Europe’s prehistory oversaw dynamic and complex interactions of diverse societies, hitherto unexplored at detailed regional scales. Studying 271 human genomes dated ~4900 to 1600 BCE from the European heartland, Bohemia, we reveal unprecedented genetic changes and social processes. Major migrations preceded the arrival of “steppe” ancestry, and at ~2800 BCE, three genetically and culturally differentiated groups coexisted. Corded Ware appeared by 2900 BCE, were initially genetically diverse, did not derive all steppe ancestry from known Yamnaya, and assimilated females of diverse backgrounds. Both Corded Ware and Bell Beaker groups underwent dynamic changes, involving sharp reductions and complete replacements of Y-chromosomal diversity at ~2600 and ~2400 BCE, respectively, the latter accompanied by increased Neolithic-like ancestry. The Bronze Age saw new social organization emerge amid a ≥40% population turnover.

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Some recent archaeological landscape projects in Czechoslovakia have found a theoretical background within the concept of ’community areas‘. According to this concept prehistoric populations are approached as divided into communities. Each community is supposed to have shared a common territory within which most of its activities were concentrated. The community area consisted of several sub-areas (e.g. habitation areas, specific production areas, funerary areas, etc.) where activities different in function were performed (Neustupny 1986; 1991). The theory of community areas is not, however, limited to the identification of community areas themselves. It is rather a general approach, based on presumption and identification of patterns or structures underlying the archaeological record and reflecting structured human behaviour in the past. Using some concepts of the community area theory, this paper aims at analysing prehistoric habitation areas in the territory of Bohemia and articulating some general hypotheses concerning settlement processes and structures on various levels of complexity.

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