How do they fit together? A case study of Neolithic pottery typology and radiocarbon chronology

Abstract

The object of the paper is to update the current concept of the chronology of the Neolithic (c. 5400–3300 BC) of the Czech Republic and northern Lower Austria by comparing the typo-chronological development of pottery and modelling the corresponding radiocarbon dates. Up until now, pottery and its style have often been perceived in Central Europe as “basic indicators” of archaeological cultures or pottery traditions, which are then further divided into chronological stages and phases. And yet, an analysis of the relationships of all three levels of these entities in the context of four types of models of radiocarbon dates indicates that changes in the original material culture do not necessarily occur on a time axis. While it is true that archaeological cultures have proven to be the robust materialisation of primarily chronological trends valid in larger geographic areas, at the level of general and more detailed pottery groups, development can be manifested in other ways (regionally, socially or in a way that is difficult to interpret). Central Europe – Neolithic – pottery typo-chronology – archaeological culture – radiocarbon dating

Dead and Cremated

“…Chronologies of the cemeteries discussed above were only broad phases based on typologies. And as the analysis of Franti∏ek Trampota and Petr Květina (2020) showed changes in the original material culture do not necessarily occur on a time axis. Hence more refined chronologies, such as whether a burial group/row was added to in a particular direction, or whether one area was finished before another came into use, do not yet exist.…”

Neolithic Settlements in Central Europe: Data from the Project ‘Lifestyle as an Unintentional Identity in the Neolithic’

“…The dataset discussed here represents a part of the 'Lifestyle as an Unintentional Identity in the Neolithic' project focusing on settlement patterns in the studied regions. Other parts of the project focus on the diet of the given populations through the study of stable isotopes and tooth microwear and chronological modelling of pottery styles based on radiocarbon data [1]. The density of radiocarbon dates is still low for some of the studied periods and/or regions and thus it was not yet possible to fully integrate these two types of evidence.…”

“…The reuse potential is somewhat limited by the temporal uncertainty in this evidence given that the time dimension is represented only by relative chronological phases. This is because radiocarbon dates are still largely missing for some of the chronological phases and/or regions [1,2] and enhancing this settlement data with radiocarbon dates would show temporal dynamics in unprecedented detail.…”

K datování věteřovských keramických souborů na střední Moravě

“…Výsledky, jakkoliv zatím nepočetné, ukazují napříč pravěkem velmi podobné trendy, které jen málo odpovídají vstupním představám. Několik nezávislých sumarizací dat pro neolit ukázalo, že základní kultury jsou skutečně konzistentní celky, ovšem jejich dílčí stupně jsou běžně současné a platí, že čím podrobnější je členění, tím hůře dopadá jeho konfrontace s absolutním datováním (Kuča et al 2012;Trampota -Květina 2020). Jelikož kulturně historické paradigma neumí ze své podstaty smysluplně pracovat s řadou evidentně odlišných, ovšem zároveň současných jednotek, byla navržena terminologie pracující s pojmem keramická tradice (na úrovni kultury) a keramická skupina (na úrovni stupňů a fází; Trampota -Květina 2020, 192), což by mělo usnadnit budoucí hledání odpovídajících interpretačních schémat.…”