Late Neolithic

This is the introduction to the edited volume "Warfare in Bronze Age society" published by Cambridge University Press. The introduction present the premise of the volume, an overview of past and current research, and introduces the articles of the volume. The book and ebook can be purchased here: http://www.cambridge.org/core_title/gb/500176

The paper is set out to present current evidence about the timing of cultural change from the Late Neolithic (henceforth LN) to the Copper Age (henceforth CA) in the northern and central Balkans. It also discusses the character of this cultural change and evaluates current models that offer ways of explaining and interpreting different processes at play. The LN and subsequent Early Copper Age (henceforth ECA) periods in this region as well as in many other regions of Europe have for a very long time been directly linked to various culture-historical labels. Hence, I will inevitably also discuss the extent to which archaeological cultures are the excess baggage of our disciplinary and regional archaeological histories, and whether they can in any meaningful way be used when modelling societal changes, such as the one discussed herein.

This paper investigates to what extent the significant material changes observable at the end of the Neolithic reflect transformations of the underlying social dynamics. Answering this question will help us to understand the formation of Bronze Age societies. The analysis concerns southern Scandinavia with a certain focus on Denmark. The assumption is that the creation of Bronze Age societies must be understood as a long formative process that partly originated in the culturally-heterogeneous Middle Neolithic. Four aspects seem to have been essential to this process: the rise of the warrior figure, the reintroduction of metal, increased agricultural production, and the establishment of one of the characteristic features of the Bronze Age, the chieftain hall. These aspects do not appear simultaneously but are introduced step-by-step starting out in the late Middle Neolithic and early Late Neolithic to fully develop around 2000 BC. Consequently, this paper argues that the final Late Neolithic (LN II, c. 1950–1700 BC) was de facto part of the Earliest Bronze Age.

Barrows, as burial markers, are ubiquitous throughout North-Western Europe. In some regions dense concentrations of monuments form peculiar configurations such as long alignments while in others they are spread out extensively, dotting vast areas with hundreds of mounds. These vast barrow landscapes came about through thousands of years of additions by several successive prehistoric and historic communities. Yet little
is known about how these landscapes developed and originated.

That is what this research set out to do. By unravelling the histories of specific barrow landscapes in the Low Countries, several distinct activity phases of intense barrow construction could be recognised. Each of these phases contributed to how the barrow landscape developed and reveals shifting attitudes to these monuments.
By creating new monuments in a specific place and in a particular fashion, prehistoric communities purposefully transformed the form and shape of the barrow landscape. Using several GIS-techniques such as a skyline-analysis, this research is able to demonstrate how each barrow took up a specific (and different) position within such a social landscape. While the majority of the barrows were only visible from relatively close by, specific monuments took up a dominating position, cresting the horizon, being visible from much further away.
It is argued in this research that these burial mounds remained important landscape monuments on the purple heathlands. They continued to attract attention, and by their visibility ensured to endure in the collective memory of the communities shaping themselves around these monuments.

Relationships between local and micro-regional phenomena of the Late Neolithic and Copper Age are studied on the basis of archaeological research related to the natural environment at the site of Polgár-Csőszhalom in  the Upper Tisza Region, Hungary. Following the collapse of the Late Neolithic socio-ecological system, its cultural elements formed new structures and resurfaced creating new equilibria in the area called Polgár Island around 4500-4400 cal BC. Consequently, there is a distinct continuity between material manifestations characteristic of the Late Neolithic and the Copper Age respectively. Meanwhile the new cultural integration also rcreated new qualitative traits, values and scales.

The Corded Ware Culture (c. 2900–2300 BC) is found in a large area, from Russia to the Netherlands and from Scandinavia to Switzerland. Supra-regional elements include beakers decorated with cord and/or spatula imprints, battle-axes, and a funerary customs involving crouched inhumations under barrows with gender-specific placement of the body gender-specific funerary gifts.

Analysis of ceramics from well-preserved settlements from the Dutch coastal zone have provided very valuable new information on the Corded Ware chronology, social organisation, ideology, subsistence, and use of material culture. A critical review of the commonly applied chronological models shows that many of the underlying premises cannot be supported due to problems with (broad calibration and sample reliability of) 14C dates. This study shows that in the Neolithic Dutch coastal zone, the thin-walled ceramics reflect supra-regional (Corded Ware ) affiliations, whereas the medium-thick-walled and thick-walled ceramics reflect persistent regional (Vlaardingen) traditions. The beakers decorated with cord and spatula impressions were used primarily for cooking; indications for the often proposed use of alcohol (and associated rise of individualisation and elites) were not found.

It is argued in this study that the Corded Ware Culture represents an economic alliance, a dynamic totality as well as a network linking regional groups – each with a distinct economic base, material culture and ideology. These communities all participated in a vast supra-regional network that was a platform for inter-community exchanges of goods, skills, ideas and possibly people. Affiliation to this supra-regional network was a vital aspect for all regional groups involved, and membership to it was expressed by using a set of common traits. Decorated thin-walled beakers act as symbols of these supra-regional networks and thus embody both functional and ideological roles.

In this working paper, I present a unique assemblage of 43 figurines and 11 miniature tool models discovered at the Late Vinca culture site at Crkvine, Stubline in Serbia. The distinctiveness of this find is that it was discovered in it original context, where the figurines were used, and that the objects were found in their original arrangement. I also discuss to what extent it is possible, considering the figurines arrangement, to understand hints of social structure and organisation of communities in the final phase of Vinca culture.

KEY WORDS – Vinca culture; Late Neolithic; figurines; settlements; social structure

In 1992, the member states of the Council of Europe co-signed the European Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage in Valletta (Malta) This has led to the development-led archaeology in many countries, also in the Netherlands, especially from 2001 onwards. But has Development-led archaeology been able to generate new knowledge about the past? Has increased prospection and excavation activity payed of? Should we continue in the same style, or should we formulate new kinds of research questions?
These are the kinds of questions that the present book aims to discuss. The main goal is to assess the gain in knowledge resulting from development-led  archaeology, notably for remains of the period 2850-1500 cal BC: the Late Neolithic, the Early Bronze Age and the start of the Middle Bronze Age. We know this period very well from burial mounds and bronze hoards. Bronze objects and burial assemblages are widely discussed in international literature, for the Bell Beaker period even with the Netherlands as a typological role model. The question we raise in this book is whether development-led archaeology has confirmed this picture, or whether large scale excavations in ‘Malta-context’ have generated other types of evidence. Have we been able to detect houses from these periods, or settlements? Are these comparable for all regions or are there regional differences? Do we have indications for social stratification; for migrations?
The answers to such questions are hidden in the many reports that development-led archaeology has produced in the last 15 years. The problem is that so many site reports have been, that it is a large task to synthesise these data and translate them into coherent models. Therefor the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE) commissioned the authors to go over all the data assembled in the last 15 years, present them to the wider public in a synthesised form, and answer a number of research questions. Because these data are published in Dutch language site reports, this book has been written in English to make the data available to a European (scientific) public. Relevant sites have all been summarised in Chapter 7, which therefore has become the central part of this publication. A synthesis of the Dutch data was formulated in Chapter 8, demonstrating that especially settlement evidence has dramatically changed our perception of the period. The traditional image based on burial data needs to be altered completely. This has implications for the international discourse on the Beaker period as well.
The book ends with a large number of methodical and theoretical avenues that can be followed to gain more knowledge in the next fifteen years of development-led archaeology. We plea for a far more integrated approach between all specialists involved in archaeological excavation and post-excavation analysis. Only then we will be really able to generate new knowledge about the past.

Promachon-Topolnica a Neolithic settlement in the Balkans, situated on the border between Greece and Bulgaria (Balkans). The settlement was studied in two sectors: the sector in years 1980-1991 Topolnica (Bulgaria) is a sector in the years 1992-2003 Promachon (Greece). In this informative article presents the results of the study. The article is richly illustrated with color photographs.

Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Britain is an era of prehistory permeated by notions of elaborate funerary rituals, exotic artefactual evidence, and immigrant invaders – at least to the untrained archaeological mind. However, such a simplistic and romanticised concept has still retained its potency in relevant professional scholarly circles, even up to and including the present day. As a consequence, a continued focus on rich regions and assemblages such as Orkney and Wessex and the regalia associated with them can be seen to predominate, a situation that has ultimately lead to a very skewed overall understanding of Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Britain as a whole with vast areas, such as the county of Essex, being chiefly brushed aside and neglected.

Nonetheless, through collecting, synthesising, and analysing the relevant Heritage Gateway records regarding burial, monumental, and funerary evidence, this study has aimed to rectify this misalignment and with it, provide an introductory yet much needed and long overdue evaluation of the archaeology of Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Essex at large. In particular, and in despite of an overall paucity of available evidence at hand, it has demonstrated the presence not only of multiple social groups and identities as well as the overall ideologies, agencies, and dynamics surrounding them, but also that of the importance of place and memory and the dominant influence it had on each individual temporal social landscape in an overarching evolutionary trajectory. Furthermore, past interpretations have also been addressed, showing them to not only be overly simplistic but also as having been affected by internalised Western notions and assumptions.

Thus, this project altogether provides a much-needed indepth introduction to prehistoric Essex on a scale that has not been seen before, with the hope that future and further research will be carried out in order to build upon the conclusions provided here and with it, secure Essex’s place and overall importance in the creation and evolution of Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Britain (and continental Europe) as a whole.

Reconsideration of some previous archaeological interpretations of gender may offer much more variability and freedom to our current understanding of gender identity. The perception of gender in archaeological interpretations commonly reflects our current social reality. In our Christian Western worldview, the traditional gender categories of men and women are based on biology and presume the primacy of the reproduction in human societies. Alternative social roles were judged as deviations by the biased majority. The extremely difficult position of homosexuals in 20th Century Western society was caused mainly by the lack of an appropriate and commonly recognised gender category. No surprisingly, the concept of transsexualism developed in cultures that only recognized and valued two gender categories based on biological sex while the tribes in North America and Siberia had gender categories ready for such cases. In Western society, Christian norms instigated a social neglect of homosexuals mainly due to the absence of appropriate gender categories. As archaeologists, we should change our approach to the interpretation of past societies because our current gender categories do not always correspond to those of a former reality.

H. Meller/N. Nicklisch/J. Orschiedt/K. W. Alt, Rituelle Zweikämpfe schnurkeramischer Krieger? In: H. Meller/M. Schefzik (Hrsg.), Krieg – eine archäologische Spurensuche. Begleitband zur Sonderausstellung im Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte Halle (Saale) 6. November 2015 bis 22. Mai 2016 (Halle [Saale] 2015) 185-189.

In this article I discuss Late Neolithic culture change in the Netherlands. Traditionally this period is analysed on the basis of funerary remains. The present publication incorporates settlement data, and tries to sketch a more nuanced transition trajectory. It becomes clear that bell Beakers do not per se originate from the Lower Rhine-Meuse Basin, that there is no uniquivocal typological sequence as advocated by Lanting and Van der Waals, and that there certainly is no un-contested dating evidence for that typology.
Instead it is argued that settlement Bell Beakers were adopted in regionally different backgrounds, also in the Netherlands, and therefore show regionally different developments everywehere in Europe. This argument conter-dicts existing out-of-the-Lower-Rhine models.

In the late Neolithic, at the end of the VI century BC. In the region of Middle and Lower Struma/Strimon establish culture Topolnica-Akropotamos. Its appearance changes radically the appearance of the area and structure of Neolithic habitation system during this period consists of numerous large settlements along the plateaus along the rivers. These concerns and the settlement Promachon-Topolnica. The study is of utmost importance to the prehistory of the Balkans. It's about eponyms object given the name of the late Neolithic culture Topolnica-Akropotamos. The article presents the results of the study of decorated ceramics, as is the focus of bitumen (type Topolnica), black on red pottery (type Strumsko and Akropotamos). Stratigraphy of the neolithic Promachon-Topolnica change current ideas about the development of this type of decoration.One of the important discoveries made in Promachon-Topolnica is the finding of the earliest in the Balkans graphite drawing. The inspection revealed a genetic link between dark picture "type Strumsko" wide and graphite drawings, which proved to be synchronous. Terms were not only ornamental their schemes, but also ceramic forms. This discovery also changes the traditional view that the homeland of graphite decoration of ceramics is Thrace. This fact is confirmed by our observations on the earlier vessels late Neolithic Graphitized surface of the object Promachon-Topolnica that allowed to trace the process of occurrence of graphite drawing that is near the Middle Struma/Strimon. It is noteworthy that the complex Kaloyanovets (Karanovo IV) in Thrace, a synchronous Topolnica-Akropotamos (Late Neolithic) graphitized vessels are completely unknown.Overall we can say that in the region of Middle and Lower Struma culture Topolnica-Akropotamos having a decorative canon, which is maintained after the sunset. Thus, this interesting culture leaves its imprint in the form of influences and technical innovation on large parts of Southeast Europe.

In this paper, analyzing results of geomagnetic mapping and excavation results, I consider the organization of space in a large flat Late Vinča culture settlement at the site Crkvine-Stubline. Densely packed houses (in rows and clusters) almost premeditated the settlement organization, more like the top of a development, than the last decades of an epoch. The destruction and abandoning of this and similar settlements at the very end of the Vinča culture (phase D2) in northwestern Serbia resulted in the disappearance of such social organization. At the end, instead of giving an answer, I am trying to find out new and different questions of this transitional period.

"The final period of Neolithic Vinca culture, which occupied wide areas in the Balkans, is characterised by large settlements, which were built, judging by the most recent investigations according to premeditated plan. What was their purpose? Were they autonomous or part of some wider communities? How large was the territory within which people of that time defined themselves as ‘we’ and where did communities of ‘others’ begin? The objective of this work is to indicate the possibilities for studying the complexity of group identities in the Late Vinca societies. We take as a starting point the micro-region of Drenski Vis in north-western Serbia, where five Late Vinca settlements have been discovered."

This article discusses the way in which economic theory has influenced human sciences such as history and social anthropology with particular interest in prehistoric archaeology and, especially, Greek Neolithic archaeology. The seeking for the origins of agriculture was the starting point for the study of prehistoric economy either in its interaction with society or as an indicative of biological evolution. During the 80’s and the 90’s the theoretical consideration about the role of economy in the understanding of Neolithic society developed gradually. Greek Neolithic archaeology was, initially, concerned with the problem of the indigenous or the colonial of Greek Neolithic but later a Marxist approach tried to designate the Neolithic mode of production. Other scholars pointed out the significance of exchanges or storage and surplus and they attempted to define the appearance of the prehistoric state in Aegean. Nowadays post-processual approaches argue the importance of production for our theoretical constructions about the past and stress the great significance of social identity, ideology, meaning and symbolic expression. It is necessary, therefore, to reconsider our approaches about economic production and especially the relationship between production and ideology in prehistory.

The site Crkvine is situated in the vicinity of the village Stubline in the borough of Obrenovac around 40 km to the southwest of Belgrade (Serbia). In the first section of this work we present the comprehensive report about the investigations carried out so far. The geomagnetic prospection undertaken from 2006 to 2008 covered an area of 32,400 square meters and the obtained results indicate the existence of around 100 houses built in rows around the rather large open areas as well as the trenches surrounding the settlement. The investigations of the house 1/2008 dating from the Vinca culture D–2 period yielded in addition to the data concerning its interior organization also a unique find of the group of 46 figurines with 11 models of miniature tools. In the second section of this work we discuss the prospects, which future investigations of this site and its environment could provide concerning the study of the social organization in the very end of the Vinca culture.

Contact across long distances is evident in the Neolithic of the Near East, whether driven by social networks, exchange links, or movement of individuals or populations.  Movement of material, such as obsidian, can elucidate these processes but is often studied within a bounded world that places Mesopotamia at the center.  This paper focuses on links that cut across the traditionally imposed boundaries between Northern Mesopotamia and the Caucasus.  While Armenia is one of the world’s most obsidian-rich landscapes, reports of Armenian obsidians in Northern Mesopotamia are scarce.  The confirmation (or lack thereof) of these rare reports has important consequences regarding the movement of people, material, and information out of the Caucasus.  As discussed here, all but one report either cannot be corroborated or are demonstrably erroneous.  For one archaeological site, data processing methods led to overlaps in the signals for different obsidian sources.  For another site, one element used in source identification suffered from unsystematic error.  For other sites, data and key details went unpublished at the time.  To corroborate past work that had identified Armenian obsidian at Domuztepe, 66 artifacts were newly sourced by electron microprobe analysis and portable X-ray fluorescence.  This sample was biased toward artifacts potentially from Armenia.  Our analyses revealed that 15 artifacts match Pokr Arteni, one of the most used obsidian sources in Armenia.  For reasons not yet clear, obsidian was brought to this Late Neolithic settlement over a distance of 670 km linearly and more than 800 km on foot.  Additionally, there are artifacts from four other sources within the Kura-Araxes basin, lending extra support to movement of materials, if not people, between the Caucasus and Domuztepe.  Furthermore, there are similar patterns in the two chemical varieties of Pokr Arteni obsidian at Domuztepe and at a Late Neolithic site in Armenia, reflecting similar processes or behaviors at this source.

Between 1969 and 1973, excavations were undertaken at Hijken, the Netherlands. An area of 3 hectares within a cultural landscape replete with barrows and Celtic field banks was opened-up and yielded Late Neolithic graves, a Bronze Age palisade and several Middle Bronze Age houses. During the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, the site was still occupied and pits filled with fragmented pots may testify to abandonment rituals. Our analysis allows to diachronically trace changes and continuity in the use-phases of the site – suggesting that the site may have been inhabited from the Middle Bronze Age-B to the Late Iron Age. Remarkably, the eponymous house type (type Hijken) proved to be rather uncommon at Hijken and moreover appears to span the Early to Late Iron Age. Careful study of the interrelations of fence-lines, Celtic field banks and house plans suggests that bank development may have started in the Early Iron Age, but is it plausible that aspects such as Celtic field orientation may have been derived from older (Bronze Age) cultural landscape elements and preceding fence-systems.

In this thesis diet and health of people who lived in southern Sweden 2300-1100 BCE is studied. The study is based on bioarchaeological analyses of human remains from 46 localities in the areas of Uppland, Närke, Östergötland, Västergötland, and Scania. The studies are based on skeletal remains from a minimum number of 310 individuals that have been analysed both osteologically and biochemically. The thesis constitutes five papers and a synthesis, in which diet and health, related to agro-pastoral intensification and increased social stratification, is explored and discussed.

The author acknowledges a biocultural approach, i.e. human biology and culture are intertwined and affect each other. A variety of cultural expressions and actions form human biology, which can be studied as skeletal adaptation or stress. This relationship makes it possible to study past cultural behaviour through analyses of human skeletal remains. The results of the papers have been discussed in relation to bioarcheological theories and methodologies as well as current regional archaeological understandings.

The period around 2300-1100 BCE is considered by archaeologists as a period of agro-pastoral intensification, population increase, and increased social stratification. Agro-pastoral intensification allows for increased access to nutrition, and further, a resource surplus. This development would plausibly also result in population increase and increased socio-economic differences. Through investigations of diet, oral health, stature, paleopathology and care, mobility, and demography insight in the biological consequences of this development have been gained.

The results from the papers show that there is a higher reliance on cereals and cattle in the Late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age than in previous periods, which is visible both in stable isotope results and the frequency of dental caries. The health of the population seems to have been generally good with high stature, low prevalence of pathological lesions related to nutritional stress, possibility of gaining care if injured, many surviving into old ages, and low child mortality, which is indicative of low risk of infections due to low population density. However, an elevated risk of dying as young adults and decreasing female stature in the Early Bronze Age might reflect increased levels of stress in parts of the population.

Climate change is often cited as a major factor in social change. The so-called 8.2 ka event was one of the most pronounced and abrupt Holocene cold and arid events. The 9.2 ka event was similar, albeit of a smaller magnitude. Both events affected the Northern Hemisphere climate and caused cooling and aridification in Southwest Asia. Yet, the impacts of the 8.2 and 9.2 ka events on early farming communities in this region are not well understood. Current hypotheses for an effect of the 8.2 ka event vary from large-scale site abandonment and migration (including the Neolithisation of Europe) to continuation of occupation and local adaptation, while impacts of the 9.2 ka have not previously been systematically studied. In this paper, we present a thorough assessment of available, quality-checked radiocarbon (14C) dates for sites from Southwest Asia covering the time interval between 9500 and 7500 cal BP, which we interpret in combination with archaeological evidence. In this way, the synchronicity between changes observed in the archaeological record and the rapid climate events is tested. It is shown that there is no evidence for a simultaneous and widespread collapse, large-scale site abandonment, or migration at the time of the events. However, there are indications for local adaptation. We conclude that early farming communities were resilient to the abrupt, severe climate changes at 9250 and 8200 cal BP.

The rondel enclosure at Pömmelte-Zackmünde, Salzlandkreis, consisting of several concentric circles, dates to the transition from the Final Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age. Its signif- icance as a sacred site and as a place for the performance of rituals, motivated – presumably – by religious and ideolog- ical ideas, can be deduced from the complexity of the architecture, the numerous deliberate depositions, and the  nds. That it also had a social function can be seen from the way in which the sacred space was organised and from the positioning of the burials within it. Through its architec- ture, the rondel was intended to reinforce the social order.
The  nds recovered from the rondel re ect the close links between the material remains of the local late Bell Beaker Culture population groups of Central Germany and the very early Únětice Culture groups. Stratigraphic indicators and absolute dates show the bearers of the Bell Beaker Culture to have been the original builders of the complex. During a second phase of use, the coexistence and close intermeshing of Final Neolithic and Early Bronze Age cultural phenomena is evident. These are joined by a third component in the ce- ramic spectrum, which can be associated with residual in u- ences of the Single Grave Culture, of northern Central Euro- pean provenience, along the northern periphery of the Únětice Culture. Although features characteristic of different archaeologically-recognised cultural groups and various geographical regions can be identi ed, the material remains should not be taken as evidence that the rondel was used by successive groups of differing archaeological cultures. Rather, they bear witness to a cultural transition from the Bell Beaker Culture to the Únětice Culture between the 23rd century BC and 2oth century BC.

2 RCC Perspectives Volume Editors Michaela Harbeck studied biology, forensic medicine, and biochemistry at the University of Kiel. She received a doctorate in physical anthropology from LMU Munich, where she then worked as an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology and Human Genetics. Since 2010 Harbeck has worked as a curator for the Bavarian State Collection of Anthropology and Palaeoanatomy in Munich. She has published numerous articles on applying the methodology of modern natural sciences to research in osteology. Currently, she is using molecular biology and archaeometric analyses of skeletal material to investigate the social structures, the burden of disease, and living conditions of past populations of the early Middle Ages in particular. Heyking applies a broad range of scientific methods to analyze the health of individuals from an urban, late medieval poorhouse. Currently working as a freelance anthropologist, she has published her first results from this research as well as further anthropological analyses of medieval lifestyles. Heiner Schwarzberg studied prehistoric archaeology, prehistoric anthropology, and history of art at the Universities of Halle (Saale), Jena, and Berlin. After working at the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin and the Martin-Luther-University Halle, he took on an assistant professorship at LMU Munich in 2008. He has specialized in the archaeology of Neolithic early farming communities in Europe and Asia Minor. In a Turkish-German joint project funded by the German Research Foundation, Schwarzberg is cooperating with Istanbul University, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the German Archaeological Institute to excavate the sixth-and seventh-millennium BCE settlement mound of Aşağı Pınar in Eastern Thrace-a key site for Neolithization processes of southeastern Europe. Schwarzberg has published several books and papers on the Early Neolithic and the prehistoric cults and religion of the earliest European farmers. Sickness, Hunger, War, and Religion

Megalithic sanctuaries ritualized landscapes and sacred paths in Malta between the 4th and 3rd millennium Bc: the Tas-Silg case. From the 5th to 3rd millennium Bc, the creation of symbolic landmarks, such as rock art, stelae statues, menhirs, cemeteries, funerary and non-funerary tumuli, places of worship, with the aim of ritualising landscapes appear to have proliferated in Italy as well as in Europe in general. Moreover, these symbolic landmarks might have entailed local movements of people for cultic purposes. Despite representing absolutely unique monuments in the Mediterranean Prehistory, Maltese megalithic sanctuaries might have been a part of this wide cultural phenomenon, their peculiar characteristics notwithstanding. Authors discuss the Tas-Silg sanctuary in particular, where ongoing excavations have been providing new data about ritual practices. This data, in fact, leads them to hypothesise that worshipers who frequented these sanctuaries played an active role in cultic practices too and furthermore that two or more megalithic sanctuaries were connected within specific ritual paths.

R. Madgwick, A. L. Lamb, H. Sloane, A. J. Nederbragt, U. Albarella, M. Parker Pearson, J. A. Evans, Multi-isotope analysis reveals that feasts in the Stonehenge environs and across Wessex drew people and animals from throughout Britain. Sci. Adv. 5, eaau6078 (2019)

The great henge complexes of southern Britain are iconic monuments of the third millennium BCE, representing great feats of engineering and labor mobilization that hosted feasting events on a previously unparalleled scale. The scale of movement and the catchments that the complexes served, however, have thus far eluded understanding. Presenting the largest five-isotope system archeological dataset (87 Sr/ 86 Sr,  34 S,  18 O,  13 C, and  15 N) yet fully published, we analyze 131 pigs, the prime feasting animals, from four Late Neolithic (approximately 2800 to 2400 BCE) complexes to explore the networks that the feasts served. Because archeological evidence excludes continental contact, sources are considered only in the context of the British Isles. This analysis reveals wide-ranging origins across Britain, with few pigs raised locally. This finding demonstrates great investment of effort in transporting pigs raised elsewhere over vast distances to supply feasts and evidences the very first phase of pan-British connectivity.

Bretagne, tumulus, mégalithisme, tombe individuelle, Néolithique final, Campaniforme, Âge du Bronze ancien, jadéitite, brassard d'archer, flèches, poignards, cuivre arsénié, chaînes de spirales, or, argent, relations atlantiques. RésuMé. En 1843, Arthur Boutarel, inspecteur des forêts de Lorient, fouille un tumulus dans la forêt de Carnoët, près du hameau de Lothéa (Quimperlé, Finistère). La découverte de la relation de fouilles, restée inédite durant près de 170 ans, porte à une révision de cette tombe à la lumière des avancées de la recherche. Le tertre, par sa taille, appartient aux grands tumulus de l'Âge du Bronze ancien de Bretagne. Le caveau funéraire est construit selon les principes de l'architecture mégalithique et peut être considéré comme un lien entre les sépultures collectives du Néolithique et les tombes individuelles de l'Âge du Bronze. Le mobilier, particulièrement riche, révèle une triple composante avec des éléments attribuables au Néolithique final (pendeloque en jadéitite), au Campaniforme (brassard d'archer, flèches à pédoncule et ailerons équarris) et au tout début du Bronze ancien (poignards, hache). Trois grands poignards de type Quimperlé témoignent de relations atlantiques par leurs formes et leur alliage fait de cuivre et d'arsenic. Ces relations à longue distance sont confirmées par la présence dans la tombe de deux chaînes de spirales, une en or et une en argent, qui proviennent selon toute vraisemblance du nord-ouest de la péninsule Ibérique. AbstRACt. In 1843, Arthur Boutarel, the Lorient forest inspector, excavates a barrow in Carnoët forest near the hamlet of Lothéa (Quimperlé, Finistère, France). The discovery of the excavation notes, unpublished for over near 170 years, enables this grave to be reviewed in the light of recent research. The mound, by its dimensions, belongs to the class of Breton large early Bronze Age barrows. The grave is of megalithic construction and can be considered as a link between Neolithic collective tombs and Bronze Age individual graves. The grave-goods, particularly rich, show a triple component with artefacts attributed to the Late Neolithic (jadeitite hatchet-pendant), the Beaker culture (wristguard, squared barbed-and-tanged arrowheads) and the beginnings of the Early Bronze Age (daggers, axe). Three long daggers of Quimperlé type provide evidence for Atlantic connections by their shape and alloy, consisting of copper and arsenic. These long-distance relations are confirmed by the presence in the grave of two spiraled chains, one gold and the other silver, which most probably come from north-western Iberia. translation: Magen O'Farrell Les reLiques de Lothea (quimperLe, Finistere) 25ème conservation Inspection de Lorient Département du Finistère Administration des Forêts L'an 1843, le 19 du mois d'août.

Complex evaluation of a two-storey building positioned in the centrum of the Csőszhalom tell, in thhe lowermost building horizon. The analysis comprises of an extended background analysis of different related phenomena (including for example symbolic building and house burning), carried out by P. Raczky, and a statistical evaluation of the ceramic material by K. Sebők.

Recent archaeological investigations carried out in the frame of several dam
projects on the Euphrates and the Tigris Rivers revealed valuable data on Upper
Mesopotamian prehistory, the cradle of civilizations. The new data obtained
from the salvage projects in the last 50 years claims a re-assessment of the earlier
arguments. The traditional concepts on the earliest painted pottery of Upper
Mesopotamia – the Hassuna, Samarra and Halaf potteries – are based on the
arguments from the last century. Recently, the previous approaches are intensively
discussed among specialists. The archaeological excavations carried out in
South-eastern Anatolia and those in Northern Syria require a re-handling of this
subject. This study deals with a detailed discussion on the mistakes of the previous
approaches on the potteries of Hassuna, Samarra and Halaf, and on the new
approaches and suggestions basing on recent informations. The first part of this
study deals with the ambiguous explanations on the Hassuna and Samarra, and the
second part with a detailed discussion of recent arguments on the Halaf.

We chose the burials of the Polgár-Csőszhalom settlement
complex as the subject of our study written in honour
of Alasdair Whittle. Described in the following are four burials uncovered in four different locations of the site, which
diverge from the normative practices observed in the other
burials at Polgár and illustrate an uncommon expression of
identity in their particular contexts.

The coastal sites of the UAE and the Sultanate of Oman in the sixth-fifth millennia BCE share a number of features in their material culture. In addition to lithic techniques, the populations shared particular technologies, such as architecture using load-bearing pots or the production of specific fishing material and ornaments in shell and mother-of-pearl. This corresponds to populations that were already Neolithic, with domestic animals and practising intensive fishing, which was sometimes specialised. Is it possible at this stage in our understanding, to assert that this assemblage is both well differentiated from those of Qatar and the northern Arabian Gulf and culturally homogeneous? Some answers are provided in this note.

This paper presents a first approach to the ivory assemblage of the Montelirio tholos (Castilleja de Guzmán, Seville), a burial structure belonging to the Copper Age settlement of Valencina de la Concepción (Seville). Valencina is one of the Iberian Chalcolithic sites with the largest concentration of ivory. At the same time, Montelirio has yielded a large amount of raw ivory without evidence of processing as well as a remarkable and varied collection of artefacts manufactured in this raw material. This assemblage is of great scientific value, both because of the amount of material involved as well as the technological, functional and contextual data it provides. In this paper we present a general description of this ivory collection and outline some brief preliminary remarks regarding the technological and functional dimension of these objects. The main aim is to present, for the first time, an overview of this ivory assemblage, one of the most important in the Iberian Copper Age.

Excavated in 2009, the barrow from Kruszyn
(the Kujawy region) is related to a small regional group
of the Corded Ware culture. Noteworthy is a fairly good
state of its preservation and a remarkably numerous assemblage
of tools made of bone and antler. Unearthed
human remains were anthropologically studied and examined
isotopically (14C, δ13C, δ15N, 87Sr/86Sr, δ18O), while
artefacts made of organic material were subject to archaeozoological
and use wear analyses. Samples of sediments
surrounding the grave were also investigated.
The grave dates back to the first half of the third millennium
BC and in terms of its construction bears the closest
resemblance to the Central European early Corded Ware
barrows. It was a burial of a non-local elderly man, probably
engaged in hide working in life, as evidenced by traces
on the tools deposited with him in the grave and made
from bones of wild animals. The grave yielded also cow
bones and a pot typical for the late Neolithic settlement
sites.