In this article we outline some of the key characteristics of the social structure of the Climax Copper Age in the eastern Balkans and the contributions of the Varna cemetery to those developments. We continue by examining the... more
In this article we outline some of the key characteristics of the social structure of the Climax Copper Age in the eastern Balkans and the contributions of the Varna cemetery to those developments. We continue by examining the implications of the new series of 21 AMS dates from the Oxford Radiocarbon Laboratory, which represent the first dates for the Varna Eneolithic cemetery on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. Representing the first phase of the AMS dating project for the Varna I cemetery, these dates have been selected to provide a range of different grave locations, ranges of grave goods, and age/gender associations. We conclude by addressing the question of the unexpectedly early start of the cemetery, as well as its apparently short duration and relatively rapid demise.
Research Interests: Geography, Archaeology, Bulgarian, Bulgaria, Bayesian Models, and 15 moreMaterial Culture, Mortuary archaeology, European Archaeology, Social Structure, Copper, Social Context, Radiocarbon Dating, Chalcolithic, Cemeteries, Late Chalcolithic, Grave Goods, European, Social Interpretation, Climax, and Gold Metallurgy
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The currently prevailing view of the Trypillia mega-sites of the fourth millennium BC has been the dominant model for over 40 years: they were extralarge settlement examples of the Childean 'Neolithic package' of permanent settlement,... more
The currently prevailing view of the Trypillia mega-sites of the fourth millennium BC has been the dominant model for over 40 years: they were extralarge settlement examples of the Childean 'Neolithic package' of permanent settlement, domesticated plants and animals, and artifact assemblages containing polished stone tools and pottery. Trypillia mega-sites have therefore been viewed as permanent, long-term settlements comprising many thousands of people. This view of these extraordinary sites has been identical whatever the various opinions on their urban or other status. In recent mega-site publications, a maximalist gloss has been put on this standard view-with population estimates as high as 46,000 people (Rassmann et al. in J Neolit Archaeol 16: 96-134, 2014). However, doubts about the standard view have been emerging over the past two decades. As a result of the last six years' intensive investigations, a tipping point has been reached, with as many as nine lines of independent evidence combining to create such doubts that the only logical response is to replace the standard model (not to mention the maximalist model) with a version of the minimalist model that envisions a less permanent, more seasonal settlement mode, or a smaller permanent settlement involving coeval dwelling of far fewer people (the 'middle way'). In this article, I seek to construct an evidential basis for the alternatives to the standard view of Trypillia mega-sites.
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The Trypillia megasites of Ukraine are the largest known settlements in 4th millennium BC Europe and possibly the world. With the largest reaching 320 ha in size, megasites pose a serious question about the origins of such massive... more
The Trypillia megasites of Ukraine are the largest known settlements in 4th millennium BC Europe and possibly the world. With the largest reaching 320 ha in size, megasites pose a serious question about the origins of such massive agglomerations. Most current solutions assume maximum occupation, with all houses occupied at the same time, and target defence against other agglomerations as the cause of their formation. However, recent alternative views of megasites posit smaller long-term occupations or seasonal assembly places, creating a settlement rather than military perspective on origins. Shukurov et al. (2015)'s model of Trypillia arable land-use demonstrates that subsistence stresses begin when site size exceeded 35 ha. Over half of the sites dated to the Trypillia BI stage-the stage before the first megasites-were larger than 35 ha, suggesting that some form of buffering involving exchange of goods for food was in operation. There were two settlement responses to buffering:-clustering of sites with enhanced inter-site exchange networks and the creation of megasites. The trend to increased site clustering can be seen from Phase BI to CI, coeval with the emergence of megasites. We can therefore re-focus the issue of origins on why create megasites in site clusters. In this article, we discuss the two strategies in terms of informal network analysis and suggest reasons why, in some cases, megasites developed in certain site clusters. Finally, we consider the question of whether Trypillia megasites can be considered as "cities."
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What can students of the past do to establish the predominant land-use and settlement practices of populations who leave little or no artefactual discard as a testament to their lifeways? The traditional answer, especially in Eastern... more
What can students of the past do to establish the predominant land-use and settlement practices of populations who leave little or no artefactual discard as a testament to their lifeways? The traditional answer, especially in Eastern Europe, is to invoke often exogenous nomadic pastoralists whose dwelling in perpetuo mobile was based on yurts, minimal local ceramic production and high curation levels of wooden and metal containers. Such a lacuna of understanding settlement structure and environmental impacts typifies Early Iron Age (henceforth 'EIA') settlements in both Bulgaria and eastern Hungary-a period when the inception of the use of iron in Central and SouthEast Europe has a profound effect on the flourishing regional bronze industries of the Late Bronze Age (henceforth 'LBA'). The methodological proposal in this paper is the high value of palynological research for subsistence strategies and human impacts in any area with a poor settlement record. This proposal is illustrated by two new lowland pollen diagrams-Ezero, southeast Bulgaria, and Sarló-hát, northeast Hungary-which provide new insights into this research question. In the Thracian valley, there is a disjunction between an area of high arable potential, the small size and short-lived nature of most LBA and EIA settlements and the strong human impact from the LBA and EIA periods in the Ezero diagram. In the Hungarian Plain, the pollen record suggests that, during the LBA-EIA, extensive grazing meadows were established in the alluvial plain, with the inception of woodland clearance on a massive scale from c.800 cal BC, that contradicts the apparent decline in human population in this area. An attempted explanation of these results comprises the exploration of three general positions-the indigenist thesis, the exogenous thesis and the interactionist thesis. Neither of these results fits well with the traditional view of EIA populations as incoming steppe nomadic pastoralists. Instead, this study seeks to explore the tensions between local productivity and the wider exchange networks in which they are entangled.
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In this article, we outline some of the key characteristics of the social structure of the Climax Copper Age in the eastern Balkans and the contributions of the Varna cemetery to those developments. We continue by examining the... more
In this article, we outline some of the key characteristics of the social structure of the Climax Copper Age in the eastern Balkans and the contributions of the Varna cemetery to those developments. We continue by examining the implications of the new series of 14 AMS dates from the Oxford Radiocarbon Laboratory, which represent the first dates for the Varna Eneolithic cemetery on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. Representing the first phase of the AMS dating project for the Varna I cemetery, these dates have been selected to provide a range of different grave locations, ranges of grave goods, and age/gender associations. We conclude by addressing the question of the unexpectedly early start of the cemetery, as well as its apparently short duration and relatively rapid demise.
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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... more
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 uncommonly large Trypillia structures which merit the name 'mega-structures'. The first three such mega-structures were identified in geophysical prospection in 2009 at the mega-site of Nebelivka, Kirovograd Domain, Ukraine. This article provides a preliminary report on the excavation of the largest mega-structure in the summer 2012 season. This building, covering an area of 600m², must rank as one of the largest structures ever built in prehistoric Europe.
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The first phase of the Trypillia mega-sites' methodological revolution began in 1971 with aerial photography, magnetic prospection, and archaeological excavations of huge settlements of hundreds of hectares belonging to the Trypillia... more
The first phase of the Trypillia mega-sites' methodological revolution began in 1971 with aerial photography, magnetic prospection, and archaeological excavations of huge settlements of hundreds of hectares belonging to the Trypillia culture in Ukraine. Since 2009, we have created a second phase of the methodological revolution in studies of Trypillia mega-sites, which has provided more significant advances in our understanding of these large sites than any other single research development in the last three decades, thanks partly to the participation of joint Ukrainian-foreign teams. In this paper, we outline the main aspects of the second phase, using examples from the Anglo-Ukrainian project 'Early urbanism in prehistoric Europe: the case of the Trypillia mega-sites', working at Nebelivka (also spelled 'Nebilivka'), and the Ukrainian-German project 'Economy, demography and social space of Trypillia mega-sites', working at Taljanky ('Talianki'), Maydanetske ('Maydanetskoe'), and Dobrovody, as well as the smaller site at Apolianka.
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My inspiration for an undergraduate dissertation (1972) on the origins of the Vinča group and, then, a PhD on the group as a whole (1976) came from a 1971 trip to the Belo Brdo tell. The PhD was transformed by new analyses to become the... more
My inspiration for an undergraduate dissertation (1972) on the origins of the Vinča group and, then, a PhD on the group as a whole (1976) came from a 1971 trip to the Belo Brdo tell. The PhD was transformed by new analyses to become the 1981 BAR publication-a processually-oriented work which, in an unexpected way, remains the only general synthesis of the Vinča group until this very day. In this self-critical and-reflexive paper, based upon the keynote speech I was invited to present to the Tübingen 2019 'LBK-Vinča' Conference, I look backwards to those aspects of the synthesis which remain relevant; examine those parts which have been overtaken by more recent research; and consider why it is that the synthesis has yet to be superceded. It is interesting that landscape studies and especially settlement studies remain some of the most relevant parts of my research. Although new fieldwork has led to incrementally better distribution maps, the basic premises remain true of the changes in settlement structure from Starčevo to Vinča. The remote sensing revolution, the Bayesian analyses of unimaginably large numbers of AMS dates and the contextual recording of finds have made the greatest impacts on Vinča research. Site planning and site size studies have progressed enormously. The analyses of site densities of figurines still poses important research questions but lacks the current contextual detail of figurine deposition. Apart from congenital idleness, I cannot imagine why no other specialist has written a new synthesis of the Vinča group. It is not that no new 'cultural syntheses' have appeared in the Balkans-syntheses are not yet a threatened species. Admittedly, a rather large amount of new material has appeared in the last 50 yearstogether with a tendency to paint pictures on smaller canvases. Yet my hope for the next 50 years is that several new general syntheses will be written on the Vinča group.
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The environmental context of cultural transformation'-frames the central issue of this paper e how were Neolithic and Chalcolithic landscapes in the Aegean, Balkan and Carpathian (ABC) zones shaped and transformed by climatic and... more
The environmental context of cultural transformation'-frames the central issue of this paper e how were Neolithic and Chalcolithic landscapes in the Aegean, Balkan and Carpathian (ABC) zones shaped and transformed by climatic and anthropogenic impacts? The difficulties in interpreting proxy records for the middle, transitional stage of the Holocene aridification sequence, falling between the early wet stage and the late arid stage, have been created by the conjoint influence of two kinds of impact e climatic and anthropogenic. An unhelpful influence in this debate stems from Willis and Bennett's (1994) hypothesis of minimal human impact on the pre-Bronze Age landscapes of South East Europe. In this paper, two questions are posed: (1) what were the effects of the claimed global changes in Holocene climate at the regional and local scale in the ABC zones?; and (2) can we recognise human impact in these proxy records prior to the Bronze Age of our study regions? Following a discussion of general long-term climatic trends and RCCs (episodes of rapid climatic change), I base a discussion of the so-called 8200BP 'event' and pre-Bronze Age human impacts on a suite of 24 well-dated proxy records e mostly pollen sequences. The principal findings are that there is little evidence for impact from the 8200BP 'event' in these records, while there is substantial evidence for pre-Bronze Age human impacts on the landscapes of the Aegean, Balkan and Carpathian regions.
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The research team of this new project has begun the precision radiocarbon dating of the superimportant Copper Age cemetery at Varna. These first dates show the cemetery in use from 4560-4450 BC, with the possibility that the richer... more
The research team of this new project has begun the precision radiocarbon dating of the superimportant Copper Age cemetery at Varna. These first dates show the cemetery in use from 4560-4450 BC, with the possibility that the richer burials are earlier and the poor burials later in the sequence. The limited number of lavish graves at Varna, representing no more than a handful of paramount chiefs, buried over 50-60 years, suggests a stabilisation of the new social structure by the early part of the Late Copper Age.
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Fine-resolution sampling of pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs and microcharcoal as well as sedimentological data in a 6-m sediment core were used to reconstruct both natural conditions and human impacts in the late fifth and early fourth... more
Fine-resolution sampling of pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs and microcharcoal as well as sedimentological data in a 6-m sediment core were used to reconstruct both natural conditions and human impacts in the late fifth and early fourth millennia cal bc in the environs of the Nebelivka megasite in Kirovograd Oblast, Central Ukraine. This 238-ha site, dating to the Middle (or BII) Phase of the Trypillia culture, represents one of the first low-density urban establishments in Europe. Despite what was believed to be a sizable population, local human impacts reconstructed from the multi-proxy palaeo-ecological record were moderate in character. There was no positive evidence to indicate a depositional hiatus in the P1 core and no sign of a major ecological impact at any stage in the high-resolution record. The palaeo-ecological record indicates modest settlement agglomeration with less permanent populations rather than permanent populations of tens of thousands of people.
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The Trypillia megasites of the Ukrainian forest steppe formed the largest fourth-millenniumbcsites in Eurasia and possibly the world. Discovered in the 1960s, the megasites have so far resisted all attempts at an understanding of their... more
The Trypillia megasites of the Ukrainian forest steppe formed the largest fourth-millenniumbcsites in Eurasia and possibly the world. Discovered in the 1960s, the megasites have so far resisted all attempts at an understanding of their social structure and dynamics. Multi-disciplinary investigations of the Nebelivka megasite by an Anglo-Ukrainian research project brought a focus on three research questions: (1) what was the essence of megasite lifeways? (2) can we call the megasites early cities? and (3) what were their origins? The first question is approached through a summary of Project findings on Nebelivka and the subsequent modelling of three different scenarios for what transpired to be a different kind of site from our expectations. The second question uses a relational approach to urbanism to show that megasites were so different from other coeval settlements that they could justifiably be termed ‘cities'. The third question turns to the origins of sites that were indee...
Research Interests: Geography, Archaeology, Experimental Archaeology, Ukrainian, Palynology, and 13 moreUrbanism, Neolithic & Chalcolithic Archaeology, Geophysical Survey, Ukraine, GIS and Landscape Archaeology, Archaeological Excavation, Mesopotamia, Cucuteni-Tripolye culture, Cucuteni-Trypillian culture, Human Settlement, Human Settlement Planning, Trypillia Culture, and Mega-Sites
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The first phase of the Trypillia mega-sites' methodological revolution began in 1971 with aerial photography, magnetic prospection, and archaeological excavations of huge settlements of hundreds of hectares belonging to the Trypillia... more
The first phase of the Trypillia mega-sites' methodological revolution began in 1971 with aerial photography, magnetic prospection, and archaeological excavations of huge settlements of hundreds of hectares belonging to the Trypillia culture in Ukraine. Since 2009, we have created a second phase of the methodological revolution in studies of Trypillia mega-sites, which has provided more significant advances in our understanding of these large sites than any other single research development in the last three decades, thanks partly to the participation of joint Ukrainian-foreign teams. In this paper, we outline the main aspects of the second phase, using examples from the Anglo-Ukrainian project ‘Early urbanism in prehistoric Europe: the case of the Trypillia mega-sites', working at Nebelivka (also spelled ‘Nebilivka’), and the Ukrainian-German project ‘Economy, demography and social space of Trypillia mega-sites', working at Taljanky (‘Talianki’), Maydanetske (‘Maydanets...
Research Interests: History, Geography, Archaeology, Landscape Archaeology, Neolithic Archaeology, and 15 morePrehistoric Settlement, Neolithic Europe, German, Prehistory, European Archaeology, Settlement archaeology, Houses, Settlement, Eneolithic, Excavation, Human Settlement, Mega, Archaeological Method, Routledge, and mega site
So far, most research into deliberate fragmentation has focussed on two poles of identity formation – persons and things – to the detriment of places. However, an integrated theory of fragmentation cannot be developed without considering... more
So far, most research into deliberate fragmentation has focussed on two poles of identity formation – persons and things – to the detriment of places. However, an integrated theory of fragmentation cannot be developed without considering the fragmentation of places. The building blocks of such a consideration already exist, awaiting consolidation. Archaeologists have long recognized that ‘raw materials’ have been extracted from places and moved across the landscape for ‘local’ use. In contrast to the economising tendency in processualist exchange studies, interpretative approaches have highlighted the active role of material culture, incorporating power strategies, aesthetic and spiritual dimensions in these discourses on the exotic. However, we have overlooked the basic fact that such practices relied on the literal fragmentation of places in the landscape and their deliberate re-use in other places. While this is a different form of fragmentation from those employed with bodies and objects, place-fragmentation carries significant theoretical implications, which will be explored in this chapter in the context of examples of the fragmentation of different raw materials. It gives me great pleasure to dedicate this essay to Ryszard Grygiel and Peter Bogucki.
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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... more
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 uncommonly large Trypillia structures which merit the name 'mega-structures'. The first three such mega-structures were identified in geophysical prospection in 2009 at the mega-site of Nebelivka, Kirovograd Domain, Ukraine. This article provides a preliminary report on the excavation of the largest mega-structure in the summer 2012 season. This building, covering an area of 600m², must rank as one of the largest structures ever built in prehistoric Europe.
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Research Interests: Geography, Archaeology, Geology, Archaeobotany, Palynology, and 13 moreEcology, Neolithic & Chalcolithic Archaeology, Plant Science, Palaeontology, Hungarian Archaeology, Human impacts on ancient environments, Neolithic, Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, Hungary, Vegetation history, Human impact, Pollen analysis, and Great Hungarian Plain
Summary. What can students of the past do to establish the predominant land-use and settlement practices of populations who leave little or no artefactual discard as a testament to their lifeways? The traditional answer, especially in... more
Summary. What can students of the past do to establish the predominant land-use and settlement practices of populations who leave little or no artefactual discard as a testament to their lifeways? The traditional answer, especially in Eastern Europe, is to invoke often ...
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Research Interests: Archaeology, Earth Sciences, Geology, Geochemistry, Mineralogy, and 15 moreGeoarchaeology, Bulgaria, Neolithic Archaeology, Archaeomineralogy, Neolithic Europe, Neolithic, Balkans, Neolithic Axes, History and archaeology, Lithics Nephrite Jadeitite Neolithic Prehistory, Nephrite, Amphiboles, PIXE, Micro PIXE, and Stone personal ornaments
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In the last decade, we have witnessed a second methodological revolution in research into the Trypillia megasites of Ukrainethe largest sites in fourthmillennium BC Europe and possibly the world. However, these methodological advances... more
In the last decade, we have witnessed a second methodological revolution in research into the Trypillia megasites of Ukrainethe largest sites in fourthmillennium BC Europe and possibly the world. However, these methodological advances have not been accompanied by parallel advances in the understanding of the nature and development of the megasites. New data have led to a 'tipping point' which leads us to reject the traditional interpretation of megasites as long-term centres permanently occupied by tens of thousands of people. The contention of the alternative approach is the temporary, short-term dwelling of much smaller populations at megasites such as Nebelivka. In this article, the authors present two alternative models for the gradual emergence of the highly structured plan of the Trypillia megasite.
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In this article, we discuss the Neolithic and Early Copper Age (ECA) part of two pollen records from the Middle Tisza Floodplain in association with the local archaeological settlement record. We address the hypothesis of Willis and... more
In this article, we discuss the Neolithic and Early Copper Age (ECA) part of two pollen records from the Middle Tisza Floodplain in association with the local archaeological settlement record. We address the hypothesis of Willis and Bennett (2004) that there was little human impact by farmers on the environment of SE Europe until the Bronze Age. Contrary to this hypothesis, our results show that small-scale agriculture and woodland clearance is already attestable in the earliest Neolithic in Eastern Hungary, there are signs of expanding scale of mixed farming in the Middle Neolithic and strong evidence for extensive landscape alterations with enhanced pasturing and mixed farming in the Late Neolithic (LN) and ECA. The main vegetation exploitation techniques in the alluvial plain of Sarló-hát were selective tree felling (mainly Quercus), coppicing (mainly Corylus and Ulmus) and woodland clearance to establish grazing pastures and smallscale crop farming. Comparison with other well-dated pollen diagrams from Eastern Hungary suggested that, in the Early and Middle Neolithic (8000-7000 cal. B.P.), Corylus and Ulmus coppicing were probably frequent, while pastoral activities and associated woodland clearance is distinguished in the LN (7000-6500 cal. B.P.). Our data also suggested a shift to moister summer conditions in the alluvium during the ECA, which may have contributed to a trend towards settlement dispersion and increased reliance on animal husbandry in the NE Hungarian Plain.
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Aim To obtain palaeobotanical evidence enabling evaluation of the viability of the hypothesis that the 'oriental' element of the Balkan flora reached southeast Europe from Turkey prior to the Holocene, probably via the Thracian Plain... more
Aim To obtain palaeobotanical evidence enabling evaluation of the viability of the hypothesis that the 'oriental' element of the Balkan flora reached southeast Europe from Turkey prior to the Holocene, probably via the Thracian Plain during a late Quaternary glacial stage but no later than the late Weichselian. Location Ezero wetland, northern Thracian Plain, Bulgaria. Methods We undertook analyses of pollen and microspores, plant macrofossils, wood fragments and molluscs recovered from sediments deposited in the Ezero wetland during the late Weichselian and Weichselian late-glacial. Sediment chronology was determined using radiocarbon age estimates.
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The lower part of a sediment core taken from the Ezero lake, next to Tell Ezero, in the Thracian Plain, Bulgaria, covers the period 15500-13500 calBP (Greenland Ice Core Stages G1-1c-1e). The recovery of plant macrofossils as well as... more
The lower part of a sediment core taken from the Ezero lake, next to Tell Ezero, in the Thracian Plain, Bulgaria, covers the period 15500-13500 calBP (Greenland Ice Core Stages G1-1c-1e). The recovery of plant macrofossils as well as pollen grains indicated that, far from a largely treeless grassy steppe vegetation, there were stands of trees and bushes as well as a rich wetland flora. Archaeological, ethnographic and ethnohistoric investigations of over 70 plant taxa showed that 20 taxa had documented use exclusively for food, 14 for exclusively medicinal use and 14 for both uses; moreover, several taxa were utilised or present in coeval sites such as the Franchthi Cave and in southwest Germany. The presumption is that Final Palaeolithic communities in the Thracian Plain would have made good use of such a rich supply of food and medicinal plants. However, there is a variety of reasons-whether taphonomic, research led or pedagogical-for the current absence of any Final Palaeolithic sites in the Thracian Plain. A hypothetical mating network centred on Ezero puts this problem in spatial context.
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Neolithic artifacts made of nephrite, Ca 2 (Fe,Mg) 5 Si 8 O 22 (OH) 2, are found at prehistoric settlements in Bulgaria. This study investigates these objects based on particle induced X-ray emission using a scanning nuclear microprobe... more
Neolithic artifacts made of nephrite, Ca 2 (Fe,Mg) 5 Si 8 O 22 (OH) 2, are found at prehistoric settlements in Bulgaria. This study investigates these objects based on particle induced X-ray emission using a scanning nuclear microprobe (micro-PIXE technique). Seven nephrite artifacts from the Neolithic sites of Kovachevo, Bulgarchevo and Galabnik in southwest Bulgaria were analyzed to quantify their composition and to establish if a correlation exists between the distribution of major and trace elements, color, impurities, and texture. The nephrite artifacts are tremolite in composition, with a proposed ultrabasic origin. Based on the geochemical data obtained by micro-PIXE, we divide the artifacts into Group 1 objects from the Kovachevo site and Group 2 objects from the Galabnik and Bulgarchevo sites. The analytical data and microprobe analyses are compared with geochemical data of nephrite from across the globe. The results are in a good agreement with previous electron microprobe and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy data. Our study provides a better understanding of the mineralogy and geochemistry of nephrite artifacts and helps to address questions regarding origin and the distribution of such materials in Bulgaria and other Balkan countries.
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Regularities in the construction of settlement space are the norm for human communities, but the symbolic significance of the size of the deviations permissible from agreed spatial norms have received diametrically opposed... more
Regularities in the construction of settlement space are the norm for human communities, but the symbolic significance of the size of the deviations permissible from agreed spatial norms have received diametrically opposed interpretations. 11te dialectic between spatial regularities and variations is explored in the context of completely excavated village plans of tell settlements in Bulgaria. Directional trends are discerned in superimposed occupation horizons, with the aid of analytical techniques such as builtjunbuilt space ratio, minimum interbuilding distance, and accessanalyses. The complexity of differentiation of house attributes and control over space is seen as a result of differential reproductive success, which led to the emergence of more successful lineages. The Varna cemetery-a unique display of corporate wealth in the eastern Balkans-reveals comparable trends in increasing formalisation in mortuary space. It is su,lJl5ested that this was the result of competition over the social reproduction of alltances, a competition related to the social inequalities created on tell settlements.
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In this article, we seek to discuss the tension between relational personhood, characterised by 'dividuals', and the individualisation of persons whose driving force was the creation of new embodied skills learnt to perform the wide range... more
In this article, we seek to discuss the tension between relational personhood, characterised by 'dividuals', and the individualisation of persons whose driving force was the creation of new embodied skills learnt to perform the wide range of new tasks which defined the farming way of life. This is, in effect, an exploration of the consequences of a vivid new world itself created by the interactions of a wider variety of individuals with different skills than had ever been seen before, including those required for domesticating animals, potting, building rectangular houses, growing cereals and pulses and polishing stone tools and ornaments. IZVLE∞EK-V ≠lanku bomo razpravljali o tenzijah med sestavljivim sebstvom, dolo≠enim z 'dividualnostjo', in individualnostjo oseb, ki jo dolo≠ajo nova znanja in spretnosti, povezane s poljedelskim na≠inom ∫ivljenja. Gre za raziskovanje posledic dinamike novega sveta, ki so ga ustvarile interakcije posameznikov z razli≠nimi novimi spretnostmi, vklju≠no z znanji o udoma≠itvi ∫ivali, izdelavi lon≠enine, gradnji pravokotnih hi∏, gojenju ∫it in stro≠nic ter poliranju kamnitih orodij in okraskov.
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Although commentators have discussed myriad themes presented in the rich and extensive oeuvre of Childe, one of the topics that has been, in my view, seriously neglected is the topic of settlement types. In this article, I seek to make... more
Although commentators have discussed myriad themes presented in the rich and extensive oeuvre of Childe, one of the topics that has been, in my view, seriously neglected is the topic of settlement types. In this article, I seek to make good this omission, starting from a consideration of The Danube in Prehistory. The basis of Childe's ideas on settlement types in the Neolithic and Copper Age of eastern Europe was a binary classification into 'tells' and 'flat sites' that, in turn, reflected a division between permanent and shifting cultivation and greater and lesser cultural complexity. However, the introduction into this debate of questions of trade, surplus production, and Neolithic 'self-sufficiency', as well as metallurgy and ritual, meant that the initial binary classification left a series of contradictions that Childe struggled to transcend in the last decade of his life.