Gasping after fast moves? The first farmers in Central Europe in the last centuries of the 6th...
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2023-03-22

Eszter Bánffy (German Archaeological Institute)

Humans were on the move from the very beginning; cultural and biological mobilities and 
connectivity are but building blocks of reshaping past societies. This mobility had “side 
effects”: information networks, exchange, long-distance trade and, ultimately, intermarriages 
with locals. One of the most decisive migrations, confirmed both by material culture and 
bioarchaeology is the rapid spread of LBK groups along the Danube valley. This led to a patchy 
occupation of vast loess regions of the continent. My paper will give examples for the 
immediate aftermath and for some generations later: cases where separation, others where 
melting and the formation of new structures became dominant: very different stories in the 
Carpathian basin, the Danube region and north westwards. Re-structuring LBK and post-LBK 
formations were determined by an almost constant fluidity that shaped the upcoming 5th 
millennium