The Times of Their Lives: Hunting History in the Neolithic Houses of the Carpathian Basin Seminar

Abstract

In this talk, I will address the challenge of trying to take the pre- out of prehistory. I start by briefly reviewing previous approaches to chronology, contrasting those with the precision now available from formal modelling (and as shown by previous projects such as published in Gathering Time). My main case studies are taken from the current ERC-funded project The Times of Their Lives (www.totl.eu). I will concentrate on three sites, variously from the later sixth to the first half of the fifth millennium cal BC: the tells of Vinča-Belo Brdo (Serbia) and Uivar (Romania), and the large flat settlement with abundant burial grounds at Alsónyék (Hungary). I will show what systematic sampling and formal modelling can bring in terms of increasing precision, down to the scales of lifetimes and generations. I will note especially what this adds to our understanding of houses and households. In considering, finally, what kinds of Neolithic histories we should now aspire to be writing, I will also reflect on the agency of people and the role of houses.