Václav Hrnčíř

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology | EVA · Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution

The use of ethnographic and ethnohistoric data to inform reconstructions of past human societies has a long tradition. While simple ethnographic analogies have been used since the beginning of archaeological research, since the 1950s there have been several efforts to rationalize and systematize their use. This led to the development of several new...

There is a popular idea that archaic humans commonly used wooden clubs as their weapons. This is not based on archaeological finds, which are minimal from the Pleistocene, but rather on a few ethnographic analogies and the association of these weapons with simple technology. This article presents the first quantitative cross-cultural analysis of th...

Many ideas about post-marital residence rules in the society of the first farmers in the European temperate zone (Linear Pottery Culture, ca. 5500–4900 cal BC) have been proposed. The prevailing hypothesis is patrilocality and community exogamy, based on strontium isotope, modern DNA, ancient DNA, linguistic and anthropological evidence. However, p...

Post-marital residence patterns are an important aspect of human social organization. However, identifying such patterns in prehistoric societies is challenging since they leave almost no direct traces in archaeological records. Cross-cultural researchers have attempted to identify correlates of post-marital residence through the statistical analys...

Strontium isotope analysis of archeological skeletal materials is a highly effective and commonly employed analytical tool to investigate past human mobility and migration. Most such studies to date have focused on the analysis of a single tooth sample per individual to identify migration. Increasingly, however, studies have analyzed multiple teeth...

The size and complexity of human societies increased dramatically over the Holocene. Researchers have proposed a variety of potential drivers of this major transition 1–4 , including our predilection for alcoholic beverages 5–7 . This "drunk" hypothesis argues that drinking alcohol facilitated the rise of complex societies because it promotes socia...

This study reconstructs Middle and Late Neolithic dietary practices in the area of the today Czech Republic and Lower Austria with a help of complementary evidence of stable isotope and dental microwear analysis. From a total of 171 humans, carbon and nitrogen isotopic values were measured in bone collagen of 146 individuals (accompanied by 64 anim...

The function of sunken rectangular features in the Late Neolithic has been a subject of interest in Central Europe for many years. This type of pit is not found very often. One of the latest examples is a square Lengyel feature in the village of Střelice near Brno. A study of the microstratigraphy of the fill has made it possible to qualitatively m...

Slavery is difficult to ascertain in the archaeological record, especially because of the lack of material evidence. Using the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample of 186 societies, our aim was to find indirect and easily identifiable indicators of the presence of slavery. The results show links between slavery and the expected and familiar domains (e.g....

Cílem této práce je přispět k debatě o existenci otroctví v minulosti a představit možnosti jeho archeologického poznání. Základní aplikovanou metodou je mezikulturní výzkum neboli srovnávací analýza etnografických dat, pro niž byl vybrán vzorek 186 světových kultur, tzv. Standard Cross-Cultural Sample. V principu jde o hledání korelací mezi otroct...

This article aims to contribute towards the discussion of the existence of slavery in the past and present possibilities of its archaeological recognition. The principal method applied is the cross-cultural research - comparative analysis of ethnographic data, for which a sample of 186 world cultures was selected (the so-called Standard Cross-Cultu...

Modelling of the Neolithic settlements space of the Central Danubian Europe, regardless of its landscape or village scopes, is always linked with longhouses. This is supposed to be a feature which structured the culture of early farmers. Two important aspects of the Neolithic house – its profane social complexity on one hand, and its sacred quality...