Development and Idea of Neolithic longhouses in Middle Europe

Summary

The earliest longhouses of the first agricultural population in Central Europe appear discontinuously, without continuity with the previous settlement; only indirect information about the residence patterns of the latter is available. This is due to both different settlement strategy of the Mesolithic hunter-gatherer groups, and the state of research. Therefore, only the evolution of Central European Neolithic longhouses can be assessed. Their introduction in Central Europe is supposed to be of Carpathian basin origin. The longhouse ground plan pattern varied throughout the Neolithic, namely not gradually but abruptly and along with changes of other cultural elements. Although the basic type scheme of the pole construction with wattle-and-daub walls seems to be clear, construction details including the interior layout and equipment remain undocumented. Current interpretations of longhouses function are based on the analysis of artefacts structure. It cannot be ruled out that they served not only as home for the living but also place for the rest of the dead.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• The "Neolithic House": Worldwide Comparisons

Keywords

Spatial Coverage