Abstract
Abstract Based on reconstruction of the spatial context of causewayed enclosures and long barrows of the Proto- and Early Eneolithic period, we attempt to model the phenomenon of the ritual landscape in Central and North Bohemia. Discussing the purpose and meaning of the long barrows and enclosures, they are being described as funerary and religious structures related to the cult of ancestors. An alternative explanation views them primarily, in economic terms, as territorial markers delineating the areas controlled by different communities. It seems likely that both of these interpretations are valid and well characterise the true nature of such structures. Both types of monuments should not be perceived as isolated structures, but just the opposite as they are part of a pattern of regional and super-regional identity of communities and individuals. In fact, they are crucial elements of the overall system of structuring of the prehistoric landscape.
Highlights
In this article, the author reviews two main types of Late Neolithic (Eneolithic) monuments as important elements of prehistoric settlement areas, long barrows and enclosures.Despite some formal changes during the late fifth and fourth millennium BC, long barrows and enclosures structured the cultural space of Late Neolithic farmers, offering a different way for the presentation of social and ceremonial ties within and between communities
If we evaluate the geographic position of the Proto-Eneolithic causewayed enclosures in Bohemia, most of them are located on the level of river terraces
Long barrows and causewayed enclosures should not be perceived as isolated monuments, just the opposite as they are part of a pattern of regional and superregional identity of communities and individuals
Summary
The author reviews two main types of Late Neolithic (Eneolithic) monuments as important elements of prehistoric settlement areas, long barrows and enclosures. Despite some formal changes during the late fifth and fourth millennium BC, long barrows and enclosures structured the cultural space of Late Neolithic farmers, offering a different way for the presentation of social and ceremonial ties within and between communities. Both types of monuments were maintaining ceremonial purposes mainly related to death and celebration of ancestral lineages. The TRB long barrows in Bohemia carried on with the tradition of the trapezoidal ground plan archetype of the Stroked Pottery/Lengyel long houses, after almost 1,000 years of different, oblong dwelling structures Such symbolic formal continuity may suggest certain expressions of traditionalism in relation to ancient times and ancestral legacy. The following text will be focusing on the development of these ceremonial structures in Late Neolithic Bohemia and their role in the creation of ceremonial landscapes
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