From K. Kris Hirst,
Your Guide to Archaeology.
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The Linearbandkeramik Culture (LBK) is the name given by German archaeologist F. Klopfleisch in 1884 to the first true farming communities in central Europe, dated between between 5400 and 4900 BC. Thus, LBK is considered the first Neolithic cultures in the European continent.

The word Linearbandkeramik refers to the distinctive banded decoration found on pottery vessels on sites spread throughout central Europe, from south-western Ukraine and Moldova in the east to the Paris Basin in the west. The LBK people are considered the importers of agricultural products and methods, moving the first domesticated animals and plants from the Near East and Central Asia into Europe.

Lifestyles of the LBK

The very earliest LBK sites have loads of pottery sherds but no or only limited evidence of agriculture or stockbreeding. Later LBK sites are characterized by longhouses with rectangular plans, incised pottery, and a blade technology for chipped stone tools. Domesticated crops include emmer and einkorn wheat, peas, lentils, and linseed.

In the world as a whole, agricultural farming began in the middle east with the Natufian cultures of some 12,000 years ago. The main question yet posed to the LBK settlements over the last decades has been whether LBK is an indigenous development or the result of migrating populations. Changes are good that the spread of LBK and agriculture was a combination of farmers from the the jury is still out with DNA data suggesting both adoption and migration of innovators.

LBK Sites

Vaihingen (Germany), Berry-au-Bac (France), Blicquy (Belgium), Schwanfeld (Germany), Buh-Dniestrian (Ukraine), Rakushechnyi Yar (Russia), Verlaine (Belgium)

Sources

Allard, Pierre 2005 Surplus Production of Flint Blades in the Early Neolithic of Western Europe. European Journal of Archaeology 8(3):205-223.

Bentley, R. A. and Stephen J. Shennan 2003 Cultural Transmission and Stochastic Network Growth. American Antiquity 68(3):

Dolukhanov, Pavel, et al. 2005 The chronology of Neolithic dispersal in Central and Eastern Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science 32(10):1441-1458.

Haak, Wolfgang, et al. 2005 Ancient DNA from the First European Farmers in 7500-Year-Old Neolithic Sites. Science 310:1016-1018. See the article Origins of Agriculure in Central Europe for more information on this interesting paper.

Shennan, S. J. and J. R. Wilkinson 2001 Ceramic Style Change and Neutral Evolution: A Case Study from Neolithic Europe. American Antiquity 66(4):5477-594.

This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Any mistakes are the responsibility of Kris Hirst.