Neolithic pottery

Con questa nota, scritta in occasione di un’esposizione dedicata alle prime comunità del Neolitico, è stata offerta al grande pubblico una breve presentazione del grande abitato neolitico de La Marmotta, oggi sommerso dalle acque del lago di Bracciano.

This paper focuses on the study of the Early Neolithic settlement of Maddalena di Muccia (MC), dated to the VI millennium BC and excavated in 1962-1965 by Delia Lollini, functionary of the Archaeological Superintendence of the Marche Region at that time. This study is part of a PhD project which points to expand the knowledge of pottery manufacturing processes of the typical Central Adriatic Impressed ware Culture, at present poorly understood. Starting from the paper records found on archives of the Superintendence of Ancona it was possible to contextualize the excavated structures. The poorly preserved documentation included original excavation photos and only one map, with several map sections without any indication of reference points and heights. By an integrated approach it was possible to link data of the pottery assemblages, which include techno-typological analyses, with the one from the original excavation documentation, aiming to reconstruct the life of this site, that was not investigated with modern techniques of excavation (i.e. grid system, field report, matrix, SU sheets).

Il lavoro qui presentato chiarisce l’approccio applicato allo studio delle strutture e del materiale ceramico dell’insediamento del Neolitico Antico di Maddalena di Muccia (MC), molto noto in letteratura poiché considerato un sito-guida per l’orizzonte
della Ceramica Impressa medio-adriatica (VI millennio a.C.), ma conosciuto solo sulla base di descrizioni di massima e di un numero molto limitato di materiali editi. Tale studio trae spunto dal progetto di dottorato in corso presso l’Università
Sapienza di Roma, volto all’analisi della produzione ceramica di quattro siti marchigiani, tutti riconducibili all’aspetto delle Ceramiche Impresse, finora inediti o mai analizzati nel loro complesso, e prende spunto da un tradizionale filone di studi che ha sempre visto la collaborazione tra Sapienza Università di Roma e Soprintendenza Archeologia delle Marche.

Our final paper in this series reasserts the importance of sequence. Stressing that long barrows, long cairns and associated structures do not appear to have begun before the thirty-eighth century cal. bc in southern Britain, we give estimates for the relative order of construction and use of the five monuments analysed in this programme. The active histories of monuments appear often to be short, and the numbers in use at any one time may have been relatively low; we discuss time in terms of generations and individual lifespans. The dominant mortuary rite may have been the deposition of articulated remains (though there is much diversity); older or ancestral remains are rarely documented, though reference may have been made to ancestors in other ways, not least through architectural style and notions of the past. We relate these results not only to trajectories of monument development, but also to two models of development in the first centuries of the southern British Neolithic as...

Τhe Neolithic site of Thermi is located to the northeast
of the modern village. The settlement was
dated from the Middle to Late Neolithic II, according
to pottery. Thermi is a flat and extended settlement
that consists of more than 70 pits of different dimensions.
Outside the pits open stone paved areas exist.
The pottery presented in this paper was found in pit
4 and on three successive pavements located in the
southeastern part of the site. The study of ceramic material
was focused on technological, morphological and
taphonomic aspects. Macroscopic observation shows
that the ceramic paste has limited inclusions that consist
mainly of silicates, calcites, shells or even organic
material. The walls of the vessels were built with clay
coils starting on top or around a disc that was used to
shape the base. Sometimes a layer of clay was added on
the interior or the exterior surface of the pot.
Most of the recorded sherds have black and brown
polished or burnished surfaces. Both pit 4 and the stone
pavements provided a limited number of handles, some
of which were attached to the body through piercing.
Open carinated, spherical and hemispherical vessels
are the dominant shapes, but other types as cups, basins,
closed carinated amphorae or pans are also present.
Less than 10% of the material was decorated. The
motifs were incised, plastic, impressed, rippled, matpainted,
and white or red painted. Most of the recorded
material comes from pit 4. All features are dated by
pottery within the Late Neolithic II period.

Neolithic settlements have been exposed in three mounds to be affected by the dam built on the Ambar Stream, one of the northern branches of the Upper Tigris Valley. In Kendale Hecala, one of these mounds, two vessels with stylized human figures in relief with their hands raised have been recovered. Although vessels decorated with figurative reliefs have been found in various excavations in Anatolia dating to the Neolithic, vessels with human relief decoration have so far not been found in Mesopotamia. The Kendale Hecala finds constitute the first examples of vessels adorned with human and animal figures from the Neolithic settlements to the south of the Taurus Mountains. These schematic human and animal figures preserved on vessel fragments may be related to hunting rituals associated with dances, thought to have been performed before or after hunting.

The paper presents results of archaeological study of one particular moment in time regionally determined as the middle Neolithic period in Drava river valley (northern Croatia). The main aim is reconsidering old periodical and chronological sequences in use for this period. Recent archaeological research carried out on several sites yielded new data about middle Neolithic settlement infrastructures and the remains of material culture. For the first time, remains of Linear Pottery culture (LBK) were recognized south of Transdanubia sheading new light on dispersal of this culture in its early phase. Combined with new interpretation of some old excavation results and new radiocarbon dates from recent excavations, transition from early Neolithic Starčevo culture to middle Neolithic Linear Pottery culture, emergence of Ražište style and its development under the early Vinča influence are outlined. Differences in pottery tempering, decoration and firing are discussed as well as the main types of vessels. New interpretation for 5450–4900 cal BC chronological sequence in this specific micro region is given. Results are compared with data from wider southwestern Carpathian region adding to newly developed discussion about Starčevo–LBK–Ražište–Vinča connections.

The Wetterau in Hessen (Germany) is a region rich in LBK (Linear Pottery culture or Linearbandkeramik) sites. Among these, some are characterised by the presence of suspiciously rich pits which differ from usual refuse pits in their unusual and densely packed assemblages of well preserved and mostly richly decorated pottery. This contribution aims to arrive at a first characterisation of these features for the region of the Wetterau, although similar finds are present elsewhere and would benefit from systematic collection and analysis. Although the precise motivations for this practice remain obscure and were most likely varied, the recognition of this kind of feature could help to identify ritualised elements of action at the heart of LBK settlements, away from more “obvious” contexts such as burials and enclosures. As such, this contribution aims to further erode the opposition between “sacred” and “profane” which all too often still pervades our narratives of the LBK.