Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T21:00:17.234Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Linear Pottery Culture Houses: Reconstruction and Manpower

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

W. Startin
Affiliation:
54 Western Road, Oxford

Extract

The Linear Pottery Culture (LPC), dated from the mid-fifth millennium bc, is generally held to have originated to the north of the Hungarian Plain (Case 1976, 48) and has a distribution stretching westwards to the Netherlands. One of its distinctive type fossils resides in the consistent forms of its houses (fig. 1).

The archaeological evidence for reconstruction consists almost entirely of ground plans (examples in Modderman 1958–9, 1970) although we can also consider house models of ancestral and derivative cultures. Modderman (1970, fig. 12) has shown that LPC houses in the Netherlands can be divided into single-unit, bipartite, and tripartite structures (fig. 1). Their alignment is generally consistent so that in the case of tripartite structures we can speak of northwest, central, and southeast sections. The ground plans are made up of five longitudinal rows of postholes. We may define wallposts (rows 1 and 5) and inner posts (rows 2–4). The end sections were more heavily constructed than the central unit; although the number of posts decreased in later periods a tripartite division was often maintained. Transverse lines of posts were frequently slightly offset and the inner postholes in the central unit of earlier structures often form a Y-configuration, with the top of the Y invariably on the northern side.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1978

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

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ApSimon, A. M., 1976. ‘Ballynagilly and the beginning and end of the Irish Neolithic’, Acts of the 4th Atlantic Colloquium, Ghent 1975.Google Scholar
Ashbee, P., 1966. ‘The Fussell's Lodge long barrow’, Archaeologia 100, 180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, R. J. C., 1960. Stonehenge. Penguin, London.Google Scholar
Bakels, C. C., 1978. ‘Four Linearbandkeramik settlements and their environment: a paleoecological study of Sittard, Stein, Elsloo and Hienheim’, Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia 11.Google Scholar
Barker, P. A., 1977. The Techniques of Archaeological Excavation. Book Club Associates, London.Google Scholar
Becker, C. J., 1962. ‘A Danish hoard containing Neolithic chisels’, Acta Archaeologia 33, 7992.Google Scholar
Case, H. J., 1976. ‘Acculturation and the earlier Neolithic in western Europe’, Acts of the 4th Atlantic Colloqium, Ghent, 1975.Google Scholar
Clarke, C., 1947. ‘Thatch, thatchers and thatching’, Agriculture 53 (10), 444.Google Scholar
Coles, J. M., 1973. Archaeology by Experiment. Hutchinson, London.Google Scholar
Coles, J. M., 1976. ‘A Neolithic hurdle from the Somerset Levels’, Antiquity 50, 5761.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coles, J. M. and Darrah, R. J., 1977. ‘Experimental Investigations in Hurdle-Making’, Somerset Levels Papers 3, 32–8.Google Scholar
Coles, J. M. and Orme, B. J., 1976. ‘The Meare Heath Track: excavation of a Bronze Age Structure in the Somerset levels’, PPS 42, 293318.Google Scholar
Cranstone, B. A. L., 1971. ‘The Tifalmin: a “Neolithic” people in New Guinea’, World Archaeology 3, 132–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dimbleby, G. W., 1967. Plants and Archaeology. Barker, London.Google Scholar
Drack, W. (ed.), 1969. Ur-und Frühgeschichtlichte Archäologie der Schweiz, Bd.II: Die Jungere Steinzeit. Basel.Google Scholar
Edlin, H. L., 1973. Woodland Crafts in Britain. David and Charles, Newton Abbot.Google Scholar
Evans, E. E., 1945. Irish Heritage. Dundalgan Press, Dundalk.Google Scholar
Eyre, S. R., 1968. Vegetation and Soils (2nd edition). Arnold, London.Google Scholar
Fenton, A., 1970. ‘Clay building and clay thatch in Scotland’, Ulster Folklife 15/16.Google Scholar
Fletcher, B., 1884. Quantities (4th edition). Batsford, London.Google Scholar
Goodman, W., 1964. The History of Woodworking Tools. Bell, London.Google Scholar
Grundy, J. E., 1970. ‘Notes on the relationship between climate and cattle housing’, Vernacular Architecture 1, 25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, H. O., 1961. ‘Undommelige Oldtidhuse’, Kuml 1961, 128–45.Google Scholar
Hansen, H. O., 1962. I Built a Stone Age House. Phoenix, London.Google Scholar
Harris, D. R., 1972. ‘Swidden systems and settlement’. In Ucko, et al. (ed.)(1972, 245–62.Google Scholar
Hewett, C. A., 1969. The Development of Carpentry, 1200–1700. David & Charles, Newton Abbot.Google Scholar
Hogg, G., 1959. Country Crafts and Craftsmen. Hutchinson, London.Google Scholar
Hope-Taylor, B., 1962. ‘The boat-shaped house in Northern Europe’, Proc. Camb. Ant. Soc. 55, 1622.Google Scholar
Hurst, J. T., 1886. Architectural Surveyor's Handbook (14th edition). Spon, London.Google Scholar
Innocent, G. F., 1916. The Development of English Building Construction. University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Iversen, J., 1956. ‘Forest Clearance in the Stone Age’, Scientific American 194, 3641.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, P. d'A. and Simons, E. N., 1961. Story of the Saw. Newman Neame, London.Google Scholar
Kruk, J., 1973. Studia Osadnicze nad Neolitem Wyźcn Lessowych (English summary, 244–65). Poliska Akad. Nauk. Inst., Warsaw.Google Scholar
Kunchev, K., 1972. ‘Za nyakoi Spsobi na predelgane na foonktsionalnoto prednaznachenie na kamennite Orudiya’, Archeologiya (Sofia) 14, 1421.Google Scholar
Linnard, W., 1970. ‘Terms and Techniques in shifting cultivation in Russia’, Tools and Tillage 1, 192–7.Google Scholar
Lüning, J., 1976. ‘Un Nouveau Modèle de l'habitat du Néolithique ancien’, Paper given at IXeCongres Union Internationale des Sciences Prehistoriques et Protohistoriques. Nice 1976.Google Scholar
McEwan, J. M., 1966. ‘An experiment with primitive Maori Carving tools’, Journal of the Polynesian Society 55, 111–16.Google Scholar
Meyer-Christian, W., 1976. ‘Die Y-pfostenstellung in Häusern der Älteren Linearbandkeramik’, Bonner Jahrbücher 176, 125.Google Scholar
Mikov, V., 1959. ‘The Prehistoric Mound of Karanovo’, Archaeology 12, 8897.Google Scholar
Milisauskas, S., 1972. ‘An analysis of Linear Culture Longhouses at Olszanica B1, Poland’, World Archaeology 4, 5774.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milisauskas, S., 1977. ‘Adaptions of the Early Neolithic Farmers in Central Europe’. In Cleland, C. E. (ed.) Research Essays in Honour of James B. Griffin, 295316.Google Scholar
Mitchell, A., 1974. Field Guide to the Trees of Britain and Northern Europe. Collins, London.Google Scholar
Modderman, P. J. R., 1958. ‘Die Bandkeramische Siedlung von Sittard’, Paleohistoria 6/7, 33120.Google Scholar
Modderman, P. J. R., 1970. ‘Linearbandkeramik aus Elsloo und Stein’, Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia 3.Google Scholar
Modderman, P. J. R., 1971. ‘Bandkeramiker und Wandernbauerntum’, Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 1, 79.Google Scholar
Modderman, P. J. R., 1973. ‘Bespiegling over de constructie van een bandceramisch huis’, Archeologie en Histoirie (van Es, W. A., Mabrecht, H. U. M., Stuart, P., Mank, W. and Wynia, S. L.), Bussum, Holland.Google Scholar
Müller-Beck, H., 1965. ‘Holzgeräte und Holzbearbeitung’, Seeberg, Burgäschisee-Süd, Teil 5. Stämpfli, Bern.Google Scholar
Nørlund, P., 1948. ‘Trelleborg’, Nordiske Fortisminde 4 (1).Google Scholar
Pavúk, J., 1972. ‘Neolithisches Gräberfeld in Nitra’, Slovenská Archaeológia 20, 5105.Google Scholar
Piggott, S., 1968. ‘The earliest wheeled vehicles and the Caucasian evidence’, PPS 34, 266318.Google Scholar
Rackham, O., 1977. ‘Neolithic Woodland Management in the Somerset Levels: Garvin's, Walton Heath, and Rowland's Tracks’, Somerset Levels Papers 3, 6571.Google Scholar
Rankine, W. J. M., 1876. Rules and Tables (5th edition). Griffin, London.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C., 1973. ‘Monuments, mobilization, and social organisation in Neolithic Wessex’. In Renfrew, C. (ed.) Explanation of Culture Change, 539–58. Duckworth, London.Google Scholar
Rural Industries Bureau, 1961. The Thatchers Craft.Google Scholar
Sahlins, M. D., 1974. Stone Age Economics. Tavistock, London.Google Scholar
Saraydar, S. and Shimada, I., 1971. ‘A quantative comparison of efficiency between a stone axe and a steel axe’, American Antiquity 36, 216–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sehested, N. F. B., 1884. ‘Et Traehuus bygget med Redskaber af Steen’, Archaeologiske Undesøgelser, 18781881, 113.Google Scholar
Severin, T., 1978. The Brendan Voyage. Book Club Associates, London.Google Scholar
Singer, C., Holmyard, E. J. and Hall, A. R. (eds), 1954. A History of Technology. Clarendon, Oxford.Google Scholar
Slicher van Bath, B. H., 1963. The Agrarian History of Western Europe. Arnold, London.Google Scholar
Soudsky, B., 1969. ‘Étude de la Maison Néolithique’, Slovenskâ Archeológia 17, 596.Google Scholar
Soudsky, B. and Pavlů, I., 1972. ‘The Linear Pottery culture settlement of Central Europe’. In Ucko, et al. (ed.), 1972, 317–28.Google Scholar
Startin, D. W. A., 1976. Mathematics and Manpower in Archaeological Explanation. B.Phil, thesis available for study in the Balfour Library, Oxford.Google Scholar
Startin, D. W. A., forthcoming. ‘Prehistoric Earthmoving’. In Case, H. J. and Whittle, A. (ed.) Excavations in the Oxford Region, 1950–1965.Google Scholar
Stelcl, J. and Malinas, J., 1970. ‘Andwendung der Petrographie in der Archaeologie’. Folia Fac. Sci. Nat. Univ. Purkynianae Brunensis. Geologia 11 (5).Google Scholar
Steensberg, A., 1943. Ancient Harvesting Implements. Nationalmuseets Skvifter, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Tansley, A. G., 1939. The British Islands and Their Vegetation. University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Theocharis, D. R., 1973. Neolithic Greece. National Bank of Greece, Athens.Google Scholar
Tredgold, T., 1885. Elementary Principles of Carpentry (6th edition). Crosby Lockwood, London.Google Scholar
Tringham, R., 1971. Hunters, Fishers and Farmers of Eastern Europe 6000–3000 B.C. Hutchinson, London.Google Scholar
Ucko, P. J., Tringham, R. and Dimbleby, G. W., 1972. Man, Settlement and Urbanism. Duckworth, London.Google Scholar
Van der Waals, J. D., 1964. ‘Neolithic disc wheels in the Netherlands’, Paleohistoria 10, 103–46.Google Scholar
Van der Waals, J. D., 1972. ‘Die durchlochten Rössener Keile und das frühe Neolithikum in Belgien und in den Niederlanden’. In Lüning, J. (ed.) Die Anfänge des Neolithikums vom Orient bis Nordeuropeý Va, 150–81.Google Scholar
Vildomec, F., 1930. ‘O maravské neolithické Keramice malované’, Obzor Praehistorický 7–8, 143.Google Scholar
Vladár, J. and Lichardus, J., 1968. ‘Erforschung der frühäneolithischen Seidlung in Branč’, Slovenská Archaeológia 16, 263353.Google Scholar
Waterbolk, H. T., 1972. ‘Niederwil and Pfyn’, Lecture given at a Conference of the Prehistoric Society in London, March 1972.Google Scholar
Waterbolk, H. T., 1975. ‘Evidence for cattlestalling in excavated pre- and protohistoric houses’. In Clason, A. T. (ed.) Archaeozoological Studies, 383–94. N. Holland Publ., Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Woods, K. S., 1949. Rural Crafts of England. Harrap, London.Google Scholar