Sherds of the late Linearbandkeramik, Rhine-Main area

The Linearbandkeramic (abbreviated LBK) is the earliest neolithic culture of Central Europe. Its oldest phase is dated by the radiocarbon method to 5.500 BC. This culture can be associated with the westward spread of agriculture across Europe during the 6th millennium BC and 5th millennium BC. The name derives from pottery found in Neolithic archaeological sites featuring painted or incised linear motifs.

Early LBK sites are found in river valleys and flood plains of the Danube River area in Hungary and the northern Balkans. This region already had a thriving culture of farms and small settlements in the 6th millennium BC. Most scholars derive the Linearbandkeramic from the Starcevo-Körös culture of Northern Serbia and Hungary, but some would argue for an autochthonous development out of the local Mesolithic cultures. The Radiocarbon-dates show a very rapid spread of this culture, covering the distance between northern Hungary and northern Germany in 200 years at most.

Important sites include Bylany in the Czech Republic, Langweiler and Zwenkau in Germany and Brunn am Gebirge in Austria.

It is followed by the stroke-ornamented ware pottery in the eastern part of the settlement area, by the Hinkelstein, Großgartach- and Rössen -cultures in the West.

LBK sites near Cologne show that the people lived in villages of large long houses, and raised grain (emmer and einkorn), peas and lentils in small plots. Though their farming was small-scale, the increasing numbers of LBK settlements began a process of thinning Europe's primeval forests. This would continue for millennia as population increased.

External links

• The collective calibration of the pertinent radiocarbon dates
• On the excavation in Brunn am Gebirge