Bandkeramische "Schuhleistenkeile" und "Flachhacken" gehören zu den am häufi gsten gefundenen Felsgesteinartefakten der Jungsteinzeit. Sie haben einen D-förmigen Querschnitt und waren, wie Schäftungsspuren an den Klingen belegen, in der Art von Dechseln quer zum Holm befestigt (Abb. 1a, 1b) ). Vollständige Beilschäfte blieben lange unbekannt. Für Rekonstruktionen bediente man sich antiker (Ägypten), archäologischer (Pfahlbaufunde) und ethnographischer Vorbilder (Ozeanien, insbes. Neuguinea). Originale wurden erst in jüngster Zeit in bandkeramischen Brunnen von Erkelenz-Kückhofen, Zwenkau-Eythra Brunnen 1 und Altscherbitz gefunden (Abb. 2a, 2b) (Elburg 2008). ̇ Abb. 1a: Dechsel der bandkeramischen Kultur (5200-4900 v. Chr.) aus Stuttgart-Mühlhausen und rekonstruierte Schäftungen. ̄ Abb. 1b: Rekonstruierte Dechselklingen für die Ergersheimer Experimente. Rekonstruktionen W. Hein. Abb. 2b: Verbreitung von Brunnen der Bandkeramik: 1. Zipsendorf 2. Rehmsdorf 3. Mannheim, Fundstellen Vogelstang und Wallstadt/Straßenheim 4. Mohelnice 5. Most 6. Hollogne-sur-Geer 7. Erkelenz-Kückhoven 8. Lébény 9. Schletz 10. Füzesabony-Gubakút (mögl. mehrere Brunnen) 11. Zwenkau-Eythra (zwei Anlagen) 12. Leipzig-Plaußig 13. Dresden-Cotta 14. Brodau 15. Altscherbitz 16. Brno-Bohunice 17. Ittenheim (zwei, mögl. drei Brunnen) 18. Fußgönheim 19. Niederröblingen 20. Arnoldsweiler 21. Würnitz 22. Morschenich.̇ Abb. 2a: Virtuelle Rekonstruktion des bandkeramischen Brunnens von Altscherbitz/ Sachsen. 3D-Scan: Th. Reuter, LfA Sachsen.

In September 2008 the Odyssey program started as a joint effort of the Netherlands
Organization for Scientific Research, the National Centre for Cultural Heritage
and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. The main aim of this program
was the disclosure of unpublished archaeological research carried out between
1900 and 2000. It has been calculated that over 3500-4000 excavations that
were carried out in this period have never been published. The Odyssey project:
The LBK revisited: ‘forgotten’ research into the Bandkeramik occupation of the Low
Countries aimed to fill in a part of this gap for the early Neolithic farmers in the
Netherlands.
This report is the result of our research. It is mainly written in Dutch, but as
early Neolithic research transcends the Dutch borders we have chosen to provide
a summary of all the chapters of this report. The first 9 chapters (with exception
of chapter 3) have been translated completely as well as the summaries (chapter 27
and 28) and the synthesis (29). The chapters on the 14 excavations (chapter 10-
22) have been summarised with one exception: the excavation at Echt-Annendaal
(chapter 23) which has been fully translated. The specialist report on “archaeobotany”
(chapter 24), “non-LBK pottery” (chapter 25) and “characterisation of red
ochre” (chapter 26) have also been translated completely.
The report has been divided into six parts. Part 1 covers the outline of the
project, regarding methodology, landscape and historical background. Part 2 deals
with the sites on the western bank of the Meuse River. These sites all lie near the
municipality of Maastricht and are part of the Heeswater settlement cluster. Part
3 describes the sites on the eastern bank of the Meuse River, belonging to the
Graetheide settlement cluster. Part 4 covers the excavation at Echt-Annendaal, a
site which lies outside (north of ) the loess cover. Part 5 presents specialist research
on archaeobotany, non-LBK pottery and hematite. A summary of sites lying in the
two settlement clusters is provided in chapters 27 en 28. An elaborate synthesis is
presented in chapter 29.
Figures and tables are presented in the original (Dutch) chapters.

Final version of a paper on the practical use of Early Neolithic (Bandkeramik) adzes. Experiments carried out by the team of Archaeoforum in Ergersheim, Germany.

Attention: The previous version that was available here was titled "Steinbeil im Einsatz", there have been other, minor corrections an modifications too.

‘Vergeten’ Bandkeramiek
Een Odyssee naar de oudste neolithische bewoning in Nederland

Ivo van Wijk, Luc Amkreutz en Piet van de Velde

Het archeologisch onderzoek in Nederland naar de vroegneolithische Lineaire Bandkeramiek cultuur of LBK (5250-4950 v. Chr.) heeft een lange geschiedenis. Sinds de eerste vondsten in 1925 werken amateur- en beroepsarcheologen er aan om onze kennis van deze cultuur te vergroten. Naast grote opgravingen die door de Universiteit Leiden zijn uitgevoerd, heeft veel (meest kleinschaliger) onderzoek plaatsgevonden dat minstens belangrijke aanvullende gegevens kan bieden, zo niet een ander licht kan werpen op de bestaande beeldvorming. Buiten het onderzoek van de Universiteit zijn publicaties echter summier of ontbreken geheel, ook die betreffende de eerste bandkeramische opgravingen. Het NWO-Odyssee onderzoeksproject Terug naar de Bandkeramiek, ‘vergeten’ onderzoeken van de Bandkeramiek heeft deze ’vergeten’ opgravingen boven water gehaald.
Voor dit project is een selectie van deze kleinere bandkeramische opgravingen uitgewerkt en toegankelijk gemaakt voor (aansluitend) wetenschappelijk onderzoek als ook voor een groter publiek; daarnaast is er binnen het project kennisoverdracht geweest op een jongere generatie onderzoekers.
In deze publicatie wordt de rijke onderzoeksgeschiedenis besproken en verslag gedaan van de opgravingen van veertien bandkeramische vindplaatsen in de Graetheideregio alsmede het gebied ten noorden van Maastricht. De (her)analyses van de geselecteerde onderzoeken worden per vindplaats gepresenteerd en in een synthetiserend kader geplaatst. De aandacht gaat daarbij uit naar: nederzettingsstructuur en landschappelijke inkadering (Van Wijk & Amkreutz), de chronologie van het bandkeramisch aardewerk (Van de Velde), het vuursteengebruik en de -herkomst (De Grooth), de stenen werktuigen (Verbaas), het non-bandkeramisch aardewerk (Brounen), het gebruik van oker (Wijnen), en de  bandkeramische cultuurgewassen (Bakels).
Als centraal thema wordt aan de hand van genoemde aspecten de bewoningsdynamiek ten oosten en westen van de Maas belicht  Onder de algemene noemer van Lineaire Bandkeramiek blijkt een variabiliteit in het gebruik en herkomst van diverse gebruiksgoederen schuil te gaan die groter was dan aangenomen werd  en die nu in onze analyses duidelijk naar voren komt.
De ‘vergeten’ onderzoeken van de Bandkeramiek krijgen op deze wijze alsnog de hun toekomende plaats in de onderzoeksgeschiedenis geboden.

At Talheim 34 individuals of all age classes had been killed in a surprise attack and buried in a pit. Traces of
an opposition are missing among the skeletal remains. Decorated sherds date the massacre to the very end
of the Linear Pottery Culture (LBK). Analysis of epigenetic marks and the structure of generations and sex
suggest that the dead represent a complete living population. Future results of aDNA-analysis will possibly
give further details.
Analysis of the injuries showed that only weapons of LBK origin were used. This points to an internal
conflict rather than a conflict resulting from an expansion of Hinkelstein Culture people settling only few
kilometres away. At least one of the offenders came from a LBK settlement about 15 kilometers south of
Talheim.

This is the detailed publication of my dissertation from 2021. Between 1989 and 2005, large parts of an Early Neolithic LPC settlement were excavated in Brunn am Gebirge, Wolfholz (AT). With at least 125  houses, which were also confirmed by the geophysical surveys in the past years, it is one of the largest settlements of the Linear Pottery culture in Austria, situated on the right side of the Danube. Currently, this is the only large settlement on the right side of the Danube, and it can therefore be regarded as a regional centre. The 500 years of continuous settlement from 5585 to 5095 calBC offer an ideal opportunity for the analysis of the development of the longhouses’ architecture from the Formative phase to the youngest phase of the LPC, during which the houses are no longer flanked by the characteristic longitudinal pits.
The first part of the publication presents an architectural overview of the Early Neolithic floorplans of Brunn am Gebirge, Wolfholz with its architectural history. The large number of houses as well as the duration of the settlement itself enabled studies on the changes in architecture, the durations of use, the orientations of the buildings as well as typology and chronology. Here, the older houses in site 2, which belong to the Formative phase Brunn 2 (5585 – 5265 calBC), are particularly significant. A broader spectrum of floorplan shapes – rectangular as well as the first trapezoidal shapes – appears in site 3, which is around 300 years younger than the oldest houses of Brunn. As opposed to site 2, these buildings are not oriented NW–SE anymore, but rather NE–SW. The reason for this change in orientation is not fully clarified, but it could be related to climatic circumstances on the site (e.g. longer/shorter phases of ground frost in spring) and the exact time of construction during the year.
The second part of the publication deals with all aspects of Early Neolithic housebuilding. Here, the focus mainly lies on the inner framework, which is the characteristic element of this architecture. The construction history of the buildings and the settlement as well as specific architectural features are analysed in order to subsequently compare the houses with each other. Especially the interior layout with smaller and larger rooms in the houses are important here and they can justifiably be described as modular constructions. Since walls were not preserved in most cases in Brunn am Gebirge, the spaces between two neighbouring transverse rows were analysed and then compared. This showed that, for example, leaving out the transverse row can result in a large room, from which the post-free middle part might have developed in the LPC architecture. Houses with naves that are wider in the east than in the west are a feature that has hardly been described up to now. The different-sized roof areas on both sides of the house could be an indication of roof pitches being different on each side, which could indicate one side facing the weather.
The activity zones were often located in the east sides of the houses, where the house-accompanying trenches are often interrupted, suggesting that entrances were situated here, as opposed to the consistent trenches on the west side.
In the third part, the houses of Brunn am Gebirge are supra-regionally compared with others within the area of distribution in order to work out the similarities and differences, which can lead to a better understanding of the transmission of architectural knowledge.
For the first time, house floorplans were projected on top of each other to recognise similarities and calculate correspondences. For this, each house floorplan first had to be scaled and adjusted in its orientation. Also, a projection point needed to be defined for every single case, with which two floorplans could be projected on top of each other. Astonishingly, identical structures can be found in floorplans that are up to 600 kilometres away from the houses of Brunn, which is evidence for specific construction plans and a shared understanding of LPC builders. With the help of modular constructions, the buildings could be expanded with relatively simple methods, or whole floorplans could be transferred onto other sites. The newly developed procedure could be a crucial step in comparing house floorplans, independent of chronology, typology or the location within the LPC settlement area, since, in addition to complete houses, floorplans in worse states of preservation can be compared in this way, as long as parts of the inner framework have been preserved.

The work, which consists of two volumes, is currently in print and will soon be available for purchase.

Rezension J. Lüning:

Lieber Herr Stadler,
Herzlichen Dank für die Zusendung der beiden Bände über die Häuser und Gruben der ältestbandkeramischen Siedlung Brunn am Gebirge (2022), die vor einigen Tagen bei mir eintraf. Es handelt sich zweifellos um die bisher am besten und ausführlichsten
dokumentierten, bandkeramischen Haus- und Grubenbefunde in hervorragenden Fotos und Plänen. Letztere geben mit ihren Höhenschichtenplänen ein ungewöhnlich anschauliches Bild der Gruben-Formenwelt, und die farbigen Befunddarstellungen und
Rekonstruktionen (z.B. Bd. a, 371ff.) werden zweifellos Eingang in jede Vorlesung und jeden Vortrag über diese Materie finden. Dieses nicht zuletzt auch wegen des präzisen und anschaulichen Textes von Herrn Minnich.
Kurzum: eine gelungene, schöne und beispielhafte Befundpublikation.
Mit besten Grüßen und Wünschen Ihnen und Ihren Mitautoren
verbleibe ich Ihr J. Lüning
Prof. em. Dr. Jens Lüning
Am Botanischen Garten 34
50735 Köln