Neolithic other by Daniela Hofmann
Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 2025
This paper re-evaluates recent kinship studies in Neolithic Ireland through a close analysis of b... more This paper re-evaluates recent kinship studies in Neolithic Ireland through a close analysis of biomolecular and fine-grained archaeological data. It outlines the rich possibilities these datasets offer when interwoven to enhance our understanding of diverse webs of social relationships. We synthesize a range of archaeological and scientific data to form a new model of kinship and its relationship to shifting traditions of megalith building and funerary and cosmological practices. This model is put in dialogue with recently published genetic data and used to test a variety of explanations for the patterns of biological relatedness revealed using these methods. We argue that the detected genetic patterning is best interpreted as reflecting a reconfiguration of social relations after 3600 BC linked to the consolidation of emergent social and religious communities.
Tracking the Neolithic House in Europe Sedentism, Architecture and Practice, 2013
In D. Hofmann and J. Smyth (eds), Tracking the Neolithic house in Europe – sedentism, architectur... more In D. Hofmann and J. Smyth (eds), Tracking the Neolithic house in Europe – sedentism, architecture and practice. New York: Springer
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 2023
In the light of discussions surrounding the social changes attributed to the arrival of the Corde... more In the light of discussions surrounding the social changes attributed to the arrival of the CordedWare culture in
central Europe, here we investigate the economic strategies of one of the cultural complexes of the immediately
preceding Late Neolithic. The Cham culture of southern Bavaria is characterised by a variety of economic
choices but problems remain in synthesising and combining archaeozoological and archaeobotanical evidence.
Using lipid residue analysis from Cham culture pottery excavated at the unenclosed settlement of Riedling,
Lower Bavaria, we succeed in identifying a dairying economy at this time. Compound-specific lipid radiocarbon
dates are then combined with other samples to provide a formal estimate for the duration of activity at Riedling
and the first Bayesian chronological model for the Cham culture as a whole. Although data are currently not
fine-grained enough to distinguish between competing models for site permanence, we suggest that the Cham
culture pattern fits into a wider central European trend of greater mobility and economic flexibility in the pre-
Corded Ware horizon, concluding that key economic strategies previously associated with ‘steppe invasions’
were already present in the preceding centuries. Finally, the demonstrated use of cups for milk-based products,
as opposed to alcoholic drinks as previously suggested, leads us to propose possible alternative uses and users
for these items.
Open Archaeology, 2023
In this article, we critically review recurrent tropes, implicit frameworks, and unexplained conc... more In this article, we critically review recurrent tropes, implicit frameworks, and unexplained concepts in current research on the process of "Neolithisation" in the western part of southern Norway. Two models are on offer, as also seen elsewhere in the European research: either 1) the transition to agriculture is rapid and substantially carried by migrants, or 2) the Late Neolithic transition builds on a long history of local adaptation. After outlining these models, we scrutinise especially west Norwegian evidence, pointing out ambiguities and limitations in the material which mean that neither of the two models fit. In the final section, we consider which new questions could be asked to move beyond the current, somewhat polarised debate: Who are the actors of the transition, how are boundaries between groups created, and can the acknowledgement of the complexity of the process of 'migration' result in new narratives? Addressing these questions remains a fundamental challenge for archaeological migration studies as a whole.
M. Grygiel and P. Obst (eds), Walking among ancient trees. Studies in honour of Ryszard Grygiel and Peter Bogucki on the 45th anniversary of their research collaboration, 293-304. Łódź: Muzeum Archeologiczne i Etnograficzne w Łodzi., 2022
This paper discusses the role of structured deposits, including the deposition of material cultur... more This paper discusses the role of structured deposits, including the deposition of material culture, animal bodies and human remains, in the
southern Bavarian Münchshöfen culture. This is placed in the context of
debates surrounding increasing social inequality in 5th millennium central
Europe. In this case study, there is no compelling evidence for a preoccupation with prestige goods and individual aggrandising behaviour.
Instead, group-oriented strategies such as feasting fit the evidence better.
Competition may have existed at the level of settlement and/or ritual
communities, using structured deposits selectively as one element in defining group boundaries. However, distinctions based on these strategies appear to have been short-lived
Idolos – miradas milenarias, 2020
English version of a paper published in Spanish as:
Hofmann, D. 2020. Del barro a la piedra: cont... more English version of a paper published in Spanish as:
Hofmann, D. 2020. Del barro a la piedra: contraste ente las representaciones antropomorfas en la Europa centro meridional [English version: From clay to stone: contrasting human representations in southern central Europe]. In P. Bueno Ramírez and J. A. Soler Díaz (eds), Idolos – miradas milenarias, 114-29. Alicante: Museo Arqueológico de Alicante.
Hungarian Archaeology, 2020
Our study presents a Late Neolithic enclosed settlement from Lower Bavaria. This site arouses int... more Our study presents a Late Neolithic enclosed settlement from Lower Bavaria. This site arouses interest not only regionally but also on a Central European level, as several phenomena emerged during this period along the Danube in Lower Bavaria that are strongly linked to the Carpathian Basin and other parts of Central Europe. In our present report, we focus on one phenomenon of the many at Riedling, the so-called structured deposits. These find assemblages are probably results of intentional selection of the material culture deposited deliberately, perhaps related to single ritual events. (also downloadabale online at http://www.hungarianarchaeology.hu/?page_id=279#post-8604)
Current Swedish Archaeology, 2019
Megaliths, Societies, landscapes. Early monumentality and social differentiation in Neolithic Europe (eds J. Mueller, M. Hinz, M. Wunderlich). Bonn: Habelt, pp 939-56, 2019
In this paper, we briefly discuss the role played by the southern
Bavarian Münchshöfen culture (c... more In this paper, we briefly discuss the role played by the southern
Bavarian Münchshöfen culture (c. 4500 – 3900 cal BC) in
the wider European networks of material, social and ritual innovations
which characterise the later Neolithic. Two key aspects
are the construction of monumental enclosures – many
of them causewayed – and the structured deposition of objects,
animals and humans. This is also attested for the Münchshöfen
culture and the paper begins by briefly summarising the current
state of research. However, prestige goods (copper, Alpine
jade axes) are strikingly absent in the study area. In the final
part of the paper, we briefly outline the possible ways in which
this selective pattern of the adoption, adaptation and rejection
of innovations could be further investigated, using the enclosure
site of Riedling as an example. This site is currently the
focus of a newly-established research project but holds the potential
to contribute to these broader questions in the future.
Contacts, boundaries and innovation in the 5th millennium. Exploring developed Neolithic societies in central Europe and beyond, 2019
The fifth millennium is characterized by far-flung contacts and a veritable flood of innovations.... more The fifth millennium is characterized by far-flung contacts and a veritable flood of innovations. While its beginning is still strongly reminiscent of a broadly Line-arbandkeramik way of life, at its end we find new, interregionally valid forms of symbolism, representation and ritual behaviour, changes in the settlement system, in architecture and in routine life. Yet, these interregional tendencies are paired with a profusion of increasingly small-scale archaeological cultures, many of them defined through pottery only. This tension between large-scale interaction and more local developments remains ill understood, largely because interregional comparisons are lacking. Contributors in this volume provide up-to-date regional overviews of the main developments in the fifth millennium and discuss, amongst others, in how far ceramically-defined 'cultures' can be seen as spatially coherent social groups with their own way of life and worldview, and how processes of innovation can be understood. Case studies range from the Neolithisation of the Netherlands, hunter-gatherer-farmer fusions in the Polish Lowlands, to the Italian Neolithic. Amongst others, they cover the circulation of stone disc-rings in western Europe, the formation of post-LBK societies in central Europe and the reliability of pottery as an indicator for social transformations.
Whole book available at: https://www.sidestone.com/books/contacts-boundaries-and-innovation-in-the-fifth-millennium
Die hier vorgestellten Projekte des Instituts für Vor-und Frühgeschichtliche Archäologie der Univ... more Die hier vorgestellten Projekte des Instituts für Vor-und Frühgeschichtliche Archäologie der Universität Hamburg repräsentieren das breite Spektrum vielfältiger Aktivitäten und Forschungen von Lehrenden und Studierenden, die chronologisch von der Steinzeit bis in die jüngste Vergangenheit und räumlich teils weit über Norddeutschland hinaus reichen. Feldforschungen an Land und unter Wasser, Studienprojekte, Drittmittelvorhaben, Auswertungen älterer und neuerer Grabungen, Studien zur Geschichte des Faches, Geoprospektionen, Experimentalarchäologie, Herstellungs-und Gebrauchsspurenanalysen, 3D-Mikro-skopie und digitale Modellierungen zeigen, wie vielfältig die Vor-und Frühgeschichtliche Archäologie an der Universität Hamburg tätig ist. Über all dies wird in diesem Buch exemplarisch und allgemeinverständlich berichtet.
No time out: Scaling material diversity and change in the Alpine foreland Neolithic
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 2017
The link below provides FREE ACESS for 50 days
https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1U06q-JVbZRsQ
Wit... more The link below provides FREE ACESS for 50 days
https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1U06q-JVbZRsQ
Within a project exploring the difference which high-precision chronologies make for narratives of the European Neolithic, this paper examines the place of material culture in the flow of social existence. In
contrast to approaches based on imprecise chronologies and stressing gradual change, we examine increasingly high-resolution dendrochronological data in the Neolithic of the northern Alpine foreland, where sharp boundaries between material styles were not in evidence. While 60-year filters allow a more differentiated analysis of the relative distribution of Cortaillod and Pfyn pottery, higher-resolution dendrochronology enables a very detailed narrative of the rapid introduction of Corded Ware in the Lake Zürich area, highlighting significant differences between eastern and western Switzerland. At the scale of individual sites, Concise shows continuity of the local potting tradition, despite repeated episodes of outside influence. At the short-lived site Arbon Bleiche 3, pottery changes much less than diet. This reveals a complex pattern of exactly contemporary diversity, seen even more sharply at the very briefly occupied settlement of Bad Buchau Torwiesen II. To get at agency within the flow of social life, we need as much temporal and spatial detail as possible, close attention to the material and approaches that allow for nuanced narratives.
The Life and Times of the House: Multi-Scalar Perspectives on Settlement from the Neolithic of the Northern Alpine Foreland
The settlement record of the Neolithic of the northern Alpine foreland is used to address the que... more The settlement record of the Neolithic of the northern Alpine foreland is used to address the question of what difference having high-resolution chronology — in this case principally provided by dendrochronology — makes to the kinds of narrative we seek to write about the Neolithic. In a search for detailed histories, three kinds of scale are examined. The longer-term development of cultural patterns and boundaries is found to correlate very imprecisely with the character and architecture of settlements. Individual houses and settlements were generally short-lived, suggesting considerable fluidity in social relations at the local level. Greater continuity can be found in the landscape, perhaps involving more than individual communities. We argue that the particular history of the northern Alpine foreland is best understood by interweaving multiple temporal scales, an approach that will need to be extended to other case studies.
Journal of Iberian Archaeology 9/10, 2007
Intimate connection: bodies and substances in flux in the early Neolithic of central Europe
Relational Archaeologies. Humans, animals, things (ed. C. Watts), May 2013
Tracking the Neolithic House in Europe. Sedentism, Architecture and Practice, Jan 2013
In this brief introduction, the editors outline the structure of the volume and explain its ratio... more In this brief introduction, the editors outline the structure of the volume and explain its rationale, before drawing out some key themes that emerge from the various contributions. In particular, they critically discuss the recent ontological focus on materials and its relation to human agency, the role of architecture in routine practice, the potential cosmological dimensions of the house, and possible avenues for examining transmission and change. They argue for the importance of a stronger comparative focus in re-invigorating the debate on how one kind of building and dwelling could transform into another.
La interpretacion de la arquitectura domestica del Neolitico en Europa
El Neolitico en la Peninsula Iberica y su contexto Europeo (eds M. Rojo Guerra, R. Garrido Pena, I. Garcia Martinez de Lagran)
Neolithic Bodies
Prehistoric Europe: theory and practice, Jan 1, 2008
Journal of Iberian Archaeology 8, 2006
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Neolithic other by Daniela Hofmann
central Europe, here we investigate the economic strategies of one of the cultural complexes of the immediately
preceding Late Neolithic. The Cham culture of southern Bavaria is characterised by a variety of economic
choices but problems remain in synthesising and combining archaeozoological and archaeobotanical evidence.
Using lipid residue analysis from Cham culture pottery excavated at the unenclosed settlement of Riedling,
Lower Bavaria, we succeed in identifying a dairying economy at this time. Compound-specific lipid radiocarbon
dates are then combined with other samples to provide a formal estimate for the duration of activity at Riedling
and the first Bayesian chronological model for the Cham culture as a whole. Although data are currently not
fine-grained enough to distinguish between competing models for site permanence, we suggest that the Cham
culture pattern fits into a wider central European trend of greater mobility and economic flexibility in the pre-
Corded Ware horizon, concluding that key economic strategies previously associated with ‘steppe invasions’
were already present in the preceding centuries. Finally, the demonstrated use of cups for milk-based products,
as opposed to alcoholic drinks as previously suggested, leads us to propose possible alternative uses and users
for these items.
southern Bavarian Münchshöfen culture. This is placed in the context of
debates surrounding increasing social inequality in 5th millennium central
Europe. In this case study, there is no compelling evidence for a preoccupation with prestige goods and individual aggrandising behaviour.
Instead, group-oriented strategies such as feasting fit the evidence better.
Competition may have existed at the level of settlement and/or ritual
communities, using structured deposits selectively as one element in defining group boundaries. However, distinctions based on these strategies appear to have been short-lived
Hofmann, D. 2020. Del barro a la piedra: contraste ente las representaciones antropomorfas en la Europa centro meridional [English version: From clay to stone: contrasting human representations in southern central Europe]. In P. Bueno Ramírez and J. A. Soler Díaz (eds), Idolos – miradas milenarias, 114-29. Alicante: Museo Arqueológico de Alicante.
Bavarian Münchshöfen culture (c. 4500 – 3900 cal BC) in
the wider European networks of material, social and ritual innovations
which characterise the later Neolithic. Two key aspects
are the construction of monumental enclosures – many
of them causewayed – and the structured deposition of objects,
animals and humans. This is also attested for the Münchshöfen
culture and the paper begins by briefly summarising the current
state of research. However, prestige goods (copper, Alpine
jade axes) are strikingly absent in the study area. In the final
part of the paper, we briefly outline the possible ways in which
this selective pattern of the adoption, adaptation and rejection
of innovations could be further investigated, using the enclosure
site of Riedling as an example. This site is currently the
focus of a newly-established research project but holds the potential
to contribute to these broader questions in the future.
Whole book available at: https://www.sidestone.com/books/contacts-boundaries-and-innovation-in-the-fifth-millennium
https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1U06q-JVbZRsQ
Within a project exploring the difference which high-precision chronologies make for narratives of the European Neolithic, this paper examines the place of material culture in the flow of social existence. In
contrast to approaches based on imprecise chronologies and stressing gradual change, we examine increasingly high-resolution dendrochronological data in the Neolithic of the northern Alpine foreland, where sharp boundaries between material styles were not in evidence. While 60-year filters allow a more differentiated analysis of the relative distribution of Cortaillod and Pfyn pottery, higher-resolution dendrochronology enables a very detailed narrative of the rapid introduction of Corded Ware in the Lake Zürich area, highlighting significant differences between eastern and western Switzerland. At the scale of individual sites, Concise shows continuity of the local potting tradition, despite repeated episodes of outside influence. At the short-lived site Arbon Bleiche 3, pottery changes much less than diet. This reveals a complex pattern of exactly contemporary diversity, seen even more sharply at the very briefly occupied settlement of Bad Buchau Torwiesen II. To get at agency within the flow of social life, we need as much temporal and spatial detail as possible, close attention to the material and approaches that allow for nuanced narratives.