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The article contains an assessment of the current state of recognition of the phenomenon present in the Neolithic of Polish lands, and referred to as the Eastern European sub-Neolithic. The picture it represents is does not provide grounds for optimism. The causes of the bad situation are outlined. The paper presents recent achievements and basic gaps in the evidence, among which the most important is the lack of research at potentially homogeneous sites. This make impossible to undertake the discussion of the problem of the local genesis of the phenomenon, the chronology and dynamics of its transformations or broader considerations on the character and the scope of interactions between pottery-producing hunter-gatherers and early agricultural communities. Interwoven into the narratives have become the views of Jan Kowalczyk (1969), in which the sub-Neolithic had an important role in the processes ongoing in the Neolithic period. The purpose of references to texts from half a century ago is not the desire to return to the general concepts of this researcher, but rather to consider the accurate and still valid specific observations of J. Kowalczyk and about the conviction expressed by him that a better understanding of the sub-Neolithic is important for discovering and comprehension of the processes occurring in the Neolithic of Polish territories (understood as a period).

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Methods of palaeogeographical modelling of possible freshwater bodies based on open access datasets provided by the Estonian Land Board are discussed, along with the landscape use of the recently surveyed palaeolagoons at the mouths of the rivers Vihterpalu, Teenuse and Velise (western Estonia) after Litorina Sea transgression maximum (ca 5300 BC). The site clusters by the Vihterpalu palaeolagoon can be dated to the Pre-Pottery Mesolithic or Narva stage (until 5200 BC and 5200–3900 BC, respectively). Human activity by the Velise lagoon probably started at the same time and intensified during the Comb Ware stage (3900–1750 BC). Two mineral surface depressions, sufficient to accommodate remnant lakes and presently covered by peat layers of mires deserve further attention. They are located in the Seljaküla, Variku and Keedika villages behind the coastal formations observable by the road connecting the Keila– Haapsalu main road with Nõva village. Similar depressions behind the coastal formations in the Teenuse–Velise area are not sufficient for freshwater bodies. The spatial pattern of smallscale aceramic settlement sites by the tributaries of the present-day River Kasari up to 10 km from the palaeocoastline suggests a highly persistent seasonal land use during the Comb Ware stage, comparable to the Neolithic settlement phase of Kunda Lammasmägi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methods of palaeogeographical modelling of possible freshwater bodies based on open access datasets provided by the Estonian Land Board are discussed, along with the landscape use of the recently surveyed palaeolagoons at the mouths of the rivers Vihterpalu, Teenuse and Velise (western Estonia) after Litorina Sea transgression maximum (ca 5300 BC). The site clusters by the Vihterpalu palaeolagoon can be dated to the Pre-Pottery Mesolithic or Narva stage (until 5200 BC and 5200â3900 BC, respectively). Human activity by the Velise lagoon probably started at the same time and intensified during the Comb Ware stage (3900â1750 BC). Two mineral surface depressions, sufficient to accommodate remnant lakes and presently covered by peat layers of mires deserve further attention. They are located in the Seljaküla, Variku and Keedika villages behind the coastal formations observable by the road connecting the Keilaâ Haapsalu main road with Nõva village. Similar depressions behind the coastal formations in the TeenuseâVelise area are not sufficient for freshwater bodies. The spatial pattern of small- scale aceramic settlement sites by the tributaries of the present-day River Kasari up to 10 km from the palaeocoastline suggests a highly persistent seasonal land use during the Comb Ware stage, comparable to the Neolithic settlement phase of Kunda Lammasmägi.

In 2023, Estonia saw 238 archaeological fieldwork projects, with permits issued by the National Heritage Board and Tallinn City Government. The projects focused on various historical periods, including the Viking Age, medieval, and Early Modern periods, uncovering settlement sites, burial sites, manor houses, churches, and urban structures. Fieldwork also included monitoring construction sites, assessing archaeological heritage, and exploring natural sites like sacrificial springs and ancient fields. The projects aimed to understand Estonia's history and integrate archaeological heritage into modern development plans, showcasing the country's rich cultural past. [Extracted from the article]

The settlement site of Jägala Jõesuu V is located in northern Estonia in the village of Jõesuu, about 200 m from the eastern bank of the Jägala River and about 2 km from the present-day coast of the Baltic Sea. It was discovered during the fieldwork in 2011, and 275 m² was researched during rescue excavations in the course of road renovation. The remains of one pithouse (partly excavated), several pits and fireplaces were found. The collection of finds (11 454 artefacts and ecofacts) consists of potsherds of Comb Ware, tools and debris of quartz and flint, burnt bones, hazelnut shells, etc. The excavation technique, as well as the fact that the site was a relatively short-term and undisturbed complex, provided a good basis for spatial analysis that identified at least five concentration zones of finds. The largest concentration (61% of all finds) is related to the filling of the pit-house, >2.8 × 5.3 m in size and with pits inside it. The second large concentration zone (10% of all finds) contains the same find categories as the pit-house, but in different proportions, and it is assumed to be the remains of an above-ground construction measuring about 6 × 3 m. Three other concentrations, which in one case mostly contain flint and quartz artefacts (diameter ca 2.5 m) and quartz in the other two cases (ca 1.5 and 3 m in diameter) can be associated with outdoor activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the archaeological fieldworks in Estonia in 2022, including the permits issued by the National Heritage Board and the Division of Cultural Heritage of Talinn City Government (TLPA). Also cited are the various methods used in the investigations like archaeological monitoring and rescue excavations and the research-related fieldworks by the University of Tartu and Tallinn University.

Results of archaeological surveys of paleocoastlines in the Western Estonian Lowland are discussed with paleogeographic reconstructions. Mapped sites and stray finds can be dated to the period between the end of the Pre-Pottery Mesolithic and the end of the Neolithic (roughly 5300–2000 cal BC). Uniquely for Estonia and neighbouring countries in this time frame, the overwhelming majority of the sites are aceramic (and the rest feature very few pottery finds) and the find diversity is otherwise low, too. The findings are interpreted as traces of seasonal occupation and mobility, for the first time demonstrated in the Eastern Baltics on such a large scale.

The article presents the discussion on settlement site of Maalasti is located in the northern part of Viljandi County, just north of the Navesti River. Topics include considering the small-scale excavations in 2021 being the first of th kind in addition to the previous fieldwalking surveys; and dark soil containing charcoal, burnt stones and droplets from casting copper alloys appeared.

The location choice of Stone Age settlements has been long considered to be influenced by environmental conditions. Proximity to water and sandy soils are most typical examples of those conditions. The notion of the influence resulted from the evidence from a relatively small amount of sites. During the recent decades the number of known settlements has increased to a level where statistical assessment of relation between environmental characteristics and settlement location choice is possible. To undertake this task we collected data about known Estonian Stone Age settlements and acquired environmental data of their locations using publicly available geological datasets. We provide univariate descriptive statistics of the distributions of variables describing site conditions and compare them to characteristics generally present in the environment. We experiment with a set of environmental variables including soil type, distance to water and a selection of geomorphometry derivatives of the digital elevation model. Quantitative assessment confirmed previous observations showing a significant effect towards the choice of sandy, dry location close to water bodies. The statistical analysis allowed us to assess the effect size of different characteristics. Proximity to water had the largest effect on settlement choice, while soil type was also of considerable importance. Abstract geomorphological variables such as Topographic Position Index and Topographic Wetness index also inform us about significant effects of surface forms. Differences of settlement locations during stages of the Stone Age are well observable. The environmental conditions of sites from the prepottery Mesolithic follow the general pattern but with the greater variation. Narva and Comb Ware stage settlement locations preferences are nearly identical to each other showing preference of sandy higher areas near the shoreline and indicating increased site investment. For Corded Ware period a new settlement mode is observable which is no longer directly related to water bodies and can be explained by semiagrarian subsistence and decreasing dependence on aquatic resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article contains an assessment of the current state of recognition of the phenomenon present in the Neolithic of Polish lands, and referred to as the Eastern European sub-Neolithic. The picture it represents is does not provide grounds for optimism. The causes of the bad situation are outlined. The paper presents recent achievements and basic gaps in the evidence, among which the most important is the lack of research at potentially homogeneous sites. This make impossible to undertake the discussion of the problem of the local genesis of the phenomenon, the chronology and dynamics of its transformations or broader considerations on the character and the scope of interactions between pottery-producing hunter-gatherers and early agricultural communities. Interwoven into the narratives have become the views of Jan Kowalczyk (1969), in which the sub-Neolithic had an important role in the processes ongoing in the Neolithic period. The purpose of references to texts from half a century ago is not the desire to return to the general concepts of this researcher, but rather to consider the accurate and still valid specific observations of J. Kowalczyk and about the conviction expressed by him that a better understanding of the sub-Neolithic is important for discovering and comprehension of the processes occurring in the Neolithic of Polish territories (understood as a period). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two high-resolution pollen and charcoal analyses were constructed from sediments obtained from a small bay in eastern Finland in order to gain information on human activity during the Neolithic Stone Age, 5200-1800 bc. We used measurements of loss on ignition (LOI), magnetic susceptibility and geochemical analyses to describe the sedimentological characteristics. Palaeomagnetic dating and measurements of Cs-activity were supported by C-datings. The analyses revealed human activity between 4400 and 3200 bc, which is synchronous with archaeological cultures defined through different stages of Comb Ware pottery types and Middle Neolithic pottery types with asbestos as a primary temper. Direct evidence of Hordeum cultivation was dated to 4040-3930 cal bc. According to the pollen data, more significant effort was put into the production of fibres from hemp and lime than the actual cultivation of food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops the idea that the emergence of the Neolithic world was closely linked to discovering and becoming aware of new aspects and dimensions of reality. Practices such as pottery making and cultivation promoted attentiveness to new aspects of things and the environment, which in turn generated a new kind of lived world that was, in a sense, richer, larger and deeper than before. It is proposed that new forms of material culture and new material practices – new ways of engaging with the material world – expanded people’s horizons of perception and thinking. This cultivation of perception was an important mechanism through which new ways of life and thought associated with the Neolithic came into being. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article introduces a method of exploratory analysis of the geographical factors influencing large-scale innovation diffusion, and illustrates its application to the case of early pottery dispersal in the Old World. Regression techniques are used to identify broad-scale spatiotemporal trends in the innovation's first occurrence, and regression residuals are then analyzed to identify geographical variation (climate, biomes) that may have influenced local rates of diffusion. The boundaries between the modeled diffusion zones segregate the western half of the map into a Eurasian hunter-gatherer pottery- using zone affiliated by cultural descent to the Siberian center of innovation, and a lower-latitude farming and pastoralist zone affiliated by cultural descent to the north African center of innovation. However, the correlation coefficients suggest that this baseline model has limited explanatory power, with geographical patterning in the residuals indicating that habitat also greatly affected rates of spread of the new technology. Earlier-than-predicted ages for early pottery tend to occur in locations with mean annual temperature in the range approximately 0-15°C. This favorable temperature range typically includes Mediterranean, grassland, and temperate forest biome types, but of these, the Mediterranean and the temperate deciduous forest biomes are the only ones on which regression residuals indicate earlier-than-predicted first observed pottery dates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Treatment of source material, archaeological investigation, dynamic development of theoretical analyses and ‘research eagerness’, together with discussion‐intensity has placed Polish Stone Age research in a new, vital and important position. This position may and ought also to have a wider significance for Neolithic research in Central and Northern Europe. Flint production, Para‐Neolithic catchment cultures, the Neolithization process, and the Funnel Beaker Culture form the most significant sets of problems in Polish Stone Age research. At the beginning of the 1980s Stone Age researchers—primarily the younger generation—have applied themselves to the indigenous, Polish Stone Age problems. Names such as Bogdan Balcer, Lucyna Domañska, and Jacek Lech dominate in most of the newer Polish literature relating to these questions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Salmonid resources currently foster socioeconomic prosperity in several nations, yet their importance to many ancient circumpolar societies is poorly understood due to insufficient fish bone preservation at archaeological sites. As a result, there are serious gaps in our knowledge concerning the antiquity of northern salmonid fisheries and their impacts on shaping biodiversity, hunter-gatherer adaptations, and human-ecological networks. The interdisciplinary study presented here demonstrates that calcium-magnesium phosphate minerals formed in burned salmonid bones can preserve at ancient northern sites, thus informing on the early utilization of these resources despite the absence of morphologically classifiable bones. The minerals whitlockite and beta magnesium tricalcium phosphate were identified in rare morphologically classifiable Atlantic salmonid bones from three Mid-Holocene sites in Finland. Large amounts of beta magnesium tricalcium phosphate were also experimentally formed by burning modern Atlantic salmonid and brown trout bones. Our results demonstrate the value of these minerals as proxies for ancient northern salmonid fishing. Specifically, the whitlockite mineral was discovered in hearth sediments from the 5,600 year old Yli-Ii Kierikinkangas site on the Iijoki River in northern Finland. Our fine sieving and mineralogical analyses of these sediments, along with zooarchaeological identification of recovered bone fragments, have confirmed for the first time that the people living at this village did incorporate salmonids into their economies, thus providing new evidence for early estuary/riverine fisheries in northern Finland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A substantial part of traditional archaeological literature can be characterized as a scramble for the earliest evidence for various milestones in human development (such as pottery making, house construction, or [...]

This paper presents archaeological and palynological evidence for long continuation of the Mesolithic way of life in east-central Europe irrespective of the presence of early Neolithic farmers. The complete Neolithization of the area took place only about 3500 BC, as a consequence of long-term interactions between indigenous foragers and exotic farmers. Key-words: Neolithization, east-central Europe, palynology, pottery, flints, Introduction The first Neolithic, Linearbandkeramik agropastoral groups north of the Carpathian and Sudeten Mountains appeared c. 5500 cal BC (all dates are given calibrated). LBK sites are known from the [...]