kvetina_bylany_2013

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Hindawi Publishing CorporationJournal o ArchaeologyVolume , Article ID ,pageshttp://dx.doi.org/.//

Research ArticleNeolithic LBK Intrasite Settlement Patterns:A Case Study from Bylany (Czech Republic)

Petr KvJtina and Markta KonIelov

Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Letenska , Praha -Mala Strana, Prague, Czech Republic

Correspondence should be addressed to Petr Kvetina; [email protected]

Received August ; Accepted December

Academic Editor: Ravi Korisettar

Copyright P. Kvetina and M. Koncelova. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons AttributionLicense, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properlycited.

Tis paper could alsobe a contribution to a new concept or understanding space andtime in Neolithic settlements. We abandonedthe methodological concept o construction complexes o houses and used individual archaeological eatures as the basic analyticalunit. Te analysis o quantitative correlations o decorative style conducted on this basis produced ve style groups; our o thesebelongedto a LBKstyle, andit was these that were spatially distinct at the Bylany settlement. Te discovered spatial patterns o stylecorrespond in general to the existing chronology o the site. Tis means that chronological horizons understood both as intervalson the time axis and as geographic units are not dependent on construction complexes or even on individual houses. Te value

o this study does not lie in a more detailed chronological division o the Neolithic settlement at Bylany, but in a conrmation othe robustness o its existing orm; the study also draws attention to a possible problem in the concept o construction complexes.

1. Introduction

Te oldest agricultural population o Central, and partly alsoWestern, Europe is archaeologically tied to the Linear Potteryculture (LBKLinearbandkeramik) and covers the period BC. Te term is derived rom the typical methodused to decorate pottery, namely, the orm o incised lines orbands. Te basic archaeological maniestation o this periodcomes in the orm o remains o settlements. Tis originallyincluded various numbers o longhouses made o wooden

pole structure with walls o wattle and daub. However, all thatremained o these were postholes and oundation trenches.Te length o these houses ranged usually rom our to fymetres, but their oor level was not discovered. Te questionremains as to whether the oors were situated at the levelo the original terrain or whether an elevated platorm wasinvolved[, ]. Te archaeological nds thereoredo notcomerom the interior o the houses, but rom pits surroundingthem. Te pits were both large (covering dozens o squaremeters) and smallermainly as longer pits lining the westand east walls o the original houses. Extremely large pitswithout a direct spatial relationship to the houses containeda conglomerate o arteacts originating in an apparently long

chronological interval (up to years). On the other hand,the long pits located near the houses contain objects whosedating alls into substantially shorter intervals.

It is signicant that nds rom these pits are normallyregarded as representing the direct image o the residentso a particular house, which is clearly reected in classic[, ] or recent works on the subject [, ]. However, thisneed not necessarily to be the only methodological model.Te aim o this work is to veriy the existing time-spatial

model o Neolithic settlement. Te work is based on aquantitative analysis o the style o linear decoration andpottery technology perormed on the level o archaeologicaleatures/contexts.

2. The Site of Bylany and theHouse Complex Model

Te results o this paper are based on the long-term archae-ological project executed at Bylany in the Czech Republic.Along with Eythra, Langweiler , Olszanica, and Ulm-Egg-ingen, the Neolithic site o Bylany is one o the largestLBK settlements in Central Europe. Te three unconnected


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Journal o Archaeology

F : Te status o archaeological excavations o the Bylany area. Tegrey area marks the total area o ha inhabited during theEarly Neolithic period.

areas studied during the course o the terrain seasons o

archaeological excavations at Bylany were labelled sectors A,B,and F (Figure ). A total o , archaeological eatures and more or less preserved ground plans o long houses werestudied.

Te mutual ties between the houses and the pits were, asat many other sites, resolved based on their mutual spatialpositions. Tis led to the setting o basic chronologicalspatial unitsthe house complex. Te core o the housecomplex is the ground plan o the house composed o post-holes and adjacent pits situated along the walls o the houseat a maximum distance o ve metres. Tis distance criterionwasestablishedon thebasiso empirical experiencewith theirlocation throughout the settlement area []. However, thepurpose o these adjacent pits has not yet been denitivelyclaried. Most requently it is assumed that they are claypits that primarily served as a source o house material orbuilding the house. Te pits were then lled, both withsettlement reuse rom around the house, as well as by naturalrunoff []. Te time interval in which the original pit waslled by either intentional or natural processes cannot bedetermined. Regardless o theseacts, the archaeological ndsrom Neolithic settlements are usually always analysed inrelation to the original houses.

Archaeological nds rom the Bylany LBK settlementsmake up a large assemblage o arteacts that includes pot-tery ragments, chipped stone (ints), polished stone (axesand adzes), whetstones (abrading, smoothing, and polishing

tools), grinding slabs, and handstones. Te most signicantin terms o pastsocial relations and o the utmost importanceor this paper is the assemblage o pottery nds containingmore than , ragments.

3. Linear Pottery Decoration Style

Each pottery ragment is the potential bearer o numerouscharacteristics, o which the category o engraved linear dec-oration orms the basis or a relative chronology or Bylanyand LBK cultures as a whole. Naturally, linear decorationis not homogenous rom an analytical perspective; instead,it is composed o several levels that are typically conceived

in different ways by individual authors [, ]. For a basicimpression it is enough to divide linear decoration on potteryinto three levels: moti, style, and elements.

Moti is the result o the composition o decoration onthe body o the entire vessel []. In addition to the mainmoti the vessel can also include secondary, dividing, andline

decoration beneath the rim o the vessel. Te identicationo the moti requires the preservation o a larger part o thevessel, which in the case o the material rom settlements isnot very common.

Stylein the case o LBK pottery in Bylany is dened by thetechnique or producing the decoration. A total o ourteenstyles produced by one, or a combination o techniques havebeen identied: engraved broad grooves (b, g), engravedlines (d, d), engraved bands lled with punctures (a,a, a, a), engraved lines with punctures (i.e., musicalnotes) (e, e, e), dense punctures on a very neengraved line (z), independent punctures (et), and engravedlines with adjacent punctures (th, Figure ). Te concretestyle can also be relatively reliably identied on individualpottery ragments, and hence, the decorative level can alsobe distinguished on settlement material.

Elements o linear decoration are the basic buildingblocks o style []. For example, the descriptive system orBylany site contains a total o characters. While the largenumber o characters in the descriptive system apparentlyacilitates an exact evaluation o decoration, it also introducesthe problem o articial variability into the analysis. o a greatextent the created characters do not reect the intentionalstylistic variety o the decoration [].

Te selection o the level o linear decoration or theintended purposeo reevaluation o the time-spatialsequenceo the Neolithic settlements is inuenced by the aoremen-tioned criteria or identication and interpretive potential:motis are essentially unidentiable on the ragmentarymaterial rom the settlement, and decorative elements arepurely an etic and outsider categorisation []. o solvethis problem we thereore chose the middle category odecoration, which we label as style (Figure).

Te specic requency o decorative style on potteryspecimens shows an extremely uneven distribution: whilecertain styles are very requent (d, e, e), others occuronly rarely (z, b, d, th, a, and et, able ). Tere is aproblem with the clear identication o the estyle: the givencategory was created to classiy ragments or which a moredetailed categorization under the character e is not possible

due to their ragmented condition. Itbecame apparentduringthe course o the analyses that theestyle does not orm anysignicant correlation and occurs along the entire spectrumo the matrix. For these reasons a decision was made to omitthee style rom the analysis. In addition to the decorativestyles o Linear Pottery, an assemblage o pottery decoratedin Stroked Pottery Ware (SK) style was also included in theanalysis, even though this involves a decoration techniquethat did not take place at the same time. I more than aquarter o the assemblage eatures this decoration, it willbe interesting to determine its correlative relationship toLBK decorative styles, both rom a quantitative and spatialperspective. Linear Pottery culture decoration makes up %


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Classic

Postclassic

Late

Early

IVb

IVa

IIIb

IIIa

IId

IIc

IIab

I/II

Ic

Ib

(Sarka)

Postclassic

g

g

b

b

th

th

th

th

a13

a13

a13

a13

a13

et

et

z

ze30

e30

e30

e30

e20

e20

e20

e10

e10e0

e0

e0

e0

e0a30a12

a12

a12

a12

a12

a12

a12d12

d12

d12

d12

d12

d12

d30

d30

d12

d12

a30

a30

a30(eponymous

site)

LateSarka

F : Styles o linear decoration in the chronological order o LBK culture.

: Frequency and relative requency o styles o LBK pottery units at Bylany.

d12 e10 e0 a12 e20 e30 g a13 d30 z th et a30

(%) , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

selection QQ

(%) select. QQ , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

o the total o all decoratedNeolithic pottery ragments, whileStroked Pottery Ware decoration makes up %.

4. Quantitative and Spatial Correlations of

Pottery Decoration Style and TechnologyUnlike prior attempts, we abandon heretoore standardmethodological schemes in which the ormal and spatialcharacteristics o arteacts are grouped into a single analyticalmatrix (the house complex concept). In the given caseormal characteristics are understood as inormation aboutthe style o linear decoration on pottery vessels. Spatialcharacteristics are understood as data on the placement oarteacts and their ormal attributes within the Neolithicsettlement area, especially with regard to the ground plans othe long houses.

Te applied methodology is based on the search or aquantitative correlation between individual linear decoration

styles and, subsequently, between archaeological eatures.Discovered correlation trends are highlighted on the site mapas a certain orm o validation. Due to the excessive size othe data matrix, the use o a simple correlation technique isnot effective. Instead, we utilised two multivariate statistical

techniques: Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) andPrincipal Component Analysis (PCA) [,].

Te result o statistical analyses is a total o ve com-ponents extracted rom the matrix (able ) and whichcollectively encompass % o the assemblages variability.Each component represents and denes a specic style or itsgroup (Figure). Tis result must then be validated, whichmeans searching or conrmation o the dened groups ostyles using an external quantity not previously used in theanalysis.

Te validation o the quantitative correlations o indi-vidual variables (linear decoration style) was conducted bymeans o a spatial illustration o the actor score values. A


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Category of

style

Depiction of decoration within style categories

1

2

3

4

5

Positive Negative

g b, d30

e30 e20

a30 et

a12 a13 et

d12

d12

Correlation

Type of ceramic

paste

Pottery without

macroscopically observable

aplastic inclusions

Coarse pottery oen with

rock and sand inclusions

Coarse pottery oen with

rock and sand inclusions

Pottery with organic

inclusions

Pottery with rock

and sand inclusions

10

F : echnological properties (ceramic paste used in the manuacture o pottery) are correlated with ve stylistic categories o Neolithic

LBK pottery decoration.

: PCA result: ve extracted components expressing the degree o correlation o individual styles and dening style groups. Extractedcomponents o covariate matrix with eigenvalue over . Omitted variable:e.

Rotated Component Matrix

Style Component

Eigenvalue , , , , ,

% o variance , , , , ,

e , , , ,

g , , , ,

bd , ,

a , , , , ,

e , ,

et , , ,

e , , , ,

stk , , ,

d , , , ,

a ,

th , ,

a , , , ,

z ,


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actor score is data assigned to each entity in the analyticalmatrix or all o the extracted components. Te actor score

value expresses the degree o correlation o the given entitywith respect to each o the calculated trends o variablecorrelation. Te higher the numerical value o the actorscore o the context or some o the components, the more

the trend o the specic stylistic correlation expressed bythis component is typical or the given context. As statedabove, each o the determined components (correlationtrends) reers to a style group o linear decoration. Projectingactor score values on the site map also revealed that thedetermined trends are spatially distinct (with the exceptiono the fh component linked to SK, which does not orm anindependent spatialtrend). Itis thereore possible to state thatexternal evidence established that thegroups o LBK stylesarenot dened solely on the basis o ormal pottery qualities, butalso on their spatial attributes (Figure).

Moreover, in order to conrm the reliability o discoveredtrends in pottery decoration, we analysed their correlationwith certain technological pottery properties. Tis speci-cally involved macroscopic evaluation o ceramic paste usedin the manuacture o pottery []. Te results conrmed theexistence o groups that correspond with the stylistic trendso Linear Pottery decoration (Figure). Tese stylistic trendsin LBK pottery can be projected onto a time line, where theyacquire the appearance o intervals and can also be viewed asgeographical units with a hypothetical reerence to past socialties. Primarily, the demonstrated technological differencesbetween individual style groups can also point to past socialidentity [].

5. Chronology and Settlement Spatial

Management in the LBKResults o analyses presented previously directly involvethe question o interpretation o the original orm o theliving Neolithic LBK settlement. During the many large-scaleexcavations commenced in the s and s, it was soonrecognized that the great size o the settlement with a largenumber o house ground plans was only illusory []. Only aew o the buildings were ever truly synchronous (in manycases this involved the spatial redeposition o a single house)[]. An explanation o the periodic relocation o houses andthe absence o their reconstruction has its own theoreticaldevelopment, a summary o which is beyond the scope o thiswork []. Tere is no doubt that it was long Neolithic houses

that structured the original area o the living settlement, bothrom an economic and subsistence perspective.

wo theoretical models depict the hypothetical appear-ance o the Neolithic settlement as social wholes. Te rstworks with the concept o an integral settlement with apopulation o descendants []. Te second model imag-ines that Neolithic settlements were made up o individualarmsteads (ward model, hofplatz) that stood either aloneor in loose agglomerations with others []. Based on thereinterpretation o research results at Aldenhovener Platte(Germany) a urther model was recently ormulated (the rowsettlement model, Zielensiedlungsmodel). Its author assumesthat the Neolithic settlement here had the appearance o

Early LBK

b, d30 g d12

(a)

Classic LBK

a12 z a13

(b)

Postclassic andpartly late LBK

e30 et e20 th

(c)

Late LBKth eta30

(d)

F : LBK decoration style groups in the Bylany Neolithic set-tlement area.

a sequentially developed row o houses, always with onemarkedly longer house []. What these three hypotheseshave in common is the premiseo the housecomplex, whichstates that the contents o the pits in the immediate vicinity othe houses reect activities connected with the inhabitants othe house and, hence, also date them. Chronology, unctionalanalyses and subsistence are all based on the assumption othe direct relation between the settlement reuse deposited


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near the house and the period in which the house wasinhabited.

Te results o this work could testiy to the need or anew concept o grasping spatial and time-related elements oNeolithic settlements. Here we put aside the methodologicalconcept linking pits with the ground plans o structures

(house complex model), andwe attributed the basic analyti-cal unit to individual pits. Te conductedanalysiso quantita-tive correlations o decoration style (which was based on this)linked with the ensuing study o technological properties opottery then demonstrated ve style groups, our o whichbelong to the LBK style, and it is these that are spatiallydistinct within the Bylany settlement (Figure ). At thesame time, the revealed spatial patterns o style correspondoverall with the primary chronology o the settlement onthe level o individual LBK stages that have already beenpublished []. Tis is noteworthy, especially taking intoaccount the differing methodological bases o these schemes:all current chronology is dened on the basis of the housecomplexes; on the other hand, style groups in this work weregenerated by their exclusion. On a methodological level oNeolithic settlement studies, this means that even withoutthe concept o the so-called house complexes it is possibleto make out the local chronological development. Tis isimportant due to the act that while the ground plans oNeolithic structures do orm the basic structuring elemento settlements, their original appearance, duration, and socialinterpretation, however, remain unanswered.

rends in pottery decoration style are independent ohouse complexes, thus also o individual houses, and thisindependence does pose new questions in the theory oNeolithic settlement studies. Mainly, the direct reection othe activities o original citizens impressed into the quan-titative and spatial distribution o arteacts in settlementsgrounds can be put into question. Studies that take up adetailed analysis o the spatial placement o settlement reusepoint out that arteacts are not structured only in connectionwith individual houses, but likely also with respect to thetotal area o the settlement in the given chronohorizon [,]. With respect to their type and number, the depositedarteacts more likely reect in this concept the methodsor handling reuse in the entire community instead o theactivitiesconducted by a single settlement unit. It would seemthat the Neolithic settlement unctioned rom the perspectiveo reuse deposition as a conglomerate o inhabited andabandoned houses, a notion that would also correspond with

some o the results o ethnoarchaeological excavations [,].

Acknowledgment

Tis work was accomplished with the support rom theProject no. P// o the Czech Science Foundation.

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