STYLISTIC CHANGES IN THE POTTERY PRODUCTION OF THE LINEAR POTTERY CULTURE IN THE LOWER ODRA REGION IN THE LIGHT OF MOST RECENT STUDIES

Abstract

This article is the first contribution to a multi-faceted study of the origins of food production in the lower Odra region. Since 2004, the author has conducted microregional surveys to identify Stone Age settlements in the studied region. Later, starting from 2015, a number of settlements of the Band Pottery horizon in the microregion have been investigated (Linear Band Pottery, Stroke-Ornamented Pottery Culture, and Rössen Culture), as well as the roundel at Nowe Objezierze. As of 2018, crucial research is taking place in a central settlement (7/10 ha) of the Linear Pottery Culture (LBK) in Mierzyn 5: PAR 30-04/106, where 20,000 artefacts, 25 homesteads, and 13 identified post house structures were found. The author's recent studies demonstrate the lower Odra region to be crucial for understanding stylistic changes in the Early Neolithic. The results of recent research in the lower Odra region, conducted as microregional studies, provide numerous and valuable assemblages reflecting the overall LBK settlement development in the region. Already in the first phase of the work with ceramic materials, it became clear that there was a need to create a periodisation system that would take into account the specifics of the region and the archaeological material. As a result, it is proposed that the division of Phase II into the Subphases A and B is not sufficient, thus making it necessary to distinguish new units within Phase III. At the same time, the Skoroszowice-type pottery seems to have been used in the lower Odra region. Currently, it is considered very likely that groups of people continued to exist in the Proto- Stroke-Ornamented Pottery Culture Horizon.