Contributions in New World Archaeology 12

Volume 8 of the Saved Archaeological Heritage series is the monograph of Neolithic phases of the settlement in Ludwinów site 7 in Kujawy, edited by Joanna Pyzel. The study, which is innovative and groundbreaking in many respects, is particularly important due to the fact that it offers the results of the project merging the results of the research of two expeditions conducting (in different conditions) rescue excavations in one site. The results presented in the following chapters argue that this project should be recognized for being successful and worth following!

The monograph is a valuable source for research on the structure of buildings and the dynamics of development of early agricultural settlements (chapter 2). Detailed analyzes of house forms (in the early phase, mainly longhouses), ceramics, flint and stone materials were carried out taking into account the division into settlement phases: Linear Pottery Culture (LBK) – several phases, post-Linear cultures (post-LBK), Globular Amphora Culture (GAC) and Corded Ware Culture (CWC) (chapters 2-6). Ludwinowo 7, however, provided, above all, unusually fine-grained records of the beginnings of dairying in Europe, mostly thanks to the most numerous series of analyzes of lipid residues on ceramics that was made for a single archaeological site. Economic strategies undertaken in the sixth millennium BC by the first farmers in this part of Europe, were illuminated not only thanks to analyses of fats preserved on ceramics (chapter 9), but also by detailed archezoological studies (chapter 7.1-7.2), including those based on isotope analyses of bovine teeth (chapter 7.3) or archaebotanical analyses (chapter 10). The chronology of the site was worked with help of the combination of statistical methods of analysing ceramic decoration and the radiocarbon method. The whole creates a study that for years will remain a milestone in the study of the beginnings of agricultural economy in Europe.