This volume presents an updated and revised version of Mark Golitko's PhD dissertation, defended in 2010 at the University of Illinois. It builds on previously published research by L.H. Keeley (Reference Keeley, Martin and Frayer1998) and the author (Golitko & Keeley Reference Golitko and Keeley2007) on conflict during the earliest Neolithic Linearbandkeramik (LBK) occupation of the Central and West European loess belt. Based on the development of fortified sites (enclosures) and the increased evidence of weaponry and traumatic injuries on skeletal remains, both researchers have advocated the use of extreme violence and warfare between different LBK groups, and between LBK farmers and indigenous hunter-gatherers. Conflict seems to have increased towards the end of the LBK, particularly along its western boundary, that is, the Meuse and Middle Rhine Valley. The aim of this volume is to investigate the potential connections between this increase in conflict and socio-economic organisation by means of the reconstruction of intra- and inter-regional exchange patterns within a single, well-documented LBK cluster, the Belgian Hesbaye Siedlungskammer. This is principally achieved by detailed raw material analyses, including sourcing and diachronic distribution analysis of three classes of material culture—ceramics, chipped-stone and groundstone—originating from five extensively excavated sites, of which four were fortified.
The volume splits into two main sections: Chapters 1–4 provide a detailed introduction and overview of LBK research, and Chapters 5–8 are devoted to Golitko's analysis and results. Following a short introduction, Chapter 2 provides a highly interesting and original description of the linkages between exchange and warfare, drawing on an extensive set of ethnographic contexts. Golitko identifies at least four areas in which force is economically motivated and which can be addressed archaeologically: control of land and resources; maintenance of production monopolies; control over trade routes; and alliance formation and maintenance. The principal aim of his research is to understand the strength of association between exchange and warfare within the LBK of the late sixth millennium cal BC. In order to reach this goal, the author starts with a full account of late Mesolithic and LBK research across Central Europe (Chapter 3) and within his own study area (Chapter 4). From these two chapters, it becomes clear that Golitko is much more familiar with the LBK than the late Mesolithic. His analysis of LBK societies is exhaustive and based on the latest publications, whereas the majority of references in his late Mesolithic overview date back to the 1980s and 1990s. A good understanding of contemporaneous hunter-gatherer occupation is, however, crucial when investigating possible conflict with farming communities. In particular, more detail was needed about the supposedly unoccupied buffer zone of 25–30km, immediately north-west of the Hesbaye Siedlungskammer, which constitutes an important part of Golitko's argument for conflict with local groups. How sure is he that this empty zone is not a result of limited research or of specific environmental conditions? And how does the lack of late Mesolithic sites in this zone relate to the early Mesolithic?
Chapter 4 provides interesting Bayesian modelling of the radiocarbon dates. Despite the many problems with radiocarbon-dating the LBK, this modelling permits a two–phase settlement of the Hesbaye Siedlungskammer: a pioneering stage characterised by the establishment of small farmsteads c. 5170–5160 cal BC, with the appearance of large (fortified) villages from c. 5070/5060 cal BC. Following this regional chronology, Chapters 5–7 address diachronic changes in the circulation of pottery and lithics. In relation to LBK ceramic production, 396 pottery and 116 raw clay samples (mostly from local outcrops), are analysed by means of Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). In addition, a selection of these samples (51 pottery and 3 raw clay) was also examined in thin section for mineralogical characterisation. Although not entirely successful or conclusive—mainly as a result of limited chemical variability and the complex mixtures of clays—these analyses permit a distinction between local (groups 1, 2 and 8) and non-local (groups 3–7) pottery, the former being dominant within the Hesbaye LBK. Furthermore, the chemical analyses may demonstrate that the non-LBK (e.g. Limburg) bone-tempered pottery found at several LBK sites, usually interpreted as indigenous pottery, is made of the same local clay varieties as LBK pots, suggesting that this was either a special category of LBK pottery or—more probably—the product of integrated hunter-gatherers (cf. Crombé Reference Crombé, Jordan and Zvelebil2010). These findings corroborate recent technological analyses of similar pottery in adjacent Siedlungskammern, which demonstrate clear technological similarities between some Limburg pots and LBK pottery (Gomart Reference Gomart2014).
The diachronic analysis of the sourcing results points to a marginal increase of non-local pottery towards the second LBK stage and a clear shift in the local pottery production characterised by a substantial increase of group 1 pottery at the expense of group 2. Further, the site of Oleye could be identified as a specialised production site, particularly for group 1 pottery, which was probably intended for exchange with the surrounding settlements. A similar specialisation, or monopolisation, may be observed in the production of flint tools (at the site of Darion) and adze/axe importation (at Waremme), all suggesting that LBK villages became increasingly economically, and possibly socially, intertwined within a large alliance network at the time that fortifications were erected. According to Golitko, all this was a response to conflicts with indigenous hunter-gatherers, although internal economic competition, similar to that observed ethnographically in Brazil's Upper Xingu (p. 139), might also explain some aspects of the production and distribution patterns.
Regardless of whether or not one accepts the Early Neolithic as one of the most violent episodes in the history of Western Europe, this volume constitutes an important reference point for future research into the economic and social organisation of LBK societies, not only in the Belgian Hesbaye but across the wider LBK territory and beyond. It is to be hoped that this publication will encourage other researchers to apply chemical analyses for sourcing raw materials—this is clearly the way forward for the study of exchange networks in past societies.
