Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T23:00:55.873Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rows with the neighbours: the short lives of longhouses at the Neolithic site of Versend-Gilencsa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2018

János Jakucs ,
Krisztián Oross ,
Eszter Bánffy ,
Vanda Voicsek ,
Elaine Dunbar ,
Paula Reimer ,
Alex Bayliss ,
Peter Marshall  and
Alasdair Whittle
János Jakucs
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, Research Centre for the Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Tóth Kálmán utca 4, 1097 Budapest, Hungary
Krisztián Oross
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, Research Centre for the Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Tóth Kálmán utca 4, 1097 Budapest, Hungary
Eszter Bánffy
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, Research Centre for the Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Tóth Kálmán utca 4, 1097 Budapest, Hungary Römisch-Germanische Kommission, DAI, Palmengartenstraße 10–12, 60325 Frankfurt, Germany
Vanda Voicsek
Affiliation:
Barátúr utca 9, 7625 Pécs, Hungary
Elaine Dunbar
Affiliation:
SUERC Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory, Scottish Enterprise Technology Park, Rankine Avenue, East Kilbride G75 0QF, UK
Paula Reimer
Affiliation:
14CHRONO Centre, Queen's University Belfast, 42 Fitzwilliam Street, Belfast BT9 6AX, UK
Alex Bayliss
Affiliation:
Historic England, Fourth Floor, Cannon Bridge House, 25 Dowgate Hill, London EC4R 2YA, UK Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK
Peter Marshall
Affiliation:
Historic England, Fourth Floor, Cannon Bridge House, 25 Dowgate Hill, London EC4R 2YA, UK
Alasdair Whittle*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Conservation, Cardiff University, John Percival Building, Colum Drive, Cardiff CF10 3EU, UK
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Longhouses are a key feature of Neolithic Linearbandkeramik (LBK) settlements in Central Europe, but debate persists concerning their usage, longevity and social significance. Excavations at Versend-Gilencsa in south-west Hungary (c. 5200 cal BC) revealed clear rows of longhouses. New radiocarbon dates suggest that these houses experienced short lifespans. This paper produces a model for the chronology of Versend, and it considers the implications of the new date estimates for a fuller understanding of the layout and duration of LBK longhouse settlements.

Keywords

HungaryVersend-GilencsaNeolithicLBKlonghousesBayesian chronological modelling
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 92 , Issue 361 , February 2018 , pp. 91 - 117
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amit, V. 2002. Reconceptualizing community, in Amit, V. (ed.) Realizing community: concepts, social relationships and sentiments: 1–20. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bánffy, E. 2013. Tracing the beginning of sedentary life in the Carpathian basin, in Hofmann, D. & Smyth, J. (ed.) Tracking the Neolithic house in Europe: sedentism, architecture, and practice: 117–49. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5289-8_6 Google Scholar
Bánffy, E., Marton, T. & Osztás, A.. 2010. Early Neolithic settlement and burials at Alsónyék-Bátaszék, in Kozłowski, J.K. & Raczky, P. (ed.) Neolithization of the Carpathian Basin: northernmost distribution of the Starčevo/Körös culture: 37–51. Kraków & Budapest: Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, & Institute of Archaeological Sciences of the Eötvös Loránd University.Google Scholar
Bayliss, A., Beavan, N., Hamilton, D., Köhler, K., Nyerges, É.Á., Bronk Ramsey, C., Dunbar, E., Fecher, M., Goslar, T., Kromer, B., Reimer, P., Bánffy, E., Marton, T., Oross, K., Osztás, A., Zalai-Gaál, I. & Whittle, A.. 2016. Peopling the past: creating a site biography in the Hungarian Neolithic. Bericht der Römisch-Germanischen Kommission 94: 23–91.Google Scholar
Birch, J. 2013. Between villages and cities: settlement aggregation in cross-cultural perspective, in Birch, J. (ed.) From prehistoric villages to cities: settlement aggregation and community transformation: 1–22. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bloch, M. 1995. The resurrection of the house amongst the Zafamaniry of Madagascar, in Carsten, J. & Hugh-Jones, S. (ed.) About the house: Lévi-Strauss and beyond: 69–83. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Boelicke, U., von Brandt, D., Lüning, J., Stehli, P. & Zimmermann, A.. 1988. Der bandkeramische Siedlungsplatz Langweiler 8. Gemeinde Aldenhoven, Kreis Düren. Köln: Rheinland-Verlag GmbH.Google Scholar
Bogaard, A., Krause, R. & Strien, H.-C.. 2011. Towards a social geography of cultivation and plant use in an early farming community: Vaihingen an der Enz, south-west Germany. Antiquity 85: 395–416. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00067831 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 1995. Radiocarbon calibration and analysis of stratigraphy. Radiocarbon 36: 425–30. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200030903 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009a. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51: 337–60. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200033865 Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009b. Dealing with outliers and offsets in radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon 51: 1023–45. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200034093 Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. & Lee, S.. 2013. Recent and planned developments of the program OxCal. Radiocarbon 55: 720–30. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200057878 Google Scholar
Buck, C.E., Litton, C.D. & Smith, A.F.M.. 1992. Calibration of radiocarbon results pertaining to related archaeological events. Journal of Archaeological Science 19: 497–512. https://doi.org/10.1016/0305-4403(92)90025-X Google Scholar
Buck, C.E., Cavanagh, W.G. & Litton, C.D.. 1996. Bayesian approach to interpreting archaeological data. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Canuto, M.-A. & Yaeger, J. (ed.). 2000. The archaeology of communities: a New World perspective. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Christen, J.A. 1994. Summarizing a set of radiocarbon determinations: a robust approach. Applied Statistics 43: 489–503. https://doi.org/10.2307/2986273 Google Scholar
Cohen, A.P. 1985. The symbolic construction of community. Chichester: Ellis Horwood. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203323373 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coudart, A. 1998. Architecture et société néolithique. L'unité et la variance de la maison danubienne. Paris: Maison des Sciences de l'Homme.Google Scholar
Czerniak, L. 2016. House and household in the LBK, in Amkreutz, L., Haack, F., Hofmann, D. & van Wijk, I. (ed.) Something out of the ordinary: interpreting diversity in the Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik and beyond: 33–64. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
Draşovean, F., Schier, W., Bayliss, A., Gaydarska, B. & Whittle, A.. 2017. The lives of houses: duration, context and history at Neolithic Uivar. European Journal of Archaeology. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/eaa.2017.37 Google Scholar
Hachem, L. 2011. Le site néolithique de Cuiry-lès-Chaudardes, 1. De l'analyse de la faune à la structuration sociale. Rahden: Marie Leidorf.Google Scholar
Hofmann, D., Ebersbach, R., Doppler, T. & Whittle, A.. 2016. The life and times of the house: multi-scalar perspectives on settlement from the Neolithic of the northern Alpine foreland. European Journal of Archaeology 19: 596–630. https://doi.org/10.1080/14619571.2016.1147317 Google Scholar
Jakucs, J., Bánffy, E., Oross, K., Voicsek, V., Bronk Ramsey, C., Dunbar, E., Kromer, B., Bayliss, A., Hofmann, D., Marshall, P. & Whittle, A.. 2016. Between the Vinča and Linearbandkeramik worlds: the diversity of practices and identities in the 54th–53rd centuries cal BC in south-west Hungary and beyond. Journal of World Prehistory 29: 267–336. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-016-9096-x Google Scholar
Lenneis, E. 2012. Zur Anwendbarkeit des rheinischen Hofplatzmodells im östlichen Mitteleuropa, in Kreienbrink, F., Cladders, M., Stäuble, H., Tischendorf, T. & Wolfram, S. (ed.) Siedlungsstruktur und Kulturwandel in der Bandkeramik: 47–52. Dresden: Landesamt für Archäologie, Freistaat Sachsen.Google Scholar
Marković, Z. 2012. Novija razmatranja o nekim aspektima sopotske kulture u sjevernoj Hrvatskoj—Neuere Betrachtungen über bestimmte Aspekte der Sopot-Kultur in Nordkroatien. Priloži Instituta za Arheologija u Zagrebu 29: 57–70.Google Scholar
Marton, T. & Oross, K. 2012. Siedlungsforschung in linienbandkeramischen Fundorten in Zentral- und Südtransdanubien—Wiege, Peripherie oder beides?, in Kreienbrink, F., Cladders, M., Stäuble, H., Tischendorf, T. & Wolfram, S. (ed.) Siedlungsstruktur und Kulturwandel in der Bandkeramik: 220–39. Dresden: Landesamt für Archäologie, Freistaat Sachsen.Google Scholar
Modderman, P.J.R. 1970. Linearbandkeramik aus Elsloo und Stein.‘s-Gravenhage: Rijksdienst voor het Oudheidkundig Bodemonderzoek te Amersfoort.Google Scholar
Oross, K. 2013. Balatonszárszó–Kis-erdei-dűlő lelőhely középső neolit településszerkezete és közép-európai párhuzamai [The Middle Neolithic settlement structure of the site at Balatonszárszó-Kis-erdei-dűlő in a Central European context]. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Eötvös Loránd University.Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Buck, C.E., Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L., Friedrich, M., Grootes, P.M., Guilderson, T.P., Haflidason, H., Hajdas, I., Hatté, C., Heaton, T.J., Hoffmann, D.L., Hogg, A.G., Hughen, K.A., Kaiser, K.F., Kromer, B., Manning, S.W., Niu, M., Reimer, R.W., Richards, D.A., Scott, E.M., Southon, J.R., Staff, R.A., Turney, C.S.M. & van der Plicht, J.. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55: 1869–87. https://doi.org/10.2458/azu_js_rc.55.16947 Google Scholar
Rück, O. 2009. New aspects and models for Bandkeramik settlement research, in Hofmann, D. & Bickle, P. (ed.) Creating communities: new advances in central European Neolithic research: 159–85. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Rück, O. 2012. Vom Hofplatz zur Häuserzeile. Das bandkeramische Dorf—Zeilenstrukturen und befundfreie Bereiche offenbaren ein neues Bild der Siedlungsstrukturen, in Kreienbrink, F., Cladders, M., Stäuble, H., Tischendorf, T. & Wolfram, S. (ed.) Siedlungsstruktur und Kulturwandel in der Bandkeramik: 20–42. Dresden: Landesamt für Archäologie, Freistaat Sachsen.Google Scholar
Schmidt, B., Gruhle, W., Rück, O. & Freckmann, K.. 2005. Zur Dauerhaftigkeit bandkeramischer Häuser im Rheinland (5300–4950 v. Chr.)—eine Interpretation dendrochronologischer und bauhistorischer Befunde, in Gronenborn, D. (ed.) Klimaveränderung und Kulturwandel in neolithischen Gesellschaften Mitteleuropas, 6700–2200 v. Chr.: 151–70. Mainz: Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum.Google Scholar
Stäuble, H. 1997. Häuser, Gruben und Fundverteilung, in Lüning, J. (ed.) Ein Siedlungsplatz der Ältesten Bandkeramik in Bruchenbrücken, Stadt Friedberg/Hessen: 17–150. Bonn: Habelt.Google Scholar
Stäuble, H. 2005. Häuser und absolute Datierung der Ältesten Bandkeramik. Bonn: Habelt.Google Scholar
Tasić, N., Marić, M., Penezić, K., Filipović, D., Borojević, K., Borić, D., Reimer, P., Russell, N., Bayliss, A., Barclay, A., Gaydarska, B. & Whittle, A.. 2015. The end of the affair: formal chronological modelling for the top of the Neolithic tell of Vinča-Belo Brdo. Antiquity 89: 1064–82. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2015.101 Google Scholar
Tasić, N., Marić, M., Filipović, D., Penezić, K., Dunbar, E., Reimer, P., Barclay, A., Bayliss, A., Gaydarska, B. & Whittle, A.. 2016. Interwoven strands for refining the chronology of the Neolithic tell of Vinča-Belo Brdo, Serbia. Radiocarbon 58: 795–831. https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2016.56 Google Scholar
Težak-Gregl, T. 1993. Kultúra linernotrakaste keramike u sredisnjoj Hrvatskoj. Korenovska kultúra (Dissertationes et Monographia 2) [The Linear pottery culture in central Croatia. The Korenovo culture]. Zagreb: Arhelološki Zavod Filozofskog Fakulteta Sveučilišta u Zagrebu.Google Scholar
Ward, G.K. & Wilson, S.R. 1978. Procedures for comparing and combining radiocarbon age determinations: a critique. Archaeometry 20: 19–31. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4754.1978.tb00208.x Google Scholar
Whittle, A. 1997. Moving on and moving around: modelling Neolithic settlement mobility, in Topping, P. (ed.) Neolithic landscapes: 15–22. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Whittle, A., Bayliss, A., Barclay, A., Gaydarska, B., Bánffy, E., Borić, D., Draşovean, F., Jakucs, J., Marić, M., Orton, D., Tasić, N., Schier, W. & Vander Linden, M.. 2016. A Vinča potscape: formal chronological models for Neolithic cultural development in south-east Europe. Documenta Praehistorica 43: 1–60. https://doi.org/10.4312/dp.43.1 Google Scholar
Wilshusen, R.H. & Potter, J.M.. 2010. The emergence of villages in the American Southwest: cultural issues and historical perspectives, in Bandy, M.S. & Fox, J.R. (ed.) Becoming villagers: comparing early village societies: 165–83. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, A. 2012. Das Hofplatzmodell—Entwicklung, Probleme, Perspektiven, in Kreienbrink, F., Cladders, M., Stäuble, H., Tischendorf, T. & Wolfram, S. (ed.) Siedlungsstruktur und Kulturwandel in der Bandkeramik: 11–19. Dresden: Landesamt für Archäologie, Freistaat Sachsen.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Jakucs et al. supplementary material

Jakucs et al. supplementary material 1

Download Jakucs et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 267.9 KB