Theme:
4. Persisting with Change: Theory and Archaeological Scrutiny
Session format:
Session with keynote presentation and discussion
Title:
?What Is the Village?? Regional Comparison of Early European and Near Eastern Prehistoric Villages
Content:
The emergence of larger Neolithic villages in the Near East and the spread of village systems into the Balkans and eastern Europe around the Black Sea represents a major evolutionary transition in how people organized their economic and social lives. The appearance of a large, densely packed village focused on farming and herding of stock, highlights the creation of a new way of life, with shared and interconnected practices from the Near East and south-eastern Europe. While significant research has explored aspects of changing economy, residential architecture, and the organization of space from individual settlements, surprisingly little research has stepped back from the scale of the individual building and household, considered regional and inter-regional practices, and asked “What is the village?”.
In this session, we aim to consider a range of understudied multi-scalar aspects of villages as a unit of analysis with the aim of advancing comparative perspectives of villages within and between neighboring regions. This includes thinking about villages at increasing scales, including the life-history of individual Neolithic buildings, how long they served their residential character, the character of clusters of buildings with physical gaps between them, the size and character of open space, consideration of village biographies, both with buildings made of wood and clay as well as buildings with foundations and walls made of stone, and finally, to address the relationships between regional villages and how these were socially, economically, and biologically interlinked. Presenters will investigate how the creation and maintenance of villages in southwestern Asia and Old Europe were shaped by a range of region-specific variables, such as settlement practices, the character of the local environment, access to construction materials, and variables of global significance, in particular the early Holocene climate oscillations.
Keywords:
Neolithic, village, social organization, evolution, domestication
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Arkadiusz Marciniak (Poland) 1
Co-organisers:
Ian Kuijt (United States) 2
Affiliations:
1. Adam Mickiewicz University
2. University of Notre Dame
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