Causewayed Enclosures

Second report on excavations at Britain's largest hillfort. Excavations revealed a complex sequence of Iron Age rampart construction overlying features dated to the Neolithic, along with the interior and entrance to a large rectangular enclosure. Extensive middle and late Bronze Age field systems and structures were also examined.

Archaeology of Death E-learning

Dear Colleagues,
As the Covid-19 safety measures are limiting our communication, please use the following web link to download presentation of the Archaeology of Death course.
https://cuni.academia.edu/JanTurek/Teaching-Documents
Since the lesson 4, that we have already missed I include much more texts and references, so you can use it as e-learning material.
Let’s hope we are going to have chance to catch up with the lectures later the spring term.
Meanwhile stay safe
and
Good luck!

Sincerely
Jan Turek
Center for Theoretical Study


The lecture provides a basic overview of the theory and methodology of the study of funerary areas, burial contexts and social and symbolic perception of death in prehistoric societies. Through the archaeological evidence of funerary rituals will be presented not only prehistoric people's attitudes toward death and the afterlife but also their culture, social organization, symbolic systems and cosmology. The focus on archaeology of personhood will be targeted mainly on the analysis of age and gender categories. Introductory topics summarize the methodology of field and laboratory research of funerary data in archaeology including application of scientific methods, spatial analysis of burial data and palaeodemography. In the interpretation section of the course an attention is also paid to the social and ritual significance of death and the transformation of human understanding of mortality. We are going to focus on case studies from different periods and locations throughout the world from Palaeolithic to the rise of historical societies. Case studies will further shed light on the social interpretation of burial data and their use in reconstructing social relationships, and will present significant discoveries. The end of the course is devoted to the ethics of the archaeological research of funerary and the political and ethical controversies surrounding human remains. This lecture is designed for audience among archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, and others who have a professional interest in funerary evidence, or general curiosity about past death and burial.

I recently had the opportunity to review Alex Gibson’s thought provoking volume, 'Enclosing the Neolithic: Recent studies in Britain and Europe'. That review, to which the reader is directed for further commentary, identified as a weakness the uneven spread of regional case studies, and in particular the omission of studies from the West Country, Wales and North West England, which are so important in understanding the Irish Sea Zone. The aim of this paper is to address this with regard to the material from the North West of England, and in particular Cumbria. This paper is therefore meant to be read in conjunction with Gibson’s edited volume.

The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe pp. 795-812:

Causewayed enclosures, also referred to as causewayed camps, Erdanlagen, enceintes interrompues and Sarupanlæg are one of the most widely distributed types of Neolithic monument, dating from the second half of the 5th millennium and the 4th millennium BC. They are characterized by a system of ditches or segmented ditches which, like oblong pearls on a string, enclose areas of up to several hectares. One or more palisade trenches, located concentric with or parallel to the ditches and banks (also often segmented), are also very occasionally found. Causewayed enclosures are typical of the Chasséen, Matignon, Peu-Richard and Noyen cultures, all in northern France (from late 5th millennium) and adjacent countries, the Michelsberg culture of western Germany and eastern France (late 5th and beginning 4th millennium B.C.), the Windmill Hill Culture of the southern parts of England (first part of 4th millennium B.C.), the Wartberg culture of central eastern Germany (the middle of the 4th  millennium B.C., as well as the Funnel Beaker culture of the north European plain (the second part of the 4th millennium B.C:)

Developer-funded archaeology on the Isle of Sheppey resulted in the discovery of not one but two Neolithic causewayed enclosures on the same hilltop in very close (c. 300 m) proximity. In the later Bronze Age enclosures and cremation cemeteries were constructed immediately to the east, followed by Iron Age enclosures and, ultimately, field systems dating to the later Iron Age onwards.
A radiocarbon programme enabled the chronological sequence and hiatus between all of these events to be discerned, but the majority of this paper explores the physical, chronological, and social relationship between the two Neolithic causewayed enclosures. These were of different forms and, although on the same hilltop, they each seem to have had distinctly different viewsheds over the Thames and the Swale respectively. There are subtle, but potentially significant, differences in the material culture and deposition which allow exploration of the possible functions and role(s) of the two largely contemporaneous sites. Questions may be addressed such as whether they performed the same functions for two communities or had separate and distinct roles for a single community. Beyond the Neolithic, the paper also explores the nature of the later use of the hilltop. The Bronze Age enclosures, though agricultural in function, clearly seem to respect their Neolithic predecessors invoking a remembrance of space, which is lost by the Iron Age. The shift away from the special function of this landscape in the Neolithic to a subsequent agricultural use is explored, as is the hiatus in use and subsequent re-use of the area.

Neolithic causewayed enclosures in Western France appear as a clearly individualized phenomenon, in time and space, also due to the way they appear to the archaeologists. We would like to insist on the further knowledge brought by sites where archaeological layers are preserved, and still standing remnants of mud constructions are found. The causewayed enclosures of Ponthezières and La Perroche are some of such examples of the Final Neolithic. That of Lillemer, whose excavation is still in progress, will illustrate the second point for the beginning of the Middle Neolithic. We shall then introduce a little more variability, including within the same region and period, into the interpretation of defended enclosures, which could concern various forms of habitat, along with, and sometimes simultaneously, the other functions such as ceremonial and/or funeral
practices.

La caractérisation de la parure du Néolithique récent dans le Centre-Ouest de la France reste peu aisée. La plupart de ces objets de petite taille ont été recueillis en milieu sépulcral, là où la fouille fait souvent appel à un tamisage systématique des terres. De multiples réutilisations dans les sépultures collectives construites au Néolithique moyen, tout au long du Néolithique récent et final, entravent toutefois une attribution sans faille du mobilier funéraire qui leur est associé. Les contextes d’habitat sont rarement d’un grand secours, tout comme le mobilier provenant du comblement des fossés de ces vastes enceintes qui se multiplient ici à partir du Néolithique récent. Les pièces de parure provenant de tels contextes sont extrêmement minoritaires au vu du nombre de dépôts ou de rejets domestiques de toute sorte alors recueillis. Elles le sont également comparées au nombre de pièces de parure provenant de sépultures. Résultant de chaînes opératoires assez courtes, la valeur identitaire intrinsèque au contexte de production est, de plus, souvent difficilement perceptible au premier abord sur ce type de pièces. Un tel constat révèle aussi le peu d’attention portée par nombre de nos collègues à ce qu’ils jugent comme un peu accessoire. Les parures corporelles, affichées à la vue de tous comme le vêtement auquel elles concourent, furent pourtant les marqueurs explicites d’une identité que l’on cherche souvent à caractériser par tant d’autres moyens. Pour mieux tenir compte de tous ces paramètres, il a semblé utile d’adjoindre à l’étude des quelques pièces de parure recueillies dans l’enceinte fossoyée de Champ-Durand, à Nieul-sur-l’Autise en Vendée, l’étude encore inédite de celles provenant de la fouille, également assez récente, d’un monument mégalithique situé de l’autre coté du Marais poitevin, à Availles-sur-Chizé dans les Deux-Sèvres. Il semble qu’il fut réutilisé au cours du Néolithique récent.

This case study is part of a monograph concerning the neolithic enclosure of Champ-Durand (Vendée, France). Excavated during the 80's by Roger Joussaume, this site has been essential for western France archaeology. A multidisciplinary team recently studied all the material which remained unpublished until then, giving a complete image of the lifestyle in this region during the IVth millenium BC.
My contribution concerns ground stone tools. Besides typology, the important assemblage informs about technical and economical aspects of the settlement.

Short description of the causewayed enclosures, large monuments built of earth and wood, from the middle of the 5th and to the late 4th millennium BC. Based on the results of excavations at the site of Sarup in Denmark, it is suggested here that these monuments must have been constructed by a large number of people, but were originally only used for a few days. Subsequently the ditches saw repeated re-cutting with new depositions of materials. Every single ditch seems to have had its own history for hundreds of years.
It is suggested that the collective efforts in planning and building enclosures and megalithic features provided the early farmers with a collective point of reference. This was the “glue” which bound them together during the transitional period to a Neolithic way of life. The early farmers must have been organized in a cooperative way without any signs of a hierarchical structure.

The early Neolithic enclosure of Herxheim near Landau: Architecture, backfilling processes and duration of use

Download link: https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/handle/fub188/8044

English version of the part concerning Herxheim is out now:

Fabian Haack, The Early Neolithic ditched Enclosure at Herxheim: Architecture, Fill Formation Processes and Service Life. In: Zeeb-Lanz, A. (ed.) Ritualised Destruction in the Early Neolithic - the exceptional Site of Herxheim (Palatinate, Germany), HERXHEIM VOL. 1,  Forschungen zur Pfälzischen Archäologie Band 8.1 (Speyer 2016).
http://archaeologie-speyer.gdke.webseiten.cc/

The early Neolithic enclosure of Herxheim “Gewerbegebiet West“ (Kr. Südliche Weinstraße) has been the subject of controversial discussions. This concerns on the one hand the remains of about 500 manipulated human bodies found here in association with selected and deliberately destroyed items of material culture, and on the other hand the enclosure itself, where these remains had been deposited. About half of the earthwork has been excavated and very well documented, providing an extraordinary resource for the reconstruction of the architecture and for understanding the taphonomic processes connected to the deposition of the bone fragments, sherds and broken stone implements.
The underlying structure of the two ditch-like circuits actually consists of individual pits, approximately 2.5 to 4 m long. They were dug one after the other in a very short time and were then refilled simultaneously. At some points these pit alignments are interrupted or overlap, which hints at different construction segments. The results of geomagnetic prospection and of two excavation trenches in the eastern part of the enclosure suggest that the earthwork never formed a closed circuit. With the exception of loose sediments in the bottom 0.1 m, the backfill in the pit rows is of anthropogenic origin. This includes the concentrations of manipulated human bone and destroyed objects, which were dumped in mixed with soil. The deposits often slope to one side, as they were added above the already existing and inclining primary fills. In some cases, two of these deposits can lie directly above each other or are separated by a fill lying in between them. The fast infilling of both circuits of the earthwork is indicated by the fact that the sides of the pit rows are barely eroded, but also by numerous re-fits of human bone fragments and pottery sherds, which connect either different parts of single deposits, two or more deposits, or deposits and the fills overlying them. This fast refilling process and the distribution of the datable finds clearly indicate a very short period of use for the whole enclosure, dating to the very end of settlement at Herxheim (latest LBK). Activity at the enclosure is closely connected to the rituals focusing on the intensive manipulation of human bodies and material culture. In total, 108 LBK earthworks are now known. The comparison with the 15 best-documented among them has shown similar construction and backfilling processes as at the Herxheim enclosure across the whole distribution area of the LBK. However, in many cases the standard of excavation and recording is not sufficient to address these questions and allows only limited conclusions. Due to their construction, the frequently incomplete layouts and the fast backfilling processes, a defensive function can be excluded for early Neolithic enclosures. Their use must rather be set in a social or ritual context in which the organisation, the building and the backfilling themselves played an important role.

In Denmark, the most extensive construction of large monuments took place in the second half of the 4th millennium BC, during the Funnel Beaker culture, when thousands of unchambered long barrows, dolmens, passage graves and causewayed enclosures were built. This enormous building activity coincided with the great changes in the region’s c. 500-year-old Neolithic economy. Extensive areas of woodland were first at this time taken into cultivation.

Rendering the cleared forest areas cultivable was not a one-man job, but rather an operation requiring the coordinated efforts of many individuals, perhaps in a cooperative system. A cooperative system is best maintained and developed by large gatherings and communal works. The monuments of the Funnel Beaker culture can be seen as constituting an active part of these measures.

However, it is also striking that there are no finds testifying to the existence of a stratified, hierarchical society at the time of these fundamental changes and the construction of these great Neolithic monuments.

Nonetheless, the period has produced some of the finest pottery ever seen, which – together with exquisite flint and stone tools – tells of the communal activities that took place by and within the monuments, as well as contacts spreading across great distances.

During the last 40 years, extensive excavations and studies have been undertaken regarding monuments from the Funnel Beaker culture in the Sarup area of southwest Funen.

The earliest monuments in the Sarup area are Barkaer structures (un-chambered long barrows without a mound) with massive plank built façades and simple plank coffins. These structures were followed by various open dolmen types and then passage graves, which were concealed within earthen mounds.

These monuments are often found grouped in small clusters, to which people – at intervals of several generations – returned to build new monuments and re-used those already standing.

Contemporaneous with the building of dolmens and passage graves, three causewayed enclosures were constructed in the area. These are very well-preserved structures that have provided a wealth of factual information on the construction and use of this type of monument. Of importance is the interpretations of their sediment stratigraphy, which suggest that the system ditches could only have been used for a very short period of time, perhaps only a few hours, after which the system ditches were back-filled.

However, in subsequent centuries, there was again activity on parts of these sites, whereby some system ditches were re-opened, while carefully respecting the earlier structures. Here, we see evidence of handed-down knowledge about – and respect for – the earlier activities.

The re-opening of the system ditches and the construction of new megalithic monuments in association with the existing clusters of megaliths shows that knowledge of these primary structures was retained by people for centuries and thereby constituted a confirmation of their Neolithic identity.

Key words: Neolithic/Copper Age enclosures, Hilltop sites, Natural shrines, Beaker cosmology


In this paper I am going to discuss the phenomenon of Neolithic enclosures as symbols of shared identity and their replacement by natural shrines and perhaps by new ideology and cult. The tradition of collective values gradually faded from the mid Fifth Millennium BC However, this dramatic change started at the beginning of the Third Millennium BC. The changes that I am going to discuss in this paper were not induced by any change in subsistence strategy or climatic influences. The Third Millennium changes comprise the development of social relations and transition of cosmology amongst the European Copper Age farming communities. What kind of changes were they? Mainly it was a sudden discontinuity in the long tradition of the construction of ditched and hill top enclosures that dominated the Neolithic Period in central Europe. This phenomenon has its pedigree in the early Neolithic round ditched shrines,so called roundels. Such monuments are traditionally interpreted as features of mainly sacral meaning (Podborský 2001 etc) but some other social functions are also being considered (Květina et al 2009).

It is possible that the changes that occurred during the third millennium BC in the society and cosmology of Copper Age farmers in Central Europe might have been a reflection of a much more general collapse of traditional Neolithic values that brought with it the new quality of Bronze Age society. The Copper Age innovations resulted in the deeper individualisation of some social principles and contributed towards greater social differentiation in the Early Bronze Age. Abandonment of the megalithic idea of collective
burials and continuity in the use of funerary monuments together with a decline in ditched enclosures and the use of hilltop locations are not only evidence of changing social relations but also of far reaching changes in the cosmology of our ancestors. We can observe a reorientation from the Neolithic tradition of agricultural cults and a decline in the communal monuments (roundels, causewayed enclosures, hilltop enclosures) that were used to demonstrate and reinforce the collective identity and spiritual activities. The new cult was perhaps derived from the tradition of solar worship. Within the individualized funerary practices people emphasized their communication with the ancestors and the presentation of social status as well as the confirmation of social hierarchy and the reinforcement of a genealogical system of hereditary wealth of both individuals and families. It is also possible that the new Beaker ideology was rapidly spreading over Western and Central Europe to help enforce the new order of social relations. We can clearly see how some very distant regions of Europe with a variety of cultural traditions partook of this shared cultural uniformity, symbols, rituals and perhaps religion. In many other aspects, such as the tradition of the Central European Eneolithic-Bronze Age pottery complex (Neustupný 2008, 22) or the more intensive arable systém of agriculture (Neustupný 2008, 18) we can, however, see a distinctive continuity throughout the whole Copper Age. The collapse of traditional values in the third millennium BC might be seen mainly in relation to changes in social structure, the rise of a new ideology and the transformation of cosmology. During the final stages of the Copper Age the foundations were laid for the forthcoming systém of a greater stratified Bronze Age society and its new cosmological archetypes.

Neolithic ditched enclosures appear to be widely distributed across parts of Eastern, Central and Western Europe, as well as from the Mediterranean area to Scandinavia. They have been known in areas of Europe for a long time, but particularly in the last 25 years studies on them have flourished. In southern Iberia, ditched enclosures-which were built for a long period between the 4 th and 3 rd millennium cal BCE (Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic)-began to be known in the 1970s. Traditional models have viewed Prehistoric Iberian ditched enclosures as ›fortified settlements‹: permanently inhabited centres with robust defensive systems composed of ditches. Because some of them are of exceptional size, a number of studies have argued that the southern Iberian Chalcolithic (roughly the 3 rd millennia BCE) saw the emergence of unprecedented levels of social inequality and the decline of kinship as the basis for most human social relationships. If true, this represents the development of some of the earliest › complex communities ‹ in Western European Prehistory. Nonetheless, in Britain, Neolithic enclosure sites are often interpreted very differently, as seasonal gathering places for the agglomeration of smaller scale , more mobile communities that remain based largely on principles of kinship-causewayed enclosures-or as ceremonial centres-namely henges. In this paper, I will explore the causes of this contradiction between the Iberian and wider European models by comparing the history of interpretation in Iberia with that in Britain.

8
Title : The Funnel Beaker culture in Denmark at the end of the fourth millennium before Christ.
Abstract : The introduction of agriculture was a complex and extended process. In Denmark it culminated in the period between 3400 and 3200 B.C, when a thoroughly ritualised society provided the tools that enabled the economic, sociological and psychological change from hunter-gatherer to farmer.
In the period from 3400 to 3200 B.C. great monuments were constructed in Denmark, including about 30000 dolmens, several thousand passage graves and a very large number of causewayed enclosures. Many rituals took place at these monuments ; these involved the manipulation of human corpses, domesticated animals such as oxen,
beautiful and richly decorated pottery vessels, beautiful large flint axes and grain. These materials underwent several transformations prior to being placed in the various type
of monument. At that time, people lived in relatively small houses scattered far from each other, but the many activities at the monuments show that they must have been
organised into larger units. About 3200 B.C., this markedly ritualised life came to an end ; people came together to live in large settlements, there was gentle Development in balance with nature and no more great monuments were built. Some dolmens and passage graves were then re-used for burials over a thousand-year period. Whole bodies were probably interred accompanied by beautiful items such as pottery vessels, axes and flint daggers.

Since 1975 the site of "Las Pozas" has named the Copper Age in Spanish Northern Plateau. In the last decade several causewayed enclosures dated to this period have been discovered. This new situation has led us to revise the foundational site using remote sensing techniques. The infrared images have allowed us to distinguish two overlapping enclosures at "Las Pozas": a north one with three interrupted ditches and a southern group composed of two circles. This paper describes the characteristics of both enclosures using as well the information provided by 1979 and 1987 excavations. We believe this discovery certifies that causewayed enclosures were a common feature in the Douro Valley during the Copper Age.

RCHME survey of the earthworks at Maiden Bower, Bedfordshire, where an Iron Age hillfort overlies a probable Neolithic causewayed enclosure. The report also summarises earlier work at the site, including Smith's 1878-1915 investigations. The survey was undertaken as part of RCHME's national survey of early Neolithic enclosures, which culminated in the publication of A Oswald et al (2001) The Creation of Monuments.

JEUNESSE C. (2011) Les enceintes rubanées : fossés continus, fossés discontinus et pseudo-fossés, in : Hauzeur A., Jadin I. & Jungels C. (dir.), 2011. 5000 ans avant J.-C., la grande migration
? Le Néolithique ancien dans la collection Louis Éloy. Collections du Patrimoine culturel  n° 3, Service du Patrimoine culturel de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, 41-46.

JEUNESSE C. (2011) Enceintes à fossé discontinu et enceintes à pseudo-fossé dans le Néolithique d'Europe centrale et occidentale, in : Denaire A., Jeunesse C., Lefranc P., dir., Nécropoles et enceintes danubiennes du 5ème millénaire dans le Nord-Est de la France, actes de la table ronde de Strasbourg, 2 juin 2010, Collection Rhin-Meuse-Moselle, Université de Strasbourg, 31-71.

This article summarizes the results of several subprojects of the Priority Program 1400 ‘Early Monumentality and Social Differentiation’. Under the overarching question of the development of the social space in the course of the first agricultural and stockbreeding society in southern Scandinavia, the sites of Albersdorf/Dieksknöll, Büdelsdorf, and Oldenburg Dannau are presented and their specific site biography is integrated within the supraregional context. A trend can be observed in the region. It appears that due to increasing population numbers, narrowed strategic options and agglomerations of settlements, a narrowing of the social space took place, with a climax around 3400‑3100 cal BCE. This in turn probably led to the development of the single grave culture and thus to a renewed opening of the social space due to the outbreak of some members of the Funnel Beaker societies.

Zusammenfassung Ziel des Beitrages ist es, den aktuellen Forschungsstand zu den neolithischen Befestigungsanlagen in Schlesien darzustellen. In den letzten Jahren hat die Zahl der neu entdeckten Fund­ stellen deutlich zugenommen. Ermöglicht wurde dies durch den Einsatz geophysikalischer Untersuchungsmethoden und durch die Auswertung von Luftbildern. Die meisten dieser Fundstellen in Schlesien stehen mit Kulturen in Verbindung, die auf die Linienbandkeramikkultur folgen: der Stichband­ keramikkultur sowie der Lengyel­ und Polgar­Kulturgruppe, inklusive der Jordanów Kultur. Deutliche Unterschiede gibt es hinsichtlich der Größe und Form der Fundstellen: Es treten hölzerne Palisaden, Kreisgrabenanlagen – sog. Rondelle – und durch Gräben eingefasste Siedlungen auf. Diese Heteroge­ nität legt nahe, dass die Anlagen verschiedene soziale, rituelle und wirtschaftliche Funktionen erfüllt haben, wenn sie im übergreifenden Kontext der Veränderung in jener Zeit und in Bezug auf zeitgleiche Siedlungssysteme betrachtet werden. In Dzielnica, Woj. Opole, ermöglichten geomagnetische Prospektionen in Kombination mit geochemischen Analysen des Phosphatgehaltes der Erde eine Bestimmung und Beschreibung der funktionalen Wandelbarkeit des Raumes innerhalb der neolithischen Befestigungsanlage.
Summary The aim of the paper is to present the current state of research on Neolithic enclosures in Silesia. Over recent years there has been a significant growth in the number of newly discovered sites. This was possible thanks to geophysical research and aerial photography interpretation. Most of those sites are con­ nected with the Post­Linear Pottery Culture societies who lived in Silesia: the Stroke­ Ornamented Pottery Culture and the Lengyel­ Polgar complex (including the Jordanów Culture). There are clear differences in size and form of these sites (wooden palisades, circular enclosures – so­called rondels, and settlements surrounded by ditches). These differences con sidered in the broader context of changes taking place at this time and in the relation to the contemporary settlement system indicate that these sites had played various social, ritual and economic functions. Geophysical prospection, with use of the magnetometer, combined with geochemical analy­ sis of phosphate content in soil enabled the characterisation and identification of functional variability of space of the Neo lithic enclosure at Dzielnica, Woj. Opole.

During the last 20 years, 18 causewayed enclosures have been discovered in northern Spanish Plateau (Castile and Leon region). They show one to three concentric and discontinuous ditches in a circular or oval design that surround sites between 0.5 to 4 hectares. The available radiocarbon dates point to a foundation circa 3300-2800 cal. BCE. Some of them were reoccupied during the Bronze Age. Nevertheless, ditches were filled after their desertion in 2350 cal. BCE, maybe on confluence with several climatic phenomena (known as ‘4,0 ka BP event’) that led into a drier and warmer climate.
Their structures were identified using aerial photography. Although the camerawork is heterogeneous, we were able to find orthographic frames or, at least, to correct the oblique pictures. We followed the visible alterations on the crop marks to draw a clean interpretation of the ditches using GIS and Remote Sensing software. Since the new data was georeferenced, it was possible to measure their parts and analyse their relationship with different geographical features. Therefore, we have stated several hypotheses of their possible strategies of subsistence and concluded that the enclosures represent the agrologic colonization of the Douro valley.

V této kapitole budeme sledovat fenomén stavby pravěkých monumentů jako symbolů sdílené společenské identity a naopak jejich vymizení z lidské kultury a nahražení individualizovaným pohřbíváním, přírodními svatyněmi a pohárovou ideologií související s prohlubující se společenskou diferenciací a snad i novým kultem. Kolaps tradice kolektivních hodnot probíhal postupně od poloviny 5. tisíciletí př. Kr. Výrazná změna, nebo dokonce kolaps tradičních hodnot se však odehrál na počátku 3. tisíciletí př. Kr. Změny které nastaly však podle mého názoru nebyly vyvolány nějakou zásadní změnou v subsystenční strategii evropských zemědělců a nelze je přičítat ani jakýmkoliv vlivům klimatických či environmentálních změn. Domnívám se, že změny, které shrnu v následujících odstavcích, tkví především ve vývoji společenských vztahů a v proměnách kosmologie zemědělských komunit pozdní doby kamenné.
O jaké změny tedy šlo? Předně byla ukončena tradice budování příkopových obrazení a ohrazení na výšinách. Tento fenomén má své kořeny už v kruhových příkopech mladšího neolitu, v tzv. rondelech. Tyto monumenty jsou tradičně interpretovány jako stavby sakrálního významu (např. Podborský 2001), je ale zvažováno i prolínání této funkce s některými dalšími společenskými aktivitami (Květina et al 2009).
I přes mnohé formální změny lze tradici příkopových monumentů sledovat dále v období časného eneolitu (4500–39800 př. Kr.) v podobě tzv. causewayed enclosures, ale i v období staršího eneolitu (38900–350350 př. Kr.) v podobě oválných nebo i čtvercových příkopových ohrazení kultury nálevkovitých pohárů. Od časného staršího eneolitu se rovněž začala projevovat další forma příkopových monumentů a to ohrazení výšin. Domnívám se, že ohrazení na výšinách byla dříve mylně interpretována jako hradiště, tedy fortifikovaná centra. Tato interpretace souvisí s pozdějším fenoménem hradišť a oppid doby železné a raného středověku. Ohrazení výšin v eneolitu spíše navazuje právě na zde diskutovanou tradici příkopových monumentů. Na počátku mladšího eneolitu, tedy někdy mezi lety 2900 a 2800 před Kristem, se ve většině tradičních zemědělských oblastí střední Evropy vytratili stopy užívání výšin a s nástupem fenoménu šňůrové keramiky a později, kolem roku 2500 př. Kristem zvoncovitých pohárů, převládají v našich archeologických nálezech památky pohřebního charakteru. V tomto období byl kladen značný důraz na symbolickou strukturu pohřebního ritu a kultovní obřady se přesunuly do přírodních svatyň, jejichž existence není vždy archeologicky snadno prokazatelná.

On the Magnetic Survey of an Early Neolithic Settlement near Gladebeck (Ldkr. Northeim). A “maître d’œuvre qualifié” in the Moringen Basin? – East of Gladebeck, a 4 ha section of a large Late Bandkeramik settlement was surveyed using magnetic prospection techniques. Only 16 km from the earthwork in Diemarden, an additional ditched structure and at least 15 house ground plans could be seen. An unusual similarity between the architectural plans of the earthwork discovered here and ditched enclosures in the Rhineland can be identified.