DOI chapter:
Grenzgänger, traders and the last hunter-gatherers of the North European Plain
DOI chapter:Kabaciński, Jacek; Czekaj-Zastawny, Agnieszka: Long distance contacts in the area of the north European plain: The Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic in Poland and its relations to neighbouring cultures
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.66745#0259
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Long distance contacts in the area of the north European plain: The Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic in Poland
Fig. 11 Burial of the Brzesc Kujawski group from Brzesc Kujawski (after Jazdzewski 1938).
In Dqbki the approximate number of imported BKG
vessels is as high as the number of locally produced
pointed-bottom Mesolithic pots (Czekaj-Zastawny
2015). Thick food crusts on the walls of these vessels
suggest they were used for everyday activities, con-
trary to SPC or Bodrogkeresztur culture pots. This
means that the BKG pottery lost the uniqueness of
the former Neolithic pottery and became an integral
part of everyday house equipment.
There is also a palaeogenetic set of data support-
ing the thesis of the integration of hunter-gatherers’
and early farmers’ systems. According to palaeoge-
netic studies there is a distinct genetic difference
between Danubian farmers and local Mesolithic
societies. For European Late Palaeolithic and Me-
solithic groups U-clades (especially U5a, U5b, and
U4 subclades) are typical, while for the first farmers
the Nla-clade predominates, followed by other less
frequent ones. What is of crucial importance, there
are no U5- or U4-clades recorded in LBK samples,
and, vice versa, neither Nla- nor H-types were found
in hunter-gatherer samples (Bramanti et al. 2009).
Results achieved from a research on mtDNA of sev-
eral skeletons from the Kujavian BKG sites Oslonki
1, Konary 1, and Konary la exhibit a clear 9 °/o share
of the U5a haplogroup, distinctive for indigenous
hunter-gatherers (Lorkiewicz et al. 2015). Studies of
mtDNA carried out for younger farming populations
rooted in the Danubian world and living in central
Germany also confirmed increased values of hunter-
gatherer genetic components in the second half of the
5th millennium calBC (Brandt et al. 2013).
The above-mentioned paleogenetic data com-
bined with clearly Mesolithic elements in burial rites
suggest a substantial degree of integration on popula-
tion as well as cultural level. We may only suppose
that the beginning of that process, the mechanism
of which is difficult to recognise, occurred around
4,600 calBC, when the first appearance of the BKG
on the lowlands is recorded.
Conclusions
The paper presents an overview of the evidence
concerning contacts between hunter-gatherers and
Long distance contacts in the area of the north European plain: The Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic in Poland
Fig. 11 Burial of the Brzesc Kujawski group from Brzesc Kujawski (after Jazdzewski 1938).
In Dqbki the approximate number of imported BKG
vessels is as high as the number of locally produced
pointed-bottom Mesolithic pots (Czekaj-Zastawny
2015). Thick food crusts on the walls of these vessels
suggest they were used for everyday activities, con-
trary to SPC or Bodrogkeresztur culture pots. This
means that the BKG pottery lost the uniqueness of
the former Neolithic pottery and became an integral
part of everyday house equipment.
There is also a palaeogenetic set of data support-
ing the thesis of the integration of hunter-gatherers’
and early farmers’ systems. According to palaeoge-
netic studies there is a distinct genetic difference
between Danubian farmers and local Mesolithic
societies. For European Late Palaeolithic and Me-
solithic groups U-clades (especially U5a, U5b, and
U4 subclades) are typical, while for the first farmers
the Nla-clade predominates, followed by other less
frequent ones. What is of crucial importance, there
are no U5- or U4-clades recorded in LBK samples,
and, vice versa, neither Nla- nor H-types were found
in hunter-gatherer samples (Bramanti et al. 2009).
Results achieved from a research on mtDNA of sev-
eral skeletons from the Kujavian BKG sites Oslonki
1, Konary 1, and Konary la exhibit a clear 9 °/o share
of the U5a haplogroup, distinctive for indigenous
hunter-gatherers (Lorkiewicz et al. 2015). Studies of
mtDNA carried out for younger farming populations
rooted in the Danubian world and living in central
Germany also confirmed increased values of hunter-
gatherer genetic components in the second half of the
5th millennium calBC (Brandt et al. 2013).
The above-mentioned paleogenetic data com-
bined with clearly Mesolithic elements in burial rites
suggest a substantial degree of integration on popula-
tion as well as cultural level. We may only suppose
that the beginning of that process, the mechanism
of which is difficult to recognise, occurred around
4,600 calBC, when the first appearance of the BKG
on the lowlands is recorded.
Conclusions
The paper presents an overview of the evidence
concerning contacts between hunter-gatherers and