Abstract
This paper presents the stylistic analysis of a unique face vessel fragment, found at a recently excavated settlement of the Linear Pottery culture near Biskupice, located in the Carpathian foothill region in southern Poland. The evaluation is based on a multivariate analysis of the stylistic features of 130 human face vessels from 91 Central European Neolithic sites of the Linear Pottery culture and the Alföld Linear Pottery culture, and is conducted with the help of multiple correspondence analysis (MCA). The main objective of the research is to find the closest analogies of the Biskupice by tracking similarities between the manner of execution of the combination of facial elements and accompanying motifs appearing on the Biskupice vessel and on other depictions of the human face. This investigation also aims to make inferences about the chrono-cultural connections of the first agrarian societies in the area of the Carpathian foothills with other regions of the Linear Pottery world.
Highlights
Figural representations of humans in form of both figurines and ornaments on vessels, including the so-called face vessels, are relatively common findings in the Early Neolithic of South-Eastern and Central Europe
As we are dealing with nominal, categorical data, in order to investigate a correlation of particular stylistic features, a multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) was performed
Some categories of the type of the nose, possible hairstyle and additional motif seem to play a significant role in determining the style of the face vessels
Summary
Figural representations of humans in form of both figurines and ornaments on vessels, including the so-called face vessels, are relatively common findings in the Early Neolithic of South-Eastern and Central Europe. In the 21st century, this topic was the subject of three important monographs, which were focused on: (1) anthropomorphic figurines and vessels with figural motifs of the Linear Pottery culture (LBK) (Becker 2011), (2) stylistics of Early – Late Neolithic anthropomorphic vessels from the Near East, through the Balkans, to Central Europe (Schwarzberg 2011) and (3) the Neolithic and Chalcolithic figural representations from South-Eastern Europe (Hansen 2007). It should be noted that there are noticeably fewer examples of vessels with anthropomorphic ornaments in the LBK compared to its “eastern” counterpart, i.e. the Alföld Linear Pottery culture (ALPC), not to mention Early and Middle Neolithic cultures in the Balkan Peninsula.
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