Archaeological Journal

ISSN: 0066-5983 (Print) 2373-2288 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/raij20

The First Farmers of Central Europe: Diversity in

LBK Lifeways, edited by Penny Bickle and Alasdair
Whittle
Alex Gibson
To cite this article: Alex Gibson (2015) The First Farmers of Central Europe: Diversity in LBK
Lifeways, edited by Penny Bickle and Alasdair Whittle, Archaeological Journal, 172:2, 451-452,
DOI: 10.1080/00665983.2015.1040675
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00665983.2015.1040675

Published online: 11 May 2015.

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Date: 03 November 2016, At: 12:39

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handle, are also intriguing, and the book as a whole highlights the processes associated with
technological innovations. Equally importantly, the requirements for such innovations to become
established, rather than lost, in hunter-gatherer societies are considered with reference to the impacts
of group sizes, rates of innovation, and geographical isolation upon material traditions. It also
acknowledges the essential difficulties of exploring the origins of hafting, due, for example, to the
limitations of living hunter-gatherer studies and experimental archaeology, and the ongoing challenges faced by archaeologists and the potential bias in current approaches, particularly with reference
to the time gap between the potential for hafting (at c. 500,000 years ago) and the first clear evidence
for it (at c. 200,000100,000 years ago).
This is a fluently written and mostly well-illustrated book, which is very readable, with numerous
modern examples which greatly enhance the accessibility of the key concepts and arguments. There is
also a welcome emphasis on the importance of lithic technology studies. In places, the discussions of
specific topics felt slightly brief, although this is partly a consequence of the broadness of coverage, and
greater focus on chronological aspects would have been welcomed. Perhaps as a consequence of these
points, the distinctions between facts, assumptions, and speculations were sometimes a little unclear.
Overall, From Hand to Handle has a very interesting central hypothesis, but is currently only a
partially tested proposition. If the book successfully encourages further analysis of key artefact
assemblages, the development of improved chronologies, and a wider expansion of brain-scanning
experiments, then it will ultimately have achieved many of its goals.
Robert Hosfield
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00665983.2014.985043
2015, Robert Hosfield

THE FIRST FARMERS OF CENTRAL EUROPE: DIVERSITY IN LBK LIFEWAYS. Edited by

Penny Bickle and Alasdair Whittle. Pp. xxxii and 528, Illus 205. Oxbow Books (Cardiff
Studies in Archaeology), 2013. Price: 55.00. ISBN 978 184217 530 9.
Rightly or wrongly, I tend to imagine the spread of the LBK across Europe as something similar to
the westward expansion of the pioneers of North America. Clearly there are differences in time-scale
and technology, but the model is nevertheless somewhat similar. There is a spread westwards from the
civilized East. A new way of life is introduced as part of the package. Material culture changes
abruptly and, of course, the relentless expansionism had a dramatic effect on local ecology and native
populations. Historical sources from this period (though admittedly usually biased towards civilization) put real flesh on what the archaeology can tell us. In the absence of historical sources in the
Neolithic, this excellent and well-produced volume is an archaeological attempt to flesh out the
people of this early European agricultural revolution and to attempt to construct a history of the LBK
pioneers and settlers of central Europe by using not only the remains of their material culture but also
the physical remains of the people themselves. Isotopic analyses (mainly nitrogen, strontium, carbon,
and oxygen) of these skeletal remains reconstruct biographies of these chronologically remote
agriculturalists and study their interaction with neighbouring groups.
The book is divided into ten chapters. The first introduces the LBK and the current state of knowledge
and research. Chapter 2 outlines the methods used in the study, whilst Chapters 38 deal with regional
analyses (Hungary, Moravia, Austria, southern Bavaria, Baden-Wrttemberg, and Alsace). Chapter 9 is the
Deus ex Machina that provides a synthesis of the wider patterns observable within and amongst the study
areas, and Chapter 10 places the study in a much wider context.
Each of the regional chapters is concluded by examples of specific lifeways, that is the reconstructed
biographies of specific individuals, such as the local cattle-herder from Rutzing, Austria (p. 204), or the
richly buried local infant with her sheep bone doll, from Ensisheim, Alsace (p. 341). This bottom-up
approach, examining the detail of diet, mobility, health, and burial rite, from individuals to within sites
and regions, has identified some clear patterns. Diet is remarkably uniform (although meat and dairy
products play a slightly greater role in the western areas, and there are also some gendered differences)

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but most of the skeletons analysed seem to show evidence of some degree of dietary stress and/or
anaemia at times in their lives, and this may be a result of their status and gender (p. 367). The majority of
the populations also appear to have been relatively static, though with mobility again greater amongst
females, perhaps suggesting evidence for patrilocality and, by inference, male-inherited land rights (p.
368). The difference in isotope ratios between males buried with adzes and those without also suggests
social inequality amongst males within LBK society, including possible differences in land tenure.
Regarding pathology, dietary stress (cribra orbitalia) generally resulting from anaemia is more prevalent
amongst females than males, whilst post-cranial trauma, resulting from strenuous activities, is more
prevalent amongst males (Chapter 9.4). Interestingly, violence-related trauma, though noted amongst
the male population, is more prevalent amongst women and juveniles, all of which data suggest strong
gendered differentiation amongst LBK groups. Differentiation is also noted between settlement and
cemetery burials with individuals 712 years of age apparently being over-represented at settlement
burials. Surviving this age would increase chances of cemetery burial. There is also a greater variation of
burial practices (orientation, grave-goods) at settlements than at cemeteries (Chapter 9), though this may
be in part due to chronology as distinct cemeteries are a later development in the LBK. Clearly, however,
there are local variations and the picture is far more complex than this generalized review can portray. One
notable observation, however, is that the western LBK appears consistently different to the eastern, again
perhaps reflecting climate, diet, economy and, of course, date.
The title of this book, to be fair, is not a true reflection of its contents. It is much more scienceorientated than the general title suggests. That said, however, it is a real attempt to study LBK society
from its constituent parts: its people, the first farmers. It is not a text-book, it is a detailed isotopic
study and the illustrations do not so much illustrate the LBK but rather are complex histograms,
graphs, and tables presenting the data from the analyses. Those analyses are wide-ranging and complex
and, as the authors clearly state, the data are not unambiguous: we are dealing with interpretations, not
truisms. By closely allying the isotopic analyses with the total archaeology, Bickle and Whittle, and
their collaborators, are to be congratulated for this wide-ranging, detailed, innovative, and monumental study. Not only will it influence LBK studies far into the future, but it will also generate similar
projects within different regions and timeframes. The book is a must for anyone interested in the
LBK, in isotopes, and the application of science in archaeology.
Alex Gibson
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00665983.2015.1040675
2015, Alex Gibson

THE BIRTH OF NEOLITHIC BRITAIN: AN INTERPRETIVE ACCOUNT. By Julian

Thomas. Pp. xi and 508, Illus 105. Oxford University Press, 2013. Price: 95.00. ISBN 978
019968 196 9.
Heralding the most significant changes in lifestyle, economy, material traditions, and belief that
occurred during British prehistory, it is hardly surprising that the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition
continues to attract substantial academic interest. Defining the timing of the transition, the causes
and mechanisms behind it, and the identity of those initiating such changes whether colonist
farmers from the Continent or indigenous hunter-gatherer-fisher communities have remained
issues very much at the fore of recent debates. Despite the complexity and often heated nature of
debate, The Birth of Neolithic Britain is the first book-length treatment of the transition. It is in part a
synthesis of evidence and existing argument, but as the sub-title indicates, it also offers a distinct
interpretive position. Since the late 1980s, Thomas has strongly advocated a view of the transition as
being fundamentally about the restructuring of social relationships rather than simply a shift in
economic practice, and one which places the actions of Mesolithic communities at the heart of the
process (an acculturation model). Here, the case for those positions is systematically and thoroughly
presented.
This is a substantial and scholarly volume. Following a brief introduction, its structure is essentially
divisible into six parts: three chapters cover the Neolithization of Europe; these are followed by a