Bylany (archaeological site)

Bylany (archaeological site)
LocationCzech Republic
RegionBohemia
Coordinates49.9573° N, 15.7332° E
Altitude252 m (827 ft)
Area3.67 km2
History
CulturesLiner Pottery culture
Stroked Pottery culture
Associated withNeolithic central Europeans
Site notes
Discovered1952
ArchaeologistsBohumil Soudský
Public accessNo public access
Architecture
Architectural stylesNeolithic

Bylany is a Danubian Neolithic (New Stone Age) archaeological site located around 65 km (40 mi) east of Prague in the Czech region of Bohemia.[1] Excavation began in 1955 and work continues today.[2][3][4][5][6]

Bylany (Bohemia, Czech Republic), in addition to Eythra (Saxony, Germany), Herxheim (Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany), Těšetice (Moravia, Czech Republic), is regarded as the residential area for the first farmers in Europe and one of the largest Neolithic settlements in Central Europe.[2][4][7] The area is agricultural and consists of many streams, ravines, and marshlands.[3][8]

The archaeological site at Bylany was the area of two defining Danubian cultures, the Linear Pottery culture (from German: Linearbandkeramik), often abbreviated as LBK, and the Stroked Pottery culture (from German: Stichbandkeramik), often abbreviated as STK.[2][4][5][9] The LBK culture is theorised to have covered the period between 5600-5000 cal. BC, and the STK culture the period between 5000-4400 cal. BC. These dates are contested, and some archaeologists place the dates of the LBK culture closer to 5500-4900/4950 cal. BC.[3][4][5][10]

Excavations and studies over the years have unearthed many artefacts of the Neolithic period.[2][3][4][5][11][12] These include pottery fragments (LBK and STK origins), and stone tools. Studies have also uncovered non-moveable features of the period these include longhouses and rondels identified using non-destructive methodologies i.e. aerial and geophysical prospection, and other methods such as magneto-metric anaysis.[2][4][13] Pottery is used by archaeologists to determine the chronology of events at Bylany as the differing of styles and techniques to decorate and create suggests the time period and culture that produced the artefact.[12][14][15] Czech archaeologists in Prague have sort to make a digitised museum to present the site to a global audience.[7] This has been accomplished by using technologies such as Optical 3D scanning, 3D photogrammetry, and 3D modelling.[7]

  1. ^ "sídliště Bylany, archeologické stopy - Památkový Katalog". www.pamatkovykatalog.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e Soudský, Bohumil (September 1962). "The Neolithic Site of Bylany". Antiquity. 36 (143): 190–200. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00036577. ISSN 0003-598X. S2CID 162455636.
  3. ^ a b c d Matlova, Veronika; Roffet-Salque, Mélanie; Pavlu, Ivan; Kyselka, Jan; Sedlarova, Ivona; Filip, Vladimir; Evershed, Richard P. (2017-08-01). "Defining pottery use and animal management at the Neolithic site of Bylany (Czech Republic)". Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 14: 262–274. doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2017.05.028. hdl:1983/66656f85-5504-4aaa-ab47-f33d776fc8d1. ISSN 2352-409X.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Květina, Petr; Končelová, Markéta (2013-02-27). "Neolithic LBK Intrasite Settlement Patterns: A Case Study from Bylany (Czech Republic)". Journal of Archaeology. 2013: e581607. doi:10.1155/2013/581607. ISSN 2090-4061.
  5. ^ a b c d Křivánek, Roman (January 2020). "The contribution of new geophysical measurements at the previously excavated neolithic rondel area near B ylany, c entral B ohemia". Archaeological Prospection. 27 (1): 39–52. doi:10.1002/arp.1755. ISSN 1075-2196. S2CID 214461436.
  6. ^ Květina, Petr; Hrnčíř, Václav (2013-01-01). "Between archaeology and anthropology: imagining Neolithic settlements". Anthropologie. 51: 323–347.
  7. ^ a b c Květina, Petr; Unger, Jiri; Vavrečka, Petr (2015-01-01). "Presenting the invisible and unfathomable: Virtual museum and augmented reality of the Neolithic site in Bylany, Czech Republic". Archeologicke Rozhledy. 67: 3–22. doi:10.35686/AR.2015.1. S2CID 257882329.
  8. ^ Milisauskas, Sarunas (2001), "Linear Pottery: Linearbandkeramik (LBK) Culture", in Peregrine, Peter N.; Ember, Melvin (eds.), Encyclopedia of Prehistory, Boston, MA: Springer US, pp. 191–197, doi:10.1007/978-1-4615-1187-8_15, ISBN 978-1-4684-7131-1, retrieved 2022-05-12
  9. ^ Barker, Graeme (1989). Prehistoric farming in Europe. Cambridge Univ. Press. ISBN 0-521-22810-7. OCLC 715216005.
  10. ^ "FIGURE 4. Storage vessel found at Bylany in the feature 125 inside the..." ResearchGate. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  11. ^ Midgley, M. S.; Pavlů, I.; Rulf, J.; Zápotocká, M. (March 1993). "Fortified settlements or ceremonial sites: new evidence from Bylany, Czechoslovakia". Antiquity. 67 (254): 91–96. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00045099. ISSN 0003-598X. S2CID 161726060.
  12. ^ a b Pavlů, Ivan (2010). Činnosti na neolitickém sídlišti Bylany : prostorová analýza keramiky = Activities on a neolithic site of Bylany : an intrasite spatial analysis of pottery. Praha: Archeologický ústav AV ČR. ISBN 978-80-87365-29-8. OCLC 713795341.
  13. ^ Květina, Petr (2010). "The Spatial Analysis of Non-Ceramic Refuse from the Neolithic Site at Bylany, Czech Republic". European Journal of Archaeology. 13 (3): 336–367. doi:10.1177/1461957110386673. ISSN 1461-9571. S2CID 232175989.
  14. ^ Vondrovský, Václav; Beneš, Jaromír; Divišová, Michaela; Kovačiková, Lenka; Šída, Petr (2016-12-23). "From LBK to SBK: Pottery, Bones, Lithics and Houses at the Neolithic site of Hrdlovka, Czech Republic". Open Archaeology. 2 (1). doi:10.1515/opar-2016-0022. ISSN 2300-6560. S2CID 49274909.
  15. ^ Květina, Petr; Gomart, Louise; Thér, Richard; Neumanová, Klára (2017-07-02). "Květina, P., L. Gomart, R. Thér, and K. Neumannová. 2017. Beyond the technological chain. Neolithic potters in social networks. Archeologické rozhledy 69 (2):163-171". Archeologicke Rozhledy. 69.