Neolithic Archaeology - Science topic

Situating archaeological research within the context of previous research is a characteristic of all modern science and serves several purposes, some simultaneously. It can be done to support conclusions put forth in earlier research, it can also be used to refute earlier research, but it can also be used as a method of demonstrating authority with...

This paper discusses the Campaniforme, or Bell Beaker, phenomenon in the lower Douro river basin, Portugal (Northwestern Iberian Peninsula) focusing on pottery. It analyses the style and respective archaeological context of the ceramics as well as their geographic distribution and presents the absolute and relative chronology of about 50 sites. We...

In terms of funerary archaeology, the Bell Beaker period in Europe exhibits two main burial complexes: collective burials in the west and single graves in the east. This study focuses on the implication of stone wristguards, as well as other objects associated with archery, included in select single inhumation burials of the Eastern complex. Such s...

In the Editorial for the special edition on Neolithic Housesholds, we introduce the history of house and household studies in European Neolithic Archaeology and outline the papers in this collection.

The last two decades of excavations in southwest Scania, Sweden, have given substantial new results regarding Early Neolithic society (4000–3300 cal. BC). The overall aim here is to discuss and synthesize these results, and a number of important excavations are also presented in detail. The results are both on a macro scale concerning overall settl...

For over a century, excavations on Trypillia sites in Ukraine and Moldova, as well as on Cucuteni sites in Romania, have revealed few obvious signs of architectural differentiation among the huge numbers of domestic houses. Now, for the first time, a new generation of geophysical prospection methods used to investigate mega-sites has revealed uncom...

For over a century, excavations on Trypillia sites in Ukraine and Moldova, as well as on Cucuteni sites in Romania, have revealed few obvious signs of architectural differentiation among the huge numbers of domestic houses. Now, for the first time, a new generation of geophysical prospection methods used to investigate mega-sites has revealed uncom...

“Cultura de los Sepulcros de Fosa” (from end of the fifth to the beginning of the fourth millennia cal BC). The main aim is to present new data on the procedures of excavation of the pits, the materials used in the covering of the graves and the treatment given to some of the corpses. The detailed archaeological reconstruction of the funerary behav...

Many of you knew and worked with the respected Professor Tatjana Bregant years before me. You were her colleagues and co-workers in the research at Ljubljansko barje and Celje Castle, and in Lupljanica and Obre in Bosnia. You saw and knew the aspirations she had, and the energy she put into establishing the chair of “Neolithic Archaeology” and the...

New data about cultural influences and overseas trade relations are presented from the site “La Marmotta“, on the shores of Lake Bracciano (Central Italy, Tyrrhenian region ). Available evidence show that, for the first time in the first half of the 6th millennium BC a prosperous and rich farmer community daily used all the main techniques already...

Far less is understood of the nature of Late Neolithic settlement in the interior Zagros region in the 6th millennium BC compared with contemporary halafian settlement on the Tigris-Euphrates plains. This paper presents preliminary results of new excavations being conducted at the site of Banahilk (Soran, Iraqi Kurdistan) where 1950s Braidwood team...

This book summarizes the systematic research on the Neolithic cultures of Taiwan, based on the latest archaeological discoveries, and focusing on the maritime interactions between mainland southeast China, Taiwan, and southeast Asia during (5600-1800 BP). The study demonstrates and sheds light on the distinctiveness of Taiwan’s Neolithic cultures,...

This paper presents the scientific methods and recent results of an approach combining geoarchaeology and archaeological survey to reconstruct the life history of a Neolithic settlement in a lacustrine environment. The site dates to the Neolithic Tisza culture that occupied the Hungarian Plain ca. 5000 BC. It is one of several sites located in a mi...

Sediments from archaeological deposits can be affected both by human activity and environmental agents after deposition. As a result, physical and chemical alterations can be recognized in the stratigraphical record. This work focuses on characterizing and comparing the post-depositional alterations that have affected prehistoric stall deposits fro...

L’histoire de la recherche neolithique francaise s’apparente a celle d’une discipline longtemps minoree et qui, en trois ou quatre decennies, est devenue l’un des secteurs les plus dynamiques de l’archeologie hexagonale en meme temps qu’elle s’imposait frequemment sur la scene internationale. Derriere ce redressement, il y a certes des hommes et de...