Working at home. Reconstructing activities within the LBK household through the systemic use-wear analysis of flint industries, bone and antler tools and ground stone implements

Abstract

The systematic analysis of use-wear traces on flint, ground stone and bone tools, has rarely been carried out at Early Neolithic sites in continental Europe. Hence, it is a powerful means of identifying possible economic differences. As part of the ongoing HOMES project, we are investigating the importance and nature of acquisition strategies (hunting, harvesting), food preparation techniques (butchery, grain milling) and the processing of other resources (plant fibres) in a large set of LBK households in the Aisne Valley (France). After re-examining and integrating new results on the flint industry (366 tools), bone and antler tools (414 tools) and ground stone tools (114 tools), the aim here is to examine whether the processing of soft flint plants, hides and wood remains the dominant activity and how it coexists with more marginal activities such as the processing of soft minerals and textile fibres. The absence of certain activities is scrutinised in relation to their location within and outside the domestic and village space. Discrete functional characteristics are tracked to improve our understanding of the observed differences between the domestic units: segmentation of production processes, differences in the use of each type of raw material, intensity of use. In this way, we can test the hypothesis of autonomous or interdependent households in terms of production and consumption and investigate the economic structure of LBK villagers.