The aim of this article is to deepen the discussion on the nature and mechanisms of culture change based on the analysis of newly acquired materials from the Targowisko settlement region. Three groups of materials were acquired (from narrow time horizons) related to the single-phase relics of Linienbandkeramik (Brzezie, site 40 and Targowisko, site 16) and Malice culture houses (Targowisko, site 14-15). The absolute chronology of the beginning of the late phase (III) LBK was established to be 5100-5000 BC, and the classic phase (Ib) of MC was dated to 4650-4550 BC. Selected threads of the cultural tradition (in the field of ceramic-making technology and ornamentation and flint-blade production technology) were passed on among families living in individual houses. Settlement analysis showed the relative instability of microregions, the increased mobility of small groups of people, and risky colonization attempts in Targowisko region. No evidence of direct, contemporaneous contact between the LBK and MC populations was found.
Key words: LBK, Malice culture, early Neolithic, culture change, Targowisko region
The paper analyses the meaning of the ‘stage of reduction and concentration of settlements’ and its place in the evolving structure of a Neolithic settlement system. It considers whether this stage of the development of the settlement system was a specific event, limited only to the evolution of a Funnel Beaker Culture settlement in south-eastern Poland, or whether it was a structural element in other areas too. Analysis of the collected cases, representing various geographical zones, cultural traditions and time horizons, allows us to formulate a thesis that describes the transformation of large settlements (from central places to the stage of reduction and concentration) were caused by internal social conflicts, rather than by climate or economic changes.
The aim of this article is to provide information on environmental changes in the Targowisko region in the Early Neolithic as a natural response to settlement and economic activity of the human population in that area. The discussion is based on lithological, geochemical, and palynological analyses, as well as the analysis of Cladocera within strata inside the TRG (Targowisko) core, located in a small wetland in the immediate vicinity of the eastern edge of the Neolithic settlement in the Targowisko region. Settlement analysis points to the absence of stable microregions and to the mobility of human groups. This is confirmed by the sequence of settlement episodes and economic activity, reflected in the stratigraphy of the core sediments, where episodes of significant human interference are followed by phases of almost complete regeneration of the environment. No differences have been noticed between the Linienbandkeramik and Malice culture communities as regards their impact on the environment.
Between 1967 and 1979 the Institute of History of Material Culture of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the State University of New York at Buffalo carried out a joint programme of archaeological field research on Neolithic and early Bronze Age (EBA) sites in southeastern Poland. As part of this programme in 1967-9 and 1971-3 Professor Jan Machnik conducted archaeological investigations at Iwanowice on a wedge-shaped elevation known as Babia Góra (50 12 14 E, 19 58 30 W, FIGURE 1). The site, some 8 ha in area (520 × 230 m), lies on the borderline between the Cracow-Częstochowa and Miechów Uplands, some 20 km north of Crakow on a hill spur overlooking the Dłubnia river valley. Babia Góra is built of siliceous limestone heavily laced with flint nodules covered by a thick mantle of loess. The entire area of the site is now under cultivation.
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