About the Book
Around 3000 BCE, a turning point occurred in Europe: Long-existing regional societies entered into a process of transformation. The result is a world in which new global communication networks brought different regions closer together. From 3200/3100 BCE, the Globular Amphora phenomenon (GA) was the trailblazer in Eastern and Central Europe. Due to a focus on pastoral subsistence, in comparison to more agrarian economic systems, new ritual practices formed in light of a more flexible form of settlement. We initially observe the symbolic separation manifested through the Globular Amphora in an area between the Lower Vistula and Middle Elbe. Communication networks form rapidly in the West (the Elbe-Network) and in the East (the Vistula-Podolia Network). The monopolisation of the practice of double cattle burials connected regional patterns of mobility in the lowlands between the Elbe and the Dniester. With the aid of spatial analyses of the systems of symbols (Zeichensysteme) on locally/micro-regionally produced Globular Amphorae, a proxy is developed for the degree of similarity of the GA-habitus in different regions. Bayesian modelling and spatial visualisations of the radiometric dates indicate temporal sequences and synchronic changes within the newly-developed global GA-connectivity. Genetic analyses attest to the indigenous character of the GA individuals in Central Europe. Both isotopic and ceramic technology analyses provide evidence for a mobility radius of up to 50 km for the local groups. In the main phase of the GA, the Elbe and Vistula-Podolia networks appear separated. In the West the core areas are in Bohemia/Moravia, the Middle Elbe-Saale-Havel area, and the north-western Baltic areas; in the East, they are along the Vistula, in Podolia-Volhynia, and in the Siret area. GA networks are mostly symbiotically connected with the local and regional agricultural groups. The GA is, among other things, heavily involved in the formation of the multicultural Corded Ware phenomenon. Its end in 2600 BCE is linked to processes of change which also affected the change from Corded Ware to the Bell Beaker phenomenon. Only in the eastern areas, where a strong reciprocal influence with elements from the Steppe existed, can GA still be found until c. 2400 BCE. The emergence of the GA networks is described as social separation on the basis of social disharmonies within the Funnel Beaker societies, which is also visible via a reduction of the human impact in the palaeoecological archives. A new connectivity of diversified groups developed as a form of levelling mechanism, which in the long-term was part of the transformation of the entirety of European prehistory around 3000 BCE.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1. Globular Amphora communities: A matter of connectivity and transformation
1.1 Definitions
1.1.1 Transformation
1.1.2 Connectivity and globalisation
1.1.3 Mobility
1.1.4 Habitus
1.2 Globular Amphora perspectives
1.2.1 Globular Amphorae and globalisation
1.2.2 Globular Amphorae and separation: Identity construction?
1.2.3 Globular Amphorae: Translocation and networks
1.3 Methods
1.4 Integration into previous research
1.4.1 Regional and trans-regional studies
1.4.2 Chronologies
1.4.3 Settlement patterns and economy
1.4.4 Graves
1.4.5 Distribution model
1.5 Distribution space and landscape
Chapter 2. Space and Decoration: Patterns of globular amphorae
2.1 Research questions and methodology: General comments
2.1.1 Research questions
2.1.2 Methods
2.1.3 Sources
2.2 The database: Recorded ceramic finds
2.3 Investigations of vessel forms
2.3.1 Vessel types and individual observations
2.3.2 Vessel types: univariate and multivariate analyses
2.3.3 Results and interpretation
2.4 Investigations on decoration techniques
2.4.1 Decoration techniques and individual observations
2.4.2 Correspondence analysis and spatial distribution of decoration techniques
2.4.3 Results and interpretation
2.5 Investigations on decoration motifs
2.5.1 Decoration motifs and individual observations
2.5.2 Decoration motifs: univariate and multivariate analyses
2.5.3 Results and interpretation
2.6 Comprehensive analysis
2.6.1 Multivariate description of Globular Amphora ceramics
2.6.2 Interpretation
Chapter 3. Absolute chronological dating of the Globular Amphora phenomenon
3.1 Methodological procedure
3.1.1 Approach
3.2 The database
3.3 Regional investigations with Bayesian datings
3.3.1 Western GAC
3.3.2 The Central GAC
3.3.3 Eastern GAC
3.4 Overall results of Bayesian dating
3.4.1 Beginning
3.4.2 Decoration change
3.4.3 Disappearance
3.4.4 Modeling
3.4.5 Interpretation: Spatial distribution pattern
3.5 Overall consideration of the individual radiometric datings
3.5.1 Mapping of the individual 14C data
3.5.2 Spatial-temporal distribution according to hexagonal surfaces
3.6 Summary and consequences
Chapter 4. The Middle Elbe-Saale region: A mosaic of diverse cultural and social practices around 3000 BCE
4.1 The Central German Bernburg culture: Chronology and interpretation
4.1.1 Basic chronological trends
4.1.2 Chronology of the graves
4.1.3 Chronology of the chamber graves
4.1.4 Chronology of the settlement pits
4.1.5 Overall result: The chronology of a ceramic style
4.1.6 Interpretation: The Bernburg style in the multicultural environment of the Central German Late Neolithic
4.2. The Central German Globular Amphora culture: Chronology and interpretation
4.3 Economy and settlement patterns: A complex mosaic
4.3.1 Bernburg subsistence economy
4.3.2 Settlement distribution
4.3.3 Settlement types
4.3.4 Pit huts, posts and houses
4.3.5 Settlement patterns and chronology
4.4 Patrilocality and admixture
4.5 Consequences: Symbiotic relationships
4.6 A Western GAC pattern?
4.7 Conclusions
Chapter 5. Environment, economy and nutrition of the Globular Amphora communities
5.1 The environment of the GAC
5.1.1 Geomorphology and pedology
5.1.2 Vegetation and vegetation changes
5.1.3 Summary
5.2 Economic data from the Western GAC
5.2.1 Central Germany and the Southwest Baltic regions
5.2.2 Bohemia/Moravia
5.3 Economic data from Kuyavia and Lesser Poland
5.3.1 Flint raw material supply and equipment use
5.3.2 Examples of local economies: Rocks, Janowice and Wilostowo
5.3.3 Summary
5.4 Eastern Globular Amphorae
5.5 Overall interpretation
Chapter 6. Discernible domestic activities: Settlement patterns
6.1 Western GAC
6.1.1 Central Germany and Northwest Germany
6.1.2 Bohemia/Moravia
6.2 Central Group
6.3 Summary and interpretation
6.4 Spatial patterning of GAC domestic sites
Chapter 7. Scales of Mobility: The historical dimension of the Globular Amphora phenomenon
7.1 Kinship and ancestry of GAC individuals: The database
7.2 Genetic continuities between Middle and Late Neolithic Groups and the GAC
7.3 Regional variances
7.3.1 Western Germany
7.3.2 Middle Elbe-Saale region
7.3.3 Bohemia
7.3.4 Northern Poland
7.3.5 Lesser Poland
7.3.6 Western Ukraine
7.4 The Central European Globular Amphora culture and the emergence of the Corded Ware culture
7.5 Kinship structures and marriage practices
7.6 Scales of sedentism and mobility of a phenomenon with new ritual practices: The Globular Amphora Culture
Chapter 8. Separation and hybridisation on a global scale: The Globular Amphora networks
8.1 A model
References
About the Author :
Johannes Müller (PhD, University of Freiburg, 1990) is a Professor and Director of the Institute for Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology at Kiel University, Germany. He is the founding director of the Johanna Mestorf Academy, Speaker of the Collaborative Research Centre “Scales of Transformation: Human-environmental Interaction in Prehistoric and Archaic Societies” and of the Excellence Cluster “ROOTS – Social, Environmental, and Cultural Connectivity in Past Societies”.
He conducts research on Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe, including the challenge of interlinking natural, social, life sciences, and the humanities within an anthropological approach of archaeology. Intensive fieldwork was and is carried out in international teams, e.g., on Tripolye mega-sites in Eastern Europa, the Late Neolithic tell site of Okolište in Bosnia-Hercegovina, different Neolithic domestic and burial sites in Northern Germany, and Early Bronze Age sites in Greater Poland. Ethnoarchaeological fieldwork has been conducted, e.g., in India. Within the Kiel Graduate School “Human Development in Landscapes”, now the Young Academy of ROOTS, and the Scandinavian Graduate School “Dialogues of the Past”, Johannes Müller promotes international PhD projects.
Key publications: Johannes Müller
Müller, J. and Diachenko, A. 2019. Tracing long-term demographic changes: The issue of spatial scales. PLoS ONE 14, e0208739.
Müller, J., 2019. Boom and bust, hierarchy and balance: From landscape to social meaning – Megaliths and societies in Northern Central Europe, in: Müller, J., Hinz, M., Wunderlich, M. (eds.), Megaliths – Societies – Landscapes. Early monumentality and social differentiation in Neolithic Europe. Dr. Rudolf Habelt GMBH: Bonn, 29-74.
Müller, J., 2018. Social memories and site biographies: construction and perception in nonliterate societies, in: Bakels, C.C., Bourgeois, Q.P.J., Fontijn, D.R., Jansen, R. (eds.), Local communities in the Big World of prehistoric Northwest Europe. Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia 49. Sidestone Press: Leiden, 9-17.
Müller, J., Arponen, V.P.J., Hofmann, R., Ohlrau, R. 2017. The Appearance of Social Inequalities: Cases of Neolithic and Chalcolithic Societies. Origini 38 (2015-2), 65-86.
Müller, J., Rassmann, K., Videiko, M., 2016. Trypillia Mega-Sites and European Prehistory: 4100- 3400 BCE. Themes in Contemporary Archaeology. London: Routledge.
Müller, J. and Peterson, R., 2015. Ceramics and Society in Northern Europe, in: Fowler, C., Harding, J., Hofmann, D. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Müller, J., Hinz, M., Ullrich, M. 2015. Bell Beakers – Chronology, Innovation and Memory. A Multivariate Approach, in: Martinez, M.P.P. and Salanova, L. (eds.), The Bell Beaker Transition in Europe. Oxford: Oxbow, 57–68.
Müller, J., 2014. 4100–2700 B.C. Monuments and Ideologies in the Neolithic Landscape, in: Osborne, J.F. (ed.), Approaching Monumentality in Archaeology. New York: New York University Press, 181–217.
