Early Neolithic by Daniela Hofmann
F. Klimscha, M. Heumüller, D.C.M. Raemaekers, H. Peeters and T. Terberger (eds), Stone Age borderland experience: Neolithic and Late Mesolithic parallel societies in the North European Plain, 263-95. Rahden: Marie Leidorf, 2022
Migration is definitely back on the agenda, but so far archaeological contextualisations have lag... more Migration is definitely back on the agenda, but so far archaeological contextualisations have lagged behind the
accumulation of archaeogenetic data, leading to relatively simple ‘either/or’-scenarios. From the perspective of diversity in
social interaction between ‘receiving’ and ‘incoming’ (groups of) individuals, we explore three different situations in which
migration played a role in the uptake of the Neolithic in order to tease out the social processes and complexities hidden under
the blanket term ‘migration’. In the case of the Linearbandkeramik (LBK), potentials for forager-farmer interaction differed
strongly between earlier and later phases and across regions, a pattern connected to changing landscape use and mobility
regimes within the LBK, as well as the changing utilisation of material culture in identity creation. In the Low Countries, it is
much harder to draw a definite line between foragers and farmers based on mobility or environmental impact, and foragers
had been used to dealing with population movements. There is thus far less difference between the actors, and a concomitantly
greater involvement of both in shaping the Neolithic. In contrast, in southern Scandinavia and northern Germany there
is the perennial question of whether the ‘complex’ Ertebølle hunter-gatherers eventually fell for the lures of Neolithic luxury
goods, or should be credited in resisting long enough to drive a Neolithisation on their own terms. However, societies here are
more internally diverse than is generally appreciated, pointing to different interaction mechanisms inland and on the coast.
Overall, several interaction scenarios succeed each other in time and/or space, in each of our regions. This paper hence also
calls for maintaining an archaeological style of enquiry that allows for indeterminacy and open-endedness in the study of
human interactions.
Landnahme im „Niemandsland“. Die Ausbreitung der Linienbandkeramik nach Mitteleuropa.
F. Klimscha and L. Wiggering (eds), Die Erfindung der Götter. Steinzeit im Norden. Eine Ausstellung des Niedersächsischen Landesmuseums Hannover, 74-83. Petersberg: Michael Imhof, 2022
Museum catalogue contribution
FEMALE MOBILITY PATTERNS IN PREHISTORY: PATRILOCALITY, DESCENT AND KINSHIP OF THE LINEARBANDKERAMIK (LBK
D’Oberlarg à Wesaluri, itinéraire d’un préhistorien. Mélanges offerts à Christian Jeunesse, AVAGE, Strasbourg, 2022 (Mémoires d’Archéologie du Grand Est 8)., 2022
Please contact me for a PDF
There is an emerging consensus from isotopic and aDNA studies
tha... more Please contact me for a PDF
There is an emerging consensus from isotopic and aDNA studies
that throughout the Neolithic, women tended to experience
greater mobility over their lifetime than men, and that this is
consistent with patrilocal practices. However, what this means
for the differing experiences of women in these societies is only
beginning to be addressed. Taking our cue from anthropological studies on the diversity of kinship constructions and the differences
in female post-marital status in patrilocal societies, we
re-investigate evidence for Linearbandkeramik (LBK) household
relations and cemetery burial to show the potential for more
diverse narratives.
Danish Journal of Archaeology, 2022
This paper explores the current narratives of migration for the start and spread of the Neolithic... more This paper explores the current narratives of migration for the start and spread of the Neolithic with a particular focus on the role that the new ancient DNA data have provided. While the genetic data are important and instructive, here it is argued that archaeologists should also consider other strands of evidence. More nuanced appreciations of migration as a longterm process can be created by exploring modern mobility studies alongside considerations of continued mobility throughout the Neolithic in Europe. We can also re-interpret the material evidence itself in the light of these approaches to help trace multiple possible links and migrations from multiple different origin points. This involves the investigation of complex, but connected, practices, such as monument construction and deposition across wider areas of northern Europe than are currently normally investigated. Such an approach will enable us to address long-term processes of movement, migration and interaction and investigate how new, shared social experiences emerged in a setting in which mobility and migration may have been the norm.
Idolos-miradas milenarias, 2020
Del barro a la piedra: contraste ente las representaciones antropomorfas en la Europa centro meri... more Del barro a la piedra: contraste ente las representaciones antropomorfas en la Europa centro meridional. In P. Bueno Ramírez and J. A. Soler Díaz (eds), Idolos-miradas milenarias, 114-29. Alicante: Museo Arqueológico de Alicante
Quaternary International, 2020
This paper argues that personal and group migration (as a subset of mobility) was a central featu... more This paper argues that personal and group migration (as a subset of mobility) was a central feature of Linearbandkeramik (c. 5500-4900 cal BC) life, and not confined to short-term events along the agricultural frontier. The first part summarises the data currently available on individual migration (mostly interpreted as female exogamy) and the migration of households or groups of households. It is noted that in current models, migratory behaviour is often seen as pertaining to lower-status groups or that it constitutes a crisis response. In the second part of the paper, I outline the evidence, both isotopic and archaeological, for migration as a constant behaviour and show where this has opened up avenues for new research, notably concerning the use of non-loess areas. In turn, narratives suggesting an increase in hierarchical differences throughout the LBK as a whole are challenged. It is argued that migration was an accepted social strategy that could be used to gain status, and counteracted the creation of hereditary and durable social stratification in established settlement sites. Seeing migration as a constant in LBK life can thus lead to a reinterpretation of other aspects of this early farming society.
In D. Hofmann (ed.), Magical, mundane or marginal? Deposition practices in the Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik culture, 9-32. Leiden: Sidestone, 2020
Telling apart instances of “ritual” versus “profane” deposition has been a central problem in sev... more Telling apart instances of “ritual” versus “profane” deposition has been a central problem in several European archaeological traditions. In the UK, particularly but not exclusively for the Neolithic, the term “structured deposition” provides an opportunity to transcend this unhelpful duality, but has sometimes been too strongly weighted towards the exceptional. Continental scholars have recognised the same terminological difficulty, but have often been reluctant to directly address how more unusual deposits can provide insights into past worldviews. This has also been the case for the Linearbandkeramik culture. This brief introduction summarises the papers of the volume with a view to establishing a tentative “depositional logical”, outlining similarities and differences between various contexts of practice — burials, enclosures, settlement sites and natural places — as a basis for further targeted investigation. Deliberate destruction, particularly of pottery, emerges as a practice linking several spheres of activity and can be opposed to the deposition of complete items. Through such acts, otherwise mundane objects could become part of ritualised action. Questions for future research are then outlined, focusing in particular on the wider historical context of LBK depositional traditions within the Neolithic sequence, and on possible reasons for differential practices within the LBK itself.
Keywords: Linearbandkeramik; structured deposition; depositional practice; spheres of action
These appendices contain the data used in Hofmann 2020, LBK structured desposits as magical pract... more These appendices contain the data used in Hofmann 2020, LBK structured desposits as magical practices
Magical, Mundane or Marginal? Deposition Practices in the Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik culture (ed. D. Hofmann, Sidestone Press), 2020
This paper provides the first overview of deliberately placed deposits in the Linearbandkeramik c... more This paper provides the first overview of deliberately placed deposits in the Linearbandkeramik culture. The focus is on “structured” deposits, here seen as those which can be considered to have a ritualised component. After outlining criteria for their definition, the paper distinguishes between single-category deposits (i.e. those with only one kind of item, generally either polished tools, grinding stones, animal bone, chipped stone or pottery) and mixed-category deposits, which
combine a variety of artefact types. Both are generally found on LBK settlement sites, but can also occur in the landscape. Their contents are analysed and compared to those of cemetery graves, pits containing fragmented human remains, and so-called “cenotaphs” (grave-like pits in cemetery sites which do not contain human bone). This reveals a separation of cemetery burials from the other contexts, with
the former more directly focused on the presentation of individual identity (e.g. through ornaments) and the latter including a greater variety of items connected with daily activities, including food production. It is suggested that the use of such seemingly “mundane” items in ritualised contexts could be compatible with a reading as magical practices, given also the great variability of the corpus. Finally,
the implications of this statement for LBK society are considered.
Keywords: Linearbandkeramik; structured deposition; magic; social structure
Migration played a central role throughout the LBK culture. After summarising the motivations for... more Migration played a central role throughout the LBK culture. After summarising the motivations for migration in the earliest LBK, the article outlines how some of these factors remained relevant in later phases. Beyond continued west- and eastward expansion, at regional and site levels migration to better one’s social position provided an alternative to patrilineal land inheritance. The main change between the earliest and later phases is the role of material culture after migration events. Initially a means of creating long-distance connections, it later stressed difference from other groups. This process of ethnogenesis is invisible genetically. Overall, migration emerges as a salient behaviour even in ‘sedentary’ Neolithic societies.
This paper compares exceptionally long houses from five Linearbandkeramik sites, tracing their bi... more This paper compares exceptionally long houses from five Linearbandkeramik sites, tracing their biographies and contextualising them within the histories of their specific sites. This reveales intriguing commonalities in the significance of such monumentalised houses.
A PDF is available on request.
Death embodied: archaeological approaches to the treatment of the corpse (eds: Z. Devlin & E.J. Graham; Oxbow), 2015
Something out of the ordinary, 2016
This paper considers the possible social role of La Hoguette pottery in its dynamic relation to t... more This paper considers the possible social role of La Hoguette pottery in its dynamic relation to the Linearbandkeramik
Something out of the Ordinary?, 2016
This brief introduction charts the role of 'diversity' as an explanatory concept in LBK studies
Something out of the Ordinary? Interpreting Diversity in the Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik abd Beyond
This paper is concerned with the impact of ancient DNA data on our models of the Mesolithic–Neoli... more This paper is concerned with the impact of ancient DNA data on our models of the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in central Europe. Beginning with a brief overview of how genetic data have been received by archaeologists working in this area, it outlines the potential and remaining problems of this kind of evidence. As a migration around the beginning of the Neolithic now seems certain, new research foci are then suggested. One is renewed attention to the motivations and modalities of the migration process. The second is a fundamental change in attitude towards the capabilities of immigrant Neolithic populations to behave in novel and creative ways, abilities which in our transition models were long exclusively associated with hunter-gatherers.
Memory, myth and long-term landscape inhabitation, 2013
The first farmers of central Europe. Diversity in LBK lifeways., 2013
Gives an overview of the LBK archaeology of southern Bavaria and discusses the results of a major... more Gives an overview of the LBK archaeology of southern Bavaria and discusses the results of a major isotope project in the area.
Uploads
Early Neolithic by Daniela Hofmann
accumulation of archaeogenetic data, leading to relatively simple ‘either/or’-scenarios. From the perspective of diversity in
social interaction between ‘receiving’ and ‘incoming’ (groups of) individuals, we explore three different situations in which
migration played a role in the uptake of the Neolithic in order to tease out the social processes and complexities hidden under
the blanket term ‘migration’. In the case of the Linearbandkeramik (LBK), potentials for forager-farmer interaction differed
strongly between earlier and later phases and across regions, a pattern connected to changing landscape use and mobility
regimes within the LBK, as well as the changing utilisation of material culture in identity creation. In the Low Countries, it is
much harder to draw a definite line between foragers and farmers based on mobility or environmental impact, and foragers
had been used to dealing with population movements. There is thus far less difference between the actors, and a concomitantly
greater involvement of both in shaping the Neolithic. In contrast, in southern Scandinavia and northern Germany there
is the perennial question of whether the ‘complex’ Ertebølle hunter-gatherers eventually fell for the lures of Neolithic luxury
goods, or should be credited in resisting long enough to drive a Neolithisation on their own terms. However, societies here are
more internally diverse than is generally appreciated, pointing to different interaction mechanisms inland and on the coast.
Overall, several interaction scenarios succeed each other in time and/or space, in each of our regions. This paper hence also
calls for maintaining an archaeological style of enquiry that allows for indeterminacy and open-endedness in the study of
human interactions.
There is an emerging consensus from isotopic and aDNA studies
that throughout the Neolithic, women tended to experience
greater mobility over their lifetime than men, and that this is
consistent with patrilocal practices. However, what this means
for the differing experiences of women in these societies is only
beginning to be addressed. Taking our cue from anthropological studies on the diversity of kinship constructions and the differences
in female post-marital status in patrilocal societies, we
re-investigate evidence for Linearbandkeramik (LBK) household
relations and cemetery burial to show the potential for more
diverse narratives.
Keywords: Linearbandkeramik; structured deposition; depositional practice; spheres of action
combine a variety of artefact types. Both are generally found on LBK settlement sites, but can also occur in the landscape. Their contents are analysed and compared to those of cemetery graves, pits containing fragmented human remains, and so-called “cenotaphs” (grave-like pits in cemetery sites which do not contain human bone). This reveals a separation of cemetery burials from the other contexts, with
the former more directly focused on the presentation of individual identity (e.g. through ornaments) and the latter including a greater variety of items connected with daily activities, including food production. It is suggested that the use of such seemingly “mundane” items in ritualised contexts could be compatible with a reading as magical practices, given also the great variability of the corpus. Finally,
the implications of this statement for LBK society are considered.
Keywords: Linearbandkeramik; structured deposition; magic; social structure
A PDF is available on request.