Stichbandkeramik or Stroke-Ornamented Pottery (STK). © The Comparative Archaeology WEB

Added December 15, 1999. Updated January 13, 2009, 09:46 hours.

This page will be updated occasionally to add and revise information.

Stichbandkeramik or Stroke-Ornamented Pottery (STK)

Version 2.06

Maximilian O. Baldia

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.

List of Figures

Map of Europe

Map of North and part of Central Europe

Central and North German Chronological Table

Plot of STK 14C dates

Stichbandkeramik distribution, including the location of the Hamburg-Boberg site (after Schwabedissen 1979b. Baldia 1995).

List of Tables

Detailed calibration list of 15 STK ¹⁴C dates

Location

The German term Stichbandkeramik is abbreviated STK. The English translation is Stroked or better Stroke-Ornamented Pottery culture (cf. Bogucki 1988). 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 the Harz Mountain Piedmont, the Braunschweig area and from there tot the vicinity the North Sea and the Baltic. This is indicated by the northern most site of Hamburg-Boberg. Boberg was its northernmost outpost, located on 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 Ertebølle, STK/Rössen-like and Funnel beaker (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 culture just west of the upper Oder and the upper Vistula with its tributaries. In Austria The STK is primarily confined to the Danube and its tributaries. It stays particularly close to the Danube on its southern side, occupying roughly the same area as the LBK’s Šárka (Sarka) pottery distribution (Lenneis 1995:44).

Chronology

It is a later regional variant of the Danubian Late LBK (Chronological Table). The STK is sometimes suggested to be related to Lengyel. Based on stratigraphic evidence and seriation of pottery ornaments, the STK is part of the developing regional variation starting in the Late LBK, and exhibited the development of Hinkelstein, Großgartach, and Plaining-Friedberg/Rössen (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]}

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 Lípa, Bohemia, Czech Republic, a rectangular post-built house was excavated in the 1930’s (Zápotocká 2000). In addition, a rectangular pit with flat bottom measuring 3.20–3.60 x 4.20 m and a depth of 1.60 m has been interpreted subterranean house (STK-Object 145 at Mšeno, Mělník county, Czech Republic; Lička and Tempír 2001). A few similar house-like pits have been reported for the Later LBK (ibid.).

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

Baldia, M. O.

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

1999 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.) SPFFBU M4 - ročník 1999, (http://www.phil.muni.cz/archeo/uam/htm/buttons_htm/oddeleni_archeologie/sbornik/m4_1999/farkas.html) (Accessed July 27, 2001. Link updated January 8, 2009).

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

1999 Příspěvek k neolitickému osídlení kosoře, okr. Praha-Západ. (Beitrag zur neolithischen Besiedlung der Gemeinde Kosoř, Bezirk Praha-Západ. SPFFBU M4 - ročník 1999, http://www.phil.muni.cz/archeo/uam/htm/buttons_htm/oddeleni_archeologie/sbornik/m4_1999/licka.html (Accessed July 27, 2001, Link updatend January 8, 2009)

Kazdová, E., L. Šebela and A.Přichystal

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.

1999 Stvolínky u České Lípy. První dům kultury s vypíchanou keramikou v Čechách (Stvolínky bei Česká Lípa. (Das erste Pfostenhaus der Stichband-keramikkultur in Böhmen), SPFFBU M4 - ročník 1999, http://www.phil.muni.cz/archeo/uam/htm/buttons_htm/oddeleni_archeologie/sbornik/m4_1999/zapotocka.html. (Link updated January 8, 2009)