Tracking the Neolithic House in Europe

This book traces the beginnings of cultural identity and group representation through the construction and decoration of Neolithic structures. The authors cast new light on the societal transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture and domestic life.

The Neolithic period is noted primarily for the change from hunter-gatherer societies to agriculture, domestication and sedentism. This change has been studied in the past by archaeologists observing the movements of plants, animals and people. But has not been examined by looking at the domestic architecture of the time. Along with tracking the movement of sedentism, Neolithic houses are also able to show researchers the beginnings of cultural identity, group representation through the construction and decoration of these structures. Additionally as agriculture moved west and north in this era, the architecture and material culture shows this change and its significance. Chapters are arranged chronologically so that authors can address differences and similarities of their region to neighboring ones. To ensure continuity, authors have framed the chapters around the following considerations: construction materials and architectural characteristics; how houses facilitated or perpetua

Unique approach to studying the change in society in the Neolithice Examines the issue on an international scale Authors follow a prescribed set of themes to ensure comparison between chapters Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Klappentext

The Neolithic period sees the transformation from hunter-gatherer societies to farming groups, practising agriculture, domestication and sedentism. This lifestyle spread gradually from the Near East into Europe, and archaeologists have long focused on observing the movements of plants, animals and people. However, the changes in domestic architecture of the time have not been examined from an explicitly comparative perspective. Tracking the Neolithic house in Europe: Sedentism, Architecture, and Practice explores the ways in which the transition to sedentism is played out in the earliest houses in the Near East and across Europe.

Along with tracking sedentism, Neolithic houses also allow researchers to address changing cultural and group identity, and the varying social and cosmological significance of building. All these aspects alter considerably as one moves westwards and northwards across the European continent and as sedentism becomes more established in each region.

Chapters are arranged geographically and chronologically to allow for easy comparisons between neighbouring areas. Contributors address:

· Construction materials and architectural characteristics

· How houses facilitated certain kinds of routine practice and dwelling

· The cosmological dimensions of domestic architecture

· The role of tradition and change

Three insightful discussion chapterson the continent-wide development of Neolithic architecture over time, archaeological approaches to buildings, and anthropological perspectivesround off the volume. Tracking the Neolithic House in Europe: Sedentism, Architecture, and Practice is for archaeologists, anthropologists, and any student of the Neolithic.

Inhalt

1. Introduction: Dwelling, materials, cosmology transforming houses in the Neolithic Daniela Hofmann and Jessica Smyth.-2. Houses and households: Near Eastern perspective Nigel Goring-Morris and Anna Belfer-Cohen.-3. Diversity, uniformity and the transformative properties of the house in Neolithic Greece Stella Souvatzi.-4. Embodied houses: the social and symbolic agency of Neolithic architecture in the Republic of Macedonia.-Goce Naumov.-5. Houses in the archaeology of the Tripillia Cucuteni groups.-Natalia Burdo, Mikhail Videiko, John Chapman and Bisserka Gaydarska.-6. Tracing the beginning of sedentary life in the Carpathian Basin. The formation of the LBK house.-Eszter Bánffy 7. Of time and the house: the Early Neolithic communities of the Paris Basin and their domestic architecture Penny Bickle.-8. Change and continuity in the Danubian longhouses of lowland Poland Joanna Pyzel.- 9. Living by the lake. Domestic architecture in the Alpine foreland Daniela Hofmann.-10. Home is when you build it. Characteristics of building and occupation in the Lower Rhine Area wetlands (5500-2500 cal BC) Luc Amkreutz.-11. The end of the longhouse Jonathan Last.-12. Early Neolithic habitation structures in Britain and Ireland: a matter of circumstance and context.-Alison Sheridan 13. Tides of change? The house through the Irish Neolithic.-Jessica Smyth 14. Lost and found. Houses in the Neolithic of southern Scandinavia Lars Larsson and Kristian Brink.-15. From diffusion to structural transformation: the changing roles of the Neolithic house in the Middle East, Turkey and Europe Ian Hodder.-16. House, household, home Lesley McFadyen.-17. Transformations in the art of dwelling: some anthropological reflections on Neolithic houses Roxana Waterson.