Beyond the models: 'Neolithisation' in Central Europe

Abstract

This chapter discusses the Neolithization process in Central Europe. The process began during the latter half of the seventh millennium cal bc, then experienced a major shift with the expansion of the Linear Pottery Culture (LBK), and ended in the mid-fifth millennium cal bc. During these two thousand years a multi-faceted combination of migrations, adaptations, and acculturations, together with socio-political cycling, led to the fundamental transformation of Central European societies from segmented tribes to emergent complex chiefdoms. The trajectories were triggered by external parameters like climatic fluctuations, and internal factors such as human agency.