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Stichbandkeramik or
Stroke-Ornamented Pottery
By
Maximilian O. Baldia
(Copy Right © 1999-February 27,
2008. All rights reserved)
List
of Tables
Table 1. Detailed calibration list of 15 STK C14 dates
List of Figures
Figure 1. Plot of STK C14.
Figure
2. Stichbandkeramik location (after Schwabedissen 1979b) with Boberg, it’s
northern most outpost, where STK and Nordic Late Mesolithic Ertebřlle ceramics
were found.
Introduction
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.
Chronology
The German term Stichbandkeramik is abbreviated STK. The English translation is Stroked or better Stroke-Ornamented Pottery culture (cf. Bogucki 1988). It is a later regional variant of the Danubian LBK (Chronological Table). The STK is sometimes suggested to be related to Lengyel. Based on stratigraphic evidence and seriation of pottery ornaments, an overlapping succession with regional variation from the Late LBK, Hinkelstein, Großgartach, Plaining-Friedberg, and Rössen is likely (Raetzel-Fabian 1986:45, 47-49, Spatz 1996). Radiocarbon dates for the STK range between ca. 5000 – 4500 cal BC (Table 1, Fig. 1).[1]
Location
The main distribution of the STK is in Central Germany, which is thought to be the place of its origin. Larger and smaller settlement regions occur in Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and nearby Bavaria.
The Oder STK was strongly influenced from Bohemia (Kulczycka-Leciejewiczowa 1970:63), crossed the mountains, or the Moravian Gate/Gap north of Moravia and following the Oder to the Vistula to the Baltic coast. A similar network must have followed the Elbe north from Bohemia into the Elbe-Saale region, the Harz Mountain Piedmont, Braunschweig and the vicinity of both the North Sea and the Baltic at Boberg.
Boberg was the STK's northernmost outpost, located on a the dunes on the east side of the Elbe estuary near Bergdorf, some 20 km southeast of Hamburg. Excavated by Schindler (1953, 1961) in the 1950's, the site contained Ertebřlle, STK/Rössen-like and TRB pottery.
In Germany the Braunschweig/Wolfenbüttel area, some 170 km south of Boberg is the northern most area of a large, relatively contiguous STK distribution, ranging from the east bank of the Middle Elbe across the Saale and the fertile Magdeburg Plain, almost to the Werra (a tributary of the Weser River). This large Central German STK distribution surrounds the eastern half of the Harz Mountains, which must have been a raw material resource for various stone tools.
Some 250 km east of Boberg, in the vicinity of the Uecker and Randow valleys, just west of the Oder, were two small STK distributions. Forty miles further east, across the Oder and just north of the Warthe in Poland is an even larger STK distribution known from the graves in Karsko, Pyrzyce (Kulczycka-Leciejewiczowa 1970:62 and Fig. 19).
Some 500 km east of Boberg and ca. 200 km east of the just mentioned Oder/Warthe STK group, is the Kujavian STK. It is located on the Vistula bend which must have been a very important region throughout prehistory. The group exhibits a marked north/south distribution.
The most easterly distribution of the STK is located on
the west side of the upper Vistula between Sandomierz and Szczecin. This region
is about 290 km southeast of the Kujavian STK and 850 km southeast of
Boberg.
The STK overlaps with Lengyel just west of the upper
Pottery
The most characteristic pottery is heavily ornamented in the stroke technique, forming continuous “A-frame” and U-shaped bands around the entire, roughly pear shaped, body of the pot. Near the rim is a relatively wide band. The widest portion of the pear-shaped body often exhibits knobs. Some later STK pottery from Lower Bavaria is mica tempered and hard fired.
In Poland the STK pots are nearly always thin-walled. They are made of very fatty, carefully mixed clay, and before being ornamented the surface of their walls were carefully smoothed. The outside is usually shiny (Kulczycka-Leciejewiczowa 1970:62).
In the West seriation and pit content in the Neckar River region (Mittlefranken) suggests a coexistence of early Großgartach and STK Ib (Spatz 1996:46). Late STK pottery occurs in the same region with late Großgartach and the apparently subsequent Pleining-Friedberg pottery (Spatz 1996:46). This pottery is hard fired and mica tempered. Spatz argues that this, together with the color of the pots, implies that the later pottery is related to southern German pottery, rather than the center the distribution in Central Germany, Bohemia and Moravia.
Economy
The STK relies on domesticated plants and animals, similar to those of the preceding LBK.
Houses
The longhouses are
derived from the LBK. Generally speaking, they are similar to Rössen and
Lengyel houses, having a are trapezoidal floor plan. In Česká
Enclosures
In Austria the small, oval enclosure at Frauenhofen, Neu Breiten is attributed to the STK (Lenneis 1995 Fig 51). A nearby Lengyel enclosure is considerably larger.
Burials
The STK is known to have employed cremation in the Czech
Republic and Austria. This practice it thought to be derived from the
occasional evidence of cremations in the LBK. The STK may have passed this
tradition on to the Austro-Moravian Painted Ware (cf. Farkaš 2000).
References and
Credits
1995 A Spatial Analysis of Megalithic
Tombs. Vol.
1-2. Ph. D. Dissertation. Southern Methodist University.
Bogucki, Peter
1988 Forest Farmers and Stock Breeders: Early
Agriculture and its Consequences in North-Central Europe. Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge.
Farkaš, Zdeněk
2000 K otázke žiarového
pohrebného rítu ĺudu s lengyelskou kultúrou v období mladého neolit. (Frage des Brandbestattungsritus beim
Volk mit Lengyel–Kultur im Verlauf des Jungneolithikums.) (http://www.phil.muni.cz/archeo/sbornikm4/farkas.html) (Accessed July 27,
2001).
Lenneis, E. Eva
1995 Altneolithikum: Die Bandkeramik. In Lenneis, E., C. Neugebauer-Maresch, E. Ruttkay, Jungsteinzeit im Osten Österreichs. Forschungsberichte zur Ur- u. Frühgeschichte 17. Niederösterreichisches Pressehaus u. Verlagsgesellschaft, St. Pölten – Wien. 1995:11-56.
Lička, Milan and Tempír, Zdeněk
2001 Příspěvek k neolitickému osídlení
kosoře, okr. Praha-Západ. (Beitrag zur neolithischen
Besiedlung der Gemeinde Kosoř, Bezirk Praha-Západ. http://www.phil.muni.cz/archeo/sbornikm4/licka.html (accessed July 27, 2001)
Kazdová, E., Šebela, L., Přichystal, A.
1997 Besiedlung des Gebietes von Blučina
(Kr. Brno - venkov) durch Träger der Stichband-keramik. Přehled
výzkumů 1993-1994, 45-75. AÚ AV ČR v Brně.
Stadler, Peter
1995 Ein Beitrag zur Absolutchronologie des Neolithikums in Österreich auf Grund der 14C-Daten. In Lenneis, E., C. Neugebauer-Maresch, E. Ruttkay, Jungsteinzeit im Osten Österreichs. Forschungsberichte zur Ur- u. Frühgeschichte 17. Niederösterreichisches Pressehaus u. Verlagsgesellschaft, St. Pölten – Wien. 1995:210-224.
Spatz, Helmut
1996 Beiteräge zum Kulturkomplex Hinkelstein – Großgartach – Rössen: Der keramische Fundstoff des Mittelneolithikums aus dem Neckarland und seine zeitliche Gliederun. I - II. Materialhefte zur Archaeologie. Landesdenkmalamt Baden-Würtemberg. Theissverlag, Stuttgart.
Zápotocká, M.
1998 Bestattungsritus des Böhmischen Neolithikums (5500-4200 B. C.): Gräber und Bestattungen der Kultur mit Linear-, Stichband- und Lengyelkeramik. Akademie der Wissenschaften der Tschechischen Republik, Archäologisches Institut, Praha,1998.
2000 Stvolínkyu
české lípy. První dům kultury s vypíchanou keramikou v čechách. http://www.phil.muni.cz/archeo/sbornikm4/zapotocka.html.
(Accessed
July 27, 2001)
Please send comments or questions to Max Baldia.