Presentation abstracts

 

01-01 Decolonising the Meso-Neo Transition: the (assumed) politics of mobility

 John Robb¹

¹ Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, UK

Although one would think that the post-colonial critique of academic theory would not apply to things happening millennia before colonialism, narratives of prehistoric social change are often structured by assumptions about social interaction which derive from colonial and modern political settings. Conversely, such narratives serve to naturalise the politics of the present as “natural” or “universal”. Traditional narratives of the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in Europe integrate implicit assumptions about identity and mobility which reflect modern political conditions. Among others, these may include the assumption of bounded and stable group identities, of typological associations between economic practices and social identities, of group mobility as a venture into alterity, and of mobility as happening in landscapes of boundaries and scarcity such that mobility is inherently problematic or threatening. All of these characterise modern landscapes of mobility; none is particularly applicable to prehistoric Europe, and if we consider alternative assumptions, possibilities for the transition are quite different.

 

01-02 New data and old gaps: linking the emerging Neolithic in the central Balkans with southwest Asia

 Barbara Horejs^{1, 2}, Felix Ostmann¹

¹ Austrian Archaeological Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences

² HEAS, University Vienna

The role of mobile groups in the emergence of the first Neolithic communities in the Balkans is a pivotal aspect in our current understanding of the subject. This is not only due to the recent findings on the genetic relations of southeast European and Anatolian early farmers, but also because of the significant impact that these findings have had on our current understanding of the subject. While the general models of migrating groups entering the continent are widely accepted, the highly complex process of adopting the new economic, cultural and social Neolithic way of life is only beginning to be understood in detail. New data from state-of-the-art fieldwork at Svinjarička Čuka (Serbia) are discussed in this broader framework to aim a critically re-evaluation of the knowns and unknowns in the emerging Neolithic of the central Balkans. Previous regional syntheses developed by the author for west Anatolia and Çukuriçi Höyük (‘maritime colonization model’ and ‘pioneer model’) and the recently presented ‘multispecies mobility’ model for the Balkans will be connected based on hard data and the ‘invisible’ with focus on the role of potential connectivity of hunter-gatherers and farmers. The discussion of scientific gaps and inconsistencies in current narratives will serve as a guide through incomplete archaeological datasets from the early to mid-Holocene. The primary focus of this paper will be on pre-Neolithic networks and the emergence of new communication clusters in relation to longue durée mobility between Anatolia, the Aegean and the Balkans.

 

01-03 The Early Neolithic of Southeastern Europe: A Synthesis

Dušan Borić^1,2

¹ Department of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

² Department of Anthropology, New York University, Italy

The earliest Neolithic sites in Europe are found in the Balkan Peninsula, which includes Greece, within southeastern Europe. While the chronological resolution for the spread of early farming, Neolithic groups in southeastern Europe needs further microregional refinements, a broad-brush outline of the directionality of this spread has become increasingly well-established, with the south/southeastern to north/northwestern axis of the movement being identified. Moreover, the most recent contributions of aDNA analyses, isotope studies, and other science-based methodologies have made it possible to observe nuanced details of migration routes, mobility, and interactions between early farmers and indigenous Mesolithic foragers within the Aegean, Danube, and Eastern Adriatic catchment zones. Much has changed in this field of research over the last 25 years. While at the end of the previous century in our explanations of this major culture change it was still possible to argue for a diffusion of materials and practices rather than populations, the evidence that has accumulated over the last quarter of a century leaves no doubt that it was new people on the ground who brought with them new artefacts, materials, and novel ways of being in the world. In this paper, I review these most recent developments with the goal of providing a new synthesis about the spread of the Neolithic way of life here, with important ramifications for our understanding of similar processes taking place in the adjacent regions and elsewhere.

 01-04 “Frogs around the Adriatic pond”: a framework for the spread of the Neolithic in the Eastern Adriatic

John Chapman¹, Bisserka Gaydarska²

 ¹ Department of Archaeology, Durham University, Durham, UK

² Historic England, UK

Recent studies of the spread of farming lifeways in the Eastern Adriatic zone have focussed on regional patterns of change shown at dated Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic sites. The results confirmed the key conclusion of archaeo-genomic histories of Southern Europe for this period – strong support for the interactionist model of hunter-gatherer / farmer relationships rather than an indigenist development or a population replacement model. But in which land/sea-scapes did people interact?

An unfortunate by-product of embedded disciplinary practices has left us with a problematic comparison between uncalibrated bp chronologies for palaeo-environment sequences and calibrated BC chronologies for archaeological studies. Adjustment of the palaeo-environmental dates using the most recent Reimer et al. (2020) calibration curve allows direct comparison of these two data sets, with intriguing results. The end of the long rapid phase of sea-level rise (up to 7mm p.a.) immediately pre-dated the spread of Neolithic lifeways North from Corfu, at 6510 – 6210 cal BC (95% confidence), ushering in over a millennium of more stable Adriatic sea-level which may have reached modern levels by 5209 – 4687 cal BC (95% confidence).

In this paper, we assess the implications of this framework in terms of the development of the islands in the Adriatic archipelago, the affect of insularization on Late Mesolithic communities, the expansion of their sea-faring skills in this region and the impetus on trans-Adriatic exchange networks in the early farming period.

 01-05 Adriatic Hunters, Herders, and In-Betweeners: The Transition to Farming at Žukovica Cave

Stašo Forenbaher, Giovanni Boschian^1,2, Nikola Vukosavljević³, Dinko Radić⁴, Siniša Radović⁵, Preston T. Miracle⁶

¹ Department of Biology, University of Pisa, Italy
² Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg, South Africa

³ University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Archaeology, Croatia

⁴ Cultural Center, Vela Luka, Croatia

⁵ Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Institute for Quaternary Paleontology and Geology, Croatia

⁶ McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, UK

Excavations at Žukovica, a stratified cave site on an island in the eastern Adriatic, yielded extensive evidence of Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic occupations. A layer dated to the transition from the 7th to the 6th millennium BCE contained commingled lithics, potsherds, wild and domesticated animal bones, mollusk shells, personal ornaments and scattered human remains attributable to the latest hunter-gatherers and the earliest farmers in the region. We argue that the people who practiced these different subsistence strategies occasionally came into contact. We discuss the possibility that these activities sometimes may have been practiced by a singular group of people who were neither hunter-gatherers nor farmers, but something in-between. The people buried at Žukovica at the very end of the 7th millennium BCE had led lives fed by hunting, gathering and fishing; lives that also featured certain cultural behaviors evidently adopted from newly arrived farmers.

 

01-06 Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Northeastern Italy: new data and perspectives for future research

Andrea Pessina¹, Federico Bernardini^2,3, Andrea Fragiacomo⁴, Gigliola Antonazzi⁵, Pasquale Acquafredda⁶, Italo M. Muntoni⁷

¹ Segretariato Regionale del Ministero della Cultura per il Friuli Venezia Giulia, Trieste, Italy

² Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia, Italy

³ Multidisciplinary Laboratory, The “Abdus Salam” International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy

⁴ Società per la Preistoria e la Protostoria della regione Friuli Venezia Giulia, Trieste, Italy

⁵ Club Alpinistico Triestino, Trieste, Italy

⁶ Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geoambientali, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

⁷ Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le Province di Barletta-Andria-Trani e Foggia, Foggia, Italy

 This contribution presents a summary of the state of research on the Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic in Northeastern Italy, focusing on Friuli and the Karst region. In addition to long-known sites, new data have been obtained for both open-air settlements and cave sites, including recently available radiocarbon (14C) dates for the Early Neolithic in both areas. The general framework of raw material circulation, including greenstones and obsidian, has been enriched thanks to further discoveries and provenance analyses. The beginning of new excavations in caves of the Trieste Karst, which show evidence of occupation during both the Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic, offers the opportunity to collect new data in this key area. This is crucial for understanding the formation processes of early Neolithic communities in the Karst and the Friulian plain, where Danilo- and Hvar-style pottery is frequently found, alongside ceramics characteristic of the Early Neolithic of the Po Plain. New research perspectives also concern the use of caves for ritual activities during the Neolithic and the existence of a network for the circulation of prestigious objects, such as long blades made from allochthonous flint.

 

01-07 New Research at Monte Frignone II (Lucca, Italy): Reassessing the Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition in the Northern Apennines

Niccolò Mazzucco ¹, Katerina Pavloglou ¹, Arobba Daniele ², Adriano Ribollini ³, Lionello Morandi ¹ Jacopo Gennai¹, Gerard Remolins ⁴, Marta Colombo⁵, Juan Franscisco Gibaja ⁶

¹ Università di Pisa, Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere, Italy

² Museo Archeologico del Finale, Laboratorio di Archeobotanica, Italy

³ Università di Pisa, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Italy

⁴ ReGiraRocs, Italy

⁵ Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le province di Lucca e Massa, Italy

⁶ InDi Group, CSIC-IMF, Italy

The transition from hunting and gathering to a productive economy based on agriculture and animal husbandry occurred rapidly in Mediterranean Europe, leading to significant shifts in subsistence strategies, social organization, and symbolic practices. Despite increasing knowledge of the spread of Neolithic farming communities from the Near East into Europe, our understanding of indigenous Late Mesolithic populations remains limited due to the scarcity of well-preserved archaeological contexts. The interaction between these hunter-gatherers and incoming Neolithic groups remains difficult to reconstruct due to the fragmentary nature of the material record.

The Northern Apennines provide a unique opportunity to investigate this transition. Recent excavations and surveys have revealed that this region hosted some of the latest Mesolithic occupations in the Italian Peninsula, including sites such as Lama Lite, Piazzana, and Monte Frignone II, all in close proximity to Early Neolithic settlements such as Verrucole, Muraccio, and Pian di Cerreto.

This article contributes to the ongoing debate by presenting new excavation data from Monte Frignone II, a high-altitude site in the Italian Apennines that exhibits a transitional sequence with both Mesolithic and Neolithic contexts. An ongoing reassessment of its stratigraphy, material culture, and paleoenvironmental context aims to provide fresh insights into the complex and dynamic processes of interaction between the last hunter-gatherers and the first farming communities.

 

01-08 Mesolithic tradition and Early Neolithic in Northern Tuscany (Italy): Stability and Transformation in Techno-Typological Trends of Lithic Productions

Fabio Martini^1,2, Lapo Baglioni², Chiara De Marco³, Isabella Matera^1,2, Gaia Mustone³, Pasquino Pallecchi², Lucia Sarti³

¹ Università di Firenze, Dipartimento di Storia, Archeologia, Geografia, Arte e Spettacolo, Unità di Preistoria, Italy

² Museo e Istituto Fiorentino di Preistoria, Firenze, Italy

³ Università di Siena, Dipartimento di Scienze storiche e dei beni culturali, Italy

Authors present here an overview of the current studies on lithic productions of Early Neolithic contexts, useful for the historical evaluation of the Neolithisation process of Northern Tuscany. The reliable reference contexts from Tuscany are eight, joined by six contexts from Liguria and Emilia. The radiometric chronology ranges from 6.900 to 5.300 cal BC and the archaeological facies are defined by ceramic assemblages. The faunal remains, althought very rare, and the limited information from use-wear analysis broaden our knowledge on cultural characteristics of these neolithic groups. The techno-typological features of lithic industries show, in a comparative assessment of the elements of stability and transformation, the strong weight of the Mesolithic preceding tradition. An important identifying character is linked to the features of bladelets production and to the trapezoidal arrowheads, which refer to models of Late Mesolithic. Stability and transformation are the two keywords that lead to the configuration of a techno-typological structure that must be evaluated within the framework of the Tuscan-Ligurian-Emilian geographical area gravitating around the Apennine ridges. As a matter of fact, in this region, both in the high-altitude sites and in the foothill ones which fit into the dynamics of the penetration of Neolithic innovations, the Mesolithic lithic tradition shows varying forms of tradition. In this area, the existence of a tradition deeply linked to the Late Mesolithic, althought in different ways, is associated with the arrival of obsidian and the adoption of ceramic techno-types.

 

01-09 Lithic Traces of Trans-Adriatic Migrations – The Neolithic change. A Retrospective of Twenty Years of Research

 Zlatko Perhoč

Tracing of raw material of lithic artifacts allows making a significant contribution to the construction of territories, movements and social relations of Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers and Neolithic farmers.

Our archaeometric contribution to archeology is tracing the provenance of used lithic raw material for lithic artifacts in the Stone Age in the Adriatic regions of Croatia. Geological research includes almost all Adriatic regions.

It seems that the only common element of the phenomenon of the use of lithic resources is the dynamics of changes in space and time. We tried to prove these dynamics by researching the lithic ensembles of numerous Stone Age sites in Adriatic Croatia. The focus of this contribution is the Neolithic change in the lithic material procurement strategy of early East Adriatic farmers. In order to make the radical nature of this change visible, we have also included pre-Neolithic sites in the review.

In the pre-Mesolithic periods, hunters and gatherers mainly used eastern Adriatic lithic resources. Exceptions are conditioned by geomorphological factors. In the Mesolithic isolation in local and regional frameworks occurs. Neolithic farmers prefer the western Adriatic lithic raw materials. Some Bronze Age sites in Croatia indicate the Neolithic continuity of the Adriatic transition.

 

01-10 Refining the chronology of admixture events between early farmers and hunter-gatherers in the Central and Western Mediterranean

Ana Arzelier¹, Didier Binder², Pauline Garberi², Maïté Rivollat¹, Mélanie Pruvost, Marie-France Deguilloux, Wolfgang Haak³

¹ Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, De la Préhistoire à l’Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA UMR 5199), Pessac Cedex, France

² Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Cultures, Environnements. Préhistoire, Antiquité, Moyen-Âge (CEPAM UMR 7264), Nice, France

³ Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Archaeogenetics, Leipzig, Germany

The spread of the Neolithic lifestyle across Europe was accompanied by interaction between hunter-gatherers and farming populations. The varying modes of cultural and biological interactions between both groups were highlighted in recent studies and the combined archaeological and biomolecular data have shed new light onto the nature and geo-chronological framework of these exchanges. For example, ancient DNA studies confirmed differences between the Mediterranean and Continental routes of Neolithic expansion in terms of migration and interaction dynamics, showing that Mediterranean Neolithic groups had overall higher levels of Western European hunter-gatherer ancestry.

To better understand the mechanisms, intensity, and regional variability of the biological exchanges underlying these interactions, we analyzed published genomic data from more than 70 early farmer individuals originating from 35 sites across the central and western Mediterranean, dating from approximately 6,500 to 4,500 BCE. We determined the sources of ancestry and quantified the relative proportions according to different admixture models. To document the processes of gene flow and admixture during the Mediterranean Neolithic expansion, we further estimated the timing of admixture pulses using the software DATES. Critically, we also conducted Bayesian modelling directly of associated 14C dates using Chronomodel to precisely document the chronology of various mixture events across the Central and Western Mediterranean. In this presentation, we discuss the potential of combining palaeogenomic data and Bayesian modelling of radiocarbon dates in order to clarify the timeframe of interactions between communities, emphasizing the importance of localized and interdisciplinary studies to unravel the complexities of these processes.

 

 

01-11 Evidence of very early contacts between Mesolithic and Neolithic groups in the hinterland of southern France at Roquemissou (Aveyron, France)

Thomas Perrin¹, François-Xavier Le Bourdonnec², Stéphanie Bréhard³, Camille Daujeard⁴, Marie-France Deguilloux⁵, Mathilde Papot¹, Sylvie Philibert¹, Aurore Schmitt⁶

¹ CNRS UMR5608 TRACES, Maison de la Recherche, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, Toulouse, France

² Université Bordeaux Montaigne: Pessac, France

³ CNRS UMR7209, UMR 7209 AASPE, Paris, France

⁴ CNRS UMR7194 HNHP – ComE, Histoire Naturelle des Humanités Préhistoriques, Paris, France

⁵ CNRS UMR 5199 PACEA, Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, De la Préhistoire à l Actuel: Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie, Pessac Cedex, France

⁶ French National Centre for S, UMR 5140, Archéologie des sociétés méditerranéeenes, Université Montpellier, France

The site of Roquemissou (Montrozier, Aveyron, France), on the south-western edge of the Massif Central, in a middle mountainous region, provides one of the most important regional stratigraphy of recent prehistory. Between 11,500 and 2,100 cal BCE, i.e. for more than 9 millennia, human occupations were repeated several times. Within this powerful sequence, several occupations can be linked to the Second Mesolithic and Early Neolithic. Until then, the earliest reliable evidence for the presence of Neolithic groups in the region dates from the early centuries of the 5th millennium BCE. The discovery of four obsidian artefacts from the late Second Mesolithic, dated to around 6000-5800 BCE, i.e. a millennium earlier, represents a major discovery in our understanding of the Neolithisation process in southern France. All these pieces of obsidian come from Monte Arci (Sardinia) and could only have been acquired by these Mesolithic groups through exchanges and contacts with the first groups of Neolithic settlers arriving at the same time on the shores of Languedoc, about 150 km further south. This discovery thus testifies to extremely early contacts between the two groups, strictly contemporary with the very first Neolithic settlements, or even slightly earlier, in a possible process of exploration very far inland. In these same levels, the discovery of several scattered human remains, potentially from the same individual, and bearing anthropogenic cut marks and green bone fractures, raises questions about the identity of the deceased. Palaeogenetic analyses, which have so far been unsuccessful, will perhaps reveal whether this was a member of the Mesolithic community of indigenous hunter-gatherers or a potential Neolithic explorer! These exceptional discoveries illustrate a more complex and, above all, extremely dynamic process of Neolithisation.

 

01-12 Decoding the Past: Revealing Innovation and Tradition Dynamics through Sickles, Projectiles, Plants and Prey (or subsistence resources) in the Neolithic of the Iberian Peninsula

Maria Barrera¹, Oreto García-Puchol¹

¹ University of Valencia, Spain

When studying the material culture of the last hunter-gatherer societies and the first Neolithic groups, distinct socio-technical trajectories can be identified. These divergences can be explained by various factors, including adaptation to socioeconomic and environmental needs, the socio-economic structures themselves, and the cultural interaction networks that shaped intergroup contacts. To explore these sociotechnical dynamics, we apply an integrative approach that examines diverse materials: (1) two types of lithic tools whose functionality has been confirmed through use-wear analysis—sickle blades and projectile points—and (2) associated records, such as cereals and wild animal taxa. The goal is to differentiate between changes consistent with practical or environmental needs and those resulting from sociocultural processes.

The methodology is structured around three main axes: (A) a detailed characterization of the diversity within the archaeological record, (B) the reconstruction of potential connections that explain the similarities observed across assemblages, and (C) an analysis of the relationship between these assemblages and various ecological and socioeconomic factors that may have shaped their development. To this end, we leverage the high-resolution data provided by current archaeological research, applying an integrative framework that allows us to test those hypotheses on the development of material culture during this transitional period.

The results indicate that different archaeological records did not evolve at the same pace, nor did they respond uniformly to processes of change. By analyzing these findings, we assess the extent to which the variability in the frequency of certain technological features can be attributed to two major factors: (1) the adaptation of these groups to their ecological context and subsistence activities, and (2) the possible social dynamics scenarios that account for (or fail to account for) the cultural diversity observed in the archaeological assemblages.

Ultimately, this study underscores the importance of examining diverse archaeological records in parallel, as their combined analysis offers a richer and more nuanced understanding of the processes shaping sociotechnical continuities and changes during the Neolithic transition.

 

01-13 The Mesolithic-Neolithic necropolis of Cueva de los Murciélagos (Albuñol, Granada, Spain): Continuity or change?

Francisco Martínez-Sevilla¹, Maria Herrero-Otal², María Martín Seijo³, Miriam Cubas¹, Pedro Henríquez Valido¹, Rafael María Martínez Sánchez⁴, Jonathan Santana⁵, Antonio Peralta Gómez⁶, José Antonio Lozano Rodríguez^7,1, Ingrid Bertin^{2, 8}, Raquel Piqué Huerta²

¹ Departamento de Historia y Filosofía, Área de Prehistoria, Universidad de Alcalá, Spain

² Departament de Prehistòria, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain

³ Instituto de Ciencias del Patrimonio (INCIPIT), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Spain

⁴ Departamento de Historia, Universidad de Córdoba, Spain

⁵ Departamento de Ciencias Históricas, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.

⁶ Instituto de Historia, Departamento de Arqueología y Procesos sociales, CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas), Spain

⁷ Centro Oceanográfico de Canarias (COC), Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO-CSIC), Spain

⁸ Cultures et Environnements Préhistoire, Antiquité, Moyen Âge, Université Côte d’Azur, Nice, France

The Cueva de los Murciélagos site is a karstic cave located 7 km inland from the current Mediterranean coastline of southern Iberia. It sits in the lower section of the Angosturas gorge, on the right bank, at an elevation of 450 m.a.s.l and about 70 m from the gorge’s base. The cave features a lenticular entrance, 15 m wide, facing east, which provides direct access to the main chamber. Known archaeologically since the 19th century as a burial site, the cave is notable for the remarkable preservation of organic materials. The site has recently been re-examined as part of the MUTERMUR project, which aims to re-evaluate archaeological collections held in museums and conduct the first systematic fieldwork at the site. New research has revealed that the cave has yielded the best-preserved collection of Mesolithic basketry in southern Europe (circa 7500 BC) as well as other unique organic materials – plant fibre and wooden based – from early and middle Neolithic societies (circa 5200-4200 BC). This communication presents the funerary evidence from both periods, referring to their differences and similarities. From a holistic analysis of the evidence – organic and inorganic material culture, sedimentology, human remains, and radiocarbon dating – the aim is to identify whether the cave was used continuously by the hunter-gatherers and early farmers as a burial site, or if, on the contrary, there was a change or gap between both populations. The unique evidence from Cueva de los Murciélagos is contextualized with other sites from southern Iberia to determine whether the process of Neolithization was a matter or change or continuity.

 

01-14 The Devil is in the Details: The Role of Inner Peripheries in the Neolithization of Central Europe

Václav Vondrovský¹

¹ Institute of Archaeology of the CAS, Prague, Czech Republic

The role of indigenous hunter-gatherers in the neolithization of Central Europe has been a topic of ongoing debate, with mainstream narratives oscillating between acculturation and farmers’ demic diffusion. The latter perspective currently prevails, supported by genomic analyses revealing a dominance of Anatolian ancestry at early Neolithic cemeteries. However, we might throw the baby out with the bathwater. Most recent aDNA evidence indicates that indigenous communities hitherto persisted long into the Neolithic, which aligns with other archaeological data supporting such trajectories. Still, these results remain rather underexplored within the current interpretative scaffolding calibrated to the grand diffusionist narratives.

This paper seeks to refine the existing model by introducing the concept of the inner peripheries – regional pockets nested in established cultural zones where distinct communities with diverse practices, ancestries, or economic strategies may have coexisted. An overview of currently known cases shows that this phenomenon extended beyond isolated local peculiarities, representing a significant aspect of Neolithic diversity. Thus, we should acknowledge hunter-gatherer communities as minor but active agents in the dynamics of Neolithic Central Europe.

 

01-15 A missing North Sea connection? The Neolithisation of southern Scandinavia and the Low Countries compared

Daan Raemaekers¹

¹ Groningen Institute of Archaeology, University of Groningen, Netherlands

The Late Mesolithic of southern Scandinavia and the Low Countries have often been studied in comparison, where Late Mesolithic point-based ceramics in both regions operated as the linking material expression of a shared worldview of successful hunter-gatherers. In this perspective, the occurrence of perforated wedges from Central-European farming communities in both regions and the apparent lack of further societal change added to our interpretation of resilient Ertebølle and Swifterbant communities.

This paper will revisit this theme on the basis of new research in the Netherlands that questions the status of Swifterbant as the most western branch of the ceramic hunter-gatherers found across northern Europe and beyond. It is proposed that around 4200 BCE a new type of society has been formed that combined characteristics of its Late Mesolithic cultural and genetic background with strong evidence of new practices and people from its neighbouring farming communities. In the final part of the paper, the outcome of this process will be compared to the Early Neolithic in southern Scandinavia and similarities in terms of subsistence and ceramics will be presented. This raises the question how intensive the contacts were between these communities in southern Scandinavia and the Low Countries.

 

01-16 Transitioning to the Neolithic in Belgium: a multidisciplinary anaylsis of stone tools

Éva Halbrucker¹, Ian Engels², Maarten Dhaenens², Emanuela Cristiani³, Philippe Crombé¹

 ¹ Prehistory Researchgroup, Department of Archaeology, Ghent University, Belgium

² ProGenTomics Researchgroup, Faculty of Pharmacutical Sciences, Ghent University, Belgium

³ DANTE Laboratory, Department of Odontostomatological and Maxillofacial Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

Neolithisation took different forms throughout Europe. For the sandy lowlands of North-Western Europe, this process was a gradual transition, where a primarily foraging lifestyle persisted much longer (until c. 4300 BC) by “hunter-gatherers in transition” (Swifterbant (SW) Culture), while neighbouring loess areas were already colonised by farmer-herders of the Linearbandkeramik Culture (starting c. 5300 BC). The contact dynamics between foragers and farmers in the coversand area remain the subject of intense debate, with hypotheses ranging from complete acculturation to demic diffusion or a combination of both.

So far, the issue of contact has mainly been addressed through pottery and archaeobotanical analyses, while lithics have generally been neglected. Yet, these also contribute substantially to the debate. We demonstrate this by presenting the results of detailed, multidisciplinary research on a specific tool-type, the faceted tools. Since this tool-type is found on both indigenous SW hunter-gatherer sites and early farming sites, it allows us to investigate similarities and differences in technology, morphology, and use. Our paper mainly focuses on the functional aspect, presenting data from microwear and residue analysis, using the traditional approaches of microwear analysis and physical characterisation and chemical staining of residues. We also explore the potential of proteomic analysis, aided by state-of-the-art taxonomic classification, to identify organic residues relating to lithic use.

 

01-17 Bone-antler artifacts technology in the hunter-fisher-gathering communities during the Vth mil BC in the SE Baltic coast (Zedmar culture)

Evgeniia Tkach¹, Anna Malyutina¹

 ¹ Institute for the History of Material Culture Russian Academy of Sciences

Ceramic production emerged in the territory of the South-Eastern Baltics in the 5th millennium BC (Zedmar culture). Researchers associate its origin with the influence of both the world of agricultural cultures – late phases of the Linear pottery in the west, and the world of hunter-fisher-gatherer communities – the Narva culture in the east. The materials of the Zedmar culture include expressive artifacts made of hard organic materials. For example, T-shaped axes and waste from their production, arrowheads and harpoons, daggers, etc. are widely represented. The report will present the typology of these materials and the results of their technological analysis. Artifacts will be considered in the context of the Mesolithic and Neolithic cultures of the region and neighboring territories – Lithuania, Belarus, Scandinavia, Poland and the coastal part of Germany.

Research was conducted by the RSF No 23-78-01172.

 

01-18 The emergence of clay pottery (Neolithization) in the forest-steppe Volga region (Eastern Europe)

Konstantin Andreev¹

 ¹ Samara State University of Social Sciences and Education: Samara, Russia

 Starting from the Mesolithic period, stable connections with the Southern Urals and Trans-Urals were established in the forest-steppe Volga region. Close analogies are found in stone industries and the tools used, including geometric microliths – specifically, asymmetric trapezoids. Palynological analysis indicates that around 8700 BP, characteristic forest-steppe conditions emerged in the Volga region, lasting until approximately 8000-7900 BP. Subsequently, a gradual aridization of the climate begins, with its peak recorded around 7500-7200 BP. This leads to significant population movement and Neolithization of the region during the period of 8000-7500 BP. The onset of the Neolithic era is associated with the emergence of pottery-making technology, while there was no transition to a producing economy. The closest analogies are found with materials from the Middle Asian interfluve (Kelteminar culture). Similarities are evident in the shape of the vessels S-profiled oval vessels with pointed bottoms and their ornamentation, which features incised lines and rare punctate impressions. At the same time, the flint industry of early Neolithic population groups is based on the percussion technique of flaking and is fundamentally different from the late Mesolithic technique (pressure flaking). This suggests a complete population replacement in the forest-steppe region of the Volga with the arrival of new groups and either uniqueness or a complete absence of contacts between them. At the same time, both in the Mesolithic and in the early Neolithic, the southeastern orientation of the cultural connections of the forest-steppe Volga is maintained. The research was supported by the RSF (project 23-78-10088).

 

 

01-19 Neolithization in central Asia

Svetlana Shnaider¹, Percy Hey Chun Ho², Artem Yakovlev¹^,³, Alexei Kasparov¹^,⁴, Anna Molodtseva³, D. Kim⁵, Taylor Hermes⁶, C. Chon⁵, Grigorii Markovsky¹, Saltanat Alisher Kyzy⁷, Aida Abdykanova⁸, Temirlan Chargynov⁹, William Rendu¹⁰, Christina Warinner¹,¹¹

¹ Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia

² Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

³ Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia

⁴ Institute of the History of Material Culture RAS, Saint Petersburg, Russia

⁵ Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

⁶ Department of Anthropology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, USA

⁷ Osh State University, Osh, Kyrgyzstan

⁸ American University of Central Asia, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

⁹ Kyrgyz National University named after J. Balasagyn, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

¹⁰ International Research Laboratory ZooStan – ArchaeoZoological Center for the Study of Central Asia – CNRS – Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan

¹¹ Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany

The emergence of productive economies based transformed virtually every aspect of human life—from subsistence strategies and methods of landscape exploitation to material culture and the mechanisms of interaction among human populations. The most comprehensive studies on Neolithization have been conducted in the regions of the Fertile Crescent and East Asia. In Central Asia, the influence of these two centers is evident, although the majority of research has focused on relatively later periods in history (the Bronze Age). Regarding the earliest stages in the development of productive economies, two centers are currently recognized in the region: the foothills of Kopetdag (Jeitun culture) and southern Ferghana (Obishir-5, Surungur).

We conducted an analysis of materials from the sites of Jeitun, Obishir-5, and Surungur, which included an examination of archaeological artifacts and a paleofaunal collection, along with the application of bioarchaeological analytical methods. Based on these analyses, we propose a model for the formation of the Neolithic in the mountainous regions of Central Asia and trace how the Jeitun Neolithic influenced the development of Neolithization in these highland areas.

Research supported by RSF Project No. 24-78-10127 “Neolithization in the Mountainous Regions of Central Asia (from Kopetdag to the High Mountains of Pamir)”

 

 

02-01 Where are we? A current insight into modelling approaches for the Early Neolithic

 Alfredo Cortell-Nicolau¹, Salvador Pardo-Gordó²

 ¹ Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany

² Departamento de Geografía e Historia. Universidad de La Laguna, Spain

 During the past years there has been a substantial increase in computational and modelling applications deployed specifically for the Early Neolithic, but also for Archaeology in general. Computational simulations and advanced statistical approaches are currently common practice in several domains in archaeological research. Indeed, several journals now include (and share) the code and data produced for the analysis presented, and some even count on specialist reproducibility reviewers (e.g. Journal of Archaeological Science) in order to guarantee reproducibility and code/data hygiene.

But, how did we get this far? What are the challenges that archaeologists have had to face in order to introduce formal modelling into the discipline? What are the challenges they still face now? In this paper we will offer a review not only on some of the pioneer work applied to formal modelling in the Early Neolithic (including the period of transition to farming), but also an overview of the difficulties inherent to the application of mathematical/computational modelling in Archaeology, both at an epistemological, but also at a methodological and even at a political level.

Finally, we will offer some views on some of the cutting-edge techniques currently applied, as well as on potential ways forward and future lines of research. All in all, our intention is to reflect on the current state of the sub-discipline and how can we work as a group to move it forward.

 

02-02 Better together: LBK chronology in the Ammer valley (SW Germany) based on the combination of correspondence analysis and radiocarbon dating

Jonas Sprißler¹

 ¹ Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte und Archäologie des Mittelalters, Abteilung für Jüngere Urgeschichte und Frühgeschichte, Tübingen, Germany

The Ammer Valley is a landscape with fertile loess soils, where traces of the Linear Pottery culture (LBK) are documented from the oldest phase onwards. It is part of the Upper Neckar region in SW-Germany, which corresponds to the south-western limit of the earliest LBK distribution. Starting from 2017, the Neolithic occupation of the Ammer Valley has been investigated in a cooperative project between the University of Tübingen (R. Krauß) and the State Office for Cultural Heritage Management Baden-Württemberg (J. Bofinger/Y. Tafelmaier). At a total of six sites (Lüsse, Unteres Feld, Tiefer Weg, Grüninger, Ammerbühlen, Untere Wasenbreite) structures of longhouses, pits, and a settlement ditch were identified by geomagnetics and excavations.

Based on a modelling of radiocarbon dates from the two sites ‘Lüsse’ and ‘Unteres Feld’, the project organizers together with B. Weninger (University of Cologne) have already proposed a pottery stylistic development of five Ammer Valley stages (AV 1-5). In extension, the decoration types of the pottery from all Ammer Valley sites are now to be analysed for the first time using a correspondence analysis (CA). Additionally, the calculated seriation will be substantiated with new 14C-dates. This approach promises results concerning the ongoing debate whether the ceramic traditions are contiguous or non-contiguous.

The oral presentation will outline the current state of research in the Ammer Valley and the intention to link a CA with 14C-dates. In this context, a brief insight is given into the method used in Germany since 1973 to organize the LBK decoration types using a CA.

 

02-03 The Neolithic spread in Europe: modeling population dynamics and interactions

Joaquim Fort^1,2 , Joaquim Pérez-Losada¹

 ¹ Complex Systems Laboratory, Universitat de Girona, Catalonia, Spain

² Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Catalonia, Spain

In the last decade, the mathematical wave-of-advance model by Ammerman and Cavalli-Sforza has been extended by including cultural transmission. In this talk we review the mathematical and computational approaches that make it possible to estimate the intensities of cultural and demic diffusion in the spread of the Neolithic by using archaeological data. We also explain recent results based on ancient DNA that provides a different, independent estimation of the intensities of cultural and demic diffusion. We highlight that there is now a sound mathematical theory that makes it possible to estimate the relative importance of demic and cultural diffusion, as well as of the number of hunter-gatherers incorporated into the populations of farmers (per farmer and generation), independently from archaeological and ancient genetic data. The results of both kinds of data are compared and found to be consistent with each other. The ancient DNA data provide more precise estimations than the archaeological data.

 

02-04 Multicentennial Cycles: Combining Continental, Regional and Local Perspectives

 Detlef Gronenborn¹, Kai Wirtz²

 ¹ LEIZA – Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie, Ludwig Lindenschmit-Forum 1, 55116 Mainz, Germany

² Helmholtz-Zentrum hereon GmbH, Max-Planck-Straße 1, 21502 Geesthacht, Germany

 Human population dynamics and their internal and external drivers are not well understood, especially over the long term and on large scales. Here, we show that demographic growth trajectories of all inhabited continents from 9 to 3 ka BP reveal multicentennial and partially synchronous cycles. These continental cycles were estimated based on summed probability distributions of radiocarbon dates and, for Europe, cross-validated by archaeology-derived settlement data. The European growth cycles show a strong correlation with multicentennial variations in the stability of climate states.

This continental perspective is complemented by regional and local foci. Case studies are three successive cycles around the Upper Rhine valley in western Central Europe. These are formed by the traditional archaeological phases of the Early to Young Neolithic, with Central European archaeological entities like the Linear Pottery Culture (LBK), Rössen, and Michelsberg. Local cycles indicate both synchronous but also decoupled behavior from regional and continental population cycles. A similar partial synchronicity appears at a single location of the Michelsberg culture (4200-3500 BCE), the hilltop site of Kapellenberg and its vicinity. We discuss how exogenous factors such as climate variability are amplified by endogenous factors such as phase-dependent changes in social cohesion. The empirical findings help to validate a model for socio-technological evolution and demographic changes.

 

02-05 Early Neolithic Population Dynamics and Settlement Potential in Central Europe (LBK; 5400 – 4950 BCE)

Johanna Hilpert^1,2, Anna-Leena Fischer², Oliver A. Kern^1,3, Silviane Scharl^1,2, Christian Wegener^1,3

 ¹ HESCOR (Cultural Evolution in Changing Climate: Human & Earth System Coupled Research), University of Cologne, Germany

² Department for Prehistoric Archaeology, University of Cologne, Germany

³ Institute of Geophysics and Meteorology, University of Cologne, Germany

The Linearbandkeramik (LBK; ca. 5400 – 4950 BCE) constitutes the earliest Neolithic in Central Europe and is one of the best-studied phenomena of this time period. Its rapid expansion, primarily attributed to demic diffusion, has prompted various hypotheses addressing underlying mechanisms regarding e.g. push-and-pull dynamics, demographic developments, or adaptation processes. Nevertheless, the settlement dynamics and drivers of LBK expansion remain insufficiently understood.

The LBK can be subdivided into two distinct phases: the initial phase of the oldest LBK and a younger phase characterized by significant territorial expansion and the incorporation of new regions. However, the extent to which this growth resulted from internal demographic trends versus population influx from the LBK’s origin area remains unclear. The influence of possibly necessary adaptive processes in shaping the pace and direction of expansion is equally uncertain.

Within the HESCOR project, settlement preferences during both LBK phases are analyzed using the “Human Existence Potential” (HEP) model, originally designed for Palaeolithic contexts and adapted for farming societies. It belongs to the family of species distribution models, and couples environmental variables (palaeoclimate and soil fertility) with site distribution to identify preferred ecological niches. These findings are correlated with settlement patterns, demographic estimates, and land use data.

The results provide novel insights into the diachronic development of the population dynamics in Central Europe at the beginning of the Neolithic and the influence of environmental factors behind the demographic developments.

 

02-06 Modelling obsidian circulation in the Central Mediterranean through network analysis

Niccolo Mazzucco¹, Giada Pirrone¹, Simone Sani¹, Claudia Finocchiaro¹, Elisabetta Starnini¹

¹ DCFS, University of Pisa, Italy

Efforts to model obsidian circulation in the Central Mediterranean have thus far been limited, primarily concentrating on the identification of material provenance through archaeometric analysis.

Our CHRONOS research project, “The Obsidian Route in the Central Mediterranean: Diachronic Pathways and Cultural Connections“, has the ambition to go further and model the distribution of obsidian in the Italian Peninsula.  This study aims to identify patterns of interaction between sites by analysing the available technological data from obsidian assemblages.

We present the preliminary results of the project obtained by constructing a reference dataset based on both published and previously unpublished data from Early Neolithic contexts (6100–4900 cal BCE). Through the application of multivariate statistics and network analysis, this research assesses whether a hierarchical structure existed in the distribution and consumption of obsidian and how this was geographically articulated.

 

02-07 Assessing risk-sensitive herd culling strategies in Neolithic Northern Dalmatia, a demographic modeling approach

Nicholas Triozzi¹

¹ Institut für Archäologische Wissenschaften, Prähistorische Archäologie, Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, Universität Bern, Switzerland

Mortality profiles constructed from age-at-death estimations of archaeological bone and teeth of domesticated animals offer important insight into the outcomes of slaughtering decisions made by herders in prehistory. Survivorship curves derived from these data are often presented as evidence that herd management optimized the production of meat, milk, or wool. Moreover, comparisons across space and time are potentially useful for hypothesizing variation between, or developments within, prehistoric agropastoral economies. However, an important caveat of this approach is that the mortality rates associated with certain age classes may have a deleterious effect on herds in the long term. Moreover, when offered as a representation of the production goal for a pastoral system spanning multiple generations of herders, survivorship profiles imply offtake rates are constant through time. This paper examines this issue by modeling the effects of various culling strategies on herd demography. Sheep and goat herd dynamics are simulated using a stage-structured Lefkovitch population projection model. Theoretical and empirical culling strategies, reconstructed using caprine age-at-death data representing four Neolithic sites on the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia, are modeled as the primary constraints on herd growth. By optimizing offtake rates, the simulations assess the consequences of herders adjusting their practices in response to environmental and subsistence challenges to maintain a stable herd size. The findings reveal the demographic consequences of various culling strategies, showing that sheep populations were generally more sustainable than goat populations under the conditions studied. This research provides insights into the viability and adaptability of ancient herding strategies, emphasizing the importance of flexible culling practices to mitigate risks and ensure herd sustainability. The nuanced view offered in this paper underscores the critical role of adaptive management in responding to environmental pressures and sustaining livestock populations over time.

 

02-08 The impact of population history and diet on mandibular morphology in the transition from Upper Palaeolithic/Mesolithic hunting-gathering to Neolithic agro-pastoralism

Ricardo Miguel Godinho¹, Patrícia Simão¹, Cláudia Umbelino^1,2, Célia Gonçalves¹, João Cascalheira¹, Nuno Bicho¹, Zsuzsanna Siklósi³, Alexandra Anders³, Pál Raczky³, Anett Gémes⁴, Karin Wiltschke-Schrotta⁵, Patrick Semal⁶, Caroline Polet⁶, Sándor Évinger⁷, Tamás Hajdu⁴, Patricia Smith⁸, Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel⁹

¹ Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and the Evolution of Human Behavior (ICArEHB), Universidade do Algarve (UAlg), Faro, Portugal

² Research Centre for Anthropology and Health, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

³ Institute of Archaeology, Faculty of Humanitites, Eötvös Loránd University

⁴ Department of Biological Anthropology, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary

⁵ Department of Anthropology, Natural History Museum, Wien, Austria

6 Scientific Service of Heritage, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium

⁷ Department of Anthropology, Hungarian Natural History Museum – Hungarian National Museum Public Collection Centre, Budapest, Hungary

⁴ Department of Biological Anthropology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary

⁸ Faculties of Medicine and Dental Medicine and National Natural History Collections, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

⁹ Buffalo Human Evolutionary Morphology Lab, Department of Anthropology, University at Buffalo, USA

After millions of years of hominin scavenging, hunting, fishing and gathering, our species developed agro-pastoralism ~10000 years BCE. This Neolithic mode of subsistence arose in the near east and dispersed throughout Europe together with migrating populations that often admixed with previously existing peoples. This transition from hunting-gathering to agro-pastoralism involved deep changes in population history and diet. Thus, these have been hypothesized as the main drivers for skull morphological changes arising in this transition. Yet, no studies have quantified which of these factors impacts skull morphology the most at the beginning of this major event of human evolution. Here we combine mandibular morphology, genetic and dental wear data to address this question.

259 mandibles from populations ranging from North Africa to western Eurasia and from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Chalcolithic were digitized. Geometric morphometrics (GM) was used to examine mandible morphology. Dental wear magnitude was scored as proxy for diet. Frequencies of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroups were calculated for the relevant populations based on previous studies. Population level distance matrices were then generated based on GM Procrustes distances, mtDNA haplogroups frequencies and dental wear. Mantel tests were used to examine the correlation between these variables and the results were used to quantify the proportion of mandibular morphology explained by population history and diet.

Mandibular morphology is significantly correlated with mtDNA and dental wear, a large proportion of mandibular morphology is unexplained and mtDNA explains a much larger proportion of mandible morphology than diet (as assessed via dental wear).

 

 

03-01 Space as the Machine: Spatial Processes and the Formation of the Balkan Neolithic Settlement Systems

Dimitrij Mlekuž Vrhovnik¹

¹ University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Settlement patterns have traditionally been understood as passive imprints of past human activities in the landscape. However, landscape actively shapes social activities. Its spatial structure, arrangements, and overall configurations influence human movement and social interactions. Formation of settlement systems is a dynamic process.

This study investigates spatial complexity to identify structural patterns that emerge at the level of entire spatial configurations. How do spatial patterns affect human movement and social interaction? What role does spatial configuration play in movement, interaction, and other social phenomena? When the first Neolithic communities established themselves in Thessaly, they did not introduce predefined settlement patterns. Instead, they followed only local rules, adapting to the spatial configurations they encountered. As they engaged with their environment, settlement structures evolved in unique directions shaped by these spatial conditions.

The relationship between small communities and space is central to this analysis. Through the integration of spatial layouts, the density of movement, and the structuring of movement by-products, new patterns of encounter were generated. In this way, spatial configuration acted morphogenetically, shaping social interactions at a fundamental level.

This case study focuses on the large-scale settlement systems of the Neolithic Balkans. It explores how landscape configuration contributed to the emergence of complex social processes, with particular emphasis on movement and interaction. The paper proposes a conceptual model for long-term adaptive settlement systems based on the generative properties of space.

 

03-02 Perimeter ditches and the social construction of community and space at Early-Middle Neolithic Koutroulou Magoula, Thessaly, Greece

Yannis Hamilakis¹, Aikaterini Kyparissi-Apostolika², Stella Katsarou², Merkourios Georgiadis³, Aris Politopoulos⁴, Vasileios Tsamis⁵, Thomas Loughlin⁶

¹ Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

² Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology-Speleology, Ministry of Culture, Athens, Greece

³ Department of History and Archaeology, University of Crete, Rethymno, Greece

⁴ Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, The Netherlands

⁵ Cotswold Archaeology, UK

⁶ Diriyah Gate Development Authority, Saudi Arabia

In the last few years, it has become evident through archaeological and geophysical research that perimeter ditches were a common and important feature for many, perhaps most Neolithic communities in the Balkans. In this paper, we will present and discuss such features at the site of Koutroulou Magoula, a four-hectare tell site in Thessaly, Greece, which was founded at the later phases of the Early Neolithic and expanded and thrived in the Middle Neolithic (c. 6100-5700 BCE). First detected through geophysical survey, such features have been archaeologically verified and explored through systematic excavation and artefact analysis since 2017. This work, combined with our topographical and pedestrian survey and the overall excavation of this site since 2001, allows us to explore the social construction of space and the creation of community. Given the scale of the project, and the labour involved in the making and maintenance of the ditches, it seems that this was a communal endeavour of significant proportions. We suggest that beyond their specific functional roles, it was the process and the act of creating such features that was most valued by people, and it was this specific communal act of space-making that produced this village as a community. If the tell itself was a monument to the longevity and duration of this community and its attachment to the specific place, the ditches, as process and outcome, were a monument to the establishment of the collectivity as an interdependent and relational whole.

 

03-03 A unique Early-Middle Neolithic settlement at the mountainous landscape of LakePlastiras, Western Thessaly, Greece.

 Orestis Apostolikas, Nina Kyparissi¹

¹ Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Greece

 At an altitude of 800m asl,next to the artificial Lake Plastiras, a unique Neolithic settlement dated at 5,996-5,839B.Cwaspartly excavated, yielding rare finds that point out towards an autonomous character, ontologically and semiologically detached from the contemporary sites of the Thessalian plain. The landscape, abundant in raw materials and natural resources, provided an exceptional place to be for its Neolithic inhabitants, who most probably occupied the site all-year round. The discovery of two very rare pottery kilns in such a mountainous and isolated landscape, as well as a series of other rare finds underlines the unique character of the site.

The questions surrounding the decision of these Neolithic groups to “isolate” geographically from the populations of the Thessalian plain cannot be possibly answered based on the established theoretical schemes concerning the Neolithic way of life in the Thessalian plain, but rather require new approaches and narratives that perhaps put the notions of continuity and tradition at center stage, but from a rather different point of view.

 

03-04 The earliest Neolithic settlements in Europe, habitational patterns in Early Neolithic Greece

Trisevgeni Papadakou¹, Kostas Kotsakis²

 ¹ International Hellenic University, Greece

² Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Recent radiocarbon dates have firmly established Macedonia and Thessaly as the regions with the earliest Neolithic habitation in continental Europe, placing this event at the mid-7^th mil. BCE. Both old and new excavations at such sites, which usually grew to become long-lived Neolithic villages, reveal similar habitational patterns across these territories, although the restricted area of the revealed deposits hampers our perspective. In sites such as Paliambela and Revenia in Macedonia, Sesklo and Achilleion in Thessaly, the first features created by these early pioneering communities were sunken, ‘negative’ spaces cut into the earth. In this study, we explore the available data surrounding the form, function and arrangement of these features, and we discuss how these choices align with the narratives put forth about the event of Neolithisation. Lastly, we explore one more crucial line of evidence, that of pottery, which is inextricably tied with the appearance of the Neolithic in Europe, and we discuss its appearance and distribution in these early Neolithic sites.

 

03-05 Where Are the Blades? The ‘Vjosa Project’ and a Preliminary View of the Lithic Assemblage from the Newly Discovered Neolithic Open-Air Site of Qesarati-Thelëza (Tepelena, Albania)

Rudenc Ruka¹, Vincenzo Stasolla², Edlira Andoni¹, Cristina C. Ancona³, Eduard Shehi¹, and Custode Silvio Fioriello³

 ¹Insitute of Archaeology, Tirana, Albania

² ETHRA worker coop LTD, Taranto, Italy

³Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, Italy

As part of the ‘Vjosa Project,’ a collaborative effort between the University of Bari Aldo Moro and the Institute of Archaeology (Tirana), a systematic survey was carried out along the right bank of the Middle Vjosa River valley. The 2023 fieldwork led to the discovery of the Qesarati-Thelëza site, which has been preliminarily dated to the transition between the Early and Middle Neolithic (around the early 6th millennium BC), with additional evidence of occupation in the Roman and Late Antique periods.

The lithic assemblage from Qesarati-Thelëza includes 1,036 chipped stone artifacts, with a core ratio of approximately 3:1 (69 laminar cores to 22 flake cores). However, the ratio between non-retouched artifacts reverses to 5.7:1 (708 flakes to 123 laminar products). This contrasts with other Neolithic sites in the Korça basin, southeast Albania.

This distinct lithic pattern may reflect Qesarati-Thelëza’s role as both an intermediary and exporter to regions like the Korça basin, where raw materials are scarce and of lower quality. However, the majority of flakes are non-cortical and from advanced stages of core reduction, suggesting they were not prepared specifically for laminar core export. This lithic composition could also be linked to the use of particular reduction sequences such as the one applied on Kombewa-type cores, which may represent an unrecognized local facies in the Albanian Neolithic.

 

03-06 Everyday life at early Neolithic Amzabegovo: preliminary evidence from soil micromorphology

Lyndelle Webster¹, Darko Stojanovski¹

 ¹ Austrian Archaeological Institute

This paper presents initial results from a soil micromorphology study of earliest Neolithic settlement deposits at Amzabegovo. This well-known low mound was among the first sites settled by early farmers in the Vardar River basin in today’s North Macedonia. First excavated in the 1960s–1970s, new fieldwork has been underway since 2019 under the direction of Darko Stojanovski. This includes a deep (>4 m) trench in the centre of the mound that has exposed stratigraphy spanning the whole Neolithic period. The earliest deposits include a series of surfaces and built floors, thick ash lenses and finely laminated layers of charred plant material. Thin section analysis provides evidence for a variety of everyday activities within the settlement including plant processing and animal keeping. Repeated patterns suggest traditions or patterns of behaviour that persisted over long periods of time. The case study at Amzabegovo is part of the NEOSOL project, which examines earliest Neolithic settlements using a soils-based approach, integrating thin section micromorphology and micro-archaeological techniques.

 

03-07 Early Neolithic architecture in South-western Bulgaria

Małgorzata Grębska-Kulow¹

 ¹ Regional Museum of History, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria

Approximately 30 settlements from the Early Neolithic period (6200-5450 BC) have been identified in South-western Bulgaria, with some having been the subject of detailed study, thus providing valuable insights into the construction techniques employed. From the outset of the Early Neolithic period, a diverse array of house-building techniques was employed, a fact substantiated by the evidence from Kovachevo, where several distinct techniques were identified, and Galabnik, located at the opposite end of the Struma River, which also exhibits significant variability of techniques. In Brezhany, two techniques were utilized: wattle and daub and pisé. However, a distinctive feature was observed, namely the utilization of split stakes for the construction of inner platform. The imprint of these stakes in clay exhibits a strong resemblance to both house models and cult tables from Pelagonia, suggesting a potential link between the two. At Ilindentsi, in addition to the wattle and daub technique, stone construction was also employed, with wall foundations composed of stones and built up with the pisé technique. Here too, we find stakes split in two, used for platform supports, as at Balarchevo and Brezhani.

The dwellings themselves were above ground, with some of them being dug in, as seen at Balgarchevo. At Kovachevo, the earliest dwellings were constructed on pits, whether for the purpose of insulation from damp or as a reminiscence of the so-called pit-houses common in the earliest settlements in northern Greece, remains to be determined.

The analysis of the available data indicates that in South-western Bulgaria during the Early Neolithic a variety of construction techniques, characteristic of northern Greece, the Republic of North Macedonia and western Anatolia, continued to be applied. In other regions mainly one technique was used, in Thrace wattle and daub, in Thessaly kerpić on a stone foundation, and on the territory of Starčevo culture dwelling pits with a wooden construction on top or a regular dwelling pit and wattle and daub technique like in Balgarchevo. The region of South-western Bulgaria has an important contribution to the study of Early Neolithic architecture on the Balkans.

 

03-08 Outward and Upward: Strategies for Space Utilization in the Early Neolithic settlement site Slatina-Sofia

Vassil Nikolov¹, Desislava Takorova²

¹ Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria

² National Institute of Archaeology and Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria

At the end of the 7th millennium BC, some of the earliest farmers and livestock breeders in the Central Balkans found suitable living conditions along the left bank of the Slatina River in the Sofia Plain. They settled there and gradually established a settlement, which existed from the end of the 7th millennium BC until the middle of the 6th millennium BC. The settlement’s long duration raises the issue of the efficient use of space according to the various needs of its inhabitants—housing, areas for cultivation, animal husbandry, etc.

Several strategies for the utilisation of inhabited space will be discussed here, which were used at different stages of the settlement’s existence and were likely related to population growth. One such strategy was the expansion of the village beyond its initially defined inhabited area. In its early stages, the settlement site Slatina-Sofia was enclosed by a wooden wall and a ditch (or ditches). However, within a relatively short period, these boundaries were surpassed, and expansion beyond this initial area began. Once the territorial limit of habitable space was likely reached on the one hand, and with advancements in technical skills on the other hand, a tendency emerged to replace single-storey houses with two-storey buildings.

 

03-09 Selection and Evolution of Depositional Practices at Yabalkovo, an Early Neolithic Settlement in Upper Thrace

Nikolina Nikolova¹

¹ National Institute of Archaeology and Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria

Yabalkovo is a settlement site established at the onset of the Early Neolithic, around 6000 cal BC, along the middle course of the Maritsa River in Upper Thrace. The earliest settlers initially occupied an area in close proximity to the ancient riverbed. After a period of habitation, likely not exceeding a century, they appear to have abandoned the site due to periodic flooding and marshy conditions, relocating south/southwest to higher and more protected terrain. There, the new settlement persisted until the end of the Early Neolithic, around 5600 cal BC.

A variety of depositional practices are attested throughout the occupation of the settlement. Some of these appear to be specific to particular features, such as houses, while others display recurring patterns within pits and ditches. The diverse structured deposits identified within the settlement area suggest a deliberate selection of materials, chosen for distinct acts of deposition at specific moments. Taken together, these practices offer valuable insights into the activities of the Neolithic community at Yabalkovo, both within domestic spaces and in the broader settlement, as well as their transformations over time.

To shed light on these processes, this presentation will discuss the selection of deposited materials and the possible reasons behind their placement, considering broader patterns in depositional practices during the Early Neolithic.

 

03-10 Pit Houses and Early Farmers: Architectural Insights from Starčevo Settlements

Slaviša Perić¹, Olga Bajčev¹, Đurđa Obradović¹, Ivana Dimitrijević¹, Ružica Savić¹

¹ Institute of Archaeology, Belgrade, Serbia

During the Early Neolithic (6200 BCE onwards), numerous settlements were established across the Central Balkans, marking a significant shift from the preceding Mesolithic period, which is well-documented only in the Danube Gorge. These early settlements were relatively small, typically consisting of several houses. The Early Neolithic Starčevo culture is characterized by two primary types of dwellings: semi-subterranean huts and rectangular above-ground houses. However, the available evidence is insufficient to establish clear chronological or spatial patterns between these two dwelling types.

In this paper we investigate the excavation methodologies, formation processes and architectural features of semi-subterranean dwellings, drawing on recent excavations at two central Serbian sites: Drenovac and Međureč. Dating back to approximately 6200 BCE, these sites rank among the earliest Neolithic settlements in the region. Their location in the Middle Morava Valley highlights their significance, as this area played a pivotal role in understanding the emergence and expansion of early farming societies in Southeast Europe.

We address several key research questions concerning Early Neolithic residential architecture. How large and deep were these pit dwellings? What was the layout of their interior living spaces? What evidence exists for above-ground structural elements? Additionally, we examine the types of ovens found inside these dwellings and explore their construction techniques to provide a more comprehensive understanding of Early Neolithic domestic life.

 

03-11 A Ditch Too Far – Obscured large scale Starčevo earthworks on the site of Jovanovac, Serbia

 Miroslav Kočić¹, Ana Kočić¹, Marija Kaličanin Krstić¹, Bryan K. Hanks²

¹ Center for Archaeology “Dragoslav Srejović, University of Kragujevac, Serbia

² University of Pittsburgh, Department of Anthropology, USA

SRGAP (Šumadija Geoarchaeological Project) has been active in central Serbia for more than nine years, with the collaboration between University of Pittsburgh and now Center for Archaeology “Dragoslav Srejović” of University of Kragujevac. Although the main focus of the project has been on the large scale regional research of the Vinča period, with research focus on Grivac and Kusovac sites, one of the most intriguing avenues opened with Starčevo – Vinča transition. Early on during the systematic pedestrian survey was performed in 2019, covering 92sqkm,  as a NSF funded grant (NSF DDRIG #1741667) for the PhD project of Miroslav Kočić. This research was partly presented in 1^st ENE conference in Barcelona, and one of the most puzzling questions at the time was the large number of the open Starčevo settlements, that seem to go through centralization process in the valley of Gruža, with only two Vinča Mega sites remaining – Grivac and Kusovac, suggesting emergence of complex societies.  Already then it was extremely interesting that it was Starčevo material surface spread that covered the largest area, not subsequent Vinča occupation. New protective research, conducted in winter 2024-2025, on one of the smaller Vinča sites in Lepenica river valley – Jovanovac, with large scale geophysical recording, and dating the sequence across the site, brings a new light and pose additional questions about Starčevo monumentality and social organization.

 

03-12 The Second Neolithisation of the Balkans? Revisiting the Early Neolithic Communities in Romania

Catalin Lazar¹

¹ ArchaeoSciences Platform (ASp), Research Institute of the University of Bucharest (ICUB), University of Bucharest, Romania

This study re-examines the Neolithisation process in the Balkans, focusing on early Neolithic communities in Romania, particularly the Boian and Gumelnița archaeological sequences. Recent aDNA studies indicate these communities originated from a second wave of Anatolian farmers arriving around 5318-5301 cal BC. Radiocarbon evidence from cemeteries such as Curătești, Sultana-Valea Orbului, and Sultana-Malu Roșu reveals a gradual northward expansion of settlers who established flat settlements and the first cemeteries in the Mostiștea Valley (Romania). The initial exploratory phase (5318-4941 cal BC) was followed by the development of tell settlements, inter-regional trade networks, and the adoption of new materials like copper and gold.

However, this phase was not the first documentation of Neolithic people in the area. The end of the 6th millennium BC marks the introduction of the Anatolian socio-economic tell settlement model in the northern Balkans, which was absent until then, though evidence of farming groups with non-local genetic origins dates 800-700 years earlier. Ceramic analyses reveal shifting mobility patterns, with early Neolithic Starčevo-Criș communities exhibiting high mobility, while later Chalcolithic Gumelnița groups show increased sedentism. This transition reflects broader socio-economic adaptations, including craft standardisation and raw material procurement. Neolithic material culrure elements do not necessarily indicate the immediate implementation of the Anatolian farmers’ model but rather a delayed adoption several hundred years later. These findings challenge traditional cultural-historical narratives, highlighting a complex, multi-phase Neolithisation process shaped by migration, climatic shifts, and evolving socio-economic strategies.

 

03-13 Crossing the Carpathians. The oldest settlement of the first farmers in Poland

 Agnieszka Czekaj-Zastawny¹, Anna Rauba-Bukowska¹, Agnieszka Kukułka²

¹ Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland

² Regional Museum Tarnów, Tarnów, Poland

The latest achievements in the project on the expansion of the first agricultural communities (Linear Pottery culture) to the areas north of the Carpathians have clearly shown that this occurred somewhat later than previously assumed, i.e. around 5330 BC. The conclusions are based on extensive comparative studies, and the starting point was research in Gwoździec, which is currently the oldest Neolithic settlement in Poland. This settlement is also special due to its location, because it is located in the foothills (333 m above sea level) close to the Carpathian passes, through which the first farmers migrated, settling the loess uplands, and then even further north, the lowlands. It was also certainly an attractive place from an economic point of view – located between the sources of flint in the Kraków Upland and the area of ​​the Eastern Linear Circle, with which contacts were constantly maintained. Through extensive excavation research in Gwoździec and deep interdisciplinary analyses, results were obtained showing various aspects of the lifestyle in the settlement. We obtained data on the development of the functional space of the entire household and the spatial development of the settlement, house construction, food acquisition and processing, production of vessels and tools. The time in which the settlement functioned continuously was also determined, i.e. from 5330 BC to 5160/5060 BC.

 

03-14 Chronological re-evaluation of the beginning of the Neolithic in Bohemia

Daniel Pilař^1,2, Petr Květina^1,2

¹ Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague

² Department of Archaeology, Charles University, Faculty of Arts

Bohemia was an important region in the spread of the Linear Pottery Culture (LBC) across Central Europe in the Early Neolithic (5600-4900 BC). However, the dating of this process has long stagnated, despite its re-evaluation in surrounding regions. In this respect, the chronology of the large settlement at Bylany, which frames the chronological range of the LBK in Bohemia, played an important role. Thus, original studies date the beginning of the LBK to the period 5600-5500 BC, but this timeline is no longer valid based on the new findings.

The presented research centres on two settlements regarded as the earliest LBK in Bohemia – the sites of Nové Dvory and Litice. In terms of pottery typology, they correspond to the Milanovce phase defined in the Danube region. Also, the absolute dates from these sites show that Neolithic settlements in Bohemia probably did not occur before 5400 BC, which is consistent with the colonisation models of the surrounding regions. The shift of 200 years in the dating is caused by the inclusion of biasing factors in the C14 dating, namely the old wood effect.

The new results change the current view of the earliest stages of the LBK in Bohemia. They will also have a major impact on the perception of large central sites such as Bylany, whose chronology and development has for several decades been considered fundamental to understanding this period in the region.

 

03-15 Elemental Insights: Unveiling Daily Life in an LBK House at Těšetice-Kyjovice (Czech Republic) Through XRF Analysis

Filip Ševčík¹, David Hons¹, Barbora Strouhalová², Peter Tóth¹

 ¹ Department of Archaeology and Museology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

² Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

 The Early Neolithic site of Těšetice-Kyjovice, situated in South Moravia (Czech Republic), offers unique insights into the socio-spatial organization of an LBK (Linearbandkeramik) settlement with approximately 100 houses. Long-term excavations by Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Republic) have uncovered 23 of these houses, providing an exceptional dataset for understanding household activities. As part of a French-Czech collaborative research project (IEA TKLit, CNRS, 2022–2024), we investigated soil archives to reconstruct the filling processes of LBK pits and to explore spatial activity patterns within and around these houses.

To achieve this, we applied XRF (X-ray fluorescence) analysis which can determine the elemental composition of soil samples by measuring fluorescent X-rays emitted under high-energy excitation. A total of 500 carefully selected samples were taken systematically across the house interiors, lateral pits, and pit profiles at 50 cm intervals, ensuring comprehensive spatial coverage.

The data were analysed using t-distributed Stochastic Neighbour Embedding (t-SNE), Kruskal-Wallis test and spatial analysis in GIS revealing significant spatial partitioning within the sampled areas. At least three distinct zones of activity were identified, suggesting separate functional or symbolic areas linked to different aspects of daily life. These findings provide critical insights into the organization of LBK households and the possible division of labour within these spaces.

By comparing our results to existing models of LBK household organization, we aim to determine whether this spatial arrangement reflects broader cultural patterns characteristic of LBK communities or a unique adaptation at Těšetice-Kyjovice.

 

03-16 Dispersal of the earliest Linear Pottery Culture in Bavaria – Upscaling from local to regional scale

Anna-Leena Fischer¹, Silviane Scharl¹, Martin Nadler², Thi My Hien Nguyen¹

¹ Department of Prehistoric Archaeology, University of Cologne, Germany

² formerly State Heritage Service Nürnberg, Germany

Studies on the dispersal of the earliest Linear Pottery Culture (eLBK) are predominantly conducted at a regional and supra-regional level, while there are only few studies on settlement dynamics on small scale and local level. This is where our project comes in: Based on two eLBK settlement areas in Northwest Bavaria, the colonisation of the landscape by the carriers of the LBK at the beginning of the Neolithic will be investigated. We work on three different scale levels: At a micro level, four excavated eLBK settlements will be analysed regarding internal chronology of the settlements, their spatial structure and their subsistence. At a meso level, the focus is on questions concerning the integration of all settlements into the local social and economic networks, as well as on the contacts with other settlement regions. Another priority will be the analysis of agricultural land use patterns. Finally, on the basis of the insights we have gained at the two lower scale levels, on the macro level we will address overarching questions concerning the mobility of the eLBK and the currently discussed dispersal mechanisms for this archaeological culture (leap-frogging versus wave-of-advance etc.). The Nördlinger Ries in central Bavaria, whose eLBK settlement dynamics were recently studied in detail, will serve as a comparative region. In our talk we will present the first results of this project.

 

03-17 A family affair? The economic pattern of western Lbk societies, the view from diet and craft activities

Hamon¹, P. Allard², S. Denis², M. Gabriele¹, L. Gomart¹, E. Herrscher³

¹ CNRS, UMR 8068 TEMPS, Nanterre, France

² CNRS, UMR 8215 Trajectoires, Paris, France

³ CNRS, UMR 7629 LAMPEA, Aix-en-Provence, France

The social and economic organisation of first farmer societies of continental Europe (6th millennium BC) has been at the center of many discussions among scholars, as it is one of the rare context were we can approach directly the activities of the households.

By combining brand new results on foodways and craft production conducted in the frame of the HOMES project, we propose a systemic view on the general economical basis of Lbk households taking the example of the Aisne valley (France, 5100-4950 BC). Isotopes analysis of the human and faunal remains provides the image of a quite homogeneous diet, shared by most individuals from different sites, that complete previous researches on the faunal and archeobotanical contribution to food habits. The technological study of ceramic, flint and grinding tools brings new elements on the organisation of these productions, at different level from the house to the village, suggesting different patterns of know-how transmission. In the meantime, use-wear analysis provides a clear view on the equal distribution of some daily activities and the more random distribution of some craft activities.

Our presentation will discuss the general common characteristics shared by most households interpreted in terms of self-sufficiency, and propose some interpretations on the variations observed from an anthropological perspective, including possible surplus production for exchanges, and centralisation of some of the activities at the village level.

 

03-18 Refining the Chronology of the Early Neolithic Lake-shore Settlement of La Marmotta at Lake Bracciano (Anguillara Sabazia, Rome, Italy)

Juan F. Gibaja¹, Berta Morell¹, Mario Mineo², Amaia Arranz-Otaegui³, Laura Caruso-Fermé⁴, Niccolò Mazzucco⁵

¹ Institución Milá y Fontanals en Humanidades. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain

² Museo delle Civiltà di Roma, Italy

³ University of the Basque Country – UPV/EHU. Departamento: Geografía, Prehistoria y Arqueología, Spain

⁴ Instituto Patagónico de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas (IPCSH-CONICET), Argentina

⁵ Università di Pisa, Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere, Italy

The Neolithic lake-shore settlement of La Marmotta, situated on Lake Bracciano in central Italy, is a key site for understanding early farming societies in the Mediterranean. This communication aims to refine the chronology of the settlement by integrating typological analyses of ceramic assemblages with a new series of radiocarbon dates obtained from well-preserved seed samples.

Previous chronological frameworks of La Marmotta have relied predominantly on relative dating methods, particularly the typological classification of ceramic artefacts. While these approaches have provided valuable insights into the site’s cultural and technological sequences, the absence of precise absolute dates has limited discussions on the temporal dynamics of its occupation. To bridge this gap, we conducted radiocarbon dating on carefully selected seed samples representing key stratigraphic levels within the settlement.

The integration of relative ceramic chronology with calibrated radiocarbon dates has produced a more accurate timeline for the site’s development and occupation phases. By applying statistical analysis and Bayesian modelling of the radiocarbon dates, this study contributes to refine the chronological framework of La Marmotta, enhancing our understanding of its role within the broader Neolithic context.

 

03-19 The emergence of the Neolithic in the central Po Valley (northern Italy): the Vhò aspect

Paolo Biagi¹, Elisabetta Starnini²

 ¹ Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, Italy

² University of Pisa, Department of Civilizations and Forms of Knowledge, Italy

New research on the Neolithic of the Central Po Plain began in 1974 with the excavation of one of the Early Neolithic sites discovered in the middle of the 1800s around the village of Vhò di Piadena in the Province of Cremona (Lombardy, northern Italy). The scope of the new excavations was to define and radiocarbon date a poorly known cultural aspect, which showed some affinities with that of Fiorano, whose distribution covers the eastern part of the Po Valley. In the territory of central Po Valley many Neolithic sites have been discovered so far. Several are attributed to the early Neolithic Vhò cultural aspect which is radiocarbon dated between the last three centuries of the 7th and the beginning of the 6th millennium uncal BP years. The Vhò assemblages are represented mainly by pottery, knapped and polished stone artefacts. They show peculiarities that clearly distinguish them from the other aspects that flourished in northern Italy during the same period. Less known are settlement organization and infrastructure, dwelling structures, subsistence economy and funerary behaviours. The authors present a summary of the state of art and new achievements concerning the first farmers of this territory.

 

03-20 Exploring Neolithic diffusion in southern France : insights from the Early Neolithic ceramic production at La Baume de Ronze (Orgnac-l’Aven, Ardèche)

Méline Cattiaux¹

¹ Laboratory TRACES, UMR 5608, Toulouse, France

In southern France, the first agropastoral communities date to the early VI ^e millennium BCE. Although the initial Impressa phase remains partially understood, current data suggest that these groups had a limited impact in the overall neolithization process in the region. From 5450  cal.  BCE onward, the emergence of Cardial groups marks a broader expansion phase, leading to the long-term establishment of neolithic communities in the region. The site of La Baume de Ronze (Orgnac-l’Aven) is a vast rockshelter located in the Ardèche region. Dated between 5480 and 4730 cal.  BCE, the Early Neolithic sequence represents one of the oldest Cardial occupation currently known in France. The reconstruction of the main stages of the ceramic production reveals a homogeneous and stable production pattern, which reflects the cultural unity of their producers. This study thus provides a better understanding of the initial phase of the Cardial complex in southern France. Comparisons with contemporary Cardial sites in the northwestern Mediterranean region also allow us to explore the social networks existing between these regions. While some similarities indicate shared cultural practices, variability, especially in decorative sequences, suggests more localized norms or regional identities. In a broader context, this research also contributes to a deeper understanding of the role of the Cardial complex in the Neolithic diffusion across the western Mediterranean basin.

 

03-21 Territorial organization of Early Neolithic settlements:  insights through the lithic analysis of two major sites of the Rhône valley

 Bernard Gassin¹, Juan F. Gibaja², Elsa Defranould³, Ingrid Sénépart⁴, Niccolo Mazzucco⁵

¹ CEPAM, UMR 7264, CNRS, Nice, France

² Archaeology of Social Dynamics, Institución Milá y Fontanals, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), IMF-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain

³ Casa de Velasquez, Madrid, Spain

⁴ TRACES, CNRS, UMR 5608, Université de Toulouse, France

⁵ DCFS, University of Pisa, Italy

The diversity of the settlements of the Early Neolithic Cardial culture in Southern France is interpreted as a reflection of the territorial organization of the communities. Landscape resources, nature and size of the sites, economy as reflected in faunal and vegetal records, transcend the basic opposition between seasonal occupations of rockshelters with specialized activities and permanent occupations of larger open-air sites. The technological and functional study of the lithic industry of two major sites, Courthezon – Le Baratin (an open-air site in the Rhône valley) and Châteauneuf-les-Martigues – Font des Pigeons (a rockshelter near the sea and the étang de Berre lagoon), is an approach of this spatio-economic organization.

 

03-22 Settlements and connectivity in the context of the pioneer’s neolithisation in Southern France

Claire Manen¹

¹ Laboratoire TRACES – UMR 5608, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, Toulouse, France

In the context of the north-western Mediterranean, the emergence of agricultural and pastoral know-how is largely linked to the movement of communities whose routes are not yet fully understood or clearly mapped. The hypothesis that small pioneer groups moved by sea between Italy, France and Spain is implicitly accepted, but rarely demonstrated in detail. In this context, we would like to present the specific case of southern France, where the emergence of agro-pastoral societies at the beginning of the 6th millennium cal.BCE is explained by a model of colonisation by small groups originating from the Impressa complex on the Italian peninsula. Archaeological settlements that allow the characterisation of this early stage of the Neolithic process are still rare, and the natural and cultural factors that determined the settlement patterns of these pioneer groups are still under discussion. New research carried out as part of the PREME project is providing new insights. This work is based partly on fieldwork (surveys and test excavations), which adds to the corpus of data, and partly on the characterisation of the site environment (natural environment, mineral resources….). This work makes it possible to take into account the importance of wetlands in the choice of location of communities, as well as their cultural connectivity over a large area.

 

03-23 An unexpected Early Neolithic? The Emergence of Agropastoral medium and high Mountain Territories in the Central Pyrenees

 Ermengol Gassiot-Ballbè¹, Ignacio Clemente-Conte²

 ¹ Department of Prehistory. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain

² Institución Mila y Fontanals de Estudios en Humanidades (IMF). Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Spain

 In recent years the location and study of various archaeological sites in the Southern Central Pyrenees challenges the view of the emergence of the Neolithic in middle and high mountain areas of the Iberian Peninsula. Until recently it was assumed that the Pyrenees had largely been left out of the population, economic and social developments of the Early Neolithic. The recent study of sites such as Abric de l’Estany de la Coveta I, Abric d’Obagues de Ratera, Abric del Portarró, Cova del Sardo, Cueva Lóbrica, Coro Trasito and Artiga de Viturián disprove this. Firstly, they show a certain chronological continuity between the end of the Mesolithic and the beginning of the Neolithic, which is unusual in the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula. Secondly, they allow us to begin to characterize the modes of occupation and settlement in medium and high areas mountain in the Pyrenees during these periods. In this sense, the pattern of wide altitudinal dispersion of the sites in the Mesolithic undergoes a remarkable change with during emergence of the Neolithic, with a greater concentration of human occupation in mid-mountain areas and a much more punctual frequentation of the upper altitudinal stages.  This communication details these changes and relates them both to the evidence of economic practices from these sites and to the paleoecological information which, on a much more local scale than in the phases of the end of the Neolithic, begins to glimpse the first anthropic impacts on the paleovegetation.

 

03-24 Stone dwellings from the Early Neolithic in southern Iberia. The settlement of Cerro del Cercado (Priego de Córdoba, Spain)

Rafael M Martínez Sánchez¹, Manuel Altamirano García, Dolores Bretones Garcí, Jesús Gámiz Caro², Santiago Guillamón Dávila¹, Zita Laffranchi³, Alexis Maldonado Ruiz⁴, M José Martínez Fernández⁵, Francisco Martínez-Sevilla⁶, Cornelius Meyer⁷, Marco Milella⁸, María Pastor Quiles⁹, Juan Carlos Vera Rodríguez⁵, Laura Vico Triguero²

¹ Universidad de Córdoba, Spain

² Universidad de Granada, Spain

³ University of Bern, Switzerland

⁴ University of Leiden, Netherlands

⁵ Universidad de Huelva, Spain

⁶ Universidad de Alcalá    , Spain

⁷ HTW Berlin, Germany

⁸ Universitá di Pisa, Italy

⁹ Universidad de Alicante, Spain

The nature and characteristics of Early Neolithic dwelling structures in the Iberian Peninsula remain poorly understood, especially in comparison to other European regions where longhouses and posthole-defined structures are well documented. This paper presents recent research at Cerro del Cercado, an archaeological site in southern Iberia where excavations began in 2022 and currently being continued through the ERSAND project. Covering approximately 3.4 hectares, the site’s morphology has contributed to the preservation of structural remains built on stone foundations, likely corresponding to domestic structures. Geophysical surveying, supplemented by limited excavation, has identified at least half a dozen polygonal or subcircular structures, as well as trapezoidal-apsed features. These constructions feature vertically embedded stone blocks wedged with smaller stones, with an outer facing composed of rubble forming the exterior walls. On the site’s upper platform, test trenches revealed a series of postholes and post supports, including two semicircular negative features excavated into the cemented gravel bed. Although the analysis of material culture and radiocarbon sampling is still in its early stages, preliminary findings and the stratigraphic sequence confirm site occupation between 5400 and 4700 cal BC. This work is part of the project ‘’First settlements in Central/Interior Andalusia‘’ (ERSAND) PID2023-152309NA-I00.

 

03-25 Settlement patterns during the Early Neolithic in the central Limestone Massif of Estremadura (Torres Novas, Portugal)

Filipa Rodrigues^1,3,4, António Faustino de Carvalho², Sofia Ligeiro³, Pedro Souto⁴, Armando Lucena⁴, João Zilhão^5,4

¹ Uniarq, Centre for Archaeology. University of Lisbon; Municipality of Torres Novas; PaleoAlmonda, Associação de Estudos Científicos, Portugal

² University of Algarve, Portugal

³ Municipality of Torres Novas, Portugal

⁴ PaleoAlmonda, Associação de Estudos Científicos, Portugal

⁵ Uniarq, Centre for Archaeology. University of Lisbon; PaleoAlmonda, Associação de Estudos Científicos, Portugal

In the westernmost reaches of Europe, the central Limestone Massif stands as a key region for studying the Neolithisation process along the Atlantic coast of Iberia. It features the highest concentration of Early Neolithic sites, corresponding to the establishment of agro-pastoral communities in the region around 5500 cal BC.

By then this was a peripheral area relative to the Mesolithic settlement hubs of the Tagus valley. Defined by dry, nutrient-poor soils in the massif and opposite conditions in the river valleys, the area features open-air sites and rock-shelters serving as temporary habitats, alongside caves designated solely for use as necropolises. Present day models emphasise the concentration of sites along the Arrife, an escarpment dividing the limestone massif from the Tagus basin, from where both contrasting ecosystems could have been exploited.

This presentation seeks to further examine these territorial strategies across the three cultural phases identified in stratigraphic sequences, pottery typologies, and radiocarbon dating. The aim is to explore potential spatial and social relationships among sites, and develop a predictive model based on the areas’ geomorphological characteristics.

03-26 There and back again. The neolithisation of inland Central Portugal

Nelson J. Almeida¹, Cristina Ferreira², Luiz Oosterbeek^2,3

¹ CHAIA-IN2PAST University of Évora, UNIARQ Centre for Archaeology of the University of Lisbon, Portugal

² CGeo University College London, UK

³ Instituto Politécnico de Tomar, ITM, Portugal

Westernmost Europe is an area for which a broad spectrum of research has been presented, dealing with Holocene hunter-gatherers and early pastoralists. The arrival of seafaring allochthonous pioneers carrying a “Neolithic way of life” (or parts of it) has been widely discussed, albeit in the last years the attention seems to go back to the neolithisation of “marginal” areas, their chronology and associated material culture, the involvement and interactions of different groups and the processes arrhythmic nature.

This is the case for the Alto Ribatejo, in inland Central Portugal, where a large amount of effort was directed towards the characterization of data and discussion of theoretical explanatory models emphasizing “mosaic” and “capillarity” perspectives. A few key sites for the earlier phases of neolithisation have been excavated resulting in interesting information. This was framed within various research projects focusing on the synchronic and diachronic description of socio-cultural entanglements, territory exploitation and landscape evolution.

In this paper we take a renewed look at existing pieces of evidence located in the Alto Ribatejo (inland Central Portugal) dated roughly from the 6^th/5^th millennia BCE, especially the results from the open-air site of Salvador, located near Abrantes, in the left bank of the Tagus river. Our aim is to try to update the discussion on the regional initial steps of neolithisation through different settings – from local to regional scales –, including diverse cultural, lowlands/highlands landscape interactions and environmental data.

 

03-27 Constructing communities: the Early Neolithic Céide Fields, northwest Ireland (3900-3700 BC)

Jessica Smyth¹, Graeme Warren¹, Lilly Olet², Richard P. Evershed²

 ¹ School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

² School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

The emergence of field systems in prehistoric Europe remains a fundamental question for understanding human-animal-landscape ecological relationships. In this context the Céide Fields of northwest Ireland offers a rare example of extensive co-axial fields established by pioneer farmers. Contrary to recent arguments that these phenomena are not of Neolithic date, we present new evidence that conclusively establishes an early 4th millennium BC date for these systems and demonstrates their association with dairying economies.

We achieved this by undertaking molecular and isotopic analyses of lipid residues preserved in Neolithic pottery sherds recovered from excavations within the field systems and obtaining compound-specific radiocarbon determinations from these lipid residues. This new direct evidence from diagnostic Neolithic artefacts, set alongside the existing regional stratigraphic and archaeological context of the Céide Fields, confirms the early date for the origins of the field systems and their role in cattle management. Using comparative ethnographic data and medieval Irish written sources, we argue that the distinctive co-axial morphology of the Céide Fields resulted from co-operative grassland management practices based on year-round grazing enabled by a temperate Atlantic environment.

 

04-01 Climates during the spread of the Neolithic in the Central and Western Mediterranean

Thomas Huet¹, Niccolò Mazzucco²

 ¹ University of Oxford, UK,

² Università di Pisa, Italy

This presentation examines the spread of farming across the Central and Western North Mediterranean (from Italy to Portugal) between 6000 and 5000 BC using quantitative methods. Specifically, it employs the R neonet framework to analyze over 2,500 curated radiocarbon dates from the latest phases of the Mesolithic and the earliest phases of the Neolithic, calculating the isochrones of the farming pioneer front and incorporating palaeoclimate reconstructions (via the R pastclim package). Although the granularity of our modeling does not allow for precise mapping of subregional ecozones (e.g., wetlands), the diffusion model clearly demonstrates that ecological barriers, such as latitudes and mountain ranges, significantly slowed the neolithization process. Furthermore, our framework offers substantial potential for reproducibility and enhances comparisons with previous models (e.g., Binder et al., 2019).

The early farmer colonization of Southern Italy, around 6000 BC, aligns with the PPN (Pre-Pottery Neolithic) core model of neolithization, which posits early farming settlements in temperate climates with dry, hot summers (‘Csa’ in the Köppen Climate Classification). Once early farmers reached the Tyrrhenian Sea, between 5800 and 5600 BC, the process of ‘leapfrog’ colonization began, marked by Neolithic settlements established along the Mediterranean shore via seafaring, without prior continental continuity. From 5600 to 5000 BC, we observe the resilience of the latest foragers (Late Mesolithic), who became ‘cornered’ in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, particularly in regions such as Galicia, Asturias, and Cantabria.

 

04-02 The climate and Neolithic cultures of the Northern Cis-Caspian and steppe Volga River basin

Alexander Alekseevich Vybornov¹, Marianna Alekseevna Kulkova¹

¹ Samara State University of Social Sciences and Education, Samara, Russia

In the Northern Cis-Caspian region in the period from 6400-6200 calBC the aridization began. At about 6300 calBC the particulate sites with ancient pottery and microlithic industry appeared. From 6100 to 5900 calBC precipitation increased. During this period, sites with dwellings and heavy cultural horizons have been spread. At this time, the carriers of the Orlovskaya culture of the Early Neolithic were developed in the steppe zone of the Volga River basin. The climate in this region was more humid than in the Northern Cis-Caspian area. Motley grass was developed in this period in the Volga River basin, and aurochs and tarpan appeared also. In the Northern Cis-Caspian at ca.5800 calBC the short dry climatic episode was registered. Around 5700 calBC there was the transition to the Late Neolithic in the steppe zone. In the period of ca. 5700-5400, the climate became humid. The sites with dwellings increased. The types of ceramics and stone tools changed. Aurochs and tarpan spread. At ca.5400 calBC in the Northern Cis-Caspian region, the aridization increased. The sites of the Tenteksor culture disappeared. They were changed by the sites of the Cis-Caspian culture of the transition period. It is characterized by other ceramic types and the stone industry. On these sites, the bones of sheep and goats were found. The appearance of domestication in this region is connected with the influence of Western cultures or cultures from the Caucasus. In the Low Volga River basin in ca.5200 calBC the aridization is increasing. This episode coincides with the disappearance of the Orlovskaya culture. The carriers of the Cis-Caspian culture from the Cis-Caspian region which had practiced the domestication, occupied this region around ca. 4900 calBC. With increasing humidity, the development of motley grass in the Low Volga region prevailed and the Khvalinian culture began to develop. The investigations were supported by the project RSF 24-28-00103.

 

04-03 The Early Neolithic period in Eastern Fennoscandia: Structure and Chronological Boundaries

Dmitriy V. Gerasimov¹

 ¹ Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, Russia

Appearance of pottery in material culture is considered to be a marker for the beginning of the Neolithic in Eastern Fennoscandia. However, the rest of the material culture, including subsistence strategies and settlement patterns, continued development in the same way as it had during the Late Mesolithic period, from the end of the 8th millennium BC. Abundance of resources and diversification of landscapes led to increase in sedentary lifestyle and complexity of social structure during this time.

Several different early pottery traditions appeared in the Eastern Fennoscandia and in the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland almost simultaneously about 5300 BC, some hundreds and even a thousand years later then in the other parts of the forest belt of the Eastern Europe.

Palaeogeographical and geoarchaeological data from the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland suggest a rapid episode of isostatic uplift that may have occurred shortly after 5500 BC, possibly accompanied by tectonic activity. It is difficult to determine the exact nature of the relationship between tectonic activity and the emergence of ceramics, but this chronological coincidence cannot be ignored. In the Gulf of Finland and the Lake Saimaa region, the end of the Early Neolithic pottery tradition coincided with a dramatic transformation of the hydrological system caused by tectonic activity around 3900 BC.

 

 

04-04 Simulation of Environment and Human Relationships via Agent-Based Modeling: Alternative Agropastoral Production Scenarios and Their Effects in Çatalhöyük, Turkey

Neriman Erdem¹, Bülent Arikan¹

 ¹ Eurasia Institute of Earth Sciences, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey

The site of Çatalhöyük established at a point overlooking the Konya Plain (Turkey), is considered to be one of the largest and most crowded settlements of the Neolithic. It is also one of the most researched sites in Anatolia hence Çatalhöyük provides wide variety of data to examine long-term socio-ecological dynamics between ca. 7100–5950 cal. BCE. On the other hand, available data sets have not been put together to assess the complex and dynamic web of human-environment interactions through agent-based modelling approach. Consequently, we lack a holistic picture of human-environment dynamics.

The core purpose of this research is to investigate the shifts from the different periods in Çatalhöyük and the co-evolution of agro-pastoral practices and landscape through time, under different climate and land-use scenarios. Agent-based modeling offers new insights into contentious questions, integrating various viewpoints while considering the multi-faceted dynamics between humans and their environment.

In the study, MedLand Modelling Laboratory was used to couple the environmental dynamics (as modelled through Macrophysical Climate Model) with the decisions of a Neolithic agro-pastoral community during the Early Neolithic (7100−6900 cal BCE), the Middle Neolithic (6700−6500 cal BCE), and the Late Neolithic (6300−6100 cal BCE), where each archaeological period represented unique socio-economic and environmental conditions. Our results illustrate the processes of long-term environmental change as result of human impacts that vary from one phase to the other of the Neolithic.

 

04-05 A computational analysis of crop dynamics during the Neolithic in NW Mediterranean area: a response to climate changes or to the neolithization process?

Guillem Salvador-Baiges¹, Ferran Antolín^1,2

 ¹ Division of Natural Sciences, German Archaeological Institute, Germany

² IPNA/IPAS, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, Switzerland

The expansion of the Neolithic in the NW Mediterranean during the 6th millennium BC involves a loss of diversity in cultivated crops compared to SW Asia, where they were domesticated. The dynamics and uses of the different types of introduced crops change over the Neolithic period. In the early stages, there is a clear predominance of hulled wheat, but this shifts during the 5th millennium, when naked wheat and naked barley become more prominent. Around 4000 cal BC, hulled wheat re-emerges as the main cereal. These changes directly affected the agricultural practices of the first farming communities, as each cereal required different labour investment and climatic conditions. Did early farmers adapt their crops to the changing climatic conditions, or did they change their crops due to the new climatic regions they colonised?

In the framework of AgriChange project (2018-2022), over 3500 radiocarbon dates and archaeobotanical data from ca. 300 Neolithic sites in the NW Mediterranean were collected, alongside detailed analyses of new archaeobotanical samples, helping to deepen our understanding of early agricultural practices.

This paper aims to analyse this dataset to specify and characterize the temporal and geographical dynamics of crops during the Neolithic, using spatio-temporal analyses of settlement and agricultural practices based on radiocarbon dating. Additionally, these data will be linked to paleoclimatic dynamics and topographic variables to calculate the crop niche and explore whether changes in crop dynamics were related to Neolithic climatic shifts or if other factors explain these changes.

 

04-06 A Brackish Frontier? The Neolithic Transition in the Northern Adriatic and the Role of the Palaeolandscape

Samuele Ongaro¹

¹ University of Southampton, UK

Recently our understanding of the Mesolithic Neolithic Transition in Europe has improved significantly, especially thanks to ancient DNA evidence and computational modelling approaches. In some regions, however, many questions on the dynamics of Neolithization still remain open. This is the case for the Northern Adriatic, where unresolved issues include the paucity of Late Mesolithic sites, the problematic evidence for hunter gatherer’s acculturation, and the sudden appearance of a fully developed farming economy. At the same time, our interpretation is hindered by the significant changes in the palaeolandscape that would have occurred since then, which strongly affect archaeological visibility especially considering that key developments in the Transition would have probably occurred by the ancient, now submerged, coastlines. Therefore, this paper aims to shed light on the Mesolithic Neolithic Transition in the Northern Adriatic, both through a review of the radiocarbon evidence and by presenting new palaeolandscape reconstructions for the area. The chronological data will be used to test theoretical models of Neolithization, arguing for a ‘Spectrum of Possibilities’, as different dynamics would have been in place in different subregions. Yet, for the Venetian Friulian Plain, given the contrasting archaeological evidence, palaeolandscape reconstructions will be used for further testing through palaeoecological modelling. While the presence of paralic environments (e.g., lagoons, estuaries, marshes) would support the resilience of hunter gatherers in the area, and thus a frontier mobility model, we will explore the possibility that favourable areas for farming would have been present (e.g., delta plains, fluvial ridges), where Neolithic exploratory parties could have penetrated this brackish frontier.

 

04-07 Finding Suitable Grounds: Investigating the onset of crop cultivation in the lowlands of the Netherlands

D.J. Huisman^1,2, E. Familetto³, A. Smuk¹, K.M. Cohen³, W.Z. Hoek³, M.Madella⁴, L. Kubiak Martens⁵, M. Schepers¹

 ¹ Groningen Institute of Archaeology, University of Groningen, Netherlands

² Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, Amersfoort, Netherlands

³ Faculty of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, Netherlands

⁴ Faculty of Humanities, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

⁵ BIAX, Zaandam, Netherlands

Buried and submerged landscapes in the lowlands of the Netherlands play a key role in research on the introduction of agriculture. Recent results indicate the establishment of cereal cultivation in fluvial floodplains around c. 4300 BC at the latest. These floodplains, however, were part of a dynamic, constantly changing environment. Repeated flooding caused regular changes in the landscape: levees rose, crevasse splays formed, and courses of river channels switched, abandoning old and forming new suitable grounds.

We investigate where, when and how humans in these dynamic lowlands first managed to colonize the most suitable grounds for crop cultivation. In buried and submerged former surfaces in two lowland areas (IJsselmeer/Flevoland resp. Rhine Meuse delta) we combine soil micromorphology, 14C dating, and multi proxy archeobotany from mechanical cores and deep reaching excavations, investigating landscape elements from the period 6000 4000 BC (last Mesolithic to first Neolithic occupations). In both areas, indicators for human activities occur on all investigated riverine levees throughout the period of interest. Dispersed indicators are ample charred herbaceous particles, changes in phytolith morphotypes and starting c. 4900 BC scattered minute ceramic fragments. At specific depths, micromorphological features indicate early neolithic soil cultivation, associated with denser concentrations of ceramics, charred material and coprolites.

We conclude that the levees in the lowland landscape of the 6th and 5th millennium BC, were intensely used both during the Mesolithic and Neolithic and geoarchaeologically recorded the neolithisation process. Humans seem to have specifically selected the most suitable parts of the landscape (the levees), and dealt opportunistically with changes in the landscape.

 

04-08 Human-environment dynamics and marine resource exploitation in NW Ireland from the fifth to third millennia BC

Rory Connolly¹, Alan Healy²

 ¹ Trinity Centre for Environmental Humanities, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

² Archaeological Management Solutions (AMS)

Shell middens provide important insights into prehistoric human-environment dynamics along Europe’s Atlantic margins, however, in many regions these sites are threatened by ongoing erosion. Here we present the results of a radiocarbon dating programme at five eroding shell midden sites in County Sligo, NW Ireland. These new dates reveal direct evidence of persistent marine resource exploitation from the Later Mesolithic to the Late Neolithic. Contrary to arguments that marine resources were insignificant to coastal farming communities, shell middens appear to be a characteristic feature of the Neolithic in Sligo and key source of evidence for understanding Neolithisation in this region.

By situating these results within regional paleoenvironmental records, we explore how climate fluctuations may have shaped subsistence choices and local settlement patterns. We will discuss whether the exploitation of the marine environment represented a local and sporadic response to climate change, or ought to be considered a long-term strategy to mitigate environmental constraints in remote Atlantic coastal settings.

 

04-09 Tracing climatic impacts on early agriculture through shell-based isotope and LIBS analysis

Rosa Arniz-Mateos¹, Danai Theodoraki¹, Niklas Hausmann¹

 ¹ Leibniz Zentrum für Archäologie (LEIZA), Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

The Mediterranean region has been at the centre of archaeological debates regarding the “Neolithic Dispersal”. The information on the processes underlying this spread remains limited, with ongoing discussions about whether climate change delayed the Western Neolithic expansion and whether adverse weather conditions led to agricultural risks. In this work, we present our project based on central Mediterranean archaeological sites, including Franchthi (Greece), Haua Fteah (Libya), Žukovica Cave (Croatia), Grotta dell’Uzzo and Grotta d’Oriente (Italy). Our approach integrates environmental parameters at the excavation unit level with corresponding subsistence data (faunal and floral remains) to statistically evaluate the impact of large-scale climatic events on site-specific and temporal scales that would have been perceptible to humans at the time. To achieve this objective, we undertook a combined methodology of stable oxygen isotope (δ18O) analysis and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to analyse archaeological mollusc shells. Initial data comes from Franchthi, where significant differences in winter temperature minima, annual range, and variability were observed across Neolithic periods, reflecting large-scale climatic patterns. However, these factors are mirrored by only ~12% of changes in subsistence strategies, suggesting a lesser impact on human behaviour than previously assumed. In accordance with this, the ongoing analysis of the Haua Fteah and Žukovica assemblages, along with our plan to expand the study to more sites across the central Mediterranean, is expected to provide further insights into the climatic impact of the Neolithic dispersal and contribute to the development of a comparative, bottom-up model of climatic influences throughout the early and mid-Holocene.

 

04-10 Phytolith evidence for harvesting, grinding and building from Early Neolithic La Marmotta, Italy

Marta Portillo¹, Marta Mateu², Victoria García-Martínez³, Sofia Pejoan Quiroga^1,4, Laia Macià⁵, Gerard Remolins⁶, Niccolò Mazzucco⁷, Mario Mineo⁸, Juan F. Gibaja¹

 ¹ Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Institució Milà i Fontanals (IMF), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Barcelona, Spain

² Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology (ICAC), Tarragona, Spain

³ Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of Granada, Spain

⁴ Department of History and Archaeology, Institut d’Arqueologia, Universiy of Barcelona, INSA‑UB, IAUB-SERP, Barcelona, Spain

⁵ Servei d’Arqueologia de Barcelona, Prevenció i Intervencions, Ajuntament de Barcelona, Spain

⁶ ReGiraRocs S.L., Research, Conservation and dissemination. Cultural and Natural heritage of the Pyrenees. Escaldes-Engordany, Andorra

⁷ Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere, Università di Pisa, Italy

⁸Museo delle Civiltà, Museo Nazionale Preistorico Etnografico ‘L. Pigorini’, Rome, Italy

The lakeshore early Neolithic settlement of La Marmotta, in central Italy, is well known for the extraordinary preservation of organic materials by water-logging, including wooden artefacts related to navigation, textile production, agriculture, and basketry. La Marmotta has provided remarkable and diverse stone implements including well-preserved sickles and grinding stones, in addition to a wide range of earthen building remains. Recent microfossil studies, particularly of phytoliths (plant silica cells), have proven critical for delineating plant use and reconstructing crop-processing behaviors at the site. Phytoliths were first identified in an interdisciplinary study focusing on three of the most complete sickles recovered from the site, resulting from plant remains incorporated within the adhesive, providing direct evidence from the harvesting of domesticated cereals, primarily wheat and barley. Further, the size of multicellular phytoliths from grinding stones also pointed to dehusking and grinding activity according to experimental cereal processing datasets, including hulled barley and einkorn wheat, which dominate the macrobotanical records at the site, along with emmer and free-threshing wheat. Lastly, the observation of the phytoliths and other remains in thin-section micromorphology from a selection of earthen building materials point to the use of cereal grinding by-products, as suggested by concentrations of phytoliths from the inflorescences or floral parts of these plants and light chaff. This research examines the contribution of phytolith experimental records to an improved interpretation of plant processing behaviors, and the critical importance of understanding taphonomic and formation processes for reconstructing plant processing patterns and earthen constructive systems in Neolithic built environments.

 

04-11 Plant Resource Use and Agriculture in Early Neolithic Albania: New Results from Pogradec

Olta Idrizi¹, Susan E. Allen¹

¹ University of Cincinnati, USA

This paper presents new archaeobotanical data from the Early Neolithic (EN) site of Pogradec, located within the modern town with the same name in southern Albania. The site was selected as a thesis topic due to its potential contribution to understanding the transition to agriculture in the southwestern Balkans, which occurred during the EN around 6,500 BCE. Its proximity to other significant EN sites in Albania, as well as those in Northern Greece and North Macedonia, makes it a valuable addition to the study of agricultural systems in the region. The specific aims of this study are: 1) to provide new preliminary archaeobotanical data from the archaeological site of Pogradec, which is the most recent addition to the archaeobotanical assemblages of the EN Albanian sites; 2) to contribute to our understanding of the timing of Albania’s earliest agricultural communities relative to nearby regions in lake areas; 3) to assess the importance of on-site anthracological analysis and provide new data; and 4) to address concerns related to sampling strategies and recommend appropriate methods for collecting and documenting flotation samples at the time of recovery in the field. The crop taxa recovered from the site are Hordeum vulgare (hulled barley), Triticum dicoccum (emmer wheat), Triticum aestivum (bread wheat), Triticum monococcum (einkorn wheat), Lens culinaris (lentil), and Linum sp. (flax) alongside rare non-wood plant remains. Charcoal recovered from the site includes both gymnosperms and angiosperms, with pine and juniper taxa being the most abundant.

 

04-12 Base subsistence strategies in the Early Neolithic of Central Italy: insights from Rio Tana (AQ, Abruzzi)

Cristiana Petrinelli Pannocchia¹, Daniele Arobba², Younes Naime³ Alice Vassanelli⁴

 ¹ Department of Civilisations and Forms of Knowledge, University of Pisa, Italy

² Finale Archaeological Museum, Archaeobotanical Laboratory, Finale Ligure, Borgo (Savona),

Italy

³ Department of Ancient World Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

⁴ Department of Philology, Literature, and Linguistics, University of Pisa, Italy

In the early centuries of the 6th millennium BC, Neolithic groups linked to Impressed Ware, began to colonise the central Adriatic region of the Italian peninsula. These groups introduced significant technological innovations alongside a well-established subsistence economy based on agriculture and animal husbandry. Their strategies, deeply rooted in their cultural practices, were carefully adapted and optimised to ensure survival and stability in the diverse newly settled areas. This paper aims to contribute to this topic by providing data from the site of Rio Tana (AQ), an early Neolithic settlement currently under investigation in the Abruzzi region. Through an overview of botanical finds, harvesting tools and faunal remains, this site provides valuable information on environmental conditions and basic subsistence practices. By comparing and integrating the data obtained with existing literature, this study also aims to improve the still limited knowledge framework of the central area of the peninsula.

 

04-13 Back to the wild: a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the persistence of wild plants in the subsistence strategies of Early Neolithic communities in Tyrrhenian central Italy

Giovanna Pizziolo¹, Angelo Gismondi², Alessia  D’Agostino², De Marco¹ C., Gabriele Di Marco², Domenico Lo Vetro³, Fabio Martini³, Paul Mazza⁴, Gaia Mustone¹, Mario Federico Rolfo⁵, Lucia Sarti¹, Nicoletta Volante¹

 ¹ Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche e dei Beni Culturali, Università di Siena, Italy

² Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, Italy

³ Dipartimento di Dipartimento di Storia, Archeologia, Geografia, Arte e Spettacolo, Università di Firenze, Italy

⁴ Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Firenze, Italy

⁵ Dipartimento di Storia, Lettere e Società, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, Italy

Within the broad framework of studies dedicated to Human-Environment dynamics occurred during the process of Neolithisation, this contribution focuses on the middle Tyrrhenian area discussing evidence related to some case studies analysed by the on-going project “BACK TO THE WILD: uncovering the Italian Neolithic phytoculture by an archaeo-biomolecular strategy”. The research aims to investigate how Early Neolithic communities exploited and impacted the local environments, taking into account different set of contexts and landscape settings, such as open-air sites and caves located in coastal areas, alluvial plains, inner relieves of central Italy. In order to explore these complex dynamics, the project adopts a multidisciplinary approach, based on genetic (DNA barcode, Next Generation Sequencing) and metabolomic investigations (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry) combined with archaeozoological and palynological analyses and functional characterization of lithic tools and ceramic vessels, for detecting traces of subsistence strategies. The contribution is oriented to recognize the management and processing of wild plants in the background of the domestication expansion in a landscape perspective. Additionally, to better appreciate continuity and changes occurred in the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the Tyrrhenian central Italy, the research provides a general framework to contextualise the single samples analysed. Even if the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic evidence in this territory is not sizeable, the project aims to define the variability of neolithic subsistence strategies and the possible interaction with the Mesolithic tradition; in this perspective, the study of wild plants become a challenging key to investigate the Neolithisation process and improve our means of interpretation.

 

04-14 The adaptation of the Neolithic way of life to the natural conditions in northern Banat

Raiko Krauß¹, Dan Ciobotaru²

¹ University of Tübingen, Germany

² National Museum of Banat, Timisoara, Romania

Starting from western Anatolia and the Aegean, Neolithic settler groups advanced as far as the Carpathian Basin after the climatic fluctuations of the 8.2 BP Event had subsided. The results of genetic studies on human remains from this period leave no doubt that the Neolithisation process took place through the immigration of a population from the Balkan region. These in turn are descendants of immigrants from western Anatolia and the Aegean. Within the Carpathian Basin, however, different manifestations of the Neolithic way of life can be seen. In the western part of the Carpathian Basin, a continuous development of the Neolithic package can be observed, which is largely based on the utilisation of cultivated plants and domestic animals. As a result, Linear Pottery Culture (LBK) developed there as a very successful concept with which groups of settlers were able to penetrate into northern Central Europe. In the eastern part of the Carpathian Basin, our work in recent years has revealed a different development. During the colonisation phase of the Banat, the new settlers initially brought cultivated plants and domesticated animals with them. In the further course of the Neolithisation process there, however, a very strong adaptation to the natural environment and the local conditions can be seen. This manifests itself in the increased utilisation of aquatic resources, game hunting and gathering plants. As a result, we see the development of a different concept of Neolithic settlements, which differ greatly from those in the West.

 

04-15 The Early Neolithic between the Danube and the Alps: a review of environmental and socioeconomic data

 Katarina Botić¹

 ¹ Institute of Archaeology, Zagreb, Croatia

The appearance of the first Neolithic populations, arriving from the Balkans, north and west of the Danube is documented around 6000 cal BC after a short halt during the 8.2 ka event, the causes of which have not yet been fully investigated. The dynamics of this process in some areas of the Carpathian Basin significantly depended on the existing natural environment, and it is possible to monitor it using a combination of documented environmental and socioeconomic indicators. Several synthetic papers on this topic are available for the area of the central and western Carpathian Basin, but such syntheses do not yet exist for the area south of the Drava River. The reason for this is the poor research of environmental indicators for the 6th millennium cal BC (the Holocene in general), on the one hand, and the insufficient publication of socioeconomic indicators of archaeologically documented Early Neolithic populations, on the other hand. By combining both sets of data, it is possible to reconstruct individual shorter phases of the emergence, adaptation and spread of the Early Neolithic way of life in this micro-region, and compare them with published supra-regional data. It is also possible to partially explain the tendency towards partial mobility of early populations, preference for smaller domesticated ruminants and extensive hunting practices, especially in the initial phase of settlement.

This paper was produced within the project Synergy of Diversity: Archeology of Landscape and Technological Traditions in Continental and Adriatic Croatia (SirAkt), funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.

 

 

05-01 More-than-Human Assemblages: a Multispecies Perspective on the Neolithic

Ivana Živaljević¹

¹ Department of History, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, Serbia

New forms of human-nonhuman relations emerging in the Neolithic have long been dominated by Modernist narratives of Human mastery over Nature. According to this view, the complex processes such as animal and plant domestication have been completely one-sided and driven by human agency. These anthropocentric perspectives failed to acknowledge that animals, plants, and all other organisms lumped under the term “environment” can and do act back, often in unpredictable ways, and elicit various responses. As articulated by Donna Haraway, “no species, not even our own… acts alone; assemblages of organic species and abiotic actors make history”. In a similar vein, Anna Tsing offers a view of human nature which “shifted historically together with varied webs of interspecies dependence”. The understanding that multispecies assemblages are neither fixed nor stable, but continuously transforming, bears important implications for the study of the Neolithic, itself one of the major shifts in human and nonhuman history. These processes included the responses of various species to new, anthropized environments, the closer proximity, trust, joint labour and shared living space of humans and nonhumans, the effects of this coexistence including the changes in behaviour, appearance and the development of new zoonotic diseases, as well as the agency of various actors (e.g. humans, cattle, mold, bacteria) in the emergence of new substances such as dairy products. By using mentioned examples as case studies, this paper explores these shifting webs of interspecies dependence, situated and mutually becoming in historically and contextually specific ways in the Neolithic.

 

05-02 Dietary patterns of Mesolithic-Neolithic communities in the Central Balkans: data from stable isotope and buccal microwear analyses

Jelena Marković¹, Jelena Jovanović², Alejandro Romero³, Sofija Stefanović¹

 ¹ Laboratory for Bioarchaeology, Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia

² BioSense Institute, University of Novi Sad, Serbia

³ Department for Biotechnology, Faculty of Science, University of Alicante, Spain

Dietary behaviours are deeply culturally rooted and represent a great potential for understanding the processes underpinned by changes in diet, such as Neolithisation. The Central Balkans is one of the key areas for understanding this process. Neolithic skeletons are found in multiple culturally and ecologically different niches, including the Danube Gorges (9500-5500 cal. BC), with an environment suitable for fishing and hunting, and the southern part of the Central Balkans and the Carpathian Basin (6200-5300 cal. BC) with landscape more suitable for agriculture, and where the evidence of Mesolithic occupation is only beginning to emerge. To investigate their dietary patterns, we conducted stable isotope and buccal microwear analyses on ca. 100 individuals from these regions. Stable isotope ratios of δ13C, δ15N δ34S showed aquatic fauna and hunted game played an important role in the diet of Danube Gorges inhabitants through the whole sequence, although in the Neolithic there is a change toward consumption of more terrestrial food. Communities in the other studied areas had a typical Neolithic terrestrial diet, while aquatic fauna did not play an important role. Microwear analysis showed that the diet of the Mesolithic communities was highly abrasive and reliant on meat. In the Neolithic, there was a change in the diet texture, which was not so much the consequence of diet composition, but of the change in food preparation techniques. Integration of these two complementary methods enabled a better understanding of the mechanism of the complex processes that were part of the Neolithisation in the Central Balkans.

 

05-03 Unraveling the Genetic History of Cattle in Balkans

Vlatka Čubrić-Čurik¹, Rajna Šošić Klindžic², Goran Tomac², Maja Grgurić Srzentić³, Maja Krznarić Skrivanko⁴, Ivana Drzaić¹, Vladimir Brajković¹, Ivana Kersić¹, Ino Čurik¹, Preston Thor Miracle⁵

 ¹ University of Zagreb Faculty of Agriculture, Croatia

² University of Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Croatia

³ University of Zadar, Department of Archaeology, Croatia

⁴ Vinkovci Municipal Museum, Croatia

⁵ McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, UK

Aurochs (Bos primigenius) were native to Europe during the Pleistocene, and zooarchaeological evidence suggests that Mediterranean Europe, including the Balkan littoral, supported large populations of wild cattle. After the domestication of aurochs during the early Holocene in the Fertile Crescent, domesticated cattle spread with the first farmers into the Balkans and the rest of Europe. In this presentation we examine the genomic evidence for cattle domestication in Europe, with a focus on the Balkans. We begin by reviewing current genomic insights into early cattle populations in Southeast Europe, focusing on autosomal, mitogenomic, and Y-chromosomal data. We then examine evidence for interbreeding between domesticated cattle and local aurochs, particularly in the western Balkans, and highlight key unresolved questions. Next, we present new ancient DNA findings from the “Gabridge” project (Bridging the Disciplinary Gap: Integrating Animal Genetics and Archaeology in Croatia), shedding light on the genetic diversity of early cattle in the region. Finally, we outline the prerequisites for effective collaboration between geneticists and archaeologists in studying cattle domestication and management in Southeast Europe.

 

05-04 A closer look at the orientation and seasonal rhythms of sheep economies in the early Neolithic of the Adriatic region

Alejandro Sierra¹, Marie Balasse², Siniša Radović³, Francesca Alhaique⁴, Denis Fiorillo⁵, Jean-Denis Vigne⁵, Mirella Cipolloni Sampò⁶, Jean Guilaine⁷

 ¹ University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

² CNRS Délégation Paris B, Paris, Île-de-France, France

³ Institute for Quaternary Palaeontology and Geology of CASA, Croatia

⁴ Museo delle Civiltà, Roma, Italy

⁵ Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France

⁶ Istituto di Scienze del Patrimonio Culturale, Italy

⁷ TRACES – UMR 5608 Université de Toulouse II Jean Jaurès Maison de la Recherche 5, Toulouse, France

The strategic relevance of the Adriatic region in the Neolithization of the central and western Mediterranean is reflected in the prominent presence of the ‘maritime stream’, associated with the Impressa pottery complex. This stream indicates a remarkable cultural unity between both Adriatic coasts, sustained by continuous interactions, as evidenced by elements of material culture. Economically, both sides share an emphasis on sheep herding and barley cultivation, although they differ in their use of wild resources, reflecting both local adaptations and cultural preferences. However, knowledge about livestock practices remains limited, particularly regarding animal management and exploitation.

This study aims to characterize livestock practices in the Adriatic region during the early Neolithic, focusing on sheep, the predominant species. Mortality profiles from sites on both coasts will be analyzed to reconstruct the orientation of the production, inferred from herds demographic management. Additionally, pastoral calendars will be investigated at Tinj and Crno Vrilo (Dalmatia) and at Trasano and Rendina (southern Italy) with special attention to the timing of sheep birthing in the annual cycle, in order to reflect potential zootechnical strategies for deseasoning lambing in autumn, as is currently practised in the Mediterranean region.

The results are expected to provide a more comprehensive understanding of animal management strategies and the socio-economic organisation of these agropastoral communities, revealing patterns that highlight the role of the Adriatic region as a strategic hub in the spread of the Neolithic and the development of early agropastoral economies in the Mediterranean.

 

05-05 Early Dairying and Long-Range Connectivity in the Adriatic Early Neolithic food systems. Deciphering the Early Neolithic Assemblage of Mala Pećina

Konstantinos P. Trimmis¹, Ivan Drnić²

 ¹ Institute of Forest Engineering, Department of Forestry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

² Archaeological Museum in Zagreb, Croatia

Excavations in Mala Pećina cave near Muć in hinterland Dalmatia, unearthed extensive Early Neolithic layers in the length of the cave. Of particular importance is an assemblage of impresso pottery sherds, belonging to several vessels, that has been deposited in the narrowest and most difficult to access part of the cave. The assemblage concentrated in a thin layer and it was shield by flowstone and surrounded by a low stone structure. Several fire lenses have also been excavated in close association with the pottery deposit. The layer has been dated to the very early decades of 6th millennium BCE (5834 calBC 95.2% probability) and organic residue analysis presented that various of the impresso sherds have evidence of dairy. Petrographic analysis on samples from the same assemblage also indicates that the clays for the pots have been sourced from a wide range of localities ranging from the coastal parts of Dalmatia to the Herzegovina uplands. This paper aims to present the outputs of the research in Mala Pećina EN materials and incorporating also the zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical remains from the EN strata in order to raise a discussion about the subsistence strategies that led to the archaeological evidence we are getting today. Consequently, and putting the Mala Pećina observations in context, the paper further discusses the role of caves in the Early Neolithic food systems in Eastern Adriatic.

 

05-06 From shore to land: a comparative isotopic study of Neolithic dietary practices in coastal and inland Croatia

Mario Novak^1,2, Valentina Martinoia³, Ivor Janković^1,2, Dinko Tresić Pavičić⁴, Maja Krznarić Škrivanko⁵, Darko Komšo⁶, Dženi Los⁴, Goran Tomac⁷, Dragana Rajković⁸, Michael Richards³

¹ Centre for Applied Bioanthropology, Institute for Anthropological Research, Zagreb, Croatia

² Department of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, Faculty of Humanities, University of Primorska, Koper, Slovenia

³ Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada

⁴ Kaducej Ltd., Split, Croatia

⁵ Municipal Museum Vinkovci, Vinkovci, Croatia

⁶ Archaeological Museum of Istria, Pula, Croatia

⁷ Department of Archaeology, University of Zagreb, Croatia

⁸ Archaeological Museum of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia

The territory of modern-day Croatia, stretching from the Western Balkans to the Adriatic Sea, served as a crucial corridor for the spread of the Neolithic in Europe, with two main expansion streams: a maritime route along the Adriatic coast and a continental route through the Central Balkans and the Pannonian Plain following major river courses. The adaptation of farming practices to local climatic and cultural conditions in these regions gave rise to distinct cultural traditions between inland and coastal areas in the territory of modern-day Croatia. Despite the significance of this region, very few studies have systematically investigated the dietary practices of humans living in both inland and coastal Croatia areas though the Neolithic, leaving open questions about the continuity or divergence in resource use and subsistence strategies throughout the period.

This study represents one of the largest isotopic analyses of Neolithic populations in Croatia to date, investigating 78 human (adult and subadult) and 46 faunal remains from eight Early, Middle, and Middle/Late Neolithic sites in coastal (Istria) and inland (Osijek-Baranja and Vukovar-Syrmia counties) areas of Croatia through  13C,  15N, and  34S isotope analyses. Our results show no significant differences in human subsistence strategies across the Neolithic or between coastal and inland sites, with diet primarily based on the consumption of C3 plants and domesticates (cattle, pigs, ovicaprids). Notably, ovicaprids exhibit higher  15N isotope values than other herbivores throughout the entire Neolithic, potentially reflecting distinct feeding practices–such as the use of manure for fertilizing crops or pastures–or specific husbandry practices or cultural traditions associated with their management.

This study provides new, important insights into the dietary patterns of Neolithic populations in Croatia, allowing for an improved understanding of how the Neolithic was adopted and adapted in this region and contributing to broader discussions on the spread of Neolithic agricultural practices across Southeastern Europe.

 

05-07 Animal husbandry practices in Southeast Europe: New zooarchaeological and stable isotope ratio insights from Early Neolithic Svinjarička Čuka, Serbia

Magdalena Blanz^1,2, Danica Grujić³, Günther Grabner², Barbara Horejs¹

 ¹ Austrian Archaeological Institute, Austrian Academy of Science, Austria

² Vienna Institute for Archaeological Science, University of Vienna, Austria

³ Institute of Archaeology, Belgrade, Serbia

With the spread of farming communities into Southeast Europe (Balkan peninsula), livestock species domesticated in Southwest Asia were introduced to a diverse array of environments beyond their natural range. This necessitated significant adaptations by both farmers and animals. Zooarchaeological studies have shown changes in species composition of the animals kept by the earliest farmers, which were likely (at least in part) influenced by environmental differences. Stable isotope ratio studies have additionally revealed dietary adaptations in the nutrition of domestic livestock as wide-ranging as forest-grazing, winter-foddering, and deliberate feeding of pigs with human food waste, also giving information as to how animals may have been kept.

The initial Neolithic in Southeast Europe was a period of complex socio-economic change, with diverse developmental trajectories that require further research. In the centre of this region, the early settlement of Svinjarička Čuka (Serbia), where first excavations started in 2018, can offer new insights into the early neolithisation process. In the Early Neolithic faunal assemblage excavated so far, 91% of the remains were of domestic animals. Caprines (sheep and goats) and cattle dominate the material, whereas pigs and dogs are much less common. Bone collagen from 68 domesticated and wild animal bones from Svinjarička Čuka were analysed for stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios. These results will be set into the larger context of Early Neolithic husbandry at other pioneer sites in Southeast Europe, including the Starčevo and Körös sites Alsónyék, Ecsegfalva, Endrőd 119, Lánycsók-Égetthalom (all in Hungary), and Măgura – Boldul lui Moş Ivčnus (Romania).

 

05-08 The exploitation of animal resources by the first Neolithic human communities in Dobrogea (6th millennium BC)

Adrian Bălășescu¹, Valentina Voinea², Valentin Radu³

 ¹ Vasile Pârvan Institute of Archaeology of the Romanian Academy, Romania

² The National History and Archaeology Museum of Constanta, Romania

³ University of Bucharest/ National History Museum of Romania, Romania

Recent archaeological research conducted in 2021 at Palazu Mare (Constanța County) on the promontory of Malu Alb, located northwest of the Black Sea, led to the discovery, for the first time in the territory of Dobrogea (Romania), of a Neolithic cultural facies (6th millennium BC) unknown for this area, named by the authors of the discovery Prehamangia. The data obtained after radiocarbon analyses (14C) suggest that this cultural aspect can be dated between 5700-5400 cal BC, before the Hamangia culture.

Based on the study of more than 12,000 bone remains from five unique archaeological complexes (C18, C19, C20, C21, C55), the main features of the animal paleoeconomy, of the first Neolithic human communities settled in the territory of Dobrogea, have been highlighted. The data indicates that the activity of animal breeding, especially cattle and caprins (sheep and goat), is predominant, with the pig having a minimal role in subsistence strategies. The study of the slaughter ages’ pattern of domestic animals (cattle and caprins) suggests specific purposes for which these animals were raised.

Despite identifying a large list of wild mammals (15 species), the share of hunting was extremely low, less than 5%. The most hunted species were the hemione and the red deer. As for aquatic resources (freshwater fish and bivalves), there is a low interest.

This work was supported by a grant of the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research, CNCS – UEFISCDI, project number PN-IV-P1-PCE-2023-1547 (ExLiDo).

 

05-09 Where the Wild Things Are: Reassessing Late Neolithic Socio-Cultural Variation on the Great Hungarian Plain through Isotopic Analyses

Emily Zavodny¹, Cassie Hausdorf¹, Victoria Nuccio², János Dani³, Danielle J. Riebe⁴

 ¹ Department of Anthropology, University of Central Florida, USA

² HNTB Corporation, Atlanta, GA, USA

³ Department of Archaeology, University of Szeged, Hungary

⁴ Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, USA

Archaeological interpretations established in the early 20th century continue to underpin our understanding of the development of Late Neolithic (ca. 5,000-4,500 BCE) cultures on the Great Hungarian Plain. For instance, the Tisza and Herpály archaeological cultures have traditionally been differentiated based on several cultural distinctions, including the supposed reliance on domesticated (Tisza) versus wild (Herpály) animals. However, this distinction is based on excavations of numerous Tisza tell sites and only a limited number of Herpály sites. Moreover, very little data from off-tell settlements of either culture have been generated. Recent intensive archaeological investigations at the Herpály site of Csökmő-Káposztás-domb (CsK) by the Prehistoric Interactions on the Plain Project (PIPP) offer a unique opportunity to study dietary trends and subsistence strategy across an entire tell-centered settlement. Here we present new results from stable isotope carbon and nitrogen analyses of cattle, pig, and deer bone to reassess the use of “wild” versus “domesticated” species at CsK. Our findings test long-standing assumptions about Late Neolithic cultures on the Great Hungarian Plain and help us to better characterize human-animal dynamics during this time.

 

05-10 Neolithic maritime dispersals in comparative perspective

Mark Hudson¹

 ¹ Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Jena, Germany

Maritime networks were a key mechanism for Neolithic farming dispersals in several coastal and island regions, including the Mediterranean, the British Isles, Island Southeast Asia and Japan. While there has been considerable research on these networks individually, comparative approaches are less common. Inland Neolithic dispersals could have been conducted on foot and conceivably at the household level. Maritime networks, by contrast, required more complex planning as well as seafaring technologies. This paper will consider how the maritime/inland difference might have impacted various aspects of Neolithic life, including the scale of production, social connectivity and complexities, and health. A further question is the relationship between Neolithic maritime networks and maritime economies, especially fishing. The paper will explore these questions based on archaeological evidence from the Mediterranean, Island Southeast Asia and Japan.

 

05-11 Crops in the burials from Late Neolithic graves in Anatolia

Salih Kavak¹, Ali Umut Türkcan²

 ¹ Phytotherapy and Medicinal-Aromatic Plants Application and Research Center, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey

² Department of Archaeology, Anadolu University, Eskişehir, Turkey

The archaeobotanical study on the plant remains from graves at Neolithic Period Çatalhöyük and Early Chalcolithic Kanlıtaş Höyük, which is the earliest known human of Central Western Anatolia showed very early applications of buried crops in the graves, which is a well-known application on EBA period burials in Central and Western Anatolia. Although there was not any special study on burial fills, close-up observations on these contexts and fills on these burials showed a wide variety of plant remains, including cereals such as einkorn wheat, emmer wheat, bread wheat and seeds of wild species such as goosefoot and bitter vetch on those burials.

This study implies that during the following centuries in those fully sedentary Agricultural societies at Çatalhöyük in Central Anatolia and Kanlıtaş Höyük at inner western Anatolia plants have played a role in their spiritual life as indicated by the various plant remains found in the grave. Actually, these finds are very important because of the limited archaeobotanical data from excavations in Anatolia, especially from graves, they provide invaluable information about the funerary practices and rituals of early agrarian societies as the earliest benchmark so far. The archaeobotanical analysis of those graves with different crops provides a rare glimpse into the sociocultural structures and belief systems of the region’s earliest inhabitants, contributing to our understanding of the relationship between plants and burial customs in prehistoric Anatolia. The importance of archaeobotanical studies has once again revealed the importance of archaeobotanical studies as it creates an interdisciplinary interaction in better interpretation of the data to be obtained from archaeological sites as well as on other European Prehistoric sites.

 

05-12 New insights on the beginning of the opium poppy domestication in Early Neolithic Europe

Salavert Aurélie¹, Martin Lucie², Zazzo Antoine¹, Baly Isabelle³, Oliveira Hugo⁴, Antolín Ferran⁵

 ¹ Bioarchéologies, Interactions, Sociétés, Environnements (UMR7209: CNRS-MNHN), Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France

² Laboratory of Prehistoric Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Geneva, Switzerland. EDYTEM, UMR 5204, Le Bourget du Lac, France

³ UMS BBEES, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France

⁴ University of Algarve, Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behaviour (ICArEHB), Faro, Portugal

⁵ Natural Sciences Unit, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Berlin, Germany

Although the Neolithic origin of opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) in the Mediterranean region seems to be the consensus today, the scenarios regarding the early stages of its diffusion are still unclear. Key challenges include the small size of opium poppy seeds, which facilitates their movement between archaeological layers on multi-period sites, the lack of radiocarbon dating directly on macroremains, and the absence of morphological criteria to reliably distinguish between wild and domesticated seeds.

In recent years, new approaches have been developed to tackle these questions, supported by ongoing projects funded by the French ANR (CE27-0006-01) and the Portuguese FCT (PTDC/HAR-ARQ/1709/2021), as well as previous initiatives funded by the French Fyssen Foundation and Agrichange project (PP00P1_170515) in Switzerland. These interdisciplinary projects integrate archaeobotany, genetics, geometric morphometric (GMM), radiocarbon dating techniques, and 3D imaging (https://opiumpoppy.hypotheses.org).

In this paper, we share results of an inventory of archaeological attestations of opium poppy in Europe and the Near East, focusing on contexts spanning from 6500 to 50 BCE. This inventory is supported by new radiocarbon dating, which complement previously published chronological data that pinpoint the earliest evidence of opium poppy use in central Italy to the mid-6th millennium BCE.

These studies, grounded in the analysis of archaeological material, are contextualized with recent findings from genetic analyses of modern varieties and GMM applied to both modern and archaeological seeds. The ultimate goal is to shed light on the early domestication process of the opium poppy, which may be the only crop of European origin in the Neolithic period.

 

05-13 Plants and blades: harvesting techniques and diet in the Neolithic of the central-western Balkans

Dragana Filipović¹, Ivana Jovanović², Đurđa Obradović³, Anne de Vareilles⁴

 ¹ Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Jena, Germany

² The British Museum, London, UK

³ Institute of Archaeology, Belgrade, Serbia

⁴ Historic England, Cambridge, UK

Several recent or ongoing research projects have revised and systematised old and generated new information on the lithic technology and plant food consumption among the Neolithic cultural groups in the continental western Balkans. The data point to intra-regional, inter-and intra-cultural, and diachronic variability in the choice and diversity of raw materials and resources. For instance, Early Neolithic groups in the eastern part of the region (eastern Serbia) used a wider range of raw stone materials, mostly non-local, whereas those in the western parts (western Serbia, northern Bosnia-and-Herzegovina) opted for locally available resources. Late Neolithic groups used both local and imported raw materials, but those in the west to a lesser extent, while the choice of materials differed between the groups in north and in the south. Early Neolithic groups in the south cultivated a wider range of crops than those in the north. Late Neolithic groups in the west relied on a narrower spectrum of cultivars than those in the east, but maintained high rate of exploitation of wild edible plants. These findings suggest differentiated economic behaviour and dietary habits within the region, within and across postulated boundaries of the cultural groups. We superimpose and compare patterns of differentiation in the lithic and archaeobotanical records. Specifically, we examine morphology and raw material of the blades potentially serving as harvesting tools (i.e. bearing silica gloss) alongside morphological and biological characteristics of cereals and weeds. We discuss ‘purity’ of Neolithic harvests and possible variations in human and animal diets within the region.

 

05-14 Valued wild: non-cultivated edible plants across the Neolithic Balkans

Đurđa Obradović¹, Hanna Aleksandrova², Mihaela Golea³, Amalia Sabanov⁴, Dragana Filipović⁵

 ¹ Institute of Archaeology, Belgrade, Serbia

² National Archaeological Institute and Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Science, Sofia, Bulgaria

³ Vasile Pârvan Institute of Archaeology, the Romanian Academy

⁴ Laboratory for Bioarchaeology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia

⁵ Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Germany

What usually prompts increased archaeobotanical attention are finds of greater quantities of the remains of potentially useful wild plants – in the form of discrete concentrations in occupation layers or in features and objects such as bins and ceramic pots. But single, isolated finds are much more frequent, however no less valuable, as they also contribute to our knowledge of the breadth of wild resources used by humans, both before and after the introduction of agriculture. Compared to crops, wild plant foods have received little attention in the research on early farming communities in the Balkans. This is mainly due to their far lower representation in archaeological layers and also the prevailing interest in reconstructing the route and pace of spread of south-west Asian ‘founder crops’ into and through Europe. This paper shifts the focus of predominantly crop-centred Neolithic archaeobotany to wild plant food sources, their diversity and potential dietary importance. A wide array of wild edible plants, such as common hazel (Corylus avellana), Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas), elderberry (Sambucus nigra), blackberry (Rubus idaeus), water chestnut (Trapa natans), sloe (Prunus spinosa), pear (Pyrus pyraster), apple (Malus sylvestris), wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca) have been in use in all corners of the Balkans throughout the Neolithic but also in the earlier and later periods. The paper presents the type and context of the finds of wild plants and argues that these remains serve as a testimony of the value placed on wild resources in the past and the long history of their use.

 

05-15 Tracing Early Farming Practices in Neolithic Croatia Through Isotopic Analysis of Cereal Remains

Kelly Reed¹, Sarah McClure², Emil Podrug³,

 ¹ Oxford Brookes University, UK

² Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

³ Šibenik City Museum, Croatia

Over the past two decades, stable carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) isotope analysis of charred plant remains has become a key method for reconstructing prehistoric agricultural practices. This paper presents the first isotopic study of Neolithic cereal remains from Croatia, focusing on five sites in northern Dalmatia—Pokrovnik, Rašinovac, Danilo-Bitinj, Krivače, and Velištak. Through analysis of charred barley and emmer grains, we explore variations in crop water status and manuring intensity to assess early cultivation strategies. The results indicate the use of small, possibly permanent plots with differing inputs of organic fertilizer, aligning with broader patterns observed across Neolithic Europe. Despite limitations in the archaeobotanical record, evidence of diverse crop cultivation and shifting animal husbandry practices suggests a complex and adaptable agricultural system that sheds new light on Neolithic land use in the karst landscapes of the Adriatic and southeastern Europe.

 

05-16 In with the new: Plant foodstuffs in an early Neolithic village in southeastern Serbia

Dragana Filipović¹, Max Luger², Andreas Heiss³, Dragana Perovanović, Barbara Horejs³

 ¹ Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Jena, Germany

² University of Vienna, Austria

³ Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria

Archaeobotanical traces of earliest farming communities in much of Serbia are scarce, and this is a result of both the intensity of exploration and the likelihood of plant materials to undergo charring – the major route to archaeological preservation here. Unlike many of the later Neolithic settlements in the region, which were larger, with wattle-and-daub houses that, along with their contents, were commonly destroyed in large-scale burning, early Neolithic occupations were small, composed mainly of semi-subterranean or light above-ground structures (huts) and offering little evidence of burning and charring and thus plant use. Nevertheless, systematic sampling and analysis at some of the sites provided solid, if limited, evidence of production, collection and consumption of plants. The early farming village of Svinjarička Čuka in southeastern Serbia is a prominent example. Looking modest next to the Early Byzantine hilltop town overlooking the entire Leskovac Basin, this site has so far offered a rare and important glimpse of the domesticated and wild plant foodstuffs that sustained what likely was a small group of people residing over several centuries in this resource-rich valley of the central Balkan highlands. Thanks to the ongoing archaeobotanical investigations and meticulous analysis of both the ’light’ and the ’heavy’ fraction of flotation samples, we have documented a surprisingly wide range of plants used for food, fuel, crafts and construction. They include both the ’old’ plants – those used in the wider region from the Early Holocene – and a number of ’new’, including many of the ’founder crops’. This paper introduces the long-term archaeobotanical research at Svinjarička Čuka and presents the increasingly detailed picture of the plant-based subsistence and diet in one of the earliest farming settlements in the central Balkans.

 

05-17 Early Neolithic Farmers of the Middle Morava Valley, Serbia: Evidence of Plant and Animal Exploitation

Ivana Dimitrijević¹, Đurđa Obradović¹

 ¹ Institute of Archaeology, Belgrade, Serbia

The earliest farming communities settled in the Middle Morava Valley around 6200 BC, marking the onset of the Early Neolithic Starčevo culture (c.6200-5300 cal BC). The region was densely occupied, with more than 60 registered settlements, positioned along the tributary valleys of the Morava River. However, only a few have been excavated, providing important opportunities to investigate economic adaptations, especially the poorly understood strategies of agricultural exploitation. In this study, we will focus on bioarchaeological data from two key sites in the region – Drenovac and Međureč (6200-6000 cal BC). Animal remains at both sites are exceptionally well preserved, systematically collected through advanced techniques such as dry and wet sieving, allowing for detailed analysis. Archaeobotanical sampling at Drenovac has yielded a comprehensive dataset, while Međureč has produced only about 50 plant remains due to more limited sampling. By examining the interplay between plant and animal exploitation, this research highlights the diversity of subsistence strategies among some of the earliest farming communities in the Middle Morava Valley. Additionally, it explores food practices, from preparation to discard, providing insights into these communities’ cultural behaviors and their relationship with the environment.

 

05-18 Assembling the Natural: Forests, Ethnobotany, and Socialist Modernization in Montenegro

Ana Bezić¹

 ¹ Faculty of Information Studies in Novo mesto, Slovenia

Information about the role and range of plants relied upon for subsistence in the Neolithic of Montenegro remains scarce, with evidence limited to only a handful of archaeological sites. However, findings elsewhere suggest that Neolithic communities utilized plants not only for subsistence but also for construction, tool-making, and possibly medicinal purposes, underscoring the deep entanglement between humans and their environments. Montenegro’s land of sharp geographical contrasts—encompassing high-altitude mountains, vast plains, deep canyons, and a narrow coastal zone—acts as a microcosm of diverse flora. Despite its small size, nearly half (49%) of the country is forested, sheltering approximately 3,600 species and subspecies of vascular plants, including one of Europe’s last remaining primeval forests. During the socialist modernization of Yugoslavia, its forests played a pivotal role as the backbone of the paper and timber industries. They became essential export commodities, significantly contributing to economic growth in that era. Beyond their industrial significance, Montenegro’s forests remain deeply embedded in local tradition as having medicinal properties, becoming an integral part of daily care and healing practices. By framing forests as “natural archives,” this paper explores them as more than not merely as commodities but as dynamic mediators of cultural memory and ecological adaptation. It interrogates how landscapes and their botanical elements embody the interplay of local traditions, industrial processes, and broader political ideologies. Viewing plant-based subsistence as a convergence of ecological, cultural, and political forces invites a rethinking of its nature and place in the Neolithic.

 

06-01 Approaching the social organization of grinding tools production: a case study from the early Neolithic of the Paris Basin

 Caroline Hamon¹

¹ CNRS, UMR 8215 –Trajectoires, Paris, France

Anthropological studies demonstrate the diversity of organization of grinding tools production, in terms of know-how transmission, gender and specialization within communities. However, it appears generally challenging to identify a precise pattern of production in archaeological contexts. On the basis of a long-term research over 20 sites dating of the Early Neolithic of north-western Europe (LBK and BVSG, 5100-4900 BC), we explored the organization of grinding tools production in the villages. By tracking the main clues of quern production in the domestic units (roughouts, hammerstones, shaping flakes), it is possible 1/ to highlight where the production took place within the village, 2/ to propose some hypothesis regarding the producers’ degree of specialization and 3/ to point a possible evolution of grinding tools production through time.

 

06-02 The Emergence and Development of Polished Stone Tools from Starčevo Culture Sites in Northeastern Croatia

Dragana Rajković¹

¹ Archaeological Museum Osijek, Croatia

Although many parts of northeastern Croatia, with their geographical and topographic characteristics, would have been suitable for settlement during the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods, the lack of research in this region leaves our understanding of pre-Starčevo populations incomplete. As a result, the transition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a food-producing, sedentary way of life remains unclear.
The Starčevo culture emerges in this area as a fully developed Neolithic phenomenon, documented at numerous sites spanning different phases of its existence (c. 6000–5300 BC). This paper focuses on polished stone tools (axes, adzes, and chisels), which first appear in the Sava-Drava interfluve precisely within the context of Starčevo sites. These tools represent a key aspect of Neolithic material culture and reflect broader shifts in survival strategies and lifestyles driven by economic, biological, and climatic changes at the onset of the Neolithic.

Their emergence is primarily linked to increased deforestation, woodworking, and soil cultivation by early farming communities. Through the analysis of stone tools from Starčevo culture sites (Belišće-Staro Valpovo, Stari Perkovci-Debela šuma, Našice-Arenda, and Selci Đakovački-Kaznica Rutak), this study examines the typological and technological diversity of these artifacts in relation to their function. Additionally, it highlights the intentional and systematic selection of raw materials used for their production.

While Starčevo polished stone tools appear highly homogeneous in both morphology and raw material selection, a noticeable shift occurs towards the end of the period (from the Sopot phase), signaling further technological developments.

 

06-03 Metabasite of the Jizera Mountain Type (Czech Republic): an important player in the Neolithisation of temperate Europe

František Trampota¹, Petr Šída², Pavel Burgert¹, Václav Kachlík³, Antonín Přichystal⁴

¹ Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Science, Prague, Czech Republic

² Department of Archaeology, University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

³ Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Czech Republic

⁴ Department of Geological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

The Jizera Mountains-type metabasite was the primary raw material for the production of polished tools across Central Europe during the LBK period. Its outcrops are located on the edge of the Jizera Mountains in northern Bohemia, Czech Republic. This rock was extensively mined and processed into semi-finished products throughout the entire LBK period. The Jistebsko quarry complex, covering approximately 1 square kilometer, exhibits well-preserved evidence of both surface and deep-pit quarrying.

In this paper, we present the latest research on this mining site, including raw material processing and distribution patterns. Since the widespread distribution of tools made from this metabasite in the early Neolithic is not self-evident, we also explore its potential social significance in relation to the establishment of Early Neolithic sites.

 

06-04 Neolithic flint assemblages in transition and transformation: Bulgarian case study

Maria Gurova¹

1 National Institute of Archaeology and Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria

This paper focuses on the Neolithic period in Bulgaria, which featured significant cultural achievements that made the area important in the Early Neolithic oikumene and the Neolithisation of Europe. A general overview of the chipped stone assemblages from Bulgaria during the Neolithic period (6^th millennium BC) is presented. Based on numerous flint assemblages belonging to different phases of the Neolithic (many of which were studied by the author), some general observations on the key features and trends are provided from a diachronic perspective. The Early Neolithic was characterised by distinctive formal toolkits and the uniform use of raw materials (Balkan flint) that served as hallmarks of a major cultural milieu represented regionally by the Karanovo I and II cultures, and supra-regionally by the broader Karanovo I–Starčevo–Kriş–Körös complex. A shift in all aspects of the flint industry occurred around 5500 cal BC. The distribution network of Balkan flint raw material declined, and there emerged chipped stone industries primarily based on local resources and expedient production. Strong evidence of microlithisation – represented both by cores and tools with small dimensions and by the presence of geometric microliths – is clearly reflected in the morphometric parameters and typological repertoire of the flint industry and can be regarded as a diagnostic feature of the Late Neolithic assemblages. This dichotomy provokes challenging questions about the origin of the transformation – its palaeoenvironmental basis has yet to be proven; its social dimensions are equally unclear.

 

06-05 The role of Balkan flint in the neolithisation of the western Balkans

Ivana Jovanović¹

 ¹ The British Museum, UK

This paper studies the role of the Balkan flint exchange networks in the social life of early migrating farmers, and the nature and significance of these contacts in their expansion into new landscapes. Balkan flint was a distinctive trend of the Early Neolithic communities in Southeast Europe, primarily used for making long blades and tools on blades. It is considered a key element of the Neolithic “package”. Its main sources were located along the Meosian Platform in northern Bulgaria.

Artefacts made of Balkan flint occur at most of the Early Neolithic sites in the western Balkans. Recent provenance studies of several geological and archaeological samples from Serbia pointed to Bulgarian sources as a main acquisition zone. To explore the organisation of production and distribution of Balkan flint artefacts across the western Balkans in the Early Neolithic, forty-one lithic assemblages were analysed using the chaîne opératoire method and attribute analysis, and compared using the distribution maps, and exploratory and inferential statistics. The results indicated that the spread of Balkan flint through the western Balkans was a two-step process following two different trajectories. Initially (c.6250-6000 BC), the first farmers brought a small amount of Balkan flint artefacts to the settlements in the southern part of the western Balkans. Once they reached the Danube and the areas north of it (c.6000 BC), the transmission of the complete technological concept of standardised blade production using Balkan flint was achieved.

 

06-06 Just daily business: Long blades from Lin 3 (Albania) in their wider context

Rudenc Ruka¹, Bogdana Milić², Mirco Brunner³, Martin Hinz³, Kristi Anastas³, Ilir Gjipali¹, Adrian Anastasi¹, Albert Hafner³

¹ Institut of Archaeology, Tirana, Albania

² Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas: Barcelona, Spain

³ University of Bern, Switzerland

Albania sits at an important junction regarding the different Neolithic trajectories of southeast Europe. Despite its geographical importance much of its prehistoric record remains undisclosed for the wider scientific circles. The latest work by the Albanian-Swiss EXPLO project at the waterlogged site of Lin 3 has provided new insights into the Neolithic period.

In this context, the lithic assemblage collected during the recent fieldwork at the site has revealed the presence of long blades in highly precise dated contexts. These exceptional artefacts were first examined in detail from multiple angles as individual objects and then within the Lin 3 assemblage, while also considering their technological and contextual attributes in relation to broader lithic trends in Albania.

Until recently, the long blades were considered a special feature of the Eastern Balkans, particularly the Bulgarian region. However, the discoveries at Lin 3 contribute to a growing body of evidence for long blade production in the southern and western Balkans and further afield in Italy. Furthermore, the finds from the southern and western Balkans show a comparably distinct earlier chronology, which calls for a revision of the present interpretation on their origin and spread in southeast Europe. One of the key remaining questions is whether these rare, unusual artefacts have to be considered as prestige object or for the fulfilment of daily tasks? The case of Lin 3 suggests that the latter could have been the norm.

 

06-07 No Single Way Forward: Rethinking Lithic Technological Strategies in the Early Neolithic Balkans

Bogdana Milić^1,2, Michael Brandl²

 ¹ Spanish National Research Council (IMF-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain

² Austrian Archaeological Institute, Austrian Academy of Science, Vienna, Austria

The Neolithic of the Balkans is often characterized by distinct cultural developments in its different parts, each with its own material expressions and traditions. However, when it comes to lithic production, even individual regions do not present a uniform picture. Our recent studies reveal a complex mosaic of lithic production strategies, where communities made highly specific choices regarding raw materials, clearly determined production aims, and technological traditions.

This paper presents first-hand evidence from the Early Neolithic sites across modern-day Serbia, Romania, and Greek Macedonia, alongside a reassessment of data from North Macedonia, to evaluate how lithic technological strategies fit into, or challenge, existing narratives of Neolithic transformation. We explore four key aspects of lithic practices: (1) the scale and intensity of production, (2) raw material selection and procurement strategies, (3) integration into wider exchange networks through materials, ready-made products, or know-how transmission, and (4) the role of lithic traditions in shaping local and regional patterns. These aspects reveal that while some communities adhered to conservative, locally bound production systems, others were more closely engaged with external networks, acquiring raw materials and objects produced elsewhere. However, the impact of these imported elements remains uncertain – did they lead to the adoption of new techniques, or were they simply incorporated into existing technological traditions? Additionally, we consider sites that appear surprisingly disengaged from lithic production, questioning how far lithics were central or marginal to daily life in different Neolithic communities.

By synthesizing new case studies with existing literature, we argue that the Early Neolithic Balkans were not just culturally diverse but technologically fragmented, with multiple, sometimes competing strategies shaping lithic assemblages across the region. This variability forces us to reconsider how we interpret lithic evidence in broader models of Neolithisation, moving beyond simplistic narratives of diffusion or regional homogeneity.

 

06-08 The Social Aspect of Stone Blade Exchange Among the Early Villages in Southeast Europe

Zhaneta Gjyshja¹, Jhon Cruz Quinones¹

 ¹ Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, USA

This paper will examine the social aspect of stone blade exchange among the early villages during the Neolithic period in Southeast Europe. Specifically, it focuses on how these exchanges created and maintained social and economic connections among the neolithic communities.

In our discussion, we will explore indicators of blade production, including tool-making techniques, the types of raw materials used, and the movement of these tools among the villages, specifically the movement of Carpathian obsidian, Balkan flint during the early Neolithic and the so-called soft white flint during the Late Neolithic. For the latter, we propose that the newly discovered site called Lluga in Kosovo, which appears to have functioned as a workshop for stone blade production might have been one of the suppliers of white chert blades to sites along the Morava River.

Furthermore, we will discuss the broader social implications of stone blade exchange. Rather than merely fulfilling a supply-demand need, we will investigate how these exchanges may have contributed to maintaining a social cohesion among the Neolithic villages in the region.

 

06-09 Obsidian economy in Early Neolithic Central Italy: New insights through technological and provenance analysis

 Simone Sani¹, Niccolò Mazzucco¹, Vincenzo Palleschi², Denis Mengoli³, Denis Guilbeau⁴, Marco Serradimigni¹, Anna Maria De Francesco⁵, Lorella Alderighi⁶, Marta Colombo⁷, Juan F. Gibaja⁸, Enrico Maria Giuffré⁹, Mario Mineo¹⁰, Stefano Legnaioli², Carlo Tozzi ¹, Elisabetta Starnini¹

¹ Department of Civilization and Forms of Knowledge, University of Pisa, Italy

² Institute of Chemistry of Organometallic Compounds (ICCOM), Italian National Research Council (CNR) , Italy

³ Istituto Italiano di Paleontologia Umana (IIPU) / Lares s.r.l, Italy

⁴ Archéologie des Sociétés Méditerranéennes (ASM) UMR 5140 CNRS, Université Paul Valéry Montpellier III, Montpellier, France

⁵ Department of Biology, Ecology and Earth Science, University of Calabria, Italy

⁶ Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le province di Pisa e Livorno, Italy

⁷ Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le province di Lucca e Massa Carrara, Italy

⁸ Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain

⁹ Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le province di Siena, Grosseto ed Arezzo, Italy

¹⁰ Museo delle Civiltà, Rome, Italy

Obsidian provides key evidence of socioeconomic transformations occurred in the central Mediterranean during the early stages of Neolithization, marked by an increased circulation of exogenous materials and the rise of specializations that often led to unequal access to distant resources.  Since the beginning of the VI millennium BCE, three main insular obsidian sources (i.e., Lipari, Palmarola, Monte Arci) begin to be exploited in the Central Mediterranean. We present the preliminary results of a research project (CHRONOS) that integrates technological and provenance analyses to explore the modalities of obsidian circulation and its regional and local management.

By examining assemblages from seven Neolithic sites (i.e., Catignano, Colle Cera, Casa Querciolaia, Cala Giovanna, Fornace Cappuccini, La Marmotta, La Scola) through a technological and chaîne opératoire approach, we demonstrate that obsidian was managed differently across sites, reflecting variations in raw material accessibility and the knapping skills involved in its transformation.

Incomplete production sequences indicate that some sites received obsidian as finished products, while others performed locally knapping activities with varying degrees of specialization. These patterns highlight disparities in resource access and the diverse roles of sites within the interaction networks of early farming communities.

 

06-10 Raw materials, territories and technical productions on the Early Neolithic of north-eastern Iberian Peninsula

Xavier Terradas¹

¹ Spanish National Research Council (CSIC – IMF) Barcelona, Spain

Throughout Pleistocene times in north-eastern Iberia, Palaeolithic communities developed economic practices aimed at procuring raw materials for the production of their lithic tools. These dynamics were perpetuated in such a way that some sources of siliceous rocks were recurrently exploited by these societies for millennia.

With the arrival of the first Neolithic communities in the area and the establishment of a new way of subsistence, we might expect a change in the dynamics of raw material supply or a reformulation of these dynamics through interaction with the last groups of hunter-gatherers.

However, the population gap in this area during the Late Mesolithic meant that the Neolithic groups had to explore all these territories in search of the most suitable raw materials for their technical requirements, resulting in an adaptation based on a mixed model. On the one hand, some raw materials that were almost unheard of in previous chronologies were exploited for the first time, such as Montjuïc jasper from Barcelona. This material was widely used during the Early Neolithic, especially in the Cardial Neolithic. At the same time, and probably as a result of contacts with other Neolithic groups established in neighbouring territories that had adapted to pre-Neolithic traditions, the exploitation of certain raw materials whose diffusion seemed to have been interrupted during the Mesolithic period was restarted. We will review these dynamics within the framework of the technical skills inherent to the Neolithic economy, observing how the exchange networks represent a reinforcement of the Neolithic socio-economic structures.

 

06-11 Growing bigger: the Early Neolithic flintmining activities at the Casa Montero-Los Cerros mining complex (Madrid, Spain) (6th mill cal ane)

Nuria Castañeda¹; Fernando Tapias ² Beatriz Ugarte², Cristina Cabrera², Raúl Márquez², Santiago Clemente², Carmen Valenciano², José Polo².

 ¹ Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain

² Arquex, S.L., Spain

Flint mines are scarce, but they offer an unique information from the socio-economic point of view. Included in the urbanistic actuations for the so-called Southeast Madrid Development, Los Cerros is a huge extension of 470 ha where abundance of flint and extractive activities are known during centuries. The Los Cerros archaeological interventions imply collaboration between partners. We would like to highlight the importance of the synergy between a private company and the public University that allows the transfer of knowledge from research to economic activity. It is also the place where 20 years ago Casa Montero Neolithic flint mine was discovered. Preventive archaeological works at Los Cerros (Madrid) have brought to light new flint mining areas 1.5 km distant from Casa Montero. Although there is scarce evidence from other chronological periods, the most important mining activity of this site is dated in Early Neolithic (6^th mill cal ane). This work presents the preliminary results of the first archaeological interventions in this site. Most of the mining structures are vertical shafts analogue to those from Casa Montero. Nevertheless, different mining extraction methods have been recorded.

 

06-12 Trypillian Rhomboid Points: a Mesolithic Heritage or a Neolithic innovation?

Dmytro Kiosak¹

 ¹ Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie, Germany

The Early Trypillian expansion (47-45 centuries BCE) rapidly covered the expanses of Moldova and Central Ukraine. It was accompanied by the spread of a special type of projectiles – rhomboid points. This geometric microlith is formed by oblique truncation with a micro-burin facet at one end and subparallel truncation with abrupt retouch at the other end of a bladelet. These products are known in large series (up to several dozen from one complex) from Early Trypillian settlements of virtually their entire range. The fact that such an expressive type of microlith was not recognised in time once again points to the demonstrative neglect of the examination of flint tools during studies of the ‘ceramic’ periods. Such rhomboids are also known from the sites of ceramic fishers-hunters-gatherers. But are they a contribution of the latter to the Early Trypillian toolkit? Or, on the contrary, is it the early Trypillian industry that is the source of their distribution outside the classical early agricultural settlements?

 

06-13 Technological and functional news from Adige Valley between late Mesolithic and early Neolithic

Fabio Santaniello¹, Giulia Deimichei^1,2, Juan F. Gibaja³, Silvia Amicone^2,4, Niccolo Mazzucco⁵, Maurizio Zambaldi^1,6, Annaluisa Pedrotti¹

 ¹ Laboratorio Bagolini: Archeologia, Archeometria e Fotografia (LaBAAF), Università di Trento, Italy

² Archaeometry Research Group, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Germany

³ Institució Milà i Fontanals (IMF-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain

⁴ Institute of Archaeology, University College London, UK

⁵ Università di Pisa, Italy

⁶ UNIARQ – Centre for Archaeology, School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon, Alameda da Universidade, Portugal

The transition from the last Mesolithic hunter-gatherer groups to the first Neolithic communities represents a significant change in the relationship between humankind and the environment, which is mirrored in many technical and productive variations. However, it is nowadays a shared idea that these changes did not take place in the same way everywhere; on the contrary, in different areas of Europe this transition occurred at different times with specificities linked to climatic-environmental differences and intercultural interactions. In this regard, the Adige Valley represents a peculiar case study; in fact, it is a structurally well-determined territory in which the transition is documented in various archaeological sites, which represent the reference stratigraphies of this period in the Italian Alpine area.

In this research we present a comparison of two sites documenting the transition between the Mesolithic and Neolithic, both located in the Adige Valley in Trento province, and situated a few kilometres from each other: the Gaban rock-shelter (left side of the Adige river, ~270m above sea level and ~80m above the valley floor) and the open-air site of La Vela VII (right side of the Adige river, ~190m above sea level and ~10m above the valley floor). Starting from a re-examination of the stratigraphic context, new technological and functional data from the lithic and pottery industries allow us to expand the discussion on cultural and behavioural changes during the Neolithisation process. In the lithic industries, we highlight continuities linked to subsistence activities and some adaptations and/or changes in the production processes. The appearance of pottery represents an innovation, and its production by different raw materials throughout the early Neolithic attests a wide and increasing knowledge of the surrounding geological sources by the communities who inhabited the valley. Lastly, the comparison of the two sites’ locations, between the Adige valley floor and the piedmont area, with the new data here presented allows us to discuss both the territorial exploitation strategies on regional scale and the wider chrono-cultural context of north-eastern Italy.

 

06-14 Living in the LBK Village of Těšetice-Kyjovice (Czech Republic): A Multi-Proxy Approach to Socio-Technical Organization

Solène Denis¹, Pierre Allard¹, Louise Gomart², Caroline Hamon², Branko Hossa³, Bibiana Hromadova⁴, Johana Malíšková³, Jaroslav Novotný³, Pavel Tomek³, Peter Tóth³

¹ CNRS, UMR 8068 TEMPS, Nanterre, France

² CNRS, UMR 8215 Trajectoires, Paris, France

³ Department of Archaeology and Museology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

⁴ UMR 5199 PACEA, Université de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France

The Early Neolithic site of Těšetice-Kyjovice, located in South Moravia (Czech Republic), reveals a remarkable LBK (Linearbandkeramik) village comprising approximately 100 houses. Long-term excavations conducted by Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Republic) have uncovered 23 of these houses, offering a unique opportunity to investigate the socio-technical dynamics of this community. As part of a French-Czech collaborative research project (IEA TKLit, CNRS, 2022–2024), we have resumed an integrative study of the archaeological material, enhanced by new technological insights.

Our analysis focuses on a multi-proxy approach, examining lithic and macrolithic tools, osseous artefacts, pottery styles, and ceramic production technologies. By synthesizing these datasets, we aim to identify the socio-technical identities of the village’s households. Specifically, we investigate whether the housing units display homogeneity or diversity in their material culture and technological practices. In our presentation, we will consider whether these households are functionally self-contained or if they reflect interdependence and cooperation within the broader community.

Through comparative analysis, we will explore patterns of similarity and divergence across different material categories, shedding light on how socio-technical organization shaped daily life in this LBK village. The cross-material perspective we employ not only reconstructs the socio-economic networks within Těšetice-Kyjovice but also situates this community within broader discussions of the first farmer’s settlement organization in Central Europe. Ultimately, our findings will contribute to refining existing models of LBK socio-technical systems, offering new insights into the complexities of LBK household and community interactions.

 

06-15 Innovations in the Early Neolithic bone technology: the case study of Nova Nadezhda (eastern Bulgaria)

Selena Vitezović¹, Krum Bacvarov², Georgi Katsarov², Nikolina Nikolova², Atanas Tsurev²

¹ Institute of Archaeology, Belgrade, Serbia

² National Institute of Archaeology & Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria

Changes in subsistence economy that were introduced with the Neolithic way of life, also included and influenced major changes in technology. Some technologies were introduced for the first time, such as ceramic technology, while others, such as lithic or bone technologies, that had been rather important in earlier periods, were now adapted to major changes in everyday lives. The Early Neolithic bone technology in some areas  of southeastern Europe shows certain traits that may be characterised as the Mesolithic traditions, but also includes some major changes, related to the new lifestyles, changes in economy and everyday activities – bones from domestic animals now became the major raw materials, diverse tools for small crafts, for agricultural activities, etc., are now predominant, while hunting implements decreased. Among these innovations, some may be characterised as influence from Southwest Asia – in particular, the appearance of spatula-spoons, carefully crafted from Bos metapodial bones; tools from sheep/goat tibiae; specific ornaments produced from long bones, etc. While some of these Southwest Asian objects were adopted without changes, others were locally adapted and modified. This presentation will discuss the Southwest Asian influence as demonstrated in the bone industry of Nova Nadezhda, an early sixth millennium BC site in Upper Thrace (southeastern Bulgaria) that has been investigated since 2013.

 

06-16 Palaeoproteomic approaches to the study of Neolithic bone tool industries; the case of Svinjarička Čuka (Serbia)

Anastasia Papadogianni¹, Katerina Douka^1,2, Danica Grujić³, David Blattner⁴, Barbara Horejs^2,4

¹ Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, Austria

² Human Evolution and Archaeological Sciences (HEAS) Research Network, Vienna, Austria

³ Institute of Archaeology, Belgrade, Serbia

⁴ Austrian Archaeological Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW), Vienna, Austria

Post-depositional fragmentation and anthropogenic modifications often present challenges to the study of bone artifacts. One of the main obstacles is that these factors hinder the taxonomic determination of the raw material used. Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS), or collagen peptide mass fingerprinting, provides an effective and quick solution for assigning robust taxonomic identifications at the family, genus, and even species, level to highly fragmented or modified unidentified osseous materials. This innovative approach complements and refines the research findings of traditional zooarchaeological approaches.

In this study, we explore the potential of non-invasive or minimally destructive ZooMS techniques to investigate the Neolithic bone tool industry from Svinjarička Čuka in southern Serbia, a key site in the Morava River valley. Using ZooMS, we provide taxonomic identifications for a selected assemblage of Neolithic unidentifiable bone tools and a unique figurine recovered in the Starčevo-Neolithic settlement. Our approach will contribute to the understanding of the Neolithic bone tool production processes in the region, shedding light on raw material selection and manufacture strategies, as well as culturally mediated practices associated with the bone tool industries in the early to middle Neolithic times. On a broader level, the results will shed light on resource management and human-environment interactions during the early stages of Neolithisation in the region and its spread across the Balkans.

 

06-17 Bone industry from the site of Ždrilo (Croatia): preliminary results of the technological and use wear analyses

Tomislav Ivančić, Selena Vitezović, Leo Arbutina², Mario Bodružić², Dario Vujević²

¹ Institute of Archaeology, Belgrade, Serbia

² Department of archaeology, University of Zadar, Zadar

Animal skeletal elements were widely used as raw materials in the Early Neolithic in the Adriatic area, however, they are still insufficiently studied. Recent excavations at the cave site of Ždrilo near Rovanjska (Croatia) yielded a small assemblage of osseous items, that provided the basis for the technological and use wear analyses. Ždrilo is a complex speleological structure, located on the eastern side of Novigradsko ždrilo, a sea strait that connects Novigradsko more in the south with Velebitski kanal in the north. The traces of the occupation from the Early Neolithic period were discovered in the 20th century in this cave, and recent renewed excavations revealed traces from the Palaeolithic period as well. From the excavation campaign carried out in 2023, among other findings, a small assemblage of osseous tools was discovered. In this paper will be presented their technological and typological traits. Furthermore, a series of experiments was conducted to test the hypotheses on their possible modes of use, that suggest they were used for processing various organic materials, but also possible use on clay, i.e., for pottery production.

 

06-18 Taxonomic selection strategies in the production of Early Neolithic bone objects, NE Iberian Peninsula

 Jakob Hansen^1,2, Krista McGrath^1,3, José María Rodanés Vicente⁴, Pilar Utrilla⁴, Ragnheiður Diljá Ásmundsdóttir², Mar Martínez Miralles¹, Max Ramsøe², Martha Munoz Alegre⁵, Tina Ravnsborg⁶, Ole Nørregaard Jensen⁶, Dídac Román Monroig⁷, Gustavo Aguilella⁸, Mònica Olivia Poveda⁹, Miriam de Diego¹⁰, Raquel Piqué¹, Ignacio Clemente Conte¹¹, Frido Welker², Maria Saña Seguí¹

¹ Departament de Prehistòria, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain

² Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

³ Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB), Universitat Autònoma de ^Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain

⁴ Departamento de Ciencias de la Antigüedad, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

⁵ Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

⁶ Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

⁷ Departament d’Història, Geografia i Art, University Jaume I, Castelló de la Plana, Spain

⁸ Servicio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas y Prehistóricas de la Diputación de Castellón, Castelló de la Plana, Spain

⁹ Departament de Cultura, Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

¹⁰ Departament de Prehistòria, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain

¹¹ Departamento de Arqueología y Antropología, Institución Milá y Fontanals de Estudios en Humanidades, del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Barcelona, Spain

Taxonomic identifications of bone objects, notably through Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) and minimally invasive sampling methods, have especially in the past 10 years enhanced our understanding of prehistoric bone object manufacture. This study expands on previous research by analysing around 700 bone objects, from which over 400 were successfully taxonomically determined through ZooMS and morphological measures, from four Early Neolithic contexts, and two Late Upper Palaeolithic sites as outliers, located in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula. Additionally, non-worked bones representing different fragmentary states from the respective sites, both assessed morphologically (data from previous studies) and by ZooMS (from this study, have been included in order to establish a faunal baseline. Ultimately, this research aimed to elucidate the taxonomic selection strategies employed in bone object production on a spatiotemporal scale. It was found that local factors such as resource availability, ecological conditions, and cultural preferences played significant roles in the selection strategies involved in bone object production. Despite changes in subsistence practices from the Magdelenian to the Early Neolithic, the persistent use of Cervidae in various bone object types suggests its ongoing importance. This variability, along with the fluctuating use of taxa like Caprinae and Bos sp. during the Early Neolithic, points to a complex relationship between resource availability, the physical properties of animals’ skeletal elements, and cultural norms shaped by the specific contexts of each site and the broader prehistoric landscape.

 

06-19 The development of the bone industry in the Neolithic — Eneolithic of the Middle Don river

 Malyutina Anna¹, Skorobogatov Andrey¹

¹ Institute for the history of material culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Federation

Comprehensive archaeological research of Neolithic and Eneolithic sites on the Middle Don river began in the second half of the 60s of the XX century. At the moment, 20 sites are known, two of them are funerary. Artefacts made of solid organic materials have been preserved on 6 of them. The focus of the report will be on the traceological analysis of bone and antler items from two settlements: Cherkasskaya-5 (Early Neolithic; 1/4-VI mill. BC) and Cherkasskaya-3 (Neolithic-Eneolithic; VI-IV mill. BC). Absolute dating and ceramic material from Cherkasskaya-5 show the proximity of Early Neolithic sites from the Lower Volga (Northern Caspian Region), where tools made of bone and antler were assigned a specific functional niche: the use of bone points for knitting and weaving from plant materials, the creation of ceramic vessels, processing hides and house building. At the same time, hunting and fishing gear was not made from bone and antler, and the presence of a large number of chalk sinkers at the Cherkesskaya-5 site indicates net fishing (direct date for organic strapping from the sinker is 6987±28 BP, or 5980-5778 cal BC (SUERC-86147)). Later, during the Middle to Late Neolithic period, the transition to the Eneolithic, bone manufacturing traditions changed. This is probably due to the increasing complexity of production in crops where a productive economy (cattle breeding) is beginning to develop. Previous evidence of net fishing (sinkers made of stone) has not been found, but specific hunting and fishing tools (harpoon and spear heads, fish hooks), jewelry sets made of boar tusks and items made of tubular bird bones are beginning to accompany status burials. Along with changes in the economic orientation of the population, social relations are also changing, as can be seen from the materials of the underground burial grounds. From the 2/4-V mill. BC, bones of small cattle appeared in settlements (Cherkasskaya-3, middle layer) and metal ornaments in burial grounds (Blue Krynitsa), which marks the beginning of a new archaeological era – the Eneolithic.

 

 06-20 Stone, clay or earth: Technological choice and Early Neolithic ovens from the site of Lepenski Vir

Ana Đuričić¹

 ¹ Laboratory for Bioarchaeology, Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia

 Even though the Early Neolithic material at the site of Lepenski Vir shows characteristics of the Starčevo culture, there are certain significant elements which are atypical for the Early Neolithic communities of the Central Balkans. One of the atypical elements are the ovens. In the Early Neolithic layers at the site of Lepenski Vir, a total of five ovens inside pit-dwellings were found. Nevertheless, three different types can be distinguished – a dug-in oven, a free-standing oven with floor and dome parts made of stone slabs, and a free-standing oven with stone slab foundation under the clay floor and a dome of an unknown material. The use of stone as a material for the construction of ovens, is yet unknown in the Early Neolithic of the Central Balkans. In the Starčevo culture, ovens were usually features dug into the side of pit-dwellings and not free-standing fire installations, yet only one out of the five ovens from Lepenski Vir showed those characteristics. Therefore, at the site of Lepenski Vir we can see, not only different types of ovens, but also different materials and building techniques used in their construction. The aim of this presentation is to explore functional, social and economic factors that influenced technological choices regarding the ovens at the site of Lepenski Vir.

 

06-21 Exploitation, Identification and circulation of Gargano chert in the Adriatic region during the Neolithic

Italo M. Muntoni¹, Giacomo Eramo², Philippe Della Casa³

¹ Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per le Province di Barletta-Andria-Trani e

Foggia, Italy

² Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geoambientali, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, Italy

³ Department of Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology section, University of Zurich, Switzerland

The Gargano Promontory (Apulia) is characterised by an important mining network exploited from the Early Neolithic through the Early Bronze Age. The presence of high-quality chert exploited over three millennia has led researchers to underline the fundamental role of the Gargano chert supply in the central-northern Mediterranean. Primary and secondary chert sources are available on both sides of the central Adriatic Sea. Recent petrographic and geochemical characterisation of the chert mines of the Gargano Promontory and the nodules of Middle Dalmatia shows that they are well-distinguishable and gives a reference database for circulation studies. Dalmatian artefacts from five Neolithic contexts have been analysed and sourced. To date, it has been determined that many Dalmatian artefacts were made from Gargano chert, suggesting the regional importance of the mining complex of this area. The archaeological assumption is therefore that there were potential routes across the Adriatic making use of a series of stopovers on some of the islands or small archipelagos situated on both sides of the sea (Tremiti, Pianosa, Palagruža, Sušac and Korčula). This is evidenced in particular by Gargano chert blanks and tools from several sites on Sušac. Whilst the identification of single mines on the Gargano Promontory has become possible using a multi-factor analytical protocol, the various steps of production, distribution and consumption are still poorly understood. Blanks and preforms, in chronologically distinct shapes, are known from sites close to the mines and are believed to form the backbone of the distribution processes, as they also appear in consumer sites. However, the contact and distribution networks, as well as the cultural and techno-economic realities in action (organisation of mining, transport, navigation, exchange systems, dependencies…), are complex topics and subjects of intense investigations. The paper aims to present some of the current debates and models.

 

06-22 Diverging and converging traditions: Identifying early Neolithic communication networks in Thrace through pottery analysis

Atanas Tsurev¹

¹ National Institute of Archaeology and Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria

This presentation examines the intricate communication networks and physical and cultural interactions among early Neolithic communities inhabiting Thrace in the first half of the 6^th millennium BC, as reflected in two key ceramic categories: the red-slipped and often white-painted pottery, and the dark burnished pottery.

The analysis highlights distinct preferences and morphological features, identifying at least two groups within the red-slip ceramic category which might belong to two distinct local communication networks within the region. These groups illustrate the movement of cultural and technological traditions along established communication routes, facilitating the exchange of ideas and materials.

The presentation also revisits the role of dark burnished pottery, recognized as a chronological marker for some Neolithic settlements in Thrace. Evidence indicates that in certain settlements in Upper Thrace, this pottery appeared earlier and in larger quantities than previously assumed. Its prominence alongside red-slipped and white-painted pottery suggests an active exchange of technological know-how and perhaps even materials across interconnected communities.

The middle and lower reaches of the Maritsa River and its watershed are identified as key contact zones where two distinct ceramic traditions converged. These regions acted as hubs within broader communication networks, facilitating the interaction and integration of traditions moving from different directions into the heart of Thrace. This dynamic interplay highlights the pivotal role of communication networks in shaping early Neolithic ceramic production and cultural landscapes.

 

06-23 Early Neolithic colour palettes decoded by painted pottery analysis: examples from the Eastern Balkans

 Tanya Dzhanfezova¹

 ¹ St Cyril and St Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria

Variation within methods of emerging Balkan pottery production in the Early Neolithic was much greater than previously assumed, and clearly demonstrates dynamic local developments in the newly developed craft. The main technological components, including specific colouring agents used for surface treatment and decoration of the vessels, encode intentional acts in the process of pottery making, as well as highlighting essential aspects of procurement strategies and use of raw materials.

This paper explores the beginnings and developments of production of the typical, chronologically sensitive, locally specific and visually effective painted ceramic vessels from Early Neolithic settlements of key importance, located in the region of the Eastern Balkans, and present-day Bulgaria in particular. The main focus is on an essential technological component closely associated with the very beginning of pottery production at several Early Neolithic sites (end of 7^th-beginning of 6^th mill BC) in North and South Bulgaria.

These components are considered within the broader context of Neolithization since, particularly within the ceramic technology domain, the continuation of traditional practices and the gradual development of innovation strategies are both indicative of the modes of adaptation and the range of creativity of certain Neolithic communities.

 

06-24 A closer look – Petrographic analysis on the early neolithic ceramic of the site Movila lui Deciov

Thorben Michel Eulenberg¹, Silvia Amicone^1,2, Raiko Krauß¹

¹ Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Institute of Prehistory, Early History and Medieval Archaeology, Germany

² University College London, Institute of Archaeology, UK

This presentation investigates the technological development of ceramic production at the early Neolithic site of Movila lui Deciov through an interdisciplinary approach. The site is located in the Banat region of Romania, near the town of Dudeștii Vechi, and dates to the 6th millennium cal. BC. The primary objective of this research is to examine technological advancements and potential adaptations in ceramic production during the site’s occupation, with particular focus on differences between Phase 1 (~5760-5740 cal. BC.) and Phase 2 (~5710-5620 cal. BC.), which represent the earliest phases of habitation.

The ceramic assemblage was first subjected to macroscopic analysis to identify macro traces related to crafting techniques. This was further complemented by petrographic analysis of 51 ceramic samples, representing a broad spectrum of vessel types from both occupation phases. Additionally, a small number of geological samples were collected for comparative analysis.

This study seeks to provide a comprehensive understanding of ceramic diversity and its technological evolution at Movila lui Deciov, contextualising these findings within the broader archaeological framework of the site and the early Neolithic period in the Banat region.

 

06-25 Breaking Ground: Insights into Dobrogea’s Earliest Neolithic Site through Ceramic Technology

 Vasile Opriș^1,2, Valentina Voinea³, Adrian Irimia³, Dragoș Mirea^1,4

¹ Bucharest Municipality Museum, Romania

² Research Institute of the University of Bucharest (ICUB), Archaeosciences Platform, Romania

³ National Museum of History and Archaeology Constanța, Romania

⁴ Horia Hulubei National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Romania

 Recent archaeological investigations at the Palazu Mare-Malu Alb site in Constanța County, Romania, have revealed transformative insights into the earliest Neolithic communities along the western Black Sea coast. These findings challenge prior assumptions and highlight the distinctiveness of the early inhabitants’ cultural and technological practices. The identified “Pre-Hamangia culture” marks the initial occupation of the plateau, preceding the Hamangia culture, known for its Middle and Late Neolithic presence in the region.

A detailed analysis of the ceramic assemblage sheds light on the technological and typological traditions of these communities, spanning approximately 300–400 years during the latter half of the 6th millennium BC. This study reveals a lack of direct continuity between the Pre-Hamangia and Hamangia cultural groups, despite some shared manufacturing techniques that reflect broader Neolithic traditions rather than specific cultural ties.

However, significant technological distinctions were observed, including differences in clay sources, tempering agents, surface treatment, and firing techniques. Typological variation further supports the cultural separation, with divergent vessel forms and decorations. The Pre-Hamangia ceramics exhibit strong southern influences, aligning with the broader dark-colored wares cultural groups, but also with influences from Karanovo III tradition and late impressed ware horizon. In contrast, Hamangia ceramics reveal technological connections to continental Neolithic traditions from the northern Balkans.

These findings underscore the dynamic nature of cultural interactions and technological exchanges during the Neolithic in southeastern Europe, providing new perspectives on the complexities of early human settlement along the western Black Sea coast.

 

06-26 Origins and spread of impressed ceramics in the Balkan Peninsula

Jean-Paul Demoule¹

¹ Institut Universitaire de France & Université de Paris I, UMR du CNRS 8215 Trajectoires, Paris, France

It is known that the oldest Neolithic on the Balkan Peninsula is characterised by painted ceramics, found in the cultures of Sesklo, Starčevo, Anzabegovo-Vršnik, Kovačevo, Karanovo I, etc, from around 6500 BCE. However, the Adriatic coastline bears witness to very different pottery, decorated with impressions of punches, fingernails or shells. This Neolithic facies is known as ‘impresso’ or ‘impresso-cardial’. On the Mediterranean coast of France, there is an initial period known as ‘impressa’, followed by a culture known as ‘cardiale’. Similarly, the dwellings known on the Adriatic coast differ markedly from the classic quadrangular constructions of the interior of the peninsula. Such a marked difference between the interior and the west of the Balkan peninsula raises questions. Impressed wares have sometimes been

traced as far back as the Byblos neolithic site in Lebanon. Nevertheless, we note that in the Balkan sites with painted ceramics, we also find a small percentage of printed ceramics, as at Nea Nikomedea in Greece or Kovačevo in south Bulgaria, while Thessaly has a purely printed episode, with the culture known as Presesklo. This paper will therefore take stock of what we know about Balkan impressed ceramics, and propose some hypotheses about their genesis and spread (Oral presentation).

 

06-27 The Ideas We Take With Us: The Crafting Choices of Neolithic Potters in North Macedonia

Clare Burke¹, Elena Stojanova Kanzurova², Zoran Rujak³, Pero Sinadinovski, Darko Stojanovski⁴

¹ Department of Archaeology, University of York, UK

² Archaeological Museum of Republic of North Macedonia, Republic of North Macedonia

³ The National Institution – Institute for Protection of Cultural Monuments and Museum in Strumica, Republic of North Macedonia

⁴ Dept. of Prehistory and WANA archaeology, Austrian Archaeological Institute, Austria

North Macedonia plays a crucial role in understanding the spread and cultural expression of migrating agricultural groups during the Neolithic, connecting pioneer zones in Anatolia and the Aegean to Southern and Central Europe. Archaeological evidence indicates the establishment of settlements by multiple agricultural groups, often defined by settlement types and pottery styles which have been used to establish cultural and chronological boundaries. At the same time, it has long been recognised that there are striking visual similarities in pottery styles within these and neighbouring groups, commonly interpreted as evidence for spheres of contact and influence between different populations.

Whilst pottery has been fundamental for defining such boundaries, we do not have detailed information about the practices and materials used in pottery making in North Macedonia, something which might offer additional insights into the meaning behind the presence or absence of types, and their relationship to defined chrono-cultural groups. This paper will present results of an integrated analytical programme utilising traditional typological and macroscopic methods with thin section petrography and SEM-EDS, to investigate pottery from Amzabegovo, Tumba Madžari, Orniche-Kosturino, and Cocev Kamen. Examination of the chaîne opératoire for a variety of pottery types including painted, monochrome, and incised/impresso wares, has demonstrated the presence of shared and individualistic crafting behaviours related to forming, firing and raw materials within and between sites. These findings suggest adaptations within broader shared crafting concepts and point to technical practices that span cultural and geographical boundaries, with connections to neighbouring areas like Serbia, Bulgaria, and Anatolia.

 

06-28 Shaping Through Ceramics: New Insights into Pottery Production and Social Dynamics in Northeast Italy (6th–5th Millennia cal. BCE)

Marika Ciela¹, Silvia Amicone^2,3, Paola Salzani⁴, Annaluisa Pedrotti¹

¹ University of Trento, Italy

² Archaeometry Research Group, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Germany

³ Institute of Archaeology, University College London, UK

⁴ Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of the Provinces of Verona, Rovigo and Vicenza, Italy

Our understanding of the Early Neolithic period in northern Italy (c. 5400-4800 cal. BCE) is based on pottery typological classifications that have traditionally shaped our understanding of cultural manifestations and their developments. The Fiorano material culture, for example, which spread from Emilia Romagna to the Veneto region, is one of the most significant phenomena of this period.

This paper presents the initial findings of a PhD project that integrates traditional typological methods with archaeometric analyses and experimental studies. Over 100 samples from key sites in the western Veneto plain (north-eastern Italy), typologically related to the Fiorano material culture, were petrographically analysed, revealing various tempering strategies, including the use of bone temper.

While bone temper has been recognised in some Neolithic European contexts, its presence in Early Neolithic pottery from this region is a new finding, raising questions about both its functional purpose and/or its symbolic significance, as well as the exchange of technological knowledge among communities in the Veneto plain and their external connections.

By employing an interdisciplinary approach, this study offers fresh and significant insights into ceramic production techniques, with a particular focus on bone tempering as a manufacturing strategy. These insights could reshape our understanding of the behaviours and social dynamics of Early Neolithic communities in northeastern Italy from the second half of the 6th millennium to the beginning of the 5th millennium cal. BCE and represents an important contribution to the study of Early Neolithic in northern Italy and the neolithisation of the Po Valley.

 

06-29 Pottery innovations in the onset of farming in Iberia: an overview

Miriam Cubas¹, Izaro Quevedo-Semperena², Urko Santamaría-Díaz³, Néstor Lozano López⁴, Marta Francés Negro¹, Estíbaliz Espada-Martín⁵

¹ University of Alcalá, Spain

² Institució Milá i Fontanals-CSIC, Spain

³ Universidad del País Vasco, Spain

⁴ Universidad de Cantabria, Spain

⁵ Universitidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain

Technological innovations and social changes are two main aspects with crucial relevance for past societies. Throughout the History of Humanity, many technological innovations have motivated new configurations of human groups and have influenced their way of social articulation. Recognize the social context, the chronology and the implications of these technological changes are crucial aspects in our understanding of the past societies.

Pottery is one of the technological innovations that has been traditionally linked to the introduction of farming and livestock in South Europe. Technological choices and manufacturing processes are strongly related with environmental, social and cultural constraints. These research questions are clearly correlated with the social interest in the reconstruction of our past.

In this presentation, we address the modifications in the role of pottery technology following the introduction of food production and late consolidation in the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula and possible influence areas (ca. 6000-3000 cal BC). Considering an interdisciplinary approach combining archaeological, mineralogical and chemical information from a robust corpus of data, we point out the main technological tendencies in the earliest pottery evidence in Iberia.

 

 06-30 Diachronic persistence’s and changes during the Neolithic in South Iberian Peninsula (mid-6th to early 3rd millennium BCE): new advances through the angle of ceramic technological practices

Javier Cámara Manzaneda¹, María Dolores Camalich Massieu¹, Dimas Martín-Socas¹, Salvador Pardo Gordó¹, José Luis Caro Herrero²

¹ Departamento de Geografía e Historia, Universidad de La Laguna, Canary Islands, Spain

² Departamento de Lenguajes y Ciencias de la Computación, Universidad de Málaga, Spain

The Neolithisation of the South Iberian Peninsula is interrelated with the Neolithic expansion from the West-Central Mediterranean and occurred almost simultaneously with the North-African area during the middle 6th millennium BCE. Since its spread in this vast region, the Neolithic has been marked by an empirical diversity given the sharp geographical contrasts and the transfer and development of diverse cultural traditions. A clear example of this regards to the first pottery productions, with decorative schemes framed within the Impresso-Cardial complex, but also with southern idiosyncratic decorations (red slip known as Almagra). Subsistence strategies, pottery traits and other handicrafts suffered significant changes with the advance to the Late Neolithic during the 5th millennium BCE, with a radiocarbon breakup of about 400 years which do not support a transitory period with the Early Neolithic. From 4200 BCE onwards the farming system was completely settled, and more sedentary settlements and new normalised types of collective burials appeared.

This paper focuses on characterising whether these significant changes that occurred between the Early-Late Neolithic were also reflected in the sphere of pottery technological practices. Starting from these premises, this paper presents the technological analysis of five south Iberian sites by integrating manufacturing traces and micro-CT analyses. The scope is to examine if widespread ceramic traditions in the Western Mediterranean, such as the patchwork technology, prevailed in this region during the Early Neolithic, and to recognise which ones survived and emerged during the Late Neolithic, assessing the sociological impact of these persistence’s and technological changes.

 

06-31 One-Note Culture – Variability of Early Kuyavian Farming Communities through the Lens of Pottery Technology and Use

Joanna Pyzel¹, Marcin Szeliga¹, Maciej Urban¹, Gabriela Gdula¹, Maksymilian Łuszcz¹

 ¹Institute of Archaeology, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland

The first Central European farmers of the LBK left behind an astonishingly homogeneous material culture, including pottery. Spherical vessels, both fine and coarse predominate throughout its range. Their rich decoration has formed the basis of chronological and regional divisions, especially detailed in the western part of this culture. The eastern part is dominated by the Music-Note pottery, which in many regions, including Kuyavia in the Polish Lowlands, continues to the end of this culture. The pottery style there is surprisingly homogeneous, although some differences between the groups inhabiting the region can be presumed from variations in economy or settlement. The issue of the homogeneity of the LBK communities in Kuyavia and their interrelationships is the subject of a new project funded by the Polish National Science Centre in Poland ‘One-note culture? Tracing sociocultural diversity and dynamics of the first farming communities in Kuyavia through pottery production and use’ which will focus pottery technology and function. Our presentation outlines the project’s main objectives, presenting the current state of research and the resulting research questions as well as the very first results of the ongoing analyses. Studies are financially supported by the National Science Centre, Poland, OPUS 26 (project no. 2023/51/B/HS3/00207).

 

06-32 Early farmer interactions: rethinking “non-LBK” ceramic assemblages in the early Neolithic of central-western Europe through the reconstruction of Limburg pottery manufacture and uses

Louise Gomart¹, Oliver Craig², Marzia Gabriele³, Alexandre Lucquin², Claire Manen⁴, Michael Ilett¹

¹ CNRS : Paris, Île-de-France, France

² University of York, UK

³ Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives Valence, France

⁴ CNRS Délégation Midi-Pyrénées: Toulouse, Midi-Pyrénées, France

⁵ Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, France

Although recent palaeogenomic studies suggest a relatively limited contribution of hunter-gatherer groups to the agro-pastoral communities of the early Neolithic in central-western Europe (LBK), the question of the mechanisms of interaction between ‘local’ Mesolithic populations and ‘migrant’ LBK communities remains a central debate. In the western distribution area of the LBK, the pottery known as La Hoguette and Limburg pottery have been emblematic of this debate since they were identified in the 1980s in LBK pits in western Germany, Dutch Limburg, central Belgium and northern France. These vessels have also been sporadically discovered outside the LBK distribution area, in a variety of contexts: at a few Late Mesolithic sites, possibly in the epicardial levels of the Gazel site (Occitania, France), but also in isolated contexts, outside the known Early Neolithic settlement areas.

Due to their morphological and technological characteristics (large, thick-rimmed bowls, specific decoration and bone temper), which distinguish them from typical LBK vessels, some researchers argue that these vases were made by “ceramised” hunter-gatherers, while other authors suggest that they represent a functional category of LBK pottery. Based on the recent study of a large assemblage of Limburg vessels excavated from LBK sites in the Aisne Valley (Picardy, France), this presentation aims to contribute to this debate using the concept of vessel biography. The aim is to reconstruct the life cycles of these specific vessels from a relational perspective (communities of practice, learning networks, transfers) in order to propose a new interpretative model for these artefacts.

 

 

07-01 Neolithic figurines and miniatures: (un)reality, correlations, divergences, narratives

Christina Marangou

Neolithic figurative forms occur on different scales, from microminiatures to the almost (super)natural. Imitated living beings, human or non-human, artefacts and structures, possibly including allusions to the surrounding environment, may coexist in an ensemble, but may also not have been used as a set. Furthermore, in spite of predominant trends in the choice and representation of subjects, exceptional, hybrid, even non-existent beings have occasionally been reproduced, sometimes resulting in counter-nature images. All the themes and specific contexts were neither necessarily interconnected, nor inevitably forming or/and comprising miniaturized sets.

Moreover, it could be implied either that a missing theme/prototype was absent in reality, or that, deliberately, some originals had not been incarnated in miniature; both presence and absence may have been significant. Besides, some figurines or miniatures may not have represented physical reality, but rather a materialization of fiction. This would therefore suggest that images may have had their own world, which may be different than the real one.

Perceptions and readings of images, based on still existing material evidence and contextual information, often lacking, may be considered in the framework of research hypotheses within social anthropological perspectives. The paper considers examples of Neolithic material, mainly from Greece and neighbouring regions, attempting possible directions towards interpretation of variability, correlations, presences and absences in the complex figurative expressions embodied by Neolithic symbolic artefacts, in an archaeo-anthropological approach.

 

07-02 Fragments as a unit of analysis for early Neolithic figurines

Bisserka Gaydarska¹,  John Chapman²

¹ Historic England, UK

² Durham University, UK

Every researcher studying samples of Balkan Early Neolithic fired clay figurines will encounter the same phenomenon – a high proportion of items are broken. And yet our embedded art-historical tradition leads to the preferential publication of whole figurines. Our proposal is to give fragments their due and make the figurine fragment the unit of analysis. This is not just about taking fragments seriously, nor even about a pragmatic approach to the way that most figurines are deposited. What is important here is the materiality of personhood – the ways that objects contribute to the creation of persons. Whether figurines are deposited whole or incomplete provides insights about the ubiquitous tension between dividuality and individuality. It also highlights the performance of actual fragmentation before deposition, whether casual or elaborate, in more ‘public’ or more ‘private’ places. This a relational approach, focusing as much on absence (missing fragments) as on presence and the implied emotional links between places. By contrast, complete examples bringing an integrative sense to social practices are so rare as to requires an explanation.

We have investigated a representative sample of Early and Middle Neolithic (6th millennium cal BC) sites from all parts of Bulgaria. However, there are currently very few examples of completely excavated Early Neolithic sites with a large figurine sample. This restricts the inferences we can draw about missing fragments and where they were deposited. But, even on partially excavated sites, we can discuss the preferential deposition of specific body parts (especially heads), the significance of contexts of deposition and the association of figurines with other objects. Even more general inferences concern the relations of figurine fragments, and especially body part selection, to site types (tells vs. flat sites) and Early Neolithic phases. Are there recurrent examples of site types / phases without figurine deposition?

 

07-03 Breaking with Tradition: on the disappearance of figurative representations in Central Europe during the Middle Neolithic

Rebecca Bristow¹

¹ University of Copenhagen, Denmark

At the start of the Middle Neolithic (5000 BCE), as the central-European Linear Pottery Culture dissolved into smaller cultural groups, the traditional making of clay figurative representations was either transformed or radically abandoned. For thousands of years, these figurines and vessels representing humans and animals had been a hallmark of Early Neolithic lifestyle. They were found in hundreds in Southeastern Europe during the 6th millennium BCE and continued to be produced as the Neolithic reached Central Europe, although in smaller numbers. By the start of the Middle Neolithic, however, clay figurative representations disappeared from most of Central Europe. This dissolution of a thousand-year-old figurative tradition could be tied to a shift within communal practices during the Middle Neolithic, as well as a transformation of figuration through a common stylised motif.

 

07-04 Еarly Neolithic anthropomorphic figurines made of daub, their function and symbolism

Małgorzata Grębska-Kulow¹

¹ Regional Museum of History, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria

Anthropomorphic figurines are a distinctive feature of prehistoric cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean region. These figurines are crafted from diverse materials, predominantly clay, though stone (marble), bone, and maybe wood. Their iconography varies, giving rise to a plethora of theories regarding their purpose. A notable exception to this is a small group of anthropomorphic figurines discovered in South-western Bulgaria, which differ from this characteristic. These figurines represent anthropomorphic heads or masks, and less frequently whole bodies made of daub, a material commonly utilised in the construction of dwellings. The heads were permanently attached to the internal wooden structure of houses and bear their clear impressions. The eyes in some examples appear to have been incrusted, and the outer surface was covered with white or cream paint. Such figurines have been identified in a several Early Neolithic (6200-5460BC) settlements in South-western Bulgaria, including Balgarchevo, Kovachevo and Ilindentsi, but also in Madzhari, The Republic of North Macedonia. They offer insight into the cult practices of the period, with particular emphasis on in-door rituals and the potential association with funerary traditions. The anthropomorphic figurines made of daub provide a significant contribution to the study of cult practices during the Early Neolithic in the Eastern Mediterranean.

 

07-05 Visual and contextual analysis of Neolithic anthropomorphic clay figurines along the southern reaches of the Tisza River

Kata Furholt¹, Ildiko Medović², Martin Furholt¹

¹ Kiel University, Germany

² Museum of Vojvodina, Serbia

In this paper, we will focus on the visual and contextual analysis of the Neolithic anthropomorphic figurines to study how these clay objects related to potential group identities along the southern reaches of the Tisza River. A large number of anthropomorphic clay figures are known during the entire Neolithic period (6100-4500 BCE) along the Tisza River in present-day Hungary and Serbia. In the context of Starčevo-Körös, people increasingly use clay in multiple ways, for instance, forming vessels for everyday use, making wattle-daub structure houses, and creating symbolic and artistic objects such as anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines. The vast majority of them depicted the female body highlighting attention to the lower body section. In the context of the later LBK, communities created simplified and more schematic figures, which were presented on a basis of a flat rectangular block-like form, and mask-like triangle face applications provided them with a schematic connection with the human form. At the same time, face decoration was implemented on vessels and, in this way, humanised everyday objects. The emergence of these Alföld LBK (ALPC) figurative representations is more apparent in the middle and upper Tisza region. The Tisza and Vinča communities provided different figures than those found in Starčevo-Körös and ALPC contexts. With the new artistic expression of sitting human figures on chairs or thrones, human figures and vessel combinations, we can observe a wide scale of human depiction from realistic to schematic representation. Several clay figures holding typical Tisza and Vinča pottery style decorations and particular symbols can be seen as deliberate expressions of the group identity

07-06 The cult of the horse and bull in the Neolithic of the steppe and forest-steppe Volga region

 Natalya Doga¹, Filat Gilyazov ¹

 ¹Samara State University of Social Sciences and Education, Samara, Russian Federation

The presence of horse and bull figurines among the Neolithic and Eneolithic populations of the steppe and forest-steppe regions of the Volga is interpreted as one of the indicators of the domestication of these animals. According to researchers, the placement of these figurines in altars suggests the significant role of horses and bulls in the economic life of the people. To date, 10 bone artifacts depicting horses or bulls have been found in the region of interest. They belong to a wide chronological range from 5600 BC to 4900 BC. In the steppe Volga, three horse figurines were discovered at the Neolithic site of Varfolomeyevskaya, and one at the Lipovy Ovrag burial site. In the forest-steppe part of the Volga, three horse figurines were found at the Vilovatovskoye settlement and at the Syyezzhensky burial site. Two bull images were also discovered at the latter site. Similar figurines have been found in materials from the Mariupol cultural-historical region.

Thanks to recent research in the Northern Caspian region, another horse figurine has been found at the late Neolithic site of Taskuduk. The ornamentation on the surface of this item links it to bone artifacts from the Varfolomeyevskaya site. A complex geometric pattern is carved on its front side. Similar compositions are found in Central Asia and the Balkans.

Analysis of the faunal remains from the Neolithic and Eneolithic complexes of the steppe Volga has shown the absence of domesticated species of horses and bulls. The first domesticated species in the region is the sheep. The presence of horse and bull images may be explained by the high importance of these animals in hunting activities.

 

07-07 From monumental bulls to portable motifs: transformation of images in Late Neolithic Central Anatolia

Patrycja Filipowicz¹

 ¹ Faculty of Archaeology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland

Images of bulls, and in particular, bucrania are well- documented in Neolithic Europe, from the Balkans to Sardinia. My paper examines this iconographic motif from an Anatolian perspective, emphasizing the significant interconnections between Anatolian and European imagery during the Late Neolithic. Genomic and archaeological evidence has established Central Anatolia as a core area for Neolithic expansion into Europe.

In Central Anatolia, best exemplified perhaps at the site of Çatalhöyük, this period witnessed a profound transformation of imagery, characterized by the abandonment of figurative wall paintings and cattle-horn installations inside the houses. Recent research by Adam Mickiewicz University revealed some novel practices involving bucrania at the very end of settlement’s occupation. Notably, for the first time, bucrania appear in a funerary context.

This paper explores the persistence of the bull motif in the Late/ post- Neolithic world, namely its presence in new, small portable forms, within new contexts. In addition to scrutinizing the evidence from Çatalhöyük, I will examine its appearance on vessels at Late Neolithic/ Early Chalcolithic sites in the Lake District and Cappadocia. This widespread presence of the bucranium motif underscores its importance in shaping the cultural and symbolic connections between Anatolia and Europe during this time.

 

07-08 Unveiling Social Structures within the Iberian Neolithization Process: Insights from Human depictions in Spanish Levantine Rock Art

Esther Lopez Montalvo¹

¹ CNRS UMR 5608 TRACES, France

In the Iberian Mediterranean Basin, the Levantine Rock Art paintings portray a variety of scenes related to economic and social activities. The degree of naturalism of these images, particularly in certain phases of their sequence, provides key insights into material culture as well as the significance of certain activities within the communities that produced them.

A major challenge, particularly in relation to the early Neolithic of the Iberian Peninsula, lies in reconstructing how these first farming societies were organized, and in assessing possible evidence of emerging social inequality. The archaeological record, particularly with regard to funerary contexts, is scarce, limiting our ability to infer mechanisms of individual and collective identity that might point to significant social distinctions within these groups. These difficulties are further compounded when attempting to integrate gender as a social construct, which may have played a crucial role in shaping disparities in economic and social roles.

Levantine Rock Art, where human figures are prominently featured, constitutes a valuable source of information for examining the social identities of men and women, as well as the roles they may have held in different spheres of community life.

In this communication, we will thus provide an archaeo-anthropological analysis of Levantine human depictions, with the aim of inferring evidence regarding the social organization. To this end, we will consider both temporal aspects, related to the potential stylistic sequence of human figures and territorial factors, taking into account the boundaries of each stylistic horizon and their areas of influence. This approach will offer a diachronic and regional perspective, highlighting elements of continuity and change at various scales.

 

07-09 The rock art of the last hunter gatherers groups in the Iberian Peninsula: pre-schematic art

Hipólito Collado Giraldo^1,2,4, Sara Garces^2,3,4, José Julio García Arranz¹, Hugo Gomes^2,3,4

¹ Patrimonio&Arte. Unidad de Conservación del Patrimonio Artístico, University of Extremadura (HUM009), Spain

² Geosciences Centre, University of Coimbra (u. ID73 – FCT), Portugal

³ Polytechnic Institute of Tomar, Portugal

⁴ Earth and Memory Institute, Mação, Portugal

Traditionally, it has been assumed that in many regions of the Iberian Peninsula, schematic rock art represented an innovative graphic and cultural phenomenon introduced by the first groups practicing a productive economy who settled in this territory. This artistic expression later consolidated and became more complex throughout the Copper and Bronze Ages. This perspective implied the existence of a temporal gap between the last graphic expressions of the Upper Paleolithic and the oldest schematic art representations produced during the Early Neolithic.

In this presentation, we aim to challenge the notion of such a gap, based on a series of recent findings in the western Iberian Peninsula, particularly in the Extremadura region. We propose recognizing the continuity and complexity of the artistic phenomenon we have termed Pre-Schematic Art, which seamlessly bridges the period from the end of the Upper Paleolithic to the early stages of the Early Neolithic.

 

 

07-10 Technical Traditions and Cultural Mosaic in the Neolithization of Mediterranean Iberia: Contributions from the chaîne operatoire of Spanish Levantine rock art pigments

 Esther López-Montalvo¹, Guilhem Mauran²

¹ UMR 5608 TRACES, France

² CNRS-French National Centre for the Scientific Research, Toulouse,

The chronological framework of Spanish Levantine rock art has primarily been constructed through the typological analysis of human figures, which exhibit greater variability than animal motifs. This variability appears to stem from both temporal changes and regional influences. The resulting sequence is highly complex, with notable formal variations within each stylistic horizon. However, in the absence of absolute dating, establishing connections between these horizons and defining their chronological and territorial relationships remains challenging.

Until now, research has focused exclusively on parameters related to figure design, associating the concept of style strictly with formal attributes. The technical dimension—encompassing the entire operational sequence from the acquisition of raw coloring materials to the processing and application of pigments—has been entirely overlooked, despite its potential to provide valuable insights. Operational sequences serve as a crucial link between material culture and the societies that produced these paintings. The artificial separation of form and technique raises important questions about the definition of technical traditions in Levantine rock art, their temporal and spatial dynamics, and their connection to the complex cultural mosaic that emerged with the spread of Neolithic societies across the Iberian Mediterranean basin from the 6th millennium cal BCE.

Building on this perspective, we have implemented new analytical protocols that comprehensively address all stages of the painting process. These protocols encompass the study of coloring material provenance and composition through a physicochemical and mineralogical characterization approach (SEM-EDS, Raman, and PIXE), alongside the examination of processing and application techniques by analyzing the morphology of pigment crystals and the structure of the pictorial layer. The statistical analysis of data collected at each stage and across different analytical perspectives allows us to explore key aspects of the Levantine rock art stylistic sequence. Specifically, we investigate the potential correlation between formal variability and operational sequences, as well as their temporal dynamics. This approach enables us to identify distinct technical traditions within the Levantine sequence and to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the transmission of technical knowledge.

 

 

07-11 Where the Hills have no name: Late Neolithic Rock Art tradition on Rocky Landscape of Asia Minor

Ali Umut Türckan¹

¹ Anadolu University

 Balkayası rock painting that was discovered in 2005 showed a rare example of Late Neolithic rock paintings in Asia Minor with possible many horses and a human figures like shaman with some rock cut galleries on top of a hill. Actually, the rock painting were made on rock facade of one of highest peaks of granite hills of which the topography is reminiscent of the largest area of Latmos rock paintings in SW Anatolia covering 60 locus with hundreds of rock paintings and compositions. Along with similar ones recently have been found in Taurus mountains (Erdemli) from southern Mediterrenean region. Eventhough farming fully sedentary communities spread and became fully sedentary sites like Çatalhöyük in many parts of Central Anatolia and Western Anatolia in 7. Mill B.C, Rock art presence of Late Neolithic period in sporadic places so far show a testimony of still hunter gatherer or a nomadic mode of life or rituals persistent on the hillly regions in opposition to growing large farming villages.

 

 

07-12 Neolithic Stamps between Making and Meaning:  The Stamps of Svinjarička Čuka, Serbia

Elisabeth Weissensteiner^1,2, Barbara Horejs^1,2

¹ Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austrian Archaeological Institute, Austria

² University of Vienna, Austria

Within the extensive corpus of Neolithic visual expression, stamps hold a unique position as early devices created for the mechanical reproduction of images. Also known as pintaderas or stamp seals, these artefacts have been found at sites across Southeast Europe and Southwest Asia. Typically made of fired clay and decorated with geometric designs, they facilitated the repeated application of motifs through printing or impressing on surfaces. Despite their widespread presence, the lack of direct evidence of their use in the archaeological record makes them one of the most enigmatic Neolithic artefact types. By creating, shaping, or revealing connections or fostering a sense of belonging, the act and effects of stamping played a vital part in the dynamic visual culture of the Neolithic world. Through this process, generic artefacts were transformed into unique items with deliberately crafted visual and tactile properties.

The ongoing interdisciplinary investigations at the Starčevo site of Svinjarička Čuka (Serbia) provide a fresh opportunity to reassess Neolithic stamps, as the site has yielded a notably large and varied assemblage of Neolithic clay stamps. This study re-evaluates established interpretations through a contextual analysis of depositional patterns, associated artefacts, residue analysis, and renewed experimental research specifically designed to address previously unexplored aspects. A chaîne opératoire is proposed to reconstruct the production and use of the stamps, shedding new light on their potential functions and use scenarios across various materials.

 

07-13 Color matters: investigating the significance of white ornaments in Early Neolithic burial practices in Poland

 Iwona Sobkowiak-Tabaka¹, Aldona Kurzawska¹, Małgorzata Mrozek-Wysocka²

¹ Faculty of Archaeology Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland

² Institute of Geology Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland

This study explores the symbolic significance of color in the Early Neolithic (so-called Danubian) societies in Poland (ca. 5350-3700 BC), focusing on the roles of red and white in reflecting status and funeral customs. In Neolithic cultures, color was not merely aesthetic but deeply embedded in social and ritualistic contexts, serving as a medium to convey meaning and reinforce societal hierarchies. Red, often associated with vitality, life, and blood, symbolized strength, power, and possibly life after death, frequently appearing in burial rituals and ceremonial artifacts. On the other hand, white represents purity, transition, and spiritual renewal, often used in funerary practices to signify the passage between life and death. By analyzing archaeological evidence from present-day Poland, particularly burial contexts—including personal ornaments and remains of pigments —this paper argues that the intentional use of red and white played a fundamental role in Neolithic communities. Furthermore, the selection of prestigious raw materials, sourced locally and through long-distance exchange, underscores their dual economic and symbolic significance. These findings contribute to a broader understanding of how Early Neolithic societies employed color and raw materials as a cultural language to express identity, social status, and spiritual ideologies. A multidisciplinary approach, incorporating anthropology, ethnography, and cultural context, will be used to achieve a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of color symbolism.

 

 

08-01 Power, Politics and social organization in the Early Neolithic period in Europe

Martin Furholt¹

¹ Kiel University, Germany

While the Early Neolithic period sees the emergence of very diverse social phenomena and forms of social organization, there are a number of underlying social and economic conditions which structure the context in which those dynamics unfold. This concern, among others, the constitution of power, the distribution of resources and spatial behavior, the conceptualization of community and environment. In the archaeological discourse, those conditions are, in my view, often misrepresented, or the consequences of this mis-representation for our archaeological narratives are undervalued.

For this reason, this contribution aims to discuss the concepts we apply to power, coercion, violence, mobility, socio-spatial organization, cosmologies and rationality, and their effects on our view of identities and the dynamics of social organization during the Early Neolithic. Especially, the notion of politics within and between social groups will be discussed, as it is highlighting people and communities in the Neolithic as historical self-conscious actors pursuing individual or collective interests, engaging in and solving conflicts. This will be exemplified using archaeological material from the Early Neolithic period in central Europe, with a focus on the LBK communities, their ditched enclosures and signs of conflict connected to them.

 

08-02 Interacting with the dead in Neolithic Italy

Jess Thompson¹, John Robb¹

¹ Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, UK

All societies have multiple ways of dealing with the dead, but of all prehistoric periods in Europe, perhaps Neolithic people had the greatest variety. Taking Italy as an example, recent taphonomic research has documented simple burials, exposure, removing bones from burials, casual destruction of bones, ritual re-use of bones, deposition of defleshed bones, skull curation and deposition, and use of bone as an expedient raw material for tools. These did not form random processes but a comprehensive system for managing the dead to produce social relations.

Its key principles included gradually integrating the dead into villages as a generalised ancestral presence, selection of specific bones as ritually interactive elements, and the use of bone as a magical substance – all principles distinguishing the Neolithic from earlier periods and gradually changing in later prehistory.

 

08-03 Exploring Early Neolithic Ornaments: Technical Traditions and Cultural Interaction in Dalmatia

 Alice Vassanelli¹, Emil Podrug², Natalija Čondić³, Solange Rigaud⁴, Elisabetta Starnini⁵, Niccolò Mazzucco⁵

¹ Department of Philology, Literature, and Linguistics, University of Pisa, Italy

² Šibenik City Museum, Šibenik, Croatia

³ Archaeologial museum Zadar, Croatia

⁴ CNRS, University of Bordeaux, UMR 5199 PACEA, France

⁵ Department of Civilizations and Forms of Knowledge, University of Pisa, Italy

The symbolic dimension played a fundamental role in the emergence of the technological innovations associated with Neolithisation. This perspective challenges the traditional interpretation of personal ornaments as purely aesthetic objects, emphasising their active involvement in the socio-productive sphere, and their ability to reflect the cultural and technological transformations that accompanied the spread of the Neolithic.

As part of a broader research programme that intends to examine the role of personal ornaments in the first farming communities of the Mediterranean region, this work aims to present the first results of early Neolithic ornaments from sites in the region of central-northern Dalmatia. Stressing the importance of ornaments as a tool to investigate the cultural interaction between the earliest Neolithic groups, the study examined finds from the sites of Pokrovnik, Rašinovac, Crno Vrilo and Smilčić.

The study focused on the technological and traceological analysis of these artefacts, to investigate the technical traditions employed for their manufacturing and their use.

The results highlight the key role of aesthetic and symbolic objects in reflecting the identities and social structures of early communities in this Dalmatian area, while also providing valuable insights into the broader processes of cultural reconfiguration that characterised the Early Neolithic period in the Mediterranean.

 

08-04 Foreign Influence or Local Tradition? The Role of Personal Ornaments in Early Neolithic Social Identity in Central Europe: A Case Study from Poland

 Aldona Kurzawska¹, Iwona Sobkowiak-Tabaka¹, Anna Głód², Danuta Żurkiewicz¹

 ¹ Faculty of Archaeology Adam Mickiewicz University, Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego, Poznań, Poland

² Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznan, Poland

During the Neolithic period in Europe, the production and dissemination of personal ornaments increased significantly, driven by shifts in social organization, advancements in craft production, expanding exchange networks, and the procurement of raw materials. This period reveals a complex interplay of continuity and change in ornament use across time and geography, highlighting identity formation and negotiation between different cultural groups.

Present-day Poland, situated on the periphery of southern influences – particularly Danubian traditions from the Transcarpathian region- experienced these influences through the introduction of foreign materials and techniques. Notably, various ornaments appear exclusively in richly furnished female burials associated with early Neolithic communities in the second half of the fifth millennium BC.

Our research examines the hypothesis that certain members of agricultural communities -especially women- maintained ties with hunter-gatherer groups, as evidenced by their use of ornaments typical of Mesolithic traditions. We investigate whether these individuals distinguished themselves within their communities by preserving ancient traditions or if the ornaments served as markers of their social status, group identity, or affiliation with specific traditions and communities.

Our study considers whether Early Neolithic communities in Poland inherited, adopted, or adapted Mesolithic ornament traditions, reflecting broader processes of alterity, identity formation, and interaction between indigenous hunter-gatherer groups and farming communities. We examine the role of these ornaments within elaborate decorative assemblages, such as hip belts, headdresses, and appliques, often composed of hundreds of beads from diverse materials. Through an analysis of their typology, raw material sources, and wear traces, we explore their significance as visual markers of identity, social status, wealth, prestige, connections to tradition, ancestor veneration, and ritual practices.

 

08-05 Shell of the Azov-Black Sea mollusk Trytia nitida in a Neolithic child burial from the Ust-Aleyka 5 cemetery (Barnaul Pri-Ob Region)

 Kiril Yu. Kirushin¹, Svetlana Shnaider^1,2, Vadim B. Borodaev³, Dmitry Kuzmenkin⁴, Irina Tolpeko⁵

 ¹ Altai State University, Russian Federation

² Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

³ Altai State Pedagogical University, Russian Federation

⁴ Tigirek State Nature Reserve, Russian Federation

⁵ Dostoevsky Omsk State University, Russian Federation

 In 1982, a “vertical” burial of a child (aged 1.5–2 years) with a rich accompanying inventory was excavated in the village of Ust-Aleyka, Altayskii Krai, within the Barnaul Pri-Ob region. The grave goods included stone artifacts, ornaments made of bone and mammalian teeth, shells of bivalve mollusks (Unio), and bones of a marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus), marmot (Marmota), and sable (Martes zibellina). AMS radiocarbon dates obtained from animal bone pendants yielded results of 4446-4346 cal BCE (IGAN-5829) and 4318-3802 cal BCE (NSKA-01941).

A significant find in the burial was a shell of the marine gastropod mollusk Trytia nitida. This species is currently widespread along the Atlantic coast of Europe, as well as in the Mediterranean, Black, and Azov Seas, but has never inhabited the Altai region or neighboring territories of southern Western Siberia.

In Southern Europe, ornaments made from Trytia nitida shells have been documented from the early stages of the Upper Paleolithic. However, a comprehensive review of archaeological sites in the Northern Mediterranean where Trytia shells have been found remains challenging. In Western European literature, Trytia nitida is often referred to as Nassarius reticulatus or Nassarius reticulatus var. nitidus. Additionally, the mollusc Cyclope neritea is sometimes classified under the genus Trytia.

The discovery of the Trytia nitida shell in this Neolithic burial suggests (likely indirect) contact between the Neolithic population in the steppe belt of Northern Eurasia, stretching from the Black Sea region to the Upper Ob River basin.

Research funded by the Russian Science Foundation, Project No. 24-28-01030

 

08-06 Neolithic Norway – meetings with unexpected (?) outcomes

Astrid J. Nyland¹, Daniela Hofmann²

¹ Museum of Archaeology, University of Stavanger, Norway

² University of Bergen, Norway

The Neolithic of Norway is a complex archaeological mosaic of people, technologies and artefacts. At various points in the sequence, this involves interaction between (relative) newcomers and (relatively) longer-resident people. Explanatory models differ in detail, for example between the Early and Late Neolithic: are novelties brought to the local populations through exogamy, or rather more directly by adventurous immigrating farmers? In most theories, the incoming people are the most active, seeking new territory or resources to feed into their social networks. Very often, such situations are framed as “cultural dualism” – local versus foreign.

In the archaeological material though, we find evidence of old and new traditions mixing in complicated ways, and to greater or lesser extents. For example, in the South-east, there is evidence of so-called cultural packages in the Early Neolithic, suggesting immigrating groups of people sticking to themselves. In the West, there is a mixture of practices until the Late Neolithic. The concept of cultural dualism thus seems too narrow and limiting when considering the variety of cultural and social contexts, and that fact that neither “locals” nor “immigrants” were one monolithic group. In this paper, we will use selected case studies from southern Norway to show how we may get beyond categorising groups as either/or and instead describe the multiple outcomes of complex and open-ended meetings between people.

 

08-07 From the sea to the (red)neck. Discoidal beads and other small ornaments from the Early Neolithic of Cerro del Cercado (Priego de Córdoba, Spain)

África Guzmán Arnedo¹, Rafael M. Martínez Sánchez¹

¹ University of Córdoba, Spain

The manufacture and display of personal ornaments is an outstanding marker of the relationships and social complexity among cultures. The construction of social identities, gender roles, or the simple accumulation of exchangeable goods, represents one of the most interesting aspects in the study of the early Neolithic societies of the Iberian Peninsula. In this sense, perforated discoidal beads represent one of the best potential markers for the knowledge of technological complexity, access to raw materials, and the exchange networks existing between prehistoric societies. In this paper we introduce the preliminary study of a set of small pendants and discoidal beads from the archaeological site of Cerro del Cercado, a settlement located in the interior of Andalusia, dated between 5200-4800 cal. BC. The importance of raw materials of a certain distance, such as the almost systematic use of marine bivalve shells to make most of these beads, and presence of traces of red pigment, raises aspects of great interest that go beyond the merely technological, drawing a complex society depending on an extensive network of exchange in southern Iberia.

 

08-08 Exploring social dynamics and identity constructionthrough the study of non-adults in the funerary contexts of Late Prehistory (V^th to III^rd millennia BC) in Central Iberia

Ana Lorenzo-Barrio¹, Sonia Díaz-Navarro², Ana Herrero-Corral¹ and Cristina Tejedor-Rodríguez¹

¹ Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, GIR (139) DURIUS: prehistoric research from the Douro River. University of Valladolid (UVa), Spain

² Laboratory of Human Evolution (LEH), University of Burgos (UBU), Spain

To holistically understand prehistoric populations, it is essential to study all the components that make up society. However, the analysis of human remains often focuses exclusively on adult individuals, sidelining the study of infants and non-adults.

This study explores questions such as: What funerary practices characterize these communities? How far do the remarkable social, economic and ideological changes affect the treatment of non-adultsin funerary contexts? Is the expected high infant mortality rate represented in the archaeological record? If not, could factors such as social differences directly influence infant burials?

The aim of this work is to gather and emphasize the significance of the presence, or absence, of infant and non-adult individuals in the funerary contexts of the interior of the Iberian Peninsula. Additionally, it proposes a methodological approach for the diachronic study of behavioural patterns (V^th and III^rd millennia BC) related to these population groups, with a particular focus on the analysis of human bone remains, their archaeological context and radiocarbon chronology. The study also examines their association with specific aspects of material culture and different burial customs.

Through this project, we advocate for the integration of non-adult individuals as a fundamental part of society and as a relevant agent that provides crucial insights for a deeper understanding of prehistoric social strategies and their changes.

 

08-09 Redefining the temporal dynamics of the Linearbandkeramik cemetery horizon: insights from Schwetzingen cemetery (Southwest Germany)

Berta Morell¹, Penny Bickle², Derek Hamilton³, Marta Díaz-Zorita Bonilla⁴, Michael Francken⁵, Alba Masclans

¹ IMF-CSIC, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Institución Milá y Fontanals de Investigación en Humanidades, Spain

² University of York, UK

³ University of Glasgow – SUERC Laboratory, UK

⁴ University of Tübingen, Germany

⁵ Landesamt für Denkmalpflege im Regierungspräsidium, Stuttgart, Germany

The Schwetzingen cemetery in southwest Germany, one of the largest Early Neolithic burial sites in Central Europe, provides a unique lens through which to explore identity, temporality, and social dynamics within Linearbandkeramik (LBK) communities. By integrating 50 newly obtained radiocarbon dates with Bayesian modeling, this study reassesses the cemetery temporal framework and its broader implications for funerary practices across central Europe. The findings challenge the prevailing notion of LBK cemeteries as long-lived and gradually evolving, revealing instead that Schwetzingen was in use for a relatively short period of time. This challenges the traditional east-to-west chronological progression of LBK burial sites, suggesting synchronous use across regions.

Contrary to the traditional view of cemeteries as static markers of sedentary societies, the data reveal a high degree of dynamism in burial practices, reflecting evolving social interactions and adaptability. By combining insights from material culture, bioarchaeological evidence, and advanced chronological modeling, this research highlights the importance of multidisciplinary approaches in unraveling the complexities of identity formation and social interaction in past communities.

 

08-10 Ground cemeteries as evidence of Mesolithic resilience in the Northern Pontic region during 7th – mid-5th mil. BC

Olha Demchenko¹

¹University of Salamanca, Spain

In Ukraine, over 30 cemeteries and several separate extended supine inhumations (almost 1,500 skeletons) from the early 7th to mid-5th millennium BCE represent a distinct funerary tradition that replaced Late Paleolithic flexed burials. These sites, often classified as “Mariupol-type cemeteries”, have been widely studied in Ukrainian scholarship but remain underrepresented in broader European archaeology. While traditionally labeled as Neolithic, genetic and archaeological evidence suggests long-term population continuity and a lack of subsistence-based Neolithic innovations, raising questions about the true nature of Neolithisation in the region.

The evolution of burial practices reflects complex processes of identity formation and social transformation. Early cemeteries consisted of small, row-organized graves (e.g., Mariivka, Vasylivka 2, Chapli), which later (the late 7th and early 6th mil. BCE) expanded significantly communities (e.g. Mamai Gora 1, Gard), possibly due to demographic shifts or external pressures from early farming. However, there is no clear evidence of sustained interaction between these foraging groups and neighboring farmers. Instead, material culture variations suggest a high degree of social fragmentation among hunter-fisher communities, despite genetic continuity.

By 5800–5200 BCE, burial traditions became more structured, with kin-based groupings and systematic secondary burials, indicating an increasing emphasis on lineage and social cohesion (e.g., Vovnigi, Vasylivka 5, Vilniansky). Unlike Neolithic farmers, who practiced matrilineal inheritance, these groups followed a patrilineal system. For example, researchers found the burial of two brothers in separate graves, both of which were later used for additional burials, including the son of one brother being placed in his father’s grave. There is no evidence of social stratification in these cemeteries, as individuals of all age groups were buried together.

Around 5200 BCE, a significant transformation occurred as collective burials replaced individual graves, signaling a shift towards a broader communal identity (e.g., Mamai Gora 2, Yasynuvatskyi, Dereiivka West). These burials were simple and uniform, suggesting that people identified more strongly as members of a large, unified community rather than as separate families. This shift likely required a strong motivating factor, such as shared rituals or conflicts that encouraged greater group cohesion.

The latest cemeteries, such as Mykilskyi and Lysogirskyi reflect increasing social instability in the region rather than a natural evolution of burial practices. Archaeologists have found ritual platforms, prestige objects (such as maces, copper artifacts, and carnelian), a mix of burial traditions, and imported goods. For the first time, fire was used in burial rituals, a practice uncommon among local hunter-fisher societies but common in farming cultures like the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture. These developments suggest a period of heightened interaction but also increasing socio-political tensions. Ultimately, collective cemeteries disappeared, replaced by individual graves, marking the end of the region’s forager-dominated social structures.

This study explores how burial practices functioned as a medium for negotiating identity, social belonging, and alterity in a rapidly changing world. The transformation of mortuary traditions in Ukraine reflects not only internal social dynamics but also broader processes of confrontation and adaptation during Neolithisation.

 

08-11 Genomic diversity and structure of Mesolithic and Neolithic individuals from the Eastern Italian Alps

Myriam Croze^1,4, Alice Paladin¹, Stefania Zingale¹, Franco Nicolis², Elisabetta Mottes², Frank Maixner¹, Annaluisa Pedrotti³,Torsten Günther⁴, Albert Zink¹, Valentina Coia¹

¹Institute for Mummy Studies, Eurac Research, Bolzano, Italy

² Provincia autonoma di Trento, UMSt Soprintendenza per i beni e le attività culturali, Ufficio beni archeologici, Trento, Italy

³ Department of Humanities, University of Trento, Trento, Italy

⁴ Department of Organismal Biology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Sweden

The Eastern Italian Alps (EIA, Trentino-Alto Adige region) played a crucial bridging role between Mediterranean and Northern alpine populations since prehistory.

As part of a broader project aimed at understanding how the genomic structure of prehistoric and protohistoric individuals from EIA varied over time, we analysed one Late Mesolithic (6380-6107 cal. BC) and 12 Middle Neolithic (first half of the 5th millennium BC) individuals associated with the Square-Mouthed Pottery Culture (VBQ II and III) using shotgun and enrichment ancient DNA data. Molecular sex was assigned to most individuals, including subadults. Close genetic relationships were identified such as a pair of siblings (La Vela VII site), also supported by the analysis of maternal lineages (mitochondrial DNA).

The study revealed that the Mesolithic male individual shows a high percentage (~84%) of genomic ancestry related to Western Hunter-Gatherers (HGs), along with a genomic contribution (~16%) from Easten HGs. The genomes of Neolithic Alpine individuals show a substantial shift in ancestry reflecting the migration of early Neolithic Anatolian farmers, from whom they acquired ~87% of their ancestry, with a further limited contribution from HGs (~13%). This aligns with archaeological evidence (e.g., material culture, funerary practices)from this area, suggesting cultural interaction between the Gaban group and the VBQ culture. Furthermore, the study shows that admixture events between HGs and farmers occurred locally and non-locally, contributing to the debate on the Mesolithic to Neolithic transition in the EIA. The genomic data of individuals from the Neolithic onwards indicate few genetic exchanges, especially at the paternal level (Y-Chromosome lineages) and a genetic continuity. This suggests a low degree of alterity and the possible formation of a new cultural identity (VBQ) in Alpine prehistoric groups. During the conference, these genetic results will be discussed in light of the isotopic data available for the same individuals (MOLA project).

 

08-12 Tracing mobility and landscape use in the eastern Italian Alp using oxygen, sulfur, and strontium isotope analyses on Mesolithic and Neolithic burials

Giacomo Capuzzo^1,2, Christophe Snoeck², Alice Paladin³, Valentina Coia³, Alex Fontana⁴, Omar Larentis^1,5,Umberto Tecchiati⁶, Annaluisa Pedrotti¹,Elisabetta Mottes⁷, Clément Bataille^8,9, Diego E. Angelucci¹

¹ Bagolini Laboratory: Archaeology, Archaeometry, Photography (LaBAAF), Department of Humanities, University of Trento, Trento, Italy

² Archaeology, Environmental Changes& Geo-Chemistry, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

³ Institute for Mummy Studies, Eurac Research, Bolzano, Italy

⁴ MUSE – Museo delle Scienze, Trento, Italy

⁵ CROP – Centre of Research in Osteoarchaeology and Paleopathology, Department of Biotechnology and Life Sciences, University of Insubria, Varese, Lombardy, Italy

⁶ Dipartimento di Beni Culturali e Ambientali, PrEcLab—Laboratorio di Preistoria, Protostoria ed Ecologia Preistorica, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy

⁷ Provincia autonoma di Trento, UMSt Soprintendenza per i beni e le attività culturali, Ufficio beni archeologici, Trento, Italy

⁸ Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

⁹ Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA

 In prehistoric times, the eastern Italian Alps (i.e. the Dolomites, Trentino-South Tyrol, and the Veneto Prealps) constituted a connecting region between Central Europe and the Mediterranean, which, despite its imposing nature, has been crossed by humans since the Mesolithic. The Adige and Eisack valleys, culminating in mid-altitude mountain passes such as Reschen and Brenner, provided essential north-south corridors for the circulation of people, objects, and ideas. Within the EU-funded MOLA project, bioarchaeological data derived from oxygen, sulfur, and strontium isotope analyses of cremated (only Sr) and inhumed individuals buried in the eastern Italian Alps have been integrated with advanced spatial modelling techniques. This interdisciplinary approach has allowed to unravel how social strategies influenced human mobility, landscape use, and identity formation in this mountainous region from the 5th to the 2nd millennium BC. While exotic materials, including cinnabar, rock crystal, actinolite schist, jade, shells, and steatite beads, indicate an interaction with alterity through long-distance cultural contacts with areas north of the Alps, the Po Valley, and the Italian Peninsula, isotope analyses reveal a general stationary pattern for local communities during the Neolithic. This contrasts with an increased mobility observed in later periods, highlighting evolving notions of alterity and belonging, potentially influenced by emerging socio-economic factors. Such analyses are supported by the development of a new high-resolution biologically available strontium isoscape for the eastern Italian Alps, created using a machine learning approach, and new local sulfur baselines derived from faunal remains. The results of the MOLA project will also be discussed in the light of genetic data from the same individuals (Prehistoric Alps project), offering further insights into the construction of prehistoric identities in a mountain environment.