Greece The first farmers in Europe arrived on the shores of Greece as migrants in the first quarter of the seventh millennium b.c. They brought with them an economy based on the cultivation of wheat, barley, peas, and beans and the herding of sheep, goats, cows, and pigs. The striking feature of this Early Neolithic ("New Stone Age") culture was its life in compact villages. These villages were recognizably modern in form and had populations of perhaps 300 or 400 people, four times larger than the loosely organized bands of foragers that had preceded them in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods. The first farmers came from western and southern Anatolia (modern Turkey) and sailed across the Aegean Sea to Crete and mainland Greece. A second wave of migrants, much smaller than the first, may have infiltrated into northern Greece by land through Turkish Thrace. Greece before the arrival of Neolithic immigrants was sparsely inhabited. Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Burial goods are sparse.
Musee National Suisse Back to Don's Maps A Neolithic Site - a dwelling built beside or over a lake in Switzerland. My thanks to Anya for finding this image. It is from a postcard labelled: Musee National Suisse - Balade en préhistoire - scène d'échanges dans un village néolithique, vers 2.700 avant J. Photo: Antiquity Publications Ltd, published in New Scientist, 3rd September 2005. Bronze Age Britons practised the art of mummification at the same time as the Egyptians. Archaeologists unearthed the skeletons of a man, a woman, and a 3-year-old girl under the floor of a prehistoric house at Cladh Hallan on the Scottish island of South Uist. Hiller thinks that the bodies were immersed in an acid peat bog for a few months - long enough to remove some of the soft tissue but keep the tendons and ligaments intact. This is the only example of mummification in Europe, she says,"It's nothing like the techniques used in Egypt. Text above: New Scientist, 3rd September 2005
Neolithic houses, RO Arhitectura locuirii traditionale românesti Tipologia planimetrica si volumetrica a locuintei rurale s-a configurat inca din neolitic TANGIRU - jud. Giurgiu Neoliticul mijlociu, c.c.a. 4200 - 3500 i.e.n. cultura Boian, faza Vidra Locuinta de tip megaron prin dispunerea spatiilor semideschise pe latura scurta a edificiului. ARIUSD - jud. PETRU-RARES - jud. VADASTRA - jud. HABASESTI - jud. Pereti din impletitura de niuele cu lipitura de pamant galben descoperit "in situ". Traseul ipotetic al peretilor. Urme de pari infipti in sol descoperite "in situ". Pozitia ipotetica a parilor. Vetre. Edificiile din epoca bronzului continua solutiile volumetrice, planimetrice si structurale din neolitic. SALACEA - jud. Perspectiva interioara Locuintele geto-dacice din sec II i.e.n. - sec. Acest sistem este folosit atat la locuintele de suprafata cat si la cele adancite (semibordeie) sau ingropate (bordeie). SLIMINIC - jud. POPESTI - jud. GRADUSTEA MUNCELULUI (SARMISEGETUSA) - jud. APRASUL DE SUS - jud.
Albersdorf, Germany Model of a residential house from the Neolithic Age (Funnel Beaker Culture, around 2500 BC) at a scale of 1:10. Wood, reed, raffia and clay Realised by: Markus Ruge, Hemmingstedt, Holm Stuhlmacher, Albersdorf, and Bernd Tichter, Nordhastedt Since the dawn of the Neolithic, man has altered his environment much more drastically all over the world than during the preceding 2 million years of his existence. Only for us people of the Modern Age have the severity of man’s influence on his surrounds become apparent. With man settling in communities and the steady rise in population, a transfomarion of his social organisation arose several thousand years ago. The Stone Age house in Albersdorf gives us a vivid picture of domestic life in the Neolithic Age. The basic structure of the model consists of small spruce rods, which were cut at the project site of the Archaeological-Ecological Centre Albersdorf. Beside its authentic construction, the building also hosts a further specialty. Literatur: W.
Szentgál, Füzi-Kút, Hungary Szentgál, Füzi-Kút: the excavation of a Neolithic settlement The term 'Neolithic' is used for an important phase in human history. The name itself implies the use of 'new stone tools', denoting an important technological innovation. In the New Stone Age, polished stone tools appear supplementing the former tool-kit comprising chipped stone implements alone. Historical evidences on the New Stone Age in Transdanubia The Neolithic period started in Transdanubia in the 6th Millenium B.C. and lasted till the 4th Millenium. The Füzi-kút settlement is located to the West of the modern village, along the road lying to rkút on a steep hillside. The excavation of the settlement offered the possibility to get an insight into the everyday life of prehistoric people and reconstruct on models and drawings the contemporary phases of work and corresponding technological solutions. Production of tools Illustrations to this chapter: Contents * Chronicle * Publications * Figures
Bampo, China Africa Southwest Asia The first major period of occupation at 'Ain Ghazal began at about 7,200 BC and it was pobably occupied most or all of the time until about 5,000 BC. Covering approximately 30 acres, 'Ain Ghazal is about three times larger than Jericho, but it is unclear how much of the site was occupied at any one time. It probably had at one point at least several hundred inhabitants, who ate wheat, barley, lentils, sheep, and goats, and lived in mudbrick buildings of various sizes and shapes.(27) The residential architecture of Tell as-Sawwan contrasts somewhat with that of other settlements of the period, consisting mainly of huts with stone foundations and the more common rectangular clay structures, although there is still little variability in building size or apparent construction cost. (46) The residential architecture of Uruk reflects a diversity of occupational, economic and social classes. The fire that swept through Catal Huyuk at Level VI.A was extraordinarily intense.
Çatalhöyük 1999 Archive Report Report on Experimental Archaeology at Çatalhöyük Yapılan Deneysel Arkeoloji Çalişmaları Mirjana Stevanovic Abstract Experimental brick making continued and work commenced on the construction of the walls of a replica neolithic house. Once completed, this reconstruction house will enable visitors to gain an insight into neolithic life. Özeti Deneysel kerpiç yapımı devam etti ve neolitik ev kopyası çalışmalarında duvarların yapımına başlandı. Experimental archaeology at Çatalhöyük begun in 1997 and continued in 1998 with preparations for a reconstruction of a Neolithic house. Brick Manufacture The aims of this phase of the project were: to locate the most adequate sources of the building materials that can be used for the Neolithic house replica; to make several soil mixtures - recipes - which can be used for the bricks; to build the moulds and manufacture the bricks to carry out a controlled experimentation; to store the bricks during the winter. Labour Expenditure in gathering Raw Materials:
Lepenski Vir, Poland speaking about languages and linguistic/cultural connections over Danubian cultural line, see examples of paralelism between Serbian and Polish ancient folk poetry... Poljske metamorfoze dveju srpskih narodnih pesama Topić Miroslav D., Bunjak Petar Ž. ort=1&stype=0&backurl=%2fRelated.aspx%3fartaun%3d36916 .pdf example: Polish: O matko, matko! Serbian: (Približno: O majko, majko! Now, There is a fragment from old Serbian epic poem where Poles are mentioned under their Polish name but also under their first original ancient designation- Lechs, on Serbian- `Leđani` (Ledjani) with meaning people from the ice (led = ice), people from the ice land, from frozen land, reffering on people from the North (kin/brotherly tribes from North, from the Serbian Southern/climaticaly warmer perspective). Let us remind of this ancient poem.... Polish flag flag of Serbia
Tolkien Gallery, Page One The TOLKIEN GALLERYpage ONE An Iron Age hill fort very similar perhaps to what Tolkien had in mind for Edoras in Rohan. Here the bottom of the hill is excavated for better protection, the total height above the valley floor being estimated at 200 feet; also note that the single approach is a narrow ramp at the bottom. The Heuneburg, on the upper Danube River Baden-Würtemberg, Germany. This Neolithic construction is actually found at Pan-P'o-Ts'un, China at the middle of the Yellow River valley. Still, Tolkien visualised the Dunlendings as a 'dark' people, in the same sense as dark Africa in the 19th Century, and implied that they adhered to ancient practices and superstitions. The Neolithic Village at Pan-p'o, SianInstitute of Archaeology, Peking; 1963 The Hallowes; the tombs of the kings and stewards of Gondor were below the Citadel and the White Tower in the upper levels of the city of Minas Tirith. Go to next Gallery page .
Tankardstown, Co Limerick 4.5 : Lambay Island, Co. Dublin 93E0144 Site location: NGR: 33150/25050 SMR: DU009-001--- Gabriel Cooney* Fig. 4.5.1: Location map of Lambay Island, Co. Introduction The site is situated in a valley close to the western edge of the eastern upland area of Lambay Island, off the east coast of County Dublin (Fig. 4.5.1; Plate 4.5.1). Plate 4.5.1: Aerial view of Lambay Island, Co. Two cuttings (1 and 2), one on each side of the valley, next to an outcrop of porphyry were opened in the initial season of excavation (Plate 4.5.2). Plate 4.5.2: Section through rock outcrop, Lambay Island, Co. Cutting 1, 1W and 4 Cutting 1 exposed a few hundred flint flakes and porphyry debitage lying on and around a setting of sandstone slabs, and a number of hammerstones that were used to strike the flint. Excavation also revealed that the sandstone setting, set in a loamy soil matrix, in turn overlay a second surface of porphyry debitage. The Valley Floor (Testpits 1-5, Cutting 3, 5-11, 14-21) References
Knockadoon, house C Australopithecus Homo Habilis Paleolithic shelter Native hunters with bows and arrows Paleolithic bark canoes A Neolithic Village Iraq Modern tent in Afghanistan, near Herat In the earliest times, people lived without any kind of shelter, or in tents, or in caves. Some people, like the nomadic Bedouin, still do live in tents. Franchthi Cave, Greece This is an example of a cave in Greece where people lived in the early Neolithic period, before they began building houses in Greece; about 7000-6000 BC. Neolithic house in Iraq (the houses are ruined so you can only see the plan) By the New Stone Age, or the Neolithic, some people had started building houses for themselves (although a lot of other people continued to live in caves or tents). The type of house they built also depended a lot on where you lived. In Egypt and West Asia, and in southern China, on the other hand, it was pretty much hot all the time, and wood was very scarce. Many people lived in houses just like one of these all the way through the medieval period. More about ancient houses (page two) Shelter, by Bob Easton (1973, reprinted 2000). or
The Stonehall Neolithic Settlement One of Orkney's recent archaeological discoveries was the Neolithic village at Stonehall, in the Mainland parish of Firth. The excavations at Stonehall were carried out over a three year period. During the 1999 excavations, I spoke with Dr Colin Richards of Glasgow University, the excavation director, to get some idea of what had been uncovered. On the scale of Orcadian archaeology, what marked Stonehall as significant was the length of time the settlement appeared to have been in use. The excavation had uncovered a range of Neolithic houses which indicates a continuity of settlement throughout the Neolithic period. The Kist House Perhaps the most interesting discovery at Stonehall was a late Neolithic structure of a type never before encountered in Orkney. Lying in the shadow of the Cuween chambered tomb, the structure - a building with what appears to be a burial kist built into a raised floor - was unlike anything Dr Richards had encountered before. An inversion of ideas?