House unit of the Linear Pottery culture?

Abstract

The aim of the article is to critically evaluate the existing approach toward the Linear Pottery culture (LBK) settlement space in terms of the character of the pits, their fill and pottery decoration style. It is traditionally and implicitly assumed that the pits in the vicinity of a house (so-called house unit) are of the same period of formation, filling, and demise, so their testimony is usually considered comparable. However, research into the formative processes of ceramic material from pits with a spatial association to the house no. 88 in Bylany near Kutná Hora (CZ) shows that individual features differ significantly in terms of structure, and each in its own way is taphonomically unique. At the same time, formative processes have a strong influence on our current perception of the decorative style of Neolithic pottery and its relative chronology. The house unit thus becomes an optimistic assumption in the case of multiphase settlements, which cannot be applied without a better understanding of archaeological sources.