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22 - Early agricultural society in Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

By
Alasdair Whittle
Edited by
Graeme Barker  and
Candice Goucher
Graeme Barker
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Candice Goucher
Affiliation:
Washington State University
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Summary

It was not only agriculture, in the form of the cultivation of cereals and the husbandry of cattle, sheep and goats, and pigs, that produced this changing world, people could think of agriculture as a necessary but insufficient condition by itself for producing all the changes visible in the archaeological record. This chapter addresses the questions of community especially through settlements, with particular emphasis on houses and households, with a glance at material culture and some burial practices. Rich arrays of material culture are typical of Neolithic settlement across Europe. There may have been a general relationship between the increased quantities of things and the more settled nature of existence, but specific circumstances suggest variations. Some people could have been more charismatic, more able to command the respect necessary to mobilize labour for communal enterprises and more skilled at patching up disputes as well as more adept at provoking them in the first place.

Keywords

Xinglonggoufoothill landscapeNeolithic Chinamillet consumption
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge World History , pp. 555 - 588
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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References

Further reading

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