Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-25wd4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T13:19:16.164Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Beating ploughshares back into swords: warfare in the Linearbandkeramik

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Mark Golitko  and
Lawrence H. Keeley
Mark Golitko
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1007 W. Harrison St. M/C 027 Chicago, IL 60607, USA (Email: mgolit1@uic.edu, lkeeley@uic.edu)
Lawrence H. Keeley
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1007 W. Harrison St. M/C 027 Chicago, IL 60607, USA (Email: mgolit1@uic.edu, lkeeley@uic.edu)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Armed with a number of powerful arguments, the authors invite us to face up to the evidence for violence in early Neolithic Europe. Linearbandkeramik (LBK) people first attacked the hunter-gatherers they encountered and then entered a period of increasingly violent warfare against each other, culminating in an intense struggle in the area of central and western Germany. The building of fortifications, physical mutilation and cannibalism, while no doubt enacted with ritual airs, nevertheless had their context and purpose in the slaughter of enemies.

Keywords

EuropeNeolithicLBKfortificationwarfaremutilationcannibalism
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 81 , Issue 312 , 1 June 2007 , pp. 332 - 342
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bentley, R.A., Krause, R., Price, T.D. & Kaufmann, B.. 2003. Human Mobility at the Early Neolithic Settlement of Vaihingen, Germany: Evidence from Strontium Isotope Analysis. Archaeometry 45: 471–86.Google Scholar
Bogucki, P. 2000. How Agriculture Came to North-Central Europe, in Price, T.D. (ed.) Europe's First Farmers: 197–218. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Champion, T., Gamble, C., Shennan, S. & Whittle, A.. 1984. Prehistoric Europe. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gkiasta, M., Russell, T., Shennan, S. & Steele, J.. 2003. Neolithic transition in Europe: the radiocarbon record revisited. Antiquity 77: 45–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grant, M. 1974. The Army of the Caesars. New York: M. Evans.Google Scholar
Gregg, S.A. 1988. Foragers and Farmers: Population Interaction and Agricultural Expansion in Prehistoric Europe. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Gronenborn, D. 1999. A Variation on a Basic Theme: The Transition to Farming in Southern Central Europe. Journal of World Prehistory 13: 123–210.Google Scholar
Haidle, M.N. & Orschiedt, J.. 2001. Das jüngstbandkeramische Grabenwerk von Herxheim, Kreis Südliche Weinstraޥ: Schauplatz einer Schlacht oder Bestattungsplatz? Anthropologische Ansätze. Archäologie in der Pfalz Jahresbericht 2000: 147–53. Speyer: Archäologische Denkmalpflege Amt Speyer.Google Scholar
Häuβer, A. 2000. Ausgrabungen in einer jüngstbandkeramischen Siedlung in Herxheim b. L., Rheinland-Pfalz, Vorbericht, in Beier, H.-J. (ed.) Varia Neolithica I: 81–83. Weissbach: Beier & Beran.Google Scholar
Höckmann, O. 1990. Frühneolithische Einhegungen in Europa, in Kaufmann, D. (ed.) Jahresschrift für Mitteldeutsche Vorgeschichte: 57–86. Berlin: Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften.Google Scholar
Jadin, I. & Cahen, D.. 1998. Wells, Cisterns andWater Management in the Hesbaye Linear Pottery Culture (Belgium), in Koschik, H. (ed.) Brunnen der Jungsteinzeit: Internationales Symposium Erkelenz 27. bis 29. Oktober 1997: 125–38. Köln: Rheinland-Verlag GmbH.Google Scholar
Jochim, M. 2000. The Origins of Agriculture in South-Central Europe, in Price, T.D. (ed.) Europe's First Farmers: 183–96. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Josephus, . 1970. The Jewish War (trans. by G. Williamson). Putnam NY: Penguin.Google Scholar
Kaufmann, D. 1990. Ausgrabungen im Bereich Linienbandkeramischer Erdwerke bei Eilsleben, Kr. Wanzleben, in Kaufmann, D. (ed.) Jahresschrift für Mitteldeutsche Vorgeschichte: 15–28. Berlin: Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften.Google Scholar
Kaufmann, D. 1997. Zur Funktion Linienbandkeramischer Erdwerke, in Schmotz, K. (ed.) Vorträge des 15. Niederbayerischen Archäologentages: 41–88. Deggendorf: Gessellschaft für Archäologie in Bayern.Google Scholar
Keeley, L.H. 1996. War before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kaufmann, D. 1998. Frontier Warfare in the Early Neolithic, in Martin, D.L. & Frayer, D.W. (ed.) Troubled Times: Violence and Warfare in the Past: 303–19. New York: Gordon & Breach.Google Scholar
Kaufmann, D. 1999. Giving War a Chance, in Rice, G.E. & LeBlanc, S.A. (ed.) Deadly Landscapes: Case Studies in Prehistoric Southwestern Warfare: 358–74. Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press.Google Scholar
Kaufmann, D. 2003. The Symbolism of Warfare. The Wisconsin Archeologist 84: 251–56.Google Scholar
Keeley, L.H. & Cahen, D. 1989. Early Neolithic Forts and Villages in NE Belgium: A Preliminary Report. Journal of Field Archaeology 16: 157–76.Google Scholar
Keeley, L.H. & Golitko, M.. 2004. First Farmers of Central Europe, in Bogucki, P. & Crabtree, P.J. (ed.) Ancient Europe 8000 B.C.-A. D. 1000: Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World: 259–65. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.Google Scholar
Keeley, L.H. & Quick, R.. 2004. Warfare and Conquest, in Bogucki, P. & Crabtree, P.J. (ed.) Ancient Europe 8000 B.C.-A. D. 1000: Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World: 110–18. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.Google Scholar
Keeley, L.H., Quick, R. & Fontana, M.. In press. Baffles and Bastions: The Universal Features of Fortifications. Journal of Archaeological Research (forthcoming, March 2007).Google Scholar
Kneipp, J. & Büttner, H.. 1988. Anthropophagie in der jüngsten Bandkeramik der Wetterau. Germania 66: 489–97.Google Scholar
Krause, R., Papadopoulos, S., Lienemann, J., Hönscheidt, S., Smettan, H.W., Rösch, M., Strien, H.-C., Sidéra, I., Welge, K. & Arbogast, R.-M.. 1998. Die bandkeramischen Siedlungsgrabungen bei Vaihingen an der Enz, Kreis Ludwigsburg (Baden Württemberg). Berichte der Römisch-germanischen Kommission 79: 7–105.Google Scholar
Lawrence, A. 1979. Greek Aims in Fortification. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
LeBlanc, S.A. 1999. Prehistoric Warfare in the American Southwest. Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press.Google Scholar
LeBlanc, S.A. & Register, K.E.. 2003. Constant Battles: The Myth of the Peaceful, Noble Savage. New York: St. Martin's.Google Scholar
Lüning, J. 1988. Zur Verbreitung und Datierung bandkeramischer Erdwerke. Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 18: 155–58.Google Scholar
Malinowski, B. 1961. Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea. New York: E.P. Dutton& Co.Google Scholar
Milisauskas, S. 1986. Early Neolithic Settlement at Olszanica. Ann Arbor: The Regents of the University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Milisauskas, S. 2002. Early Neolithic: The First Farmers in Europe, 7000-5500/5000 BC, in Milisauskas, S. (ed.) European Prehistory: A Survey: 143–92. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.Google Scholar
Milner, G.R. 2005. Nineteenth-Century Arrow Wounds and Perceptions of Prehistoric Warfare. American Antiquity 70: 144–56.Google Scholar
Milner, G.R., Anderson, E. & Smith, V.. 1991. Warfare in Late Prehistoric West-Central Illinois. American Antiquity 56: 581–603.Google Scholar
Peter-Röcher, H. 1994. Kannibalismus in der Prähistorischen Forschung: Studien zu einer Paradigmatischen Deutung und ihren Grundlagen, Bonn: Rudolf Habelt.Google Scholar
Petrasch, J. 1999. Mord und Krieg in der Bandkeramik. Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 29: 505–16.Google Scholar
Polybius, & Pseudo Hyginus, . 1994. Fortification of the Roman Camp (ed. & trans. by M. Miller and J. De Voto). Chicago: Area Publishers.Google Scholar
Scarre, C. (ed.) 2005. The Human Past: World Prehistory & the Development of Human Societies. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Spatz, H. 1998. Krisen, Gewalt, Tod-zum Ende der ersten Ackerbauernkultur Mitteleuropas, in Häuβer, A. (ed.) Krieg oder Frieden? Herxheim vor 7000 Jahren: 10–19. Speyer: Landesamt für Denkmalpflege.Google Scholar
Teschler-Nicola, M., Gerold, F., Kanz, F., Lindenbauer, K. & Spannagl, M.. 1996. Anthropologische Spurensicherung - Die Traumatischen und Postmortalen Veränderungen an den Linearbandkeramischen Skelettresten von Aspan/Schletz, in Windl, H. (ed.) Rätsel um Gewalt und Tod vor 7.000 Jahren. Eine Spurensicherung: 47–64. Asparn: Katalog des Niederösterreichischen Landesmuseum.Google Scholar
Turner, V. 1967. The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Vencl, S. 1999. Stone Age Warfare, in Carman, J. & Harding, A. (ed.) Ancient Warfare: Archaeological Perspectives: 57–72. Thrupp, Stroud: Sutton Publishing.Google Scholar
Wahl, J. & König, H.. 1987. Anthropologisch-Traumatologische Untersuchung der Menschlichen Skelettreste aus dem Bandkeramischen Massengrab bei Talheim, Kreis Heilbronn. Fundberichte aus Baden-Württemberg 12: 65–193.Google Scholar
Whittle, A. 1996. Europe in the Neolithic: the Creation of New Worlds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Windl, H. 1999a. Die Geburt des Krieges. Morgen Kulturberichte 3: 42–44.Google Scholar
Windl, H. 1999b. Makabres Ende einer Kultur? Archäologie in Deutschland 1: 54–55.Google Scholar