Danish cult houses in north-western Germany? Rethinking the Funnel Beaker buildings of Flögeln and Hainmühlen, District of Cuxhaven

Two features recorded in the 1960s and 1980s in the course of excavations at Flögeln and Hainmühlen, both District of Cuxhaven, in the northern Elbe-Weser triangle, have since been repeatedly discussed in connection with cult houses from Denmark. Parts of these sites, finds and features have only been published in rudimentary form and have so far not been subject of comparative analysis. For some aspects, the information has been passed down orally for decades and has eventually found its way into the literature. In order to improve the record, the two features are presented here, followed by a comparison with similar features from the wider area of the Funnel Beaker Culture.

Einmal ist keinmal. Peculiar burial practices of prehistoric communities settling the Lublin-Volhynia Upland in the Early Iron Age

The study addresses remains of two peculiar graves unearthed at the site Mikulin 9 in the Dobużek Scarp (Pol. Skarpa Dobużańska) area in Western Volhynia. Unique character of the burials under consideration consists in the peculiarity of funeral ritual performed, scenario of which was basically divided into two acts of burning of the deceased – once on cremation pyres, and then in the eventual places of their interment (grave pits). Both the graves under consideration as well as analogical finds from the western part of the Lublin-Volhynian Upland and its northern foreland can be connected with an impact form the Pontic area and dated back to the Early Scythian Period. Historically, their presence is commonly considered as a result of westward migrations of forest-steppe people form the area of nowadays Ukraine triggered by the appearance of Indo-Iranian Scythian tribes. In the case of the presented burials no less significant from the peculiar eastern burial rite performed seem their localization. When discussing the Dobużek Scarp area as a destiny point of one of such migrations, clearly Pontic character of the escarpment’s physiography should be taken into consideration. The local conditions of the already unsettled loess paha of Dobużek escarpment must have peculiarly attracted pastoral communities arriving from the east. Moreover, the graves were placed in a very exposed point within the preexisting prehistoric landscape, to wit – they were dug into today non-existent but then dominating the area long barrows of the Funnel Beaker Culture. It seems likely that by the act of burying their kinsman into the exposed Eneolithic mounds the incomers tried to create an ancestral tie with the area and thereby justify their presence “here and now”.

On the Shore: Life Inside a Palisade Enclosure and Cultural Change during the Middle Neolithic B in Southern Scandinavia

In 2006 a palisade enclosure dated to the late Middle Neolithic was excavated at Bunkeflostrand, Malmö, Sweden. The excavation of pits and wells containing flints, animal bones and pottery revealed a wide range of activities at the site, which is exceptional in comparison with most other palisade enclosures of southern Scandinavia. Palisade enclosures have emerged as places of great significance to our understanding of cultural relations traditionally associated with the transition from the Funnel Beaker culture to the Battle Axe culture. The results of the excavation at Bunkeflostrand and other palisade enclosures in the region can be used to understand social relations and cultural change in the Middle Neolithic in southern Scandinavia.

Meeting for Transformation: A Locality for Ritual Activities During the Early Neolithic Funnel Beaker Culture in Central Sweden

The former island of Södertörn, just south of Stock- holm, was intensively settled during the Early Neo- lithic. For more than twenty years a field at Stensborg, Grödinge parish, was surveyed for surface finds. Most numerous among the various artefact categories were axes, with stone axes of different shapes showing that they had been intentionally fragmented. Fragments of pointed-butted and thin-butted flint axes were also found, all of them changed by intensive heat. Just as the flint axes indicate contact with southern Scandi- navia, slate objects demonstrate the existence of net- works extending to northern Sweden. During the Early Neolithic the site was a slope situ- ated in the innermost part of a bay, delimited by the shoreline on one side and a ridge on the opposite side. Two small but pronounced ravines of streams also form part of the natural boundary of the site. During excavation of the field several small pits were found that were filled with fragments of axes, pottery and other objects, along with a considerable amount of carbonized seed. Most of the finds have in- dications of destruction, either directly or by the use of fire. The field seems to have been used as a place for assemblies, where rituals were an important part of the activities. The Stensborg site seems to represent yet another kind of natural enclosure involving ritual activities during the Early Neolithic. This presenta- tion is part of a project in progress.

Sídliště a pohřebiště kultury nálevkovitých pohárů v Dambořicích, okr. Hodonín. Příspěvek k poznání pohřebišť s pohřby v natažené poloze / A Funnel Beaker settlement and cemetery in Dambořice, South Moravia. A contribution to knowledge of cemeteries with burials in an extended position

The main subject of the article is evidence of settlement and burial activities from the beginning of the Early Eneolithic from Dambořice belonging to the Funnel Beaker culture. From the perspective of the current chronology, this is the early phase of the Baalberg stage of the Moravian – Lower Austrian group of this particular culture. To date, ten settlement features with a representative assemblage of pottery and six graves with burials in an extended position without grave goods have been investigated. The site is another example of only recently recorded burial customs of a local Funnel Beaker group and, simultaneously, an opportunity to present this phenomenon of the Early Eneolithic in Moravia in a broader context. The article includes an evaluation of anthropological material and a presentation of the radiocarbon dates that were acquired from the bones.

Settlements and economy of the Funnel Beaker Culture communities. Archaeological and palynological evidence from the annually laminated lake bottom sediments (Gostynin Lake District, central Poland)

Palynological information preserved in pollen diagrams is of key importance for investigating prehistoric human activity. According to M. Ralska-Jasiewiczowa, of particular importance for assessing anthropopressure are results of the multidisciplinary research of annually laminated lake sediments carried out in Lake Gościąż and its surroundings in the Gostynin Lake District. In light of the results of human-environment analyses, the environmental disturbances recorded in laminated bottom sediments from Lake Gościąż can be described as reflecting pollen being “an account from afar”. In the analysed case, the pollen fallout may have originated from longer distances, and the recorded transformations of plant assemblages, both with respect to phase 5 and phase 6 from Gościąż, can be attributed to humans inhabiting up to 10 km from Lake Gościąż (e.g. around Lake Białe). On the other hand, the observations made in palynological sites of Białe, Lucieńskie, and Gąsak are well-correlated with the archaeological evidence of human activity. These diagrams reflect nearby activity, as the changes recorded in them correlate distinctly with the intensity of FBC settlement.

Earthen mounds in the Głubczyce Forest (SW Poland) – are they prehistoric long-barrows? Geoarchaeology of the Silesian soil record and human-environment interplay in the Holocene

Two earthen mounds, trapezoid in shape, oriented along the W-E/NW-SE axis and located in prominent landscape positions, were recently discovered in the Głubczyce Forest in the loess area of the Głubczyce Plateau (SW Poland). Their resemblance to long-barrows of the Funnel Beaker culture, as yet unknown in this part of Silesia prompted low-invasive research, involving ALS data analysis, magnetic prospection and a study of soil properties. The objective was to determine if these are indeed anthropogenic structures and if so, how and when were they built. The results indicate: 1) a transformation from chernozemic (Phaeozem) to clay-illuvial soil (Luvisol/Retisol) in the Głubczyce Forest area. Similar processes were identified in neighbouring Central European loess regions and linked with prehistoric climate/vegetation changes (the spread of dense, beech-dominant forests). Human management of the landscape (involving sustained deforestation), enabled the patchy preservation of chernozemic soils until the present-day, 2) both mounds are anthropogenic features, built on a Phaeozem using chernozemic soil. Their construction occurred before the soil transformation, i.e. most likely in prehistory. The development of the Głubczyce Forest may have taken place during the Migration period – a time of settlement decline in Silesia, and 3) the Głubczyce Forest bears further traces of anthropogenic activity: ancient agriculture (field systems), funerary practices, forest management and WWII combat.

Genomic Steppe ancestry in skeletons from the Neolithic Single Grave Culture in Denmark

The Gjerrild burial provides the largest and best-preserved assemblage of human skeletal material presently known from the Single Grave Culture (SGC) in Denmark. For generations it has been debated among archaeologists if the appearance of this archaeological complex represents a continuation of the previous Neolithic communities, or was facilitated by incoming migrants. We sampled and analysed five skeletons from the Gjerrild cist, buried over a period of c. 300 years, 2600/2500–2200 cal BCE. Despite poor DNA preservation, we managed to sequence the genome (>1X) of one individual and the partial genomes (0.007X and 0.02X) of another two individuals. Our genetic data document a female (Gjerrild 1) and two males (Gjerrild 5 + 8), harbouring typical Neolithic K2a and HV0 mtDNA haplogroups, but also a rare basal variant of the R1b1 Y-chromosomal haplogroup. Genome-wide analyses demonstrate that these people had a significant Yamnaya-derived (i.e. steppe) ancestry component and a close genetic resemblance to the Corded Ware (and related) groups that were present in large parts of Northern and Central Europe at the time. Assuming that the Gjerrild skeletons are genetically representative of the population of the SGC in broader terms, the transition from the local Neolithic Funnel Beaker Culture (TRB) to SGC is not characterized by demographic continuity. Rather, the emergence of SGC in Denmark was part of the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age population expansion that swept across the European continent in the 3rd millennium BCE, resulting in various degrees of genetic replacement and admixture processes with previous Neolithic populations.