September 2020

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

Fig. 1: The development of agglomeration and dispersion processes in the LBK and Lengyel phases in the Žitava Valley.

While the first phase of the project work focused on agglomeration processes and the associated economic, political and social transformation processes, the project will now, in the second phase focus on tangible changes at the transition to the Lengyel period (4900-4000 BCE). Processes of settlement dispersion, the construction and use of possible communal structures in the form of circular enclosures, as well as the character and role of supra-regional exchange and mobility networks will be explored. It seems that during the Late Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic phases (4900-4000 BCE) drastic changes in the social and political structures, as well as in the use of the environment and spiritual ideas have played an important role. Supra-regional impulses and influences, emanating among others from the Vinča communities in south-eastern Europe, also played an important role in the developments in the Žitava Valley. These developments will be examined in their specific form on a local and regional level in the course of the project.

Lengyel pottery in graves Fig. 2. Lengyel pottery already starts to appear in the later phase of Vráble. In fact two of the richest burials have Prelengyel vessels as grave goods.