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Over several decades, we have written extensively about the household as a fundamental organizational unit of the Neolithic society. Starting from our definition of the household cluster at Brześć Kujawski 3 and the detailed analysis of household activities at House 56 at Brześć Kujawski 4, we continue to consider the household as the locus of decision-making and resource allocation even as our thinking has evolved over the intervening years. At the same time, Neolithic households functioned within local concentrations of settlement in which they interacted with other such units. We characterize such local social entities as “hamlets,” adapting the definition used by the anthropologist Frank Cancian to refer to institutionalized alliances of domestic groups in which affiliation is demonstrated through residential proximity. We have studied two such hamlets of the Brześć Kujawski Group: the Osłonki-Miechowice-Konary hamlet and the Smętowo hamlet consisting of Brześć Kujawski and Pikutkowo. We characterize these hamlets to show how they extend our original conception of household-based societies to develop a robust understanding of local Neolithic communities.

This article discusses the absolute chronology of collective burials of the Trzciniec Cultural Circle communities of the Middle Bronze Age in East Central Europe. Based on Bayesian modeling of 91 accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (AMS 14C) dates from 18 cemeteries, the practice of collective burying of individuals was linked to a period of 400–640 (95.4%) years, between 1830–1690 (95.4%) and 1320–1160 (95.4%) BC. Collective burials in mounds with both cremation and inhumation rites were found earliest in the upland zone regardless of grave structure type (mounded or flat). Bayesian modeling of 14C determinations suggests that this practice was being transmitted generally from the southeast to the northwest direction. Bayesian modeling of the dates from the largest cemetery in Żerniki Górne, Lesser Poland Upland, confirmed the duration of use of the necropolis as ca. 140–310 (95.4%) years. Further results show the partial contemporaneity of burials and allow formulation of a spatial and temporal development model of the necropolis. Based on the investigation, some graves were used over just a couple of years and others over nearly 200, with up to 30 individuals found in a single grave.

Understanding socioeconomic inequality is fundamental for studies of societal development in European prehistory. This article presents dietary (δ13C and δ15N) isotope values for human and animal bone collagen from Early Neolithic Osłonki 1 in north-central Poland (c. 4600–4100 cal BC). A new series of AMS radiocarbon determinations show that, of individuals interred at the same time, those with copper artefacts exhibit significantly higher δ13C values than those without. The authors’ results suggest a link between high-status goods and intra-community differences in diet and/or preferential access to the agropastoral landscape.

Broomcorn millet is one of the most important plants species in pre-history. It was first domesticated in China and subsequently spread across Eurasia becoming a significant staple crop. For a long time, the arrival of millet into Europe was assumed to have taken place in the Neolithic. However, this has recently been challenged, with new direct radiocarbon measurements on reportedly Neolithic charred millet grains in fact dating to the Middle Bronze Age. To aid in understanding the timing of millet's spread across East-Central Europe in the Bronze Age we present the results of over 120 new paired radiocarbon dates and stable isotope (δ13C and δ15N) measurements on human bone collagen from individuals across 33 archaeological sites in Poland and western Ukraine. In doing so we directly assess millet's role in the Bronze Age diets. Our results show a clear increase in bone collagen δ13C values from the middle 15th century BC onwards. This increase is rapid across the whole study area, occurring almost simultaneously with respect to the precision of our radiocarbon dates. Pilot stable isotope data for contemporary animals suggests that they were not foddered with millet and hence it was probably eaten directly by humans. Interestingly, individuals consuming millet appear to be exclusive to geographically upland regions compared to lowland ones. However, not all individuals from upland zone have δ13C values consistent with millet consumption. Based on the stable isotope evidence for upland millet consumption and the well documented evidence for connections between these people and those in the northern Carpathian Basin at this time, we posit that it is through this route, across the Carpathians, that millet was introduced into the region. An increase of its economic importance in Lesser Poland was plausibly caused by a significant growth in human populations.

In the course of archaeological research at site 2 in Oslonki (Kuyavia, central Poland), a dense deposit of 20 cattle bones was discovered, most of which are semi-finished products for production of bone chisels. The collection was dated ab. 3350-3097 calBC. The traceological analysis of technological traces on the artefacts and experimental studies indicate that they were processed using several metal tools with working edges of varying shape, employed as chisels for bone splitting. Although SEM-EDX analyses did not show the presence of a substantial amount of copper on the surfaces of the artefacts, the collection can be considered most likely evidence for widespread use of this metal among Late Neolithic communities in Poland or at least the people who inhabited the area of Kuyavia.

Ancient DNA genome-wide analyses of Neolithic individuals from central and southern Europe indicate an overall population turnover pattern in which migrating farmers from Anatolia and the Near East largely replaced autochthonous Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. However, the genetic history of the Neolithic transition in areas lying north of the European Neolithic core region involved different levels of admixture with hunter-gatherers. Here we analyse genome-wide data of 17 individuals spanning from the Middle Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age (4300-1900 BCE) in order to assess the Neolithic transition in north-central Poland, and the local impacts of hunter-farmer contacts and Late Neolithic steppe migrations. We evaluate the influence of these on local populations and assess if and how they change through time, reporting evidence of recurrent hunter-farmer admixture over three millennia, and the co-existence of unadmixed hunter-gatherers as late as 4300 BCE. During the Late Neolithic we report the appearance of steppe ancestry, but on a lesser scale than previously described for other central European regions, with evidence of stronger affinities to hunter-gatherers than to steppe pastoralists. These results help understand the Neolithic palaeogenomics of another central European area, Kuyavia, and highlight the complexity of population interactions during those times.

The introduction of agriculture to Europe was a complicated process that had a profound impact on human settlement and the natural landscape. Excavations at Oslonki in north-central Poland have revealed a settlement of early farmers from approximately 4300–4000 B.C. Between 1989 and 1994, 30 trapezoidal longhouses and 80 graves were revealed in an area of 15,000 sq m, along with numerous pits filled with household rubbish. A fortification ditch, built in two stages, is the first such Early Neolithic feature found in this part of central Europe. The analysis of the houses, burials, and pit contents permits the investigation of household organization and the procurement and use of various raw materials by the inhabitants of Oslonki. This article reports the preliminary results of this research.

Biomarker and stable isotopic analysis of lipid residues from perforated pottery vessels from sixth millennium bc Europe are consistent with these vessels having been used for making cheese, a low-lactose dairy product with digestion and storage advantages for the prehistoric lactose-intolerant farming communities. Dairying was an important innovation in early agriculture — despite the fact that the first dairy farmers were unable to metabolize lactose. One way of making milk more palatable to the lactose intolerant is to turn it into cheese, a process that involves straining the fat-rich curds from the lactose-containing whey. In this study Richard Evershed and colleagues report the presence of organic residues on pottery shards from enigmatic pottery vessels produced widely in settlements of the earliest farmers in northern Europe about 7,500 years ago. The vessels exhibit numerous millimetre-sized holes, which were postulated to be cheese strainers in 1984 by Peter Bogucki, a co-author on this current paper. That idea is now supported by the chemical evidence. The introduction of dairying was a critical step in early agriculture, with milk products being rapidly adopted as a major component of the diets of prehistoric farmers and pottery-using late hunter-gatherers1,2,3,4,5. The processing of milk, particularly the production of cheese, would have been a critical development because it not only allowed the preservation of milk products in a non-perishable and transportable form, but also it made milk a more digestible commodity for early prehistoric farmers6,7,8,9,10. The finding of abundant milk residues in pottery vessels from seventh millennium sites from north-western Anatolia provided the earliest evidence of milk processing, although the exact practice could not be explicitly defined1. Notably, the discovery of potsherds pierced with small holes appear at early Neolithic sites in temperate Europe in the sixth millennium bc and have been interpreted typologically as ‘cheese-strainers’10, although a direct association with milk processing has not yet been demonstrated. Organic residues preserved in pottery vessels have provided direct evidence for early milk use in the Neolithic period in the Near East and south-eastern Europe, north Africa, Denmark and the British Isles, based on the δ13C and Δ13C values of the major fatty acids in milk1,2,3,4. Here we apply the same approach to investigate the function of sieves/strainer vessels, providing direct chemical evidence for their use in milk processing. The presence of abundant milk fat in these specialized vessels, comparable in form to modern cheese strainers11, provides compelling evidence for the vessels having being used to separate fat-rich milk curds from the lactose-containing whey. This new evidence emphasizes the importance of pottery vessels in processing dairy products, particularly in the manufacture of reduced-lactose milk products among lactose-intolerant prehistoric farming communities6,7.

The last two decades have seen a significant increase in our knowledge of the earliest farming communities of Central Europe between ca. 5500 and 4000 B.C. (4500–3000 b.c.). These data have led to a better understanding of the chronology, settlement patterns, subsistence economy, and burial practices of these cultures. In addition, data that were virtually unknown 20 years ago, such as earthworks and the unusual pottery variants of Limburg and La Hoguette, now require explanation. This article summarizes recent progress in research on the earliest farming cultures of Central Europe and outlines some promising directions for future work.

Since 1976, excavations have been conducted on two neighboring Early Neolithic sites at Brześc Kujawski, Wloclawek district, Poland. The aim of this research is to improve the understanding of the developmental sequence of Early Neolithic cultures on the Polish lowlands as well as to recover palaeobotanical and archaeozoological materials to study the changes in subsistence patterns over time. There are three components of Early Neolithic settlement at Brześc Kujawski: the Linear Pottery, Early Lengyel, and Late Lengyel cultures, which span the period between 4300 and 3000 radiocarbon years B.C. Large amounts of animal bones indicate a shift from cattle-centered stockbreeding in the Linear Pottery component to a very diverse pattern of animal exploitation in the Late Lengyel component. Early Neolithic house remains, storage pits, flint industries, and copper artifacts are also discussed.