C2: The Dynamics of Settlement Concentration Processes and Land-Use in Early Farming Communities of the Northwestern Carpathian Basin

Fig. 1. Geomagnetic map of the three Early Neolithic settlements of Vráble. The pits belonging to houses are marked in red.

This project investigates early sedentary social agglomeration processes in the Carpathian Basin, focussing on the changes associated with social relations, subsistence strategies, mobility and land-use patterns. Through the implementation of archaeological, geophysical and palaeo-ecological methods, it takes a regional approach and concentrates on a comparison of local developments in settlement sites of different size and building density, inner- and inter-site interaction patterns and the dynamics of landscape changes, especially exploring landscape modification by human economic activities.

Fig. 2. Preliminary analysis of the flint and obsidian percentages of houses 131, 132 and 134 of the campaign of 2016.

Research activities 2016-2019

Publications:

Arponen, V.P.J., Dörfler, W., Feeser, I., Grimm, S., Groß, D., Hinz, M., Knitter, D., Müller-Scheesel, N., Ott, K., Ribeiro, A. 2019. Environmental determinism and archaeology: Understanding and evaluating determinism in research design. Archaeological Dialogues 26 (1), 1-9. DOI 

Bátora, J., Furholt M., Rassmann K., Tóth P. 2017. Výskum ohradeného sídliska z mladšej doby kamennej vo Vrábľoch (Grabung einer umfassten Siedlung aus der Jungsteinzeit in Vráble). Arch. Výskumy Nálezy Slovensku 2012, 17-19.

Brozio, J.P., Müller, J., Filipović, D., Kirleis, W., Schmölcke, U., Meyer, J. 2019. The Dark Ages in the North? A transformative phase at 3000 – 2750 BCE in the western Baltic: Brodersby-Schönhagen and the Store Valby phenomenon. Journal of Neolithic Archaeology 2019 (21), 103-146. DOI

Dreibrodt, S., Furholt, M., Hofmann, R., Hinz, M., Cheben, I. 2017. P-ed-XRF-geochemical signatures of a 7,300 year old Linear Band Pottery House ditch fill at Vráble-Ve’lké Lehemby, Slovakia - House inhabitation and post-depositional processes. Quaternary International 438, 131-143. DOI 

Furholt, M. 2017. Translocal Communities - Exploring Mobility and Migration of Sedentary Societies in the European Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. Prähistorische Zeitschrift 92 (2), 304-321. 

Furholt, M., Cheben, I., Müller, J., Bistáková, A., Wunderlich, M., Müller-Scheeßel, N., forthcoming 2020. Archaeology in the Žitava valley I. The LBK and Želiezovce settlement site of Vráble, Scales of Transformation in Prehistoric and Archaic Societies 09. Leiden: Sidestone Press. Sidestone Press

Hofmann, R., Müller-Scheeßel, N. 2020. Orientation of Neolithic dwellings in Central and Southeast Europe: Common denominator between the Vinča and Linearbandkeramik worlds. Quaternary International. DOI

Jaeger, M., Kirleis, W., Kiss, V., Kulsár, G., Müller, J., Staniuk, R., Taylor, N. 2018. Kakucs Archaeological Expedition, in: Jaeger, M., Kulscár, G.,Taylor, N., Staniuk, R. (eds.). Kakucs-Turján. A Middle Bronze Age multi-layered fortified settlement in Central Hungary, Studien zur Archäologie in Ostmitteleuropa 18. Bonn: Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, 13-21. ISBN 978-3-7749-4149-6

Meadows, J., Müller-Scheeßel, N., Cheben, I., Rose, H., Furholt, M. 2019. Temporal dynamics of Linearbandkeramik houses and settlements, and their implications for detecting the environmental impact of early farming. The Holocene 29 (10). Fuchs, K., Kirleis, W., Müller, J. (Guest eds.) Special Issue: Scales of Transformation – Human-Environmental Interaction in Prehistoric and Archaic Societies, 1653-1670. DOI

Müller-Scheeßel, N. 2019. Gender in Linearbandkeramik research: Traditional approaches and new avenues, in: Koch, J.K., Kirleis, W. (eds.). Gender Transformations in Prehistoric and Archaic Societies, Scales of Transformation in Prehistoric and Archaic Societies 06. Leiden: Sidestone Press, 133-152. Sidestone Press

Müller-Scheeßel, N., Cheben, I., Filipović, D., Hukeľová, Z., Furholt, M. 2020. The LBK site of Vráble in Southwestern Slovakia: Selected results of the excavation season 2016. Bericht der Römisch-Germanischen Kommission 97, 83-116.

Müller-Scheeßel, N., Müller, J., Cheben, I., Mainusch, W., Rassmann, K., Rabbel, W., Corradini, E., Furholt, M. 2020. A new approach to the temporal significance of house orientations in European Early Neolithic settlements. PLoS ONE 15(1): e0226082. PlosOne