DOI chapter:
Changing Worlds – The Spread of the Neolithic Way of Life in the North
DOI chapter:Klimscha, Florian; Neumann, Daniel: A longue durée perspective on technical innovations in the Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic of the North European Plain
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.66745#0380
Florian Klimscha and Daniel Neumann
379
Fig. 1 Wooden wagon parts and wagon tracks in Eurasia (c. 4,000-2,750 BC) (© F. Klimscha, Digital Atlas of Innovations).
(Bakker 2004), and the early datings of some of
the northern finds have stimulated a lively discus-
sion about whether the technology was invented
autochthonously (Vosteen 1999), or should be con-
sidered as the result of a quick diffusion of knowl-
edge (Bakker et al. 1999). The northern Pontic area
holds the earliest sequence of sledges and wheeled
vehicles and thus might be the zone of origin for
this technology (Klimscha 2012-2021; Hansen
et al. 2017; Klimscha 2017a; 2018). In the North
European Plain, eclectic evidence can be brought
forward consisting of wheel tracks, two-dimensional
depictions on pottery, megalithic slabs as well as
wooden remains of wagons (Bakker 2004 [with
further references]; cf. esp. Van der Waals 1964;
Vosteen 1996). The finds are concentrated in the
bogs of northwestern Germany, the Netherlands,
and northern and central Jutland (Fig. 1). The evi-
dence for ploughing is very similarly distributed
and, in many cases, closely related to that of wagons
(cf. Sherratt 1981). The earliest evidence is cur-
rently known from the 6th/5th millennia calBC in
the southern Levant in the form of pathologies on
cattle bones and in slaughtering patterns of cattle
(Hill 2001; cf. also Hill / Klimscha forthcoming),
and an ad hoc usage of cattle traction has also been
claimed for southeastern Europe during this time
(Gaastra et al. 2018). Central European evidence
is significantly later and consists of few remains of
ploughs and yokes, plough marks, and depictions of
cattle teams (mostly in the Alps) as well as a handful
of copper figurines that belong to the 4th millennium
calBC and are contemporary to or slightly earlier
than the evidence for wagons.
379
Fig. 1 Wooden wagon parts and wagon tracks in Eurasia (c. 4,000-2,750 BC) (© F. Klimscha, Digital Atlas of Innovations).
(Bakker 2004), and the early datings of some of
the northern finds have stimulated a lively discus-
sion about whether the technology was invented
autochthonously (Vosteen 1999), or should be con-
sidered as the result of a quick diffusion of knowl-
edge (Bakker et al. 1999). The northern Pontic area
holds the earliest sequence of sledges and wheeled
vehicles and thus might be the zone of origin for
this technology (Klimscha 2012-2021; Hansen
et al. 2017; Klimscha 2017a; 2018). In the North
European Plain, eclectic evidence can be brought
forward consisting of wheel tracks, two-dimensional
depictions on pottery, megalithic slabs as well as
wooden remains of wagons (Bakker 2004 [with
further references]; cf. esp. Van der Waals 1964;
Vosteen 1996). The finds are concentrated in the
bogs of northwestern Germany, the Netherlands,
and northern and central Jutland (Fig. 1). The evi-
dence for ploughing is very similarly distributed
and, in many cases, closely related to that of wagons
(cf. Sherratt 1981). The earliest evidence is cur-
rently known from the 6th/5th millennia calBC in
the southern Levant in the form of pathologies on
cattle bones and in slaughtering patterns of cattle
(Hill 2001; cf. also Hill / Klimscha forthcoming),
and an ad hoc usage of cattle traction has also been
claimed for southeastern Europe during this time
(Gaastra et al. 2018). Central European evidence
is significantly later and consists of few remains of
ploughs and yokes, plough marks, and depictions of
cattle teams (mostly in the Alps) as well as a handful
of copper figurines that belong to the 4th millennium
calBC and are contemporary to or slightly earlier
than the evidence for wagons.