The later Neolithic:
5000-3500 BC – Greece
5000-3500 BC N Balkans
4000-2800bc central Europe
3000- 2000 BC Nort central Europe
2000BC and later- Scandinavia, Russia, Baltic
Regional cultures: break up, smaller extent: karanovo, Boian, Tripolje, Trichterband-keramik, Dimini,
Vinca and karanovo IV, tisza
Characteristics0 late Neolithic is characterized by: rise of towns (or extremely large villages), several
thousand inhabitants, new tech (copper metallurgy)
Dimini: Greece, Thessaly, small settlement, large central structure, surrounding walls, regional center?
Vinca Culture: major culture of N Balkans, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Hungary, Romania
- Hierarchy: small 1-5 Ha, large- 6+ha, regional centers, pop agglomeration
- Typical houses, wattle, and daub, rectilinear and long, several rooms, all burned down and then
abandoned
- House size- small and large houses found in same site, size indicates (nuclear family, extended
family, multi fam)
- Multiple functions – living storage animals
- Two site types of late Neolithic for N Balkans, rows of houses, packed lots of people
- Clay ovens
- Furniture, table, and chairs
- Items hung on wall, handles, lug, perforated for hanging, items clustered along base of wall
- Use of stone for building, Skara Brae Orkneys, few, or no trees (stone architecture)
- Subsistence- sea mammals and shellfish, sheep cattle and wheat barley, fish
Parta- large settlement
- SE Romania, large center, banks of Timis river
- Easy access to water, fish, mussels, birds, lots of wild animals, aurochs, boar, deer
- Excavated river edge, ditches (lines of fortification, move away from river), circle village
- Rows of post holes at bottom of trench, timber fortification, first appearance of fortification (few
sites, probably regional centres)
- Settlement layout, others in defensible position – on bluff, double ditch defense
- Most sites not located in defensible positions (lowlands, river edge)
,Fortifications- Polyanitsa, NE Bulgaria, closely set houses, square palisaded perimeter, houses more
crowded as settlement grew
Ritual- earliest evidence for shrines, separate buildings, public. Special rooms in houses, niches only,
private lots of figurines. Few depictions of women or bulls, scene of birth, shamanistic dances, and
ancestors (figurines: stone, clay, bone, wood) Unlike near east. Clay objects as ritual items, altars, idols,
lids, offerings
Wall paintings- parta, houses, shrines, plastered and replastered, several layers
Tech- ceramics, lithics, bone, textiles, metals
Vessels- ceramics most common (wide range of shapes and sizes, more function, appendages become
common), stone very rare or absent, baskets- absent but inferred from impressions, wood- absent but
probably existed,
Biconical vessels- quality of ceramic improves, burnishing, ;ate Tripolje culture, Moldavia S Ukraine,
Biconical shape, slab made and hand rolled
Funnel Beaker culture- central and west Europe, Denmark, Poland, Germany, low countries
Trichterbandkeramik Funnel beaker- late Neolithic, type of pot in centre, same as funnel beaker culture
Chassey culture- France
Lithic tech- dominated by stone, grinding stones
- Polished stone tools- axes (chop), Adzes (gouge), not perforated
- Chipped stone tools- blades, sickles, cores, scrapers, flakes
Bone tech- bone spatulas, points, awls, pierced red deer antlers
Evidence of weaving, lots of loom weights, flax not wool
Opovo- weaving, flax not wool, burned, persevered
Origins of copper works- early 5th millennium Bc, Balkans and Anatolia, copper smelting, gold/silver are
fashioned into decorative forms, axes, needles and other small objects
Mines- the Balkans are rich in copper deposits, being to be mined in Late Neolithic, Mines in Bulagira,
Serbia two of the largest in Europe (AI bunar, Rudna Glava)
Other exotics (necklaces)
- Spondylus shells, imported from Aegean, great distances
- Other raw material- jadeite, serpentine, turquoise
-
,Late Neolithic trade- obsidian traded over great distances – Aegean, Carpathians, Ionia. Raw and
finished goods, father from source the lower the frequency. Highly valued, production specialization.
Stone tech- many different sources flint from Transylvania, obsidian from Carpathians
Determining lithic sources- compared objects against sources, trace element analysis, each source is
distinguishable, can measure back to origin.
Obsidian blade core- from source on Aegean Island of Melos, traded in lumps or core that purchaser
tuned into tools themselves
Climate
• Sub-Boreal
– Unstable
• Cool and wet
• Warm and Dry
Chronology
• Calibrated C14 dates
• SE Europe
– 3000-1200 BC
• Central Europe
– 2200-1000/800 BC
Chronology –
Material culture
changes
• Late 19th cent.
AD excavations
• Chronology
based on metal
types
• Central and SE
, Europe
– Glasinac
Plateau, Bosnia
Reinecke and Chronology –
Central Europe
Subsistence
• Floral resources, SE Europe
• Reliance on wheat
Subsistence
• Floral resources,
Central Europe
• Heavier reliance on
– Barley (Germany)
– Wheat and barley
(Netherlands)
Southern Europe
• Heavy sheep and goat
• Some cattle
• Almost no pig
Subsistence
• Animal Foods
– Hungary
– Major domesticates
• Cattle
• Sheep and Goat
• Pig
– Horse
• Food? Less often
• Poor collection strategy
5000-3500 BC – Greece
5000-3500 BC N Balkans
4000-2800bc central Europe
3000- 2000 BC Nort central Europe
2000BC and later- Scandinavia, Russia, Baltic
Regional cultures: break up, smaller extent: karanovo, Boian, Tripolje, Trichterband-keramik, Dimini,
Vinca and karanovo IV, tisza
Characteristics0 late Neolithic is characterized by: rise of towns (or extremely large villages), several
thousand inhabitants, new tech (copper metallurgy)
Dimini: Greece, Thessaly, small settlement, large central structure, surrounding walls, regional center?
Vinca Culture: major culture of N Balkans, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Hungary, Romania
- Hierarchy: small 1-5 Ha, large- 6+ha, regional centers, pop agglomeration
- Typical houses, wattle, and daub, rectilinear and long, several rooms, all burned down and then
abandoned
- House size- small and large houses found in same site, size indicates (nuclear family, extended
family, multi fam)
- Multiple functions – living storage animals
- Two site types of late Neolithic for N Balkans, rows of houses, packed lots of people
- Clay ovens
- Furniture, table, and chairs
- Items hung on wall, handles, lug, perforated for hanging, items clustered along base of wall
- Use of stone for building, Skara Brae Orkneys, few, or no trees (stone architecture)
- Subsistence- sea mammals and shellfish, sheep cattle and wheat barley, fish
Parta- large settlement
- SE Romania, large center, banks of Timis river
- Easy access to water, fish, mussels, birds, lots of wild animals, aurochs, boar, deer
- Excavated river edge, ditches (lines of fortification, move away from river), circle village
- Rows of post holes at bottom of trench, timber fortification, first appearance of fortification (few
sites, probably regional centres)
- Settlement layout, others in defensible position – on bluff, double ditch defense
- Most sites not located in defensible positions (lowlands, river edge)
,Fortifications- Polyanitsa, NE Bulgaria, closely set houses, square palisaded perimeter, houses more
crowded as settlement grew
Ritual- earliest evidence for shrines, separate buildings, public. Special rooms in houses, niches only,
private lots of figurines. Few depictions of women or bulls, scene of birth, shamanistic dances, and
ancestors (figurines: stone, clay, bone, wood) Unlike near east. Clay objects as ritual items, altars, idols,
lids, offerings
Wall paintings- parta, houses, shrines, plastered and replastered, several layers
Tech- ceramics, lithics, bone, textiles, metals
Vessels- ceramics most common (wide range of shapes and sizes, more function, appendages become
common), stone very rare or absent, baskets- absent but inferred from impressions, wood- absent but
probably existed,
Biconical vessels- quality of ceramic improves, burnishing, ;ate Tripolje culture, Moldavia S Ukraine,
Biconical shape, slab made and hand rolled
Funnel Beaker culture- central and west Europe, Denmark, Poland, Germany, low countries
Trichterbandkeramik Funnel beaker- late Neolithic, type of pot in centre, same as funnel beaker culture
Chassey culture- France
Lithic tech- dominated by stone, grinding stones
- Polished stone tools- axes (chop), Adzes (gouge), not perforated
- Chipped stone tools- blades, sickles, cores, scrapers, flakes
Bone tech- bone spatulas, points, awls, pierced red deer antlers
Evidence of weaving, lots of loom weights, flax not wool
Opovo- weaving, flax not wool, burned, persevered
Origins of copper works- early 5th millennium Bc, Balkans and Anatolia, copper smelting, gold/silver are
fashioned into decorative forms, axes, needles and other small objects
Mines- the Balkans are rich in copper deposits, being to be mined in Late Neolithic, Mines in Bulagira,
Serbia two of the largest in Europe (AI bunar, Rudna Glava)
Other exotics (necklaces)
- Spondylus shells, imported from Aegean, great distances
- Other raw material- jadeite, serpentine, turquoise
-
,Late Neolithic trade- obsidian traded over great distances – Aegean, Carpathians, Ionia. Raw and
finished goods, father from source the lower the frequency. Highly valued, production specialization.
Stone tech- many different sources flint from Transylvania, obsidian from Carpathians
Determining lithic sources- compared objects against sources, trace element analysis, each source is
distinguishable, can measure back to origin.
Obsidian blade core- from source on Aegean Island of Melos, traded in lumps or core that purchaser
tuned into tools themselves
Climate
• Sub-Boreal
– Unstable
• Cool and wet
• Warm and Dry
Chronology
• Calibrated C14 dates
• SE Europe
– 3000-1200 BC
• Central Europe
– 2200-1000/800 BC
Chronology –
Material culture
changes
• Late 19th cent.
AD excavations
• Chronology
based on metal
types
• Central and SE
, Europe
– Glasinac
Plateau, Bosnia
Reinecke and Chronology –
Central Europe
Subsistence
• Floral resources, SE Europe
• Reliance on wheat
Subsistence
• Floral resources,
Central Europe
• Heavier reliance on
– Barley (Germany)
– Wheat and barley
(Netherlands)
Southern Europe
• Heavy sheep and goat
• Some cattle
• Almost no pig
Subsistence
• Animal Foods
– Hungary
– Major domesticates
• Cattle
• Sheep and Goat
• Pig
– Horse
• Food? Less often
• Poor collection strategy
