The Loess Regions of Central Europe in Prehistoric Times

Abstract

The relation of prehistoric settlements to the loess regions of central Europe has received much attention recently from archaeologists, while plant ecologists have made notable progress in the study of prehistoric changes in the vegetation of Europe.1 The results of their work appear to have been overlooked by many geographers, so that out-of-date generalizations are often repeated as accepted facts. It is still argued by some that Neolithic man found especial opportunity in the loess of central Europe because they were forest-free, areas of natural steppe, or an open corridor across forested The loess country extends intermittently across Europe in basins and lowlands within and fringing the Hercynian uplands of central Europe, from the lower and middle Danube basin to the valley of the Rhine and north-western Europe. Palaeolithic man, as represented by the mammoth and reindeer hunters of Aurignacian and Solutrean times, is known to have frequented the loess country, but in the long period from about 8000 to 3000 B.c, when Mesolithic cultures were extending and developing over many parts of forested Europe, the loess country seems neither to have offered special attraction to prehistoric man, nor to have been settled by him (1). From about 3000 B.c. however there is a period of outstanding importance, associated with the appearance and spread of Neolithic culture across Europe. This was associated with a special, though by no means unique, concentration of settle? ments in the loess country, and formed the Danubian civilization, which, from Hungary to Belgium, was remarkable for the uniformity of its characteristic features.