EAA 2022: Abstract

The current state of research on the Neolithic in Central Europe indicates an almost close relationship between the settlement of the early agricultural communities and the extent of loess cover in upland areas. The great geomorphological, hydrological and – especially – soil values, resulting from the presence of a fertile soil cover, formed on a loess ground, were undoubtedly one of the most important factors initiating the colonization, as well as determining the durability and very high intensity of the settlement processes during the 6th and 5th millenia BC
Previous knowledge about the scale and range of the Neolithc communities settlement on the upland areas is significantly complemented and verified by the results of the interdisciplinary geoarchaeological research conducted at the borderland of the loess cover of the Sandomierz Upland and sand-clay formations of the Iłża Foothills in 2017-2021. They document the previously poorly known process of formation and functioning of the Neolithic settlement clusters in the areas situated on the edges of the uplands, especially outside the range of compact loess cover, i.e. within the ecological-landscape zones that differ from the basic settlement preferences of the of early-agricultural communities from the upland areas. Convenient, though specific, natural conditions of such areas and high adaptation abilities of early-agricultural groups allow to assume the existence of similar settlement concentrations, also in other areas on the borderland of loess uplands in central Europe.
The study was supported by National Science Centre in Poland (grant number: 2015/19/B/HS3/01720).

Neolithic, colonization, non-loess upland areas

Oral presentation

  Abstract (PDF)

Marcin Szeliga²

Przemysław Mroczek⁵
Radosław Dobrowolski⁵
Jacek Chodorowski⁵
Maria Lityńska-Zając¹
Magdalena Moskal-del Hoyo⁶
Irena Pidek⁵
Daniel Makowiecki³
Mirosław Furmanek⁴
Andrzej Plak⁵