The role of the pottery in the Neolithisation of Central Europe
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| Year of publication | 2021 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | In this paper we will use the most common archaeological find – pottery – to reveal new perspectives of the spread of farming in the Pannonian region. How did pottery first appear in this area? Was it moved by people or was it a local innovation, learned from farming cultures to the south? By application of ground-breaking analytical methods we approach this research question through four inter- related topics: a high resolution mathematical model of radiocarbon dates, technological traditions of pottery, cooking practices (such as the first appearance of dairy products) and provenance of the pottery. Together this forms the basis of the NeoPot project. In this paper, we will focus on presenting a method of treating the samples for 14C dating, which produced highly precise absolute data. Preliminary results show the earliest pottery appeared in SW Slovakia around 5600 BC, which corresponds with the formative phase of the LBK in Transdanubia (Szentgyörgyvölgy-Pittyerdomb) and Lower Austria (Brunn am Gebirge). Preliminary results of the ceramic technology study of the earliest pottery show the use of grass instead of chaff, which contrasts with Starčevo and Körös/Criş traditions in terms of firing temperature and tempering practices. They show that the transition to farming in the Carpathian region was more complex and indicate that pottery may pre-date the arrival of farming subsistence activities and, importantly, shows innovation and adaptation to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. |
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