Investigation of an Early Neolithic Community in Poland

Abstract

by SARUNAS MILISAUSKAS Buffalo, N.Y., U.S.A. 10 ix 70 Since the excavation of the famous Linear (Danubian I or Linear Pottery) Culture site of Koin-Lindenthal in Germany in the early 1930's, archaeologists have been fascinated by the size of Linear settlements and houses, considering them to offer an easy interpretation of the social organization based on ethnographic analogy. The expansion of Linear communities in Central Europe along major water routes like the Rhine, the Elbe, and the Vistula in the middle and the latter half of the 5th millennium B.C. is also very interesting. This rapid expansion introduced the first domesticated plants and animals into the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the northwestern area of Ukrainian S.S.R. The productivity of the simple agriculture practiced by the Linear people was sufficient for population increase that led to the duplication of Linear communities in Central Europe. However, the Linear people occupied mostly good soils; in other areas of Central Europe a hunting and gathering way of life continued. Although Linear Culture material stretches over a vast territory-from the Maas River in the Low Countries to the Dniestr River in the Soviet Union-until recently it seemed that Linear villages with longhouses had a much more restricted distribution. No Linear longhouses had been found in Poland. With very rare exceptions, the sites of the Linear Culture in southeastern Poland, as in other areas of Central Europe, occupy loess soils which have been exploited intensively from the Neolithic times to the present day. Previous excavations in southeastern Poland indicate that Linear Culture features are usually intermixed with remains from the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman period, and medieval times. If longhouses had been present at these sites, these later occupants would probably have destroyed all traces of them. However, Polish Linear sites do include long trench-like pits containing Linear material that are similar to pits found along the eastern and western sides Qf longhouses in other regions (Dzieduszycka-Machnikowa 1960:Table 2; Kamienska 1966:Fig. 2). Even though no remains of postmolds had been observed at these sites, it was possible to infer the presence of longhouses from these pits. This inference remained unproven until 1967, when postmolds were identified at a Linear site called Olszanica. The University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology and the Institute of the History of Material Culture, Polish Academy of Sciences, carried out excavations at Olszanica, near Cracow, Poland, during the 1967, 1968, and 1969 field seasons.1 The first excavations at this site had been conducted in 1951, when four Linear Culture pits were salvaged during railroad construction (Kozlowski and Kulczycka 1961). Fortunately Olszanica contains only Linear Culture material, except for a few medieval sherds in the cultural layer. The existence of such a village as Olszanica makes it possible to do an analysis of a Linear community in Poland. Olszanica lies on the southern edge of the Cracow-Czestochowa Plateau, which is formed mostly of Jurassic limestones. The southern boundary of the plateau is delimited by a rift valley that is occupied by the Vistula River. On the right bank of the Vistula the Carpathian foothills begin, eventually blending into the Beskid ranges of the Western Carpathian Mountains. The site is located on a loess elevation above the floodplain of the Rudawa River, a left-bank tributary of the Vistula, entering it at the city of Cracow. At the southern edge of the site there is a nameless small stream which flows into the Rudawa River. Judging from the meager surface material, the site probably approaches 50 hectares, which makes it one of the largest Early Neolithic sites in Europe. Three small test units and two large areas were excavated. The largest ex-