Chassey-Lagozza-Cortaillod culture
As the Chassey-Lagozza-Cortaillod group (4600-2400 BC) it was proposed to combine the three early Neolithic cultures Chasséen, Cortaillod and Lagozza because of the similarity in ceramics . However, this remains problematic, not least because of the different times.
Chasséen culture
It is dated to around 4500 to 3500 BC. Its eponymous location is a settlement on a spur in Chassay-le-Camp in the Saône-et-Loire department . It follows the cardial or imprint culture in the western Mediterranean. The early settlements of the Chasséen, known as Protochasseen, lie west of the Rhone . It is believed that the culture (like the La Hoguette group ) spread along the Rhone, agriculturalized the Grandes Causses and penetrated into the Paris basin and the Burgundian Jura . France from the Channel coast to the Mediterranean, named after the Chassey-le-Camp site in the Saône-et-Loire department. The number of settlements increased steadily. Millstones , rubstones and polished flint blades indicate intensive agriculture. There are apples , beans , emmer , einkorn , acorns , barley detected, hazelnuts and plums. In some places there is evidence of livestock farming.
Except in caves, under demolitions and in open-air settlements, there are also finds within hilltop settlements protected by ramparts with structures made of dry stone . The ceramics have simple shapes, mostly bulbous mugs with bent shoulders, bag-shaped bowls, hanging and storage vessels with rounded bases without standing surfaces, mostly without decorations, pots, bowls and baking plates . In the younger stage, embellishments become more common. There are fine patterns engraved with pointed devices, lattice, dot-filled or line-filled bands, X-rows, zigzag stripes, occasionally waves and arcs as well as white and red incrustations. In addition, there are multiple perforated strips with pan flute or cartridge belt eyelets.
In the stone industry, devices with the character of a blade appear en masse, cross-edged, leaf-shaped, rhombic and, in the most recent phase, stemmed wing arrow tips, knives and drills, pointed axes with oval cross-sections, disk axes and chisels .
The single stool burial also took place in caves. The skeletons found are mostly imperfect. Trephined skulls are relatively common.
Lagozza
It is dated to around 3900 to 3400 BC. The eponymous site is the lakeside settlement Lagozza north of Milan ( northern Italy ). The Lagozza culture was widespread from Languedoc and Provence in south-east France, over Liguria to Lombardy and Emilia , with foothills to Pisa and Ripoli, Molfetta and the area of Bari . The settlements ( Terramaren ) are also on the banks.
The monochrome ceramic consists mostly of black or occasionally of red polished fine-toned material without decoration. Occasional Chassey-style decorations soon disappeared.
To stone tools there are in addition pointed necked Beilen, sometimes Microliths as trapezes and triangular cross tailor , and rhombic and triangular, stalked partly arrowheads. Bone combs, pendants and occasionally also were harpoons made. Loom weights and spindle whorls are made of clay.
Cortaillod
It was widespread from 4000 to 3500 BC. The eponymous site is the lakeside settlement of Cortaillod on the west bank of Lake Neuchâtel . The main distribution of the Cortaillod culture was in a 40–50 km wide strip from Lake Geneva to Lake Zurich in western Switzerland . The settlements are usually on the banks of the lake (similar to the Lagozza group), less often on heights, but demolitions were also used. The houses had a maximum floor plan of 12 × 7 m. They consisted of posts that were connected with wattle. In addition to farming with domestic animals (mainly cattle), hunting and fishing formed the basis of nutrition.
Hunting weapons were bow and arrow, as well as boomerang-like throwing sticks. The arrowheads were triangular or heart-shaped with a concave base. Cross- edged arrowheads are missing. The fishhooks were made of bone, the harpoons of deer antlers. Antlers were also used as raw material for axes, hammers and picks. Net remnants and net swimmers are evidence of fishing. Grave sticks , hackling combs for hemp and flax as well as grinding stones and sickles bear witness to agriculture.
In addition to axes and hatchets, stone tools include adzes and ground chisels . Cups, flails, picks, spoons and bowls were made from wood. Copper was used to make axes and chisels as well as pearls and jewelry. The amphorae, bowls and bowls with a round bottom, the buckled wall bowls typical of this culture and the baking plates were made of clay. There were multiple perforated strips and knobs that were placed and pierced twice as in the Chasséen. However, pan flute or cartridge belt loops are missing. In art, the oldest rock carvings in Switzerland are associated with the Cortaillod group. The dead were buried in grave fields ( Saint Martin de Corléans , Dolmen von Petit-Chasseur ) in stone boxes or dolmens as stools.
literature
- Andreas Lippert , Michael Schultz, Stephen J. Shennan , Maria Teschler-Nicola (eds.): Man and the environment during the Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age in Central Europe. = People and their environment during the neolithic and the early bronze age in Central Europe (= Internationale Aräologie. Arbeitsgemeinschaft, Symposium, Tagung, Kongress. 2). Results of interdisciplinary collaboration between archeology, climatology, biology and medicine. International workshop from 9. – 12. November 1995, Institute for Pre- and Protohistory at the University of Vienna. Leidorf, Rahden / Westf. 2001, ISBN 3-89646-432-9 .