The selection of ceramic raw material: convenience or a technological idea?

A case study of the Danubian cultures north of the Carpathians

Abstract

This paper reconstructs the rules governing the selection of ceramic raw material and considers certain technological aspects of the production of ceramic vessels in some Danubian cultures around the Carpathians in the Neolithic. The analysis encompassed more than 500 samples of ceramics produced by various cultural units across different chronological horizons. The results of the analysis are used to verify several hypotheses concerning the relationships and the mechanisms of cultural change in the Carpathian region. The most important questions include: (1) evolution of the LBK ceramics, (2) influence of the ALPC on the evolution of the LBK pottery in Małopolska, (3) technology of the LBK ceramics east of the Carpathians, (4) culture change at the turn of the LBK and the MC in Małopolska and (5) culture change at the turn of the MC and the L-VC in the same region. The suitability of the pottery technological analysis to solve some prehistoric problems was confirmed.