Encyclopedia of Prehistory, Volume 4, Europe

square in form, with rounded corners. The local sandstone was used to make the flagstones, and drystone masonry was employed (Twohig 1981).

Decoration has been found on 57 of the stones that made up the site, almost all of which are still in situ. Most of the decorated stones were used in the hut constructions, particularly Huts 7 and 8, and the passages (A and C) (Twohig 1981).

Cultural Aspects

Skara Brae is one of the few well-preserved Neolithic settlement sites in Europe, and its exceptionally preserved architecture, features, and furnishings give an unusually clear picture of how domestic space was structured at this time (Childe 1931, 1950; Clarke 1976, 1977).

Different phases of house building are represented at the site. Little is preserved of the earliest houses, however, which were partly built on the sand dunes and partly on the bedrock. The next phase of house is generally square in form, with a central hearth and bedalcoves built into the walls. The dwellings of the final phase of construction are one-room, single-story structures, have a central curbed hearth and are between 4- 7 m wide. Storage tanks (possibly for keeping shellfish fresh), window spaces, stone shelving, and bed-alcoves (extending into the rooms rather than into the walls, as in the earlier houses) were also built into these houses (Ritchie and Ritchie 1981). The interconnection and close packing of the houses suggest that the inhabitants of Skara Brae were part of a close, tightly knit community (Clarke and Sharples 1985).

The Neolithic inhabitants of Skara Brae were herders, fishing folk, shellfish collectors, and farmers. The breeding of cattle, sheep, and pig are in evidence, and whales, which were likely beached, were also exploited. Carbonized cereal grains, such as barley, point to agricultural activities (Ritchie and Ritchie 1981). Middens providing much of this economic evidence were found against the hut walls and partly covering the huts (MacKie 1975).

A necklace of animal teeth beads found scattered in the passage of Hut 7 has suggested to archaeologists that the site was hastily abandoned. One possible cause for its abandonment was a sudden natural catastrophe, such as a storm that threatened the village (MacKie 1975). Soon after the site was abandoned, it was enveloped in sand; the sand protected the site until storm in 1850 exposed it, thus, leading to the site's discovery (Ritchie and Ritchie 1981).

European Megalithic 181

References

ChiIde, Vere Gordon (1931). Skara Brae, A Pictish Village in Orkney.

London: Kegan Paul Trench, Trubner.

ChiIde, Vere Gordon (1950). Ancient Dwellings at Skara Brae.

Edinburgh: HMSO.

Clarke, David V. (1976). The Neolithic Village at Skara Brae, Orkney: 1972-73 Excavations: An Interim Report. Edinburgh.

Clarke, David V. (1977). "Excavations at Skara Brae: A summary Account." In Settlement and Economy in the Third and Second Millennia BC, ed. C. Burgess, and R. Miket. Oxford: BAR.

Clarke, David V., and Niall Sharples (1985). "Settlements and Subsistence in the Third Millennium Be." In The Prehistory of Orkney, 4000 B.C-A.D. 1000, ed. C. Renfrew. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 54-82.

Davidson, D. A., and R. L. Jones (1985). "The Environment of Orkney." In The Prehistory of Orkney, 4000 B.C-A.D. 1000, ed. C. Renfrew. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 10-35.

MacKie, Euan W. (1975). Scotland: An Archaeological Guide. London: Faber and Faber.

Ritchie, Graham, and Anna Ritchie (1981). Scotland: Archaeology and Early History. London: Thames and Hudson.

Twohig, Elizabeth Shee (1981). The Megalithic Art of Western Europe.

Oxford: Oxford University Press.

SITES

Stonehenge

TIME PERIOD: 4950-3600 B.P. (Cleale et al. 1995).

LOCATION: 4 km west of the river Avon, in the county of Wiltshire, central southern England.

DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY

Local Environment

Stonehenge, standing at an elevation of about 110 m above sea level, is located on the gently rolling and open chalk grassland of the Salisbury plain. The climate of the region is Maritime, with mean annual precipitation between 800-1,000 mm (Dollfus 1963).

Physical Features

The site of Stonehenge represents a palimpsest of building activities carried out over a span of about 1500 years. Although its name technically refers to the now-famous standing stones and trilithons, the archaeological complex of Stonehenge also includes its asso-

182European Megalithic

ciated earthworks and pits. Overall, the plan of the Stonehenge complex resembles a keyhole, with a long corridor defined by ditches and banks leading to a series of concentric features, including a ditch and double bank, pits, and the stone circles. Within these features are the horseshoe settings of stones, and within that, a single, now fallen, stone.

The corridor, formed by banks and ditches and known as the Avenue, is about 12 m wide and is preserved to a length of about 2.8 km. Placed about 25 m from its opening into the enclosing ditch and double bank area and approximately equidistant between the two sides of the avenue is a standing stone known as the Heel Stone. The Heel Stone is a sarsen, an extremely hard sandstone sourced to about 30 km north of Stonehenge. Another stone, a fallen sarsen known as the Slaughter Stone, lies at the opening of the ditch and double bank area (Chippindale 1994; Cleale et al. 1995).

Enclosed within the ditch and banks is, first, a ring of 56 small pits known as the Aubrey Holes. These were found to contain the remains ofhuman cremations. Once, four stones known as Station Stones stood along the inner bank, although only two sarsens are now preserved. Within these is another series of holes, the Y holes, totaling 30, and within these, the Z holes, totaling 29. The function ofthe Y and Z holes is unclear; they are generally filled with humus as well as with chips of bluestone, sarsen, and flint (Walker, in Cleale et al. 1995).

Within the Y and Z holes is a ring (30 m in diameter) of 17 (30, originally) sarsen uprights with lintels, known as the outer sarsen circle. The lintels were held in place with mortise-and-tenon joints. Within the outer sarsen circle is the inner bluestone circle, a setting of 19 (possibly 60, originally) upright bluestones (igneous stones). Traditionally, it has been thought that the source of the bluestones were the Preseli hills of western Wales, about 385 km from Stonehenge (Atkinson 1979; Chippindale 1994; Cleale et al. 1995). Recent geological research has suggested, however, that the bluestones

may actually be erratics that originated in southwest Wales and that were glacially transported to the Salisbury plain (Thorpe and Williams-Thorpe 1991; Thorpe et al. 1991).

Inside the outer bluestone circle is a horseshoe setting of five sarsen trilithons, made up of two uprights under a horizontal lintel. Each of these massive stones weighed between 50-60 tons and were likely derived from locally available deposits of Cenozoic silcrete (Thorpe and Williams-Thorpe 1991). Within this is another horseshoe setting of 19 upright bluestones. The Altar Stone, made of a gray-green sandstone and geologically distinct from the sarsens, now lies toward

the apex of the horseshoe (although it was probably once upright) (Chippindale 1994).

Cultural Aspects

Stonehenge is situated in a landscape, sometimes referred to as the Stonehenge environs, dense with archaeological sites, particularly ritual and burial sites, from many periods. These include long barrows, round barrows, and causewayed camps. Many of these round barrows were the burial places of wealthy elites, possibly the individuals who managed or commanded the building of Stonehenge itself (Richards 1990; Souden 1997).

The Stonehenge complex was transformed a number of times between 4950-3600 B.P., and its construction history has been divided into phases known as Stonehenge I, II, and III (Cleale et al. 1995). During Stonehenge I (4950-4900 B.P.) and II (4900-4400 B.P.), the site's double bank and ditch were formed, the Aubrey holes were dug, the Heel Stone was erected, and the Avenue was begun. It was not until Stonehenge III, beginning at around 4550 B.P., that the central stone circles, horseshoe settings, and the Y and Z holes were placed.

The "hows" of Stonehenge-how were the stones worked, transported, and erected, and how was the human labor managed, organized, and supported-have occasioned a good deal of speculation as well as experimental studies. An experiment was directed by one of Stonehenge's excavators, Richard Atkinson, who had a 4-ton replica of a bluestone created. Forty people pulled while twenty placed the rollers and directed the runners. The French archaeologist, J.-P. Mohen, who directed the 1979 experiments of stone quarrying, moving, and erecting at Bougon, suggests that Atkinson's labor estimates were a bit high and that fewer people could have done the task (Mohen 1990).

The "whys" of Stonehenge-why was it thought necessary or desirable to select and work particularly hard stones, to transport blocks of these weighing up to 60 tons, and to erect them in precisely this place and in this arrangement-are perhaps more puzzling and certainly have occasioned the more imaginative speculations. Presently, cosmological and sociopolitical factors are the most convincing. Archaeologists, in general, accept the possibility argued by astronomers, such as Gerald Hawkins, that the site may have served as a means of marking or measuring time through the movements of the sun and the moon. For example, the site's axis through the Heel Stone was found to coincide with the point on the horizon where the sun rises on the midsummer solstice (Hawkins 1965).

Unlike the role of astronomy in industrial socletIes, however, tracking the movement of celestial bodies in nonindustrial societies (as exemplified by the ancient Maya) was probably more closely tied to mythology, ritual, as well as seasonal economic activities. The sociopolitical component to the construction of Stonehenge has also been explored, particularly by Colin Renfrew. He has suggested that Stonehenge, by 4000 B.P., emerged as a central place, led by a chief, which dominated neighboring territories (Renfrew 1973a, b). The labor used to move and erect the stones, and the monumentality of the site itself, served, Renfrew has argued, as a conspicuous display of power, wealth, and the ability to mobilize vast resources.

References

Atkinson, R. J. C. (1979). Stonehenge. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.

Chippindale, Christopher (1994). Stonehenge Complete. New York: Thames and Hudson.

Cleale, Rosamund M. J., Karen E. Walker, and R. Montague (1995).

Stonehenge in Its Landscape: Twentieth Century Excavations. London: English Heritage.

Dollfus, Jean (1963). Atlas of Western Europe. Chicago: Rand McNally and Company.

Hawkins, Gerald S. (1988). Stonehenge Decoded. New York: Hippocrene Books.

Mohen, Jean-Pierre (1990). The World of Megaliths. New York: Facts on File.

Renfrew, Colin (1973a). Before Civilisation: The Radiocarbon Revolution and Prehistoric Europe. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Renfrew, Colin (l973b). "Monuments, Mobilisation, and Social Organization in Neolithic Wessex." In The Explanation of Culture Change, ed. C. Renfrew. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 539-558.

Richards, Julian C. (1990). The Stonehenge Environs Project. London: Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England.

Souden, David (1997). Stonehenge Revealed. New York: Facts on File. Thorpe, Richard S., and Olwen Williams-Thorpe (1991). "The Myth of Long-Distance Megalith Transport." Antiquity 65,246: 64-73. Thorpe, Richard S., Olwen Williams-Thorpe, D. Graham Jenkins, and

J. S. Watson (1991) "The Geological Sources and Transport of the Bluestones of Stonehenge, Wiltshire, UK." Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 57, 2: 103-157.

Tarxien (Hal Tarxien)

TIME PERIOD: (5600-4500 B.P.) (Trump 1983).

LOCATION: In southeast Malta.

European Megalithic 183

DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY

Local Environment

The site of Tarxien is situated in a flat and open landscape of limestone bedrock and light soils (Renfrew 1973). With a Mediterranean climate (22 inches of rainfall per year) and scarce fresh water sources, the population at Tarxien would have been somewhat constrained in their agricultural production (Evans 1959; Renfrew 1973).

Physical Features

Tarxien is a multiphase enclosed temple complex, made up of three interconnected temples (Tarxien West, Tarxien Central, Tarxien East), with the earlier remnants of a fourth (Tarxien Far East) located to the east (Trump 1983). The temples are constructed from large blocks of the local limestone, and some of the temple floors were dug into the bedrock. Each temple has a central corridor with pairs of facing apses. Engraved friezes depicting animals, spirals, and geometric designs adorn the temples.

Tarxien Far East is a 12-m-Iong, five-apsed temple structure, which is believed to date to the Ggantija phase (5600-5000 B.P.). Tarxien West is 23 m long and five-apsed, and Tarxien East is 16 m long and fourapsed. Both are presumed to date to an earlier period in the Tarxien phase (5000-4500 B.P.) than Tarxien Central, which is 23 m long and six-apsed (Trump 1983). The order of construction of these temples, however, is somewhat disputed (Evans 1959; Zammit 1930). The remains of a later cemetery were built into the ruins of the temple complex. These cremation burials in urns, beneath dolmens and cairns, date to the Tarxien Cemetery Phase (4500-4000

Cultural Aspects

The architecture, art, and archaeological finds of Tarxien provide some evidence of the economy, society, and religion of its population. Pastoral activities must have played an important role. The bones of sacrificed cattle, sheep, goat, and pig were found in abundance at the site, and these same animals are depicted on a number of the engraved friezes (Evans 1959). Renfrew has argued, based on the large scale of the temple complexes of Malta, such as Tarxien, that a highly stratified society, such as a chiefdom, existed by this period (Renfrew 1973). He has also suggested, based on

184European Megalithic

the distribution of the temple clusters on Malta and their association with modern arable soils, that the location of temples corresponded to sociopolitical territories.

The absence of burials or settlement at Tarxien, at least until the Tarxien Cemetery phase, points to its use as a temple or a ritual center. Trump has noted the distinction between the public outer parts of the site, where the engraved friezes are concentrated, and the private inner parts, access to which would have been highly restricted, possibly to priests or an initiated class (Trump 1983). The nature of the rites and rituals carried out the site, however, can only be

guessed at. The numerous depictions of animal domesticates, the evidence for animal sacrifice, and an impressively large sculpture generally believed to depict a female (although only the lower half of its skirted figure is preserved), suggest that these rituals

emphasized animal and human reproductive fertility (Trump 1983).

References

Evans, John D. (1959). Malta. London: Thames and Hudson. Renfrew, Colin (1973). Before Civilization: The Radiocarbon Revolution

and Prehistoric Europe. London: Jonathan Cape.

Trump, David (1983). "Megalithic Architecture in Malta." In The Megalithic Monuments of Western Europe, ed. C. Renfrew. London: Thames and Hudson, 64-76.

Zammit, Themistocles (1930). Prehistoric Malta, The Tarxien Temples.

Oxford.

KATINA LILLIOS

Department of Anthropology

Ripon College

Ripon, Wisconsin

United States

ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 6800-6000 B.P.

RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows the Western European Mesolithic, precedes the European Mesolithic, and is commonly referred to as the Early Neolithic period.

LOCATION: Northern coast of the Mediterranean and Atlantic Iberia extending from southern Italy to central Portugal.

DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Impressed Ware pot-

tery, polished stone artifacts, transverse arrowheads.

IMPORTANT SITES: Caldeirao (Portugal), La Grotte Gazel, Leucate-Correge, Arene Candide (Italy), Chateau- neuf-Ies-Martigues (France), Cova de l'Or (Spain).

CULTURAL SUMMARY

Environment

Climate. The Impressed Ware culture coincides with the Early Neolithic period during the Atlantic phase of the Holocene that began around 7500 B.P. Considered a climatic optimum, it was a warmer and wetter period than the preceeding Boreal. The region is characterized by warm, dry summers and cool, wet winters.

Topography. The postglacial sea-level rise continued through the Impressed Ware period, inundating the coast to create lush estuarine zones and lagoons, but also submerging an unknown percentage of coastal sites. Geographically the region is generally characterized by lowland floodplain and coastal alluvial zones, upland limestone/marl/clay plateaus, and highland metamorphic and igneous mountains.

Geology. The Mediterranean is typically characterized by three regions: coastal and valley lowland Pleistocene and Holocene sediments, upland zones of fault-blocked limestones and marls dating typically to the Jurrassic through Cretaceous, and montane regions of metamorphic and igneous intrusions.

Biota. A mixed-oak forest, which developed in the preceeding Boreal, became firmly established throughout the western Mediterranean. Estuarine zones that formed in the Mesolithic continued to expand, providing rich marine and waterfowl resources in coastal areas as well as temperate forest and montane habitats in upland and montane zones.

Settlements

Settlement System. Two types of settlements are known: cave habitations and open-air sites. Cave locations are

186Impressed Ware

typically in upland areas and may represent seasonally transhumant herders/hunters who occupied upland areas during the summer. Coastal open air sites, notably Leucate-Correge, have evidence of year-round site occupation based on the presence of certain species of waterfowl and marine subsistence resources. The managment of domesticated plants and animals, known to have been present during this period, which would have been at odds with a transhumant lifestyle, probably also acted to limit locational mobility.

Community Organization. A band-level society of nuclear families is often postulated for Impressed Ware societies, based on size of occupations and housing. The data pertaining to community organization are inaccessible as there is no clear evidence of differentiation among hut sizes. Nuclear family-sized internal social divisions appear to have characterized huts at the openair site of Piana di Curinga (Italy), based on decorative motifs of stamped Stentinello wares. At some open-air sites, such as Passo di Corvo (Italy), population estimates as high as 30 families and 200 individuals could indicate tribal-scale organization during the Impressed Ware period.

Housing. Numerous small habitations in caves and rock shelters were located typically at the borders of different ecozones. Open-air habitations were mostly small, single-family huts and, in at least one case (Piana di Curinga), were wattle and daub. Open-air sites were occasionally surrounded by semicircular walls.

Population, Health, and Disease. There is no clear indication of any change in population levels or in the overall health of Impressed Ware populations from the preceeding Mesolithic, in spite of the appearance of domesticated plants and animals. To date, skeletal information is so fragmentary that no real assessment can be made.

Economy

Subsistence. The Impressed Ware period coincides with the first introduction of domesticated plants and animals into the western Mediterranean. This introduction was combined with extant foraging strategies. In coastal and montane zones, there is a continuance of a foraging focus with the introduction of minor quantities of domesticates. Lowland and some upland areas see the establishment of settlements focused on agriculture, yet continuing to use some wild resources.

Wild Foods. Coastal food resources continue the Mesolithic tradition of the exploitation of shellfish, fish, and waterfowl. Upland and montane areas were characterized by hunting of cervids, aurochs, boar, and ibex and the collection of nuts such as hazelnut.

Domestic Foods. The earliest domesticated fauna across the region were ovicaprids, domesticated sheep or goat that originate in the East. Domesticated plants, which also spread west at this time, were principally wheat and barley. Whereas there have been claims of pre-Neolithic domestication of legumes, these claims have been unsubstantiated.

Industrial Arts. There is a continuance of traditional industrial flaked-stone tool-manufacturing technologies with the introduction of several new ones, specifically potting, the manufacture of ground-stone tools, and limited evidence of wattle-and-daub house construction.

Utensils. Ceramics were exclusively earthenwares, typically manufactured by coiling with a variety of impressed decorations, most notably that of Cardium shell-hence the term Cardial-pottery. Polished stone axes, typically of metamorphic greenstones, also appear for the first time in the western Mediterranean. Flakedstone tool technologies continue from the Mesolithic although there are some changes in tool types.

Ornaments. Ornaments are rare; however, there are personal adornments made mostly of shell but also of worked bone and stone. Items include perforated items for necklaces and pendants and some ground-stone bracelets and pendants.

Trade. Ceramics and ground-stone axes were exchanged throughout the western Mediterranean from their earliest occurrences. The exchange of obsidian, particularly in the vicinity of sources in Sardinia and Corsica through western Italy and Provence, also begins at this time.

Division of Labor. The appearance of domesticated plants and animals undoubtedly modified labor associations from what was assumed to have been a basically egalitarian structure in the Mesolithic. Certain subsistence activities, such as herding and planting, introduced new scheduling requirements that may have slightly increased labor specialization by the end of the Impressed Ware period, particularly in terms of gender relationships. New industries, such as potting and ground-stone production, as well as the increase in exchange activities, would have acted to segment social

relations surrounding labor as well, but as these appear to have been occasional activities, their impact on overall labor may have been slight.

Differential Access or Control of Resources. There is no direct evidence for control of resources, except for proposals of "social storage" based on the exchange of highly decorated ceramics and other items.

Sociopolitical Organization

Social Organization. Households that can be identified from rare articulated settlements such as Piana di Curinga may be evidence that nuclear families were the basis of Early Neolithic villages in the Mediterranean. There is no explicit evidence of class division in settlements; however, the presence of decorated ceramics and long-distance exchange may have been the result of competitive prestige in a village.

Political Organization. There is no evidence of any permanently ascribed political status at the village level. At a greater scale, five regions of ceramic substyles may have represented more regular interactions among villages and upland settlements.

Conflict. There is little direct evidence of conflict, with a few notable exceptions such as at Fontbreguoa (France), where there are a few individuals who show signs of mutiliation, scalping, and possibly cannibalism.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Death and Afterlife. Burials have typically been recovered from caves, where individuals have been deposited with grave goods such as pottery, necklaces, and polished axes. Burials are linked to habitation sites. One complete skeleton from La Grotte Gazel was in a fully flexed position.

Impressed Ware 187

Trump, D.H. (1980). The Prehistory ofthe Mediterranean. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Whittle, A. (1985). Neolithic Europe: A Survey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Zilhiio, J. (1993). "The Spread of Agro-Pastoral Economies across Mediterranean Europe: A View from the Far West." Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 6, I: 5-63.

Zvelebil, M., ed. (1986). Hunters in Transition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

SITES

Caldeirao

TIME PERIOD: 6300-5800 B.P.

LOCATION: A cave site above the Nabao river north of the town of Tomar, in the Portuguese Estremadura.

DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY

A small cave site just below the crest of a plateau overlooking a drainage of the Nabao river. It consists of a habitation zone near the entrance of the cave and a burial zone near the rear.

Local Environment

Caldeirao is in a Mediterranean mixed-oak forest zone in the uplands of the Estremadura. It is located in an inland zone of the Estremadura in central Portugal.

Physical Features

A small limestone-solution cave in a fault-blocked Jurrassic zone. The cave itself slopes gently inward and in a S configuration, acting as a sediment trap during the habitation cycle of the cave.

Suggested Readings

Barnett, W.K. (1990). "Small-Scale Transport of Early Neolithic Pottery in the West Mediterranean." Antiquity 64: 859-865.

Barnett, W.K. (1995). "Putting the Pot before the Horse: Earliest Ceramics and the NeolithicTransition in the Western Mediterranean." In The Emergence of Pottery, ed. W.K. Barnett and J. W. Hoopes. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 79-88.

Guilaine, J. (1976). Premiers Bergers et paysans de I'Occident mMiterram!en. Paris: Mouton.

Price, T. D., ed. (2000). Europe's First Farmers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Scarre, C., ed. (1983). Ancient France, 6000-2000 B.C. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Cultural Aspects

Seven reconstructable Impressed Ware vases were recovered, including a single classic Cardial vessel. At least five individuals, including one infant, were buried in the rear of the cave. Burial artifacts include groundstone axes and perforated shells.

Reference

Zilhiio, J., ed. (1992). Gruta do Caldeiriio 0 Neolitico Antigo. Lisbon: Instituto Portugues do Patrimonio Arquitectonico e Arqueologico.

LOCATION: Southern flank of the Montagne Noir III inland Languedoc, France

DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY

LOCATION: The Etang de Leucate in the western Mediterranean, just north of Perpignan in Languedoc, France.

Gazel represents an upland camp between montane and valley zones, which appears to have had a persistent occupation from Mesolithic through the Early Neolithic. It has an assemblage of approximately 30 Impressed Ware vessels, including several Cardial pots and one complete, fully flexed adult burial.

Local Environment

The site is located III a Mediterranean garrigue mixed-oak environment between montane and valley zones of the Aude valley.

Physical Features

A limestone-solution cave with two principal archaeological deposits, a porch/eboulis zone and two central chambers. It is located above a small tributary of the Aude river that drains south and then east to the Mediterranean approximately 50 km away.

Cultural Aspects

The well-documented ceramic assemblage has been the basis for the reconstruction of the evolution of ceramic types during the Early Neolithic in Languedoc. It also contains early evidence of the appearance of domesticated sheep or goats in the western Mediterranean.

Reference

Guilaine, J. (1976). Premiers Bergers et paysans de ['Occident mediterrant?en. Paris: Mouton.

DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY

A unique example of an Impressed Ware coastal village. It produced large amounts of impressed pottery as well as ground and flaked stone implements. Currently under 6 m of water, the site was excavated by a dredge.

Local Environment

Leucate-Corn!:ge is in a coastal zone, just east of the limestone uplands of the Corbieres.

Cultural Aspects

Leucate-Correge has produced the largest and most varied assemblage of Impressed Ware pottery styles in the region, if not the western Mediterranean. It is also notable in its coastal location, rare owing to Holocene sea-level rise, and the evidence it produced of yearround occupation.

Reference

Guilaine, J., A. Freises, and R. Montjardin, ed. (1984). LeucateComige: Habitat Noye du Neolithique Cardial. Toulouse: Centre d'Anthropologie des Societes Rurales.

WILLIAM K. BARNETI

Field Museum

Chicago, Illinois

United States

ABSOLUTE TIME PERIOD: 8000-4000 B.P.

RELATIVE TIME PERIOD: Follows the Eastern European Mesolithic tradition, precedes the Andronovo tradition.

LOCATION: Steppes and river terraces of western Central Asia, primarily east of the Caspian sea and in the region of the Aral sea.

DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Microlithic stone

tools, including projectile points and scrapers; globular ceramics decorated with wavy or zigzag parallel lines.

IMPORTANT SITES: Tolstov, Uchashchi 131, Uchashchi

159.

CULTURAL SUMMARY

Environment

The early Holocene environment of Central Asia was apparently slightly milder and wetter than today's. However, the environment was still dominated by vast arid steppes and semideserts cut by forested river valleys draining into large inland lakes including the Caspian and Aral seas.

Settlements

Kelteminar settlements are most frequently found on forested river terraces with access to both fish and steppe game animals. Settlements usually consisted of only a few houses and had perhaps at most 150 to 200 people in them. Houses are of two forms. The most common is a very large (80 to 150 or more sq m in area), rectangular structure made of a wood framework covered by matting. Multiple hearths are found associated with these structures, which are interpreted as having been multiple-family dwellings, probably associated with matrilocal groups. In addition, smaller, semisubterranean dwellings are also found, often on the same sites as larger dwellings. These may be winter or special-purpose residences, but no clear interpretation has been offered. The size of these settlements, and the possibility of both summer and winter dwellings, suggests they were permanent or semipermanent.

Economy

Kelteminar subsistence was based on hunting, fishing, and gathering. Remains of game animals from both the forest (deer and pig, for example) and steppe (auroch and gazelle, for example) are common. Waterfowl remains are also found in large quantities on some sites. Fish remains are found in great quantities on some sites, with the most common type being pike. Remains of a

190Kelteminar

wide variety of gathered foods are also found on Kelteminar sites, including fruits, nuts, shellfish, and eggs.

Stone projectile points were used for hunting. They were manufactured from microblades struck from prismatic cores. Scrapers based on microblades were used for working hides, and the blades themselves, probably hafted into a bone or wood handle, served as basic cutting tools. Bone was also used for knives and scrapers. Fishing was done with nets and spears. The Kelteminar peoples used ceramics for storage and cooking. Globular forms with rounded bases predominate. These were formed by using the coil method and were finished by smoothing. Designs were incised or stamped into the paste, often employing parallel wavy or zigzag lines as basic design elements.

Sociopolitical Organization

There is no solid archaeological evidence for Kelteminar social or political organization. However, the size and structure of their dwellings suggest that the Kelteminar peoples had a matrilineal social organization.

Suggested Readings

Dolukhanov, P. M. (1986). "Foragers and Farmers in West-Central Asia." In Hunters in Transition ed. M. Zvelebil. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 121-132.

Frumkin, Gregoire (1970). Archaeology in Soviet Central Asia. Leiden:

E. J. Brill.

Matyushin, G. (1986). "The Mesolithic and Neolithic in the Southern Urals and Central Asia." In Hunters in Transition ed. M. Zvelebil. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 133-150.

Okladnikov, A. P. (1990). "Inner Asia at the Dawn of History." In The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, ed. D. Sinor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 41-96.

Sulimirski, Tadeusz (1970). Prehistoric Russia: An Outline. London:

John Baker.

Tolstov, S. P. (1948). Drevnii Khkorezm: Opyt Istoriko-Ark- heologicheskogo Issledovaniya. Moscow: Izdatelstvo MGU.

Vinogradov, A. V. (1981). Drevnie Okhotniki I Ribolovy Sredneasiatskogo Mezhdorechya. Trudy Khorezmskoi Arkheologo-Etnographi- cheskoi Ekspeditsii, vol. 13. Moscow: Nauka.

PETER N. PEREGRINE

Deptartment of Anthropology

Lawrence University

Appleton, Wisconsin

United States