightly projecting bumps. The material belongs
to Tichý’s Phase I. Magnetic dating on a baking oven
suggests a date of 5500±200 BC. The oldest
Austrian radiocarbon dates for this period indicate that the Earliest LBK probably started not much earlier than 5500 cal
BC., which is also the preferred dating in Germany.
However, several of the earliest dates, especially from Germany,
can be interpreted as starting between 5750-5650 cal BC.
The Earliest LBK pottery
from the Czech Republic
is named after a burial at Marovský
Plumlov, Moravia.
The dates are reported to range from 5700-5500 cal BC (Podborský,
et al. 1993:73). The style also occurs in Western Hungary,
Bohemia, the upper Danube,
the Neckar River,
the State of Hesse
and Central Germany. The Plumlov
pottery gives rise to the Ackvy style developed in Moravia
and adjacent regions and the Flomborn style in Germany.
Among the oldest northern LBK is Eitzum
Kr. Wolfenbüttel (e.g. Schwabedissen
1979:207), where three calibrated dates range from 5400-5250 B.C.
In Netherland, on the east side
of the Maas River,
an LBK enclave
seems to appear suddenly around 5250/5200 BC (Modderman
1964:11 Fig. 12, 1985:90 Fig. 29). Technically, this falls into the Later LBK. It
lasted until 4900 BC (ibid. 1985:31-36). However, 5000 BC is the more
accepted date, due to tree ring dates from one of the LBK
wells. This LBK,
near the Maas River,
occupied an area that seems to have been settled by another population, which
created Limburg pottery. The Limburg Group,
which may have been familiar with agriculture, coexisted, interacted and
supposedly outlasted the LBK (ibid. p. 117-118). It
is sometimes grouped with the somewhat enigmatic La Hoguette culture, which some, but not all archaeologists, assume to be
older than the LBK. However, Limburg
pottery appears only during the later part of the LBK.
This may point to a more complicated cultural development than the traditional Danubian Neolithization
Model suggests (Baldia 1995, Gabriel
1977).
The Later Bandkeramik evolved into regional groups, which often
developed into cultures in their own right, but retaining much of the LBK, including the custom of building longhouses and
clay-built ovens.
Houses
The carriers of the LBK
pottery built long-houses that cannot be derived from the house architecture of
Southeastern Europe and the Near
East (e.g. Lichter
1993). The houses were usually clustered in
small groups. The walls between the widely spaced timbers were constructed in a
wicker-like structure of branches covered with clay. This is often referred to
as waddle and daub architecture. The houses show a division into three
different (functional?) sections.
Ovens
The cooking ovens were out side
the houses. They were relatively standardized, elaborate dome-shaped
constructions of loess,
dug into the side of a pit. They have been found in the Early LBK as well as the Later LBK and
are reported from Austria and the Czech Republic, as exemplified at Vedrovice
and Tĕšetice-Kyjovice.
Moravia.
Burials
LBK burials consist primarily of
flexed interments, with skeletons resting most often on their left side in
burial pits. Regular cemeteries have been excavated. In Bavaria
they range in time from the earliest (early) to the latest LBK.
They include the sites of Aiterhofen-Ödmühle
(159 inhumations, 69 cremations), Sengkofen (28
inhumations), Mangolding (13 inhumations) and Dillingen-Steinheim (27 inhumations). The greatest amount
of grave goods is found in the earliest phase. Overall they occur in 48-63% of
the graves. Men have grave goods more often than women and also received the
greater share of the goods. They include food, weapons, tools, jewelry, and red
ocher (?). Women only receive jewelry.
Roughly 1/3 of the buried population are children.
The analysis of 250 child burials in Germany
and adjacent countries indicates one year or younger children are rarely
interred. Small children may have received a special, small bowl with wholes,
to insure a solid grip. Most grave goods occur with 8 – 10 year olds, the least
with children 12 – 14 years old. Children close to adulthood received
especially “rich” furnishings.
Graves and groups of graves are
sometimes located in villages, such as Těšetice-Kyjovice, Czech
Republic. In the German state of Baden-Württemberg 84 individuals were buried 82 instances in LBK settlement context (villages, pit systems, long ditches,
grave pits and even in one house, as well as an enclosed site). Most of the data come
from the early and middle phases of the LBK. Results
indicate that females predominate, especially among the child burials. In fact,
there is a disproportionately large number of children, primarily of age 7-14.
Neonates (newborn), infants, older mature and old individuals are found as
rarely in the settlements as in cemeteries, suggesting that a significant portion of the population was not
buried in the settlements or the cemeteries. In many cases grave goods are
about ¼ as common as in cemeteries. However, disease and injury are similar to
that of cemetery burials, with the exception of Cribra
orbitalia (Orbital osteoporosis) due to metabolic
or hereditary anemia. This could suggest that socially more important
individuals were buried in cemeteries.
Stone Tools
It is stipulated that the chipped stone tool technology of
the LBK is derived from the autochthonous Mesolithic
population, while the ground stone tool technology is undoubtedly a new
introduction. The raw materials for stone tools indicates a wide ranging
exchange system that probably shows different exchange networks in different
regions (e.g. Heide 2001). Eszter Bánffy
believes that relict groups of
hunter-gatherers controlled the prehistoric flint mine at Szentgal, Northern Transdanubia
(Northwest Hungary), supplying red radiolarite
for chipped stone tools to late Starčevo and
early LBK settlements. She hypothesizes that this
interaction may be involved in the formation of the Earliest LBK.
Enclosures
Numerous enclosure
are documented for the LBK. Some, such as the enclosure
at Eisleben in Central Germany, reportedly occur near the beginning of the LBK.
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Please send comments or questions to Max
Baldia.
