Neolithic meshworks

429 Pages·2016·20.31 MB·English

Neolithic meshworks:
A multi-scalar approach to understanding
social relations within the LBK

by
Heather L. Giddens

A Dissertation
Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the
PhD in Archaeology

School of History, Archaeology and Religion
Cardiff University
September 2015
Summary
This thesis explores the different scales of sociality (or social interaction) found within
the LBK through the lens of a broadly meshwork-based perspective. It evaluates the
hypotheses that people in the LBK lived in and recognised multiple levels of
'community', that these different communities overlapped, resulting in negotiation and
possibly conflict; and that membership of these communities was potentially open and
fluid, varying according to season, task or personal preference. With the help of
meshwork-thinking, I explore the social relationships that helped to define the LBK.
In doing so, I demonstrate that this dynamic, multi-dimensional approach can offer a
new perspective on understanding the degree of homogeneity and variation within the
LBK tradition.
The core of the thesis is divided into three case studies, each concentrating on a
specific scale of analysis. The first case study focuses on social interaction at the
household scale and considers the emergence of individual households, household
complexes and co-operative groups of households within the Merzbach and
Schlangengraben valleys. The second case study explores the inter-play between
competing family and clan/lineage identities at the scale of the settlement cluster or
micro-region. The third case study zooms out to the regional scale of the Lower Rhine
basin, tracing more geographically spread patterns in the material culture as well as
interaction with non-LBK groups beyond the loess regions. Calling on these cases
studies, I also consider how scale was experienced in the LBK.

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Declaration

This work has not been submitted in substance for any other degree or award at this
or any other university or place of learning, nor is being submitted concurrently in
candidature for any degree or other award.

Signed ……………………………..…(candidate) Date …………………………

Statement 1

This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree
of PhD.

Signed ……………………………..…(candidate) Date …………………………

Statement 2

This thesis is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except where
otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. The views
expressed are my own.

Signed ……………………………..…(candidate) Date …………………………

Statement 3

I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and
for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside
organisations.

Signed ……………………………..…(candidate) Date …………………………

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Table of Contents
Summary ...................................................................................................................... ii
Declaration .................................................................................................................. iii
Figures .......................................................................................................................... x
Tables ........................................................................................................................ xvi
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................... xix
1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1
1.1 The Linearbandkeramik, or LBK .................................................................. 1
1.2 Networks and meshworks ............................................................................. 6
1.3 Aims of this thesis ......................................................................................... 7
2 From network to meshwork .................................................................................. 9
2.1 Network as system: world-system & peer polity models ............................ 10
2.2 Network as method: the bounded world of social network analysis ........... 13
2.3 Network as metaphor: identity, social landscape and the network ............. 19
2.3.1 Relational personhood .......................................................................... 19
2.3.2 The social landscape as meshwork ...................................................... 22
2.3.3 Embodied personal networks ............................................................... 25
2.3.4 Social assemblages as networks ........................................................... 28
2.3.5 Actor-network theory ........................................................................... 34
2.4 Meshwork-thinking: modelling the boundless social world ....................... 37
3 Social relations in the LBK ................................................................................. 41
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3.1 Social differentiation: the most equals of equals ......................................... 42
3.1.1 Longhouses .......................................................................................... 42
3.1.2 Burials .................................................................................................. 45
3.1.3 Leadership & social authority .............................................................. 48
3.2 Longhouses & their inhabitants ................................................................... 49
3.2.1 The independent household ................................................................. 50
3.2.2 House groups and rows ........................................................................ 53
3.2.3 Settlement rows .................................................................................... 54
3.3 Settlement integration .................................................................................. 56
3.3.1 Connected communities ....................................................................... 57
3.3.2 Settlement hierarchies & economic integration ................................... 59
3.3.3 Interpersonal conflict ........................................................................... 63
3.4 Kinship ........................................................................................................ 65
3.4.1 Residency & descent ............................................................................ 65
3.4.2 Segmentary society .............................................................................. 67
3.4.3 House societies ..................................................................................... 69
3.5 Culture, tradition and identity...................................................................... 70
3.5.1 The LBK ‘culture’ ................................................................................ 71
3.5.2 Foragers and farmers ............................................................................ 71
3.5.3 Multiple identities ................................................................................ 76
3.6 The LBK as meshwork ................................................................................ 79
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4 The LBK in the Lower Rhine basin .................................................................... 82
4.1 The Lower Rhine basin ............................................................................... 82
4.2 The LBK in the Lower Rhine basin ............................................................ 84
4.3 Chronology .................................................................................................. 85
4.4 History of research ...................................................................................... 89
4.4.1 The Dutch Limburg: the Graetheide Plateau and Heeswater clusters.. 90
4.4.2 The Rhineland: the Aldenhoven Plateau and surrounding clusters ..... 93
4.4.3 North-Eastern Belgium: the Hesbaye and Petit Gette clusters ............ 99
4.5 Endings and beginnings ............................................................................. 102
5 Social relations at the household scale ............................................................. 104
5.1 The family farmstead or Hofplatz: a template for the LBK household ..... 105
5.2 The family farmstead: spatial relations and different ways of relating ..... 108
5.2.1 Importance of spatial relations ........................................................... 110
5.2.2 Spatial relationships within clustered longhouses ............................. 114
5.2.3 Different ways of relating .................................................................. 125
5.3 House groups and households: scales of residence ................................... 128
5.3.1 Alternative views of the supra-household group ............................... 129
5.3.2 Supra-household groups in the Merzbach and Schlangengraben valleys
131
5.3.3 The Hofplatz extended: understanding the processes behind house
groups 141
5.4 House typology reassessed: walled houses as formal space ..................... 145
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5.4.1 Longhouse form and function ............................................................ 146
5.4.2 Distribution of house types within the Merzbach valley ................... 150
5.4.3 Family-based or lineage houses? ....................................................... 157
5.5 The embedded household: residential meshworks .................................... 161
5.5.1 Residential groups as an expression of ‘relation’ .............................. 162
5.5.2 Settlement re-interpreted: implications for the Hofplatz model ......... 166
6 Social relations at the cluster scale ................................................................... 170
6.1 Settlement clusters: communal fluidity ..................................................... 171
6.1.1 The dominant narrative of cluster development................................. 172
6.1.2 Settlement growth on the Aldenhoven Plateau .................................. 179
6.1.3 Comings and goings ........................................................................... 187
6.1.4 Separate or distributed: satellite sites in context ................................ 191
6.2 Cemeteries: the lineage ‘community’ ........................................................ 197
6.2.1 LBK cemeteries: who, where, why? .................................................. 197
6.2.2 Lower Rhine cemeteries ..................................................................... 201
6.2.3 Burial communities ............................................................................ 211
6.3 Later enclosures: communities in ‘decline’ ............................................... 216
6.3.1 Enclosing features: an overview ........................................................ 216
6.3.2 Lower Rhine enclosures ..................................................................... 219
6.3.3 Enclosing ‘practices’ and the creation of community ........................ 229
6.4 Creating communities: the “mesh-iness” of the settlement cluster ........... 232
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7 Social relations at the regional scale ................................................................. 251
7.1 Defining the regional scale ........................................................................ 252
7.2 Materials on the move: raw material procurement .................................... 255
7.2.1 Eastern Rhine-Meuse area.................................................................. 256
7.2.2 Western Rhine-Meuse area ................................................................ 266
7.2.3 Procurement as social tie .................................................................... 269
7.3 Regional traditions: large-scale variation within the LBK ........................ 274
7.3.1 Pottery groups .................................................................................... 274
7.3.2 Burial practices................................................................................... 280
7.3.3 Subsistence ......................................................................................... 282
7.3.4 A patchwork of practices ................................................................... 287
7.4 Beyond the loess: interaction with non-LBK groups ................................ 292
7.4.1 Forager communities .......................................................................... 292
7.4.2 Non-LBK pottery groups ................................................................... 298
7.4.3 Impact of extra-cultural contact ......................................................... 302
7.5 Regional meshworks: connections writ large ............................................ 304
7.5.1 Extending the ‘local’ meshwork ........................................................ 304
7.5.2 An emerging transition zone .............................................................. 308
7.5.3 Territoriality & larger-scaled socio-political entities ......................... 311
8 LBK meshworks: a multi-scalar discussion...................................................... 318
8.1 From structure to meshwork: LBK society reimagined ............................ 318
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8.2 Scales of ‘belonging’: how scale was experienced ................................... 323
8.2.1 Clans, lineages and descent ................................................................ 323
8.2.2 Households, settlements and settlement clusters ............................... 326
8.2.3 Regional and supra-regional connections .......................................... 329
8.2.4 The meaning of social distance .......................................................... 333
8.3 ‘Localising’ the global: the manifestation of scale in a shared arena........ 334
8.4 Diversity in uniformity: meshworks in action ........................................... 339
8.5 Cultural cohesion and the meshwork ........................................................ 342
8.6 Final comments ......................................................................................... 345
9 Conclusions ....................................................................................................... 346
9.1 Aims re-considered .................................................................................... 346
9.2 Meshwork-thinking: an assessment ........................................................... 349
9.3 Future opportunities .................................................................................. 351
A House generation chronologies: a critique and way forward ........................... 353
A.1 The evolution of the ‘house generation’ .................................................... 354
A.2 Dealing with imperfect data ...................................................................... 361
A.2.1 Relative dating of pit inventories ....................................................... 361
A.2.2 Associating pits with longhouses ....................................................... 362
A.2.3 Houses without ‘dated’ assemblages ................................................. 364
A.3 Working with house generations: a practical compromise........................ 371
7 Bibliography ..................................................................................................... 373
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