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Houses in the Archaeology of the Tripillia—Cucuteni Groups

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Tracking the Neolithic House in Europe

Part of the book series: One World Archaeology ((WORLDARCH))

Abstract

The excavation of burnt, and occasionally unburnt, houses forms a key element of the story of Tripillia–Cucuteni archaeological excavations, since the domestic zone in these groups was much more developed than the mortuary domain. In the 2,000-year period of development across a wide area from the Carpathians to the Dnieper valley, there were considerable changes in the ways that houses were designed and built and, especially, in the agglomerations which they formed. There is also much evidence for the transformations of structures originally designed as domestic dwellings into workshops, ritual centres and places with specialised storage facilities. Nonetheless, these changes were nothing but variations on a dominant theme of household and house continuity, which forms the principal embodiment of principles and practices in the longue durée for these groups.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    It is worth noting that the level of erosion was minimal. Houses were found under 0.6–1.2m of relatively undisturbed loess.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Daniela Hofmann and Jessica Smyth for their kind invitation to contribute a chapter to this book. We are grateful to Bisserka Gaydarska for her translation of Russian texts and for her positively critical comments on earlier drafts. JCC acknowledges the friendly co-operation of Dan Monah and Gheorghe Dumitroaia during his research visits to Piatra Neamţ and Iaşi. JCC is also grateful to the other authors for their warmth and hospitality during successive research visits to Kjiv and for their great co-operation during our joint field season at Nebelivka in 2009 and 2012. The authors are also grateful to the British Academy, the Society of Antiquaries of London, the Institute of Archaeology in Kjiv and Durham University for financial and logistical support for the first field season of the Tripolye mega-sites project at Nebelivka.

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  1. Institute of Archaeology, 12 Geroiv Stalingrada Ave, 04210, Kyiv-210, Ukraine

    Natalia Burdo & Mikhail Videiko

  2. Department of Archaeology, Durham University, DH1 3LE, Durham, UK

    John Chapman & Bisserka Gaydarska

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  1. Natalia Burdo
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  1. , School of History, Archaeology,, Cardiff University, Colum Road, Cardiff, CF10 3EU, United Kingdom

    Daniela Hofmann

  2. , School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Cantock's Close, Bristol, BS8 1TS, United Kingdom

    Jessica Smyth

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Burdo, N., Videiko, M., Chapman, J., Gaydarska, B. (2013). Houses in the Archaeology of the Tripillia—Cucuteni Groups. In: Hofmann, D., Smyth, J. (eds) Tracking the Neolithic House in Europe. One World Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5289-8_5

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