Linear Pottery culture

The Linear Pottery culture is the name given to a Neolithic society that formed a series of agricultural communities in Central Europe more than seven thousand years ago. Also known as the LBK culture—from its German translation, Linienbandkeramik—the culture was named for the distinctive lined patterns found on its pottery. The Linear Pottery culture was among the first agricultural societies in Europe, developing along the Danube River in modern-day Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia about 5600 BCE. For this reason, archaeologists previously referred to the culture as the Danubian culture. During most of the next millennium, the culture spread along the Elba and Rhine rivers into Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and parts of France.

The origins of the Linear Pottery culture were once the subject of debate among archeologists, with many theorizing that agriculture developed naturally among the people of Central Europe. However, modern evidence suggests that members of farming communities from the Near East migrated into the region and brought their ideas with them. Evidence also suggests that there may been conflict among these newcomers and the original hunter-gatherers of the region. Examination of burial-site remains has even hinted at possible cannibalism, although this theory is controversial and not accepted by many scholars.

Overview

Archaeologists typically categorize the periods of human evolution by threshold reached in technological and cultural development. The ancestors of modern humans are believed to have branched off from chimpanzees and other primates about six million years ago. However, the most significant evolutionary milestone occurred when our human ancestors first began using simple stone tools. This seismic event in human development occurred about 2.6 million years ago, although some scientists believe it may have happened as late as 3.3 million years ago. The first tools were very rudimentary, basically just chipped and flaked stones, but allowed these early humans to pound, crush, and cut objects and demonstrated a leap forward in cognitive thinking.

The use of stone tools began a period known as the Stone Age, with the earliest and longest period called the Paleolithic, or “Old Stone Age.” The Paleolithic began about 2.6 million years ago and lasted until about twelve thousand years ago. Archeologists believe that during this time, the ancestors of modern humans evolved from scavengers to hunter-gatherers. As their brains grew larger over time, their weapons and tools developed as well. By about three hundred thousand years ago, Homo sapiens, the earliest modern humans, evolved in Africa. Archologists have found fossils of Homo sapiens outside Africa as far back as one hundred thousand years ago, but a large-scale migration from Africa did not occur until about sixty thousand years ago.

From about 1.8 million years ago to the end of the Paleolithic, humans were primarily hunter-gatherers. They lived a nomadic lifestyle, migrating with wild animal herds and moving to new areas in search of food. They continued this pattern until about twelve thousand years ago (10,000 BCE), when the last ice age ended, and the glaciers began to recede.

With a moderate climate and more space to migrate, humans began a slow transformation from a hunter-gatherer existence toward agricultural-based societies. This transitionary period brought an end to the Paleolithic era and ushered in the Mesolithic, or “Middle Stone Age.” The Mesolithic did not occur in all places at once. Archeologists generally consider it to have started in the Middle East about 10,000 BCE and reached northwestern Europe about 4000 BCE.

The full transformation to a predominantly agricultural society began the Neolithic, or “New Stone Age.” Instead of moving from place to place searching for game, humans began planting crops such as cereals and grains, and domesticating livestock. This allowed for the eventual construction of settled communities and the development of new tools to plant and harvest. Like the Mesolithic, this period gradually developed over thousands of years and took time to spread north and westward.

The earliest evidence of human agriculture dates to about 9500 BCE and was discovered in the region around modern-day Syria. The development of agriculture reached the Anatolian peninsula in modern-day Turkey by about 7000 BCE. It continued to spread from there, reaching Central Europe by about 5500 BCE and Northern Europe by about 4000 BCE. The end of the Neolithic was marked by the transition from stone tools and weapons to metal, particularly copper and iron. This transition brought in the Bronze Age, which lasted from about 3500 BCE to 1200 BCE.

Archeologists first believed that the transition into Neolithic societies occurred organically, with each progressive community developing agriculture on its own. However, DNA evidence suggests that the idea of a farm-based culture was brought to new regions by migrants who brought their ideas with them as they spread out into new lands.

The migrants who would introduce the Linear Pottery culture to Central Europe are believed to have arrived in the region by two routes. One was by boat along the coastlines of the Mediterranean. The other was by land, following the Danube River into the Carpathian Basin in Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. Their migration from the Near East and Anatolia was gradual as they first settled in the region of modern-day Serbia about 6200 to 5800 BCE. This predecessor culture, known as the Starčevo-Körös culture, continued its migration northward, and by about 5600 BCE, had firmly established itself in the Carpathian Basin as the Linear Pottery culture.

Evidence for the culture was first discovered in the early twentieth century by the Australian archaeologist V. Gordon Childe who used the term Danubian culture to describe the first agricultural societies in Central Europe. Nineteenth-century German archeologist Friedrich Klopfleisch coined the term Linienbandkeramik to note the societies that inhabited the region from about 5600 to 4500 BCE. He chose the name based on the designs of their pottery. The name Linear Pottery culture is the English translation of that term. The terms LBK culture, Linear Pottery culture, and Danubian culture are used—in some cases interchangeably—by modern archaeologists.

The creation of pottery predated the Neolithic by almost a millennium in some places, but with the onset of agriculture, pottery use became more widespread as early communities used bowls, jars, and pots to store grain and serve food. Pottery from the Starčevo-Körös culture was marked by painted vertical lines, spirals, and converging lines. Pottery designs from the Linear Pottery culture copied the designs from the Starčevo-Körös and improved upon them. The designs featured carved lines, spirals, and bands that were more direct and pronounced. Archaeologists have noted that the culture’s pottery designs underwent subtle changes over time. The pottery’s lined designs began to be broken up by puncture marks or strokes. Later, the pottery’s carved lines were replaced with lines made up of small puncture marks. Some archeologists delineate this period of development as the stroked pottery culture.

The people of the Linear Pottery culture did not remain near the Danube River in Hungary but continued to migrate westward toward the Rhine and Elbe rivers in modern-day Germany and the Czech Republic. They likely moved in fits and spurts over centuries, “leapfrogging” previous settlements to establish new ones that were hundreds of miles away. DNA evidence suggests they likely took their families with them as they migrated. Eventually, the culture spread north and west into Belgium and northern France, north into Poland, and east into parts of Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine.

As they traveled, the early farmers would have encountered the Mesolithic hunter-gatherer societies living in the region. DNA evidence shows that some interbreeding between the two groups occurred but was minimal. Direct evidence of violence between the groups not been found, leading to the early belief that the people of the Linear Pottery culture were peaceful. However, evidence suggests that some groups built rudimentary fortifications around their villages. Also, examinations of several mass burial pits in the region show signs that the dead interred there died violently. Not all experts agree with this assertion, as some believe the markings on the remains are signs of ritual violence and not group warfare.

Markings on the remains at several sites in Germany also seem to hint that the dead may have been cannibalized. Many of the bones feature cut marks that seem to indicate the body was at least partially dissected after death. The evidence suggests the cannibalization, if it did occur, was not for sustenance but for rituals. Again, many experts dismiss this conjecture and believe the markings show signs of the reburial of remains or the ritual removal of flesh before burial.

The Linear Pottery culture remained dominant in Central Europe until about 4500 BCE. Archeologists believe that over time, the people bred with other farming cultures, and, in the late stages, even local Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. By the mid-fifth millennium BCE, the Linear Pottery culture had faded and was replaced with other Neolithic farming societies.

Further insights

The Linear Pottery culture was a farming-based community that harvested a variety of domesticated crops, most of which were staples among the first agricultural communities in the Near East. They included emmer wheat, a type of wheat with the outer hull removed, and einkorn wheat, a wild-growing wheat and one of the first human-cultivated grains. Farmers also grew other grains such as barley, millet, and rye, and peas, lentils, crab apples, and broad beans. The crops were planted on fertile terraced land, typically near rivers. In addition to crops, the people also domesticated livestock, primarily cattle. They also raised domesticated pigs, goats, and sheep. To ensure enough food, hunters also pursued deer and wild boar.

The people of the Linear Pottery culture practiced several funeral rituals. In the early days of the culture, woman and children were interred in the ground under their homes. One theory links this practice to the domestic roles that women played in raising children and taking care of the home. Men were burial elsewhere, typically in grave pits or cemeteries. In the later Linear Pottery period, men and women were buried together in cemeteries. Graves were typically lined with clay, plaster, or stone and grave goods were sometime buried with the person.

As of 2021, archeologists have uncovered about eighty cemeteries with three thousand gravesites in the region. Some graves seem to have been arranged together in a pattern, suggesting they may have been part of a family or clan. Cemeteries ranged from about twenty graves to two hundred. Some bodies were buried and arranged in the grave in a flexed, fetal-like position, while others were cremated beforehand. In some cases, people from outside the region were also interred in the cemeteries, leading some experts to theorize that the culture may have practiced slavery.

The tools used by the culture were mostly made of flint and obsidian. People living in what is today Poland used a high-quality stone called chocolate flint, which was easy to chip and form into tools. They used a large, thin polished stone known as a shoe-last celt—from the English pronunciation of the German term schuhleistenkeil—to cut down trees and craft wood. Another important tool used for cutting and shaping wood was the adz, a type of hand ax that used a chipped stone attached to a wooden handle. To harvest grain, the people used chipped flint sickles inserted into curved pieces of wood.

Most Linear Pottery communities consisted of about five to eight longhouses that were typically rectangular in shape. These structures were built with large timber posts and spaced about 65 feet (20 meters) apart. They were insulated with wattle and daub, which was made from clay or mud and mixed with twigs and straw. Straw was also used to thatch the structures’ roofs. The houses varied in length from about 23 feet (7 meters) to 148 feet (45 meters). They were generally about 16-feet (5-meters) to 23-feet (7-meters) wide. The longhouses were likely home to several families and were also used as a place to house the community livestock. Some communities were protected by large wooden stakes that acted as a defensive wall and were also encircled by a ditch.

The people of the Linear Pottery culture were short-statured compared their modern equivalent. This fact was true of all ancient farming cultures, which were considerably shorter on average than their hunter-gatherer counterparts. Men ranged in height from about 5 feet 1 inch (156.5 centimeters) to 5 feet 9 inches (175.5 centimeters). The average male height was 5 feet 6 inches (166.6 centimeters). Women had an average height of 5 feet 2 inches (166.6 centimeters). DNA tests conducted on archaeological remains show that the people of the Linear Pottery culture had light skin, dark hair, and brown eyes. In contrast, the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers of the region had darker skin and hair and blue eyes. The average person of the time could expect to live into their twenties or thirties.

About the Author

Richard Sheposh graduated from Penn State University in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications and journalism. He spent twenty-three years working in the newspaper industry as a writer and an editor before entering the educational publishing business.

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