Archaeology in the Žitava valley II

Ivan Cheben is a Researcher at the Archaeological Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Nitra. His main research interests are material culture studies and settlement patterns of Neolithic and Copper Age periods in Central Europe. He has an extensive experience in archaeological fieldwork in Slovakia, and served as the head of rescue excavations in SW Slovakia for many years. Since 2012 he is head of the Vráble fieldwork project. Martin Furholt is Professor of Social Archaeology at Kiel University. His main research interests are the political dimension of social organisation in the past, and prehistoric mobility during the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods in Europe. He is currently conducting fieldwork on 6th and 5th millennium BCE Neolithic settlement in Slovakia and Serbia, and publishes papers related to the ongoing 3rd millennium migration debate in Europe. Knut Rassmann is a researcher at the German Archaeological Institute and head of the Department of Survey and Excavation Methodology at the German Archaeological Institute. Previously he was Scientific Editor for the Bericht der Römisch-Germanischen Kommission (RGK). He obtained his PhD in 1991 at the Freie Universität Berlin. His main interests are landscape archaeology, survey and excavation methodology, and the Neolithic, Copper Age and Bronze Age in Europe. Alena Bistáková is Researcher at the Archaeological Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Nitra. Her main interests are material culture studies, settlement structures and burial rite of Neolithic and Copper Age periods in Central Europe. She has conducted archaeological fieldwork in Slovakia. She has worked on projects in Central Europe, covering the Neolithic to the Bronze Age and archaeological practices and knowledge work in the digital environment. She is part of the Vráble project since 2018. Maria Wunderlich is currently a Lecturer and Research Fellow at the Institute of Pre-and Protohistoric Archaeology, Kiel University. For her PhD-studies between 2014 and 2018 she was involved in the DFG-project “Equality and Inequality: Social Differentiation in Northern Central Europe 4300-2400 BC” as a research assistant. For her comparative thesis on “Megalithic monuments and social structures” she conducted ethnoarchaeological field work in Sumba, Indonesia, and Nagaland, North-East India. Being interested in social archaeology and comparative analyses, she combines different theoretical approaches with material data derived both in recent and archaeological contexts.

• PrefacesSection 1: Introduction1.1. Introduction to the geographic setting and the archaeological research project in the Žitava valley, south-western SlovakiaMartin Furholt, Ivan Cheben, Knut Rassmann, Nils Müller-ScheeßelSection 2: Spatial scales2.1. The geographic environment in the settlement area of the LBK and its limits to its adjacent regionsFynn Wilkes2.2. Geophysical investigations at Úľany nad Žitavou and Vlkas in the Žitava valley, south-western SlovakiaNatalie Pickartz, Tina Wunderlich, Erica Corradini, Ercan Erkul, Diana Panning, Dennis Wilken, Martin Furholt, Wolfgang Rabbel2.3. Prospection results of the LBK and Želiezovce settlement sites in the Žitava valley, south-western SlovakiaBastian BreitenfeldSection 3: Social scales3.1. Built structures of the Early Neolithic in the Žitava valley, south-western SlovakiaRobert Staniuk, Nils Müller-Scheeßel, Martin Furholt, Ivan Cheben3.2. Pottery and ornamental styles of the Early Neolithic in the Žitava valley, south-western SlovakiaIvan Cheben, Alena Bistáková3.3. The animal remains at the LBK and Želiezovce settlement sites Úľany nad Zitavou and Vlkas in the Žitava valley, south-western SlovakiaRebekka Eckelmann, Nils Eberle3.4. Availability and choice of plant resources at the LBK and Želiezovce settlement sites Úľany nad Žitavou and Vlkas in the Žitava valley, south-western Slovakia: Archaeobotanical and anthracological analysesDragana Filipović, Tim M. Schroedter, Tanja Reiser, Wiebke Kirleis3.5. Integrated plant and faunal stable isotopic analysis from the archaeozoological and archaeobotanical assemblages of the LBK and Želiezovce settlement sites Úľany nad Žitavou and Vlkas in the Žitava valley, south-western SlovakiaRosalind E. Gillis, Rebekka Eckelmann, Dragana FilipovićSection 4: Temporal scales4.1. Radiocarbon dates from the Early Neolithic settlement sites Úľany nad Žitavou and Vlkas in the Žitava valley, south-western SlovakiaNils Müller-Scheeßel, Robert Staniuk, John Meadows, Martin Furholt4.2. The absolute dating of the Late LBKTine Karck, Nils Müller-ScheeßelSection 5: Integrating scales5.1. Simulating land use scenarios for the LBK and Želiezovce settlement site of Vráble, south-western SlovakiaJulian Laabs5.2. Spatial modelling of LBK and Lengyel settlement territories in eastern Central Europe: A new approach to understanding population dynamics, social structures, and exchange networksSebastian Schultrich, Knut Rassmann, Kata Szilágyi, Martin Furholt5.3. Prehistoric communities in the Žitava valley, south-western Slovakia – integrating scalesMaria Wunderlich, Ivan Cheben, Alena Bistáková, Martin Furholt, Nils Müller-Scheeßel, Robert Staniuk