This book present a new perspective on the social milieu of the Early and Middle Neolithic in Central Europe as viewed through relations between humans and animals, food acquisition and consumption, as well as refuse disposal practices. Based on animal bone assemblages from a wide range of sites from a period of over 2,000 years originating in both the North European Plain lowlands and the loess uplands, the evidence explored in the book represents the Linear Band Pottery Culture (LBK), the Lengyel Culture, and the Funnel Beaker Culture (TRB) allowing us to follow the dynamic development of early farmers from their emergence in the area north of the Carpathians up to their consolidation and stabilisation in this new territory.

Table of Contents

Preface; Introduction; Early and Middle Neolithic Farmers in Central Europe; Human-Animal Relations: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives; Food and Cuisine; Anthropological and Historical Perspectives; Refuse Disposal Patters: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives; Material and Methods; Contextual Analysis of Faunal and Archaeological Data from the Early and Middle Neolithic; Animals, Food and Refuse in the Early Neolithic in Central Europe; Animals, Food and Refuse in the Middle Neolithic in Central Europe; Conclusions.

Author Biography

Arkadiusz Marciniak is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Prehistory, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland. He has published in both English and Polish and is particularly interested in processual and postprocessual archaeology, social theory and archaeological and zooarchaeology.