Abstract
The complexity of Neolithic population movements and their interpretation through material culture have been the subject of archaeological research for decades. One of the dominant narratives proposes that groups from the Starčevo-Körös-Criş complex spread from the central towards the northern Balkans in the Early Neolithic and eventually brought the Neolithic lifestyle into present-day Hungary. Broad geographical migrations were considered to shape the continuous expansion of Neolithic groups and individuals. However, recent archaeological research, aDNA, and isotope analyses challenged the synchronous appearance of specific material culture distributions and human movement dynamics through emphasizing communication networks and socio-cultural transformation processes. This paper seeks to retrace the complexity of Neolithic mobility patterns across Hungary by means of strontium and oxygen stable isotope analyses, which were performed on a total of 718 human dental enamel samples from 55 Neolithic sites spanning the period from the Starčevo to the Balaton-Lasinja culture in Transdanubia and from the Körös to the Tiszapolgár cultural groups on the Great Hungarian Plain (Alföld). This study presents the largest strontium and oxygen isotope sample size for the Neolithic Carpathian Basin and discusses human mobility patterns on various geographical scales and throughout archaeological cultures, chronological periods, and sex and gender categories in a multiproxy analysis. Based on our results, we discuss the main stages of the Neolithisation processes and particularly trace individual movement behaviour such as exogamy patterns within extensive social networks. Furthermore, this paper presents an innovative differentiation between mobility patterns on small, micro-regional, and supra-regional scales, which provides new insights into the complex organisation of Neolithic communities.
Highlights
Population movements on different geographical, temporal, and demographic scales during the Neolithic have since long been posited through the interpretation of the archaeological material culture
The lowest value was found in a canine tooth of a medieval male individual (VINJ4) from the Vinkovci Jugobanka site in Croatia, while the highest value was found in the first permanent molar of an infant (BICS5) from the Sopot culture at Bicske-Galagonyas
This study presents the strontium and oxygen stable isotope data of one of the largest Neolithic samples in Europe, whose assessment reveals the development of various mobility patterns over approximately 2000 years in both Transdanubia and the Great Hungarian Plain
Summary
Population movements on different geographical, temporal, and demographic scales during the Neolithic have since long been posited through the interpretation of the archaeological material culture. According to recent archaeological and molecular genetic data, the western Carpathian Basin (Transdanubia) is the cradle of the first farmers of Central Europe, represented by the Linearbandkeramik (LBK) culture [5,6,7]. By integrating scientific methods such as anthropology, molecular genetics and biogeochemistry, and comparing them with the chronological sequence and archaeological material types in the project, important aspects of the nature and dynamics of settlement and population development in the Carpathian Basin could be depicted in their temporal depth over the entire Neolithic and the first half of the Chalcolithic. This paper focuses on another part of this project and presents the results of extensive strontium and oxygen stable isotope analyses
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