Die bandkeramische Siedlung von Mold bei Horn NÖ

The manuscript as presented here consists of 8 independent works which are the results of the investigation project n 18980-G02 of the FWF (Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung) running from 2006 to 2008. The only exception is the study on the ceramics. The theme of the project was the reconstruction of early farming life 7000 years ago. All authors of this book are unified by realizing the goal of the project on the base of finds and data of the Mold settlement. The contributions of the editor only give a short introduction upon the site and the excavations, additions to the parts upon find distribution and the artefacts of greenstone and in the final part the attempt of a summarizing analysis and interpretation of all results presented in the different contributions (n11). During the excavations from 1995 until 2007 we uncovered altogether 14.400 m2 of the settlement area. The whole surface was about 40.000 m2 as deduced from different prospection results (Pieler n2.2.). The detailed analysis of the ceramics of the houses 1-4 shows the special character of the findings, which come from the most interesting time of transition of the eldest to the middle LBK (linear pottery culture) (Kowarik n5). To get the absolute date of the site we measured 30 14C-samples - mostly of short-lived material - , but only 20 samples gave useful results. Combining those results with the seriation of the ceramics by sequencing finally allowed the reconstruction of the development of the settlement in his time frame (Stadler n4). Therefore at around 5300 BC the settlement was founded in the NW part and moved slowly to the SE within 200 years (complete plan of the site as attachment 1). The different distribution patterns of all sorts of findings indicate altogether activities on both sides of the houses, more seldom only on one side and sometimes north of the building. For the zone south of the house activities are only proven for the unique small building ("Kleinbau") of the site (Stadler - Lenneis n3 and distribution map 1-9 as attachments). The 436 flint artefacts were mainly produced on the site. Beside some local raw materials considerable amounts of imported flint from S - Moravia, S - Poland and W - Hungary were used (Mateiciucov n6). It was most astonishing to see that even for the grinding stones people was not satisfied with materials from the surroundings but mainly used stones coming from the centre of Bohemia and to a lesser extent from the Moravo - Silesikum (Götzinger et al. n7). 80 % of the 8869 charred plant remains came from cultivated plants, among them einkorn was clearly dominant over emmer. There is also few barley, some pieces of pea and lentil and single records of cf. spelt. The weed spectrum points to harvesting of ears and summer crop (M.Kohler-Schneider-A.Caneppele n8). About 1300 determined animal remains show an extreme predominance of cattle keeping with many interesting details. Small ruminants, pigs and game played only a minor role for the subsistence (Schmitzberger n9). The mollusca indicate dry and open habitats. There are even some important artefacts made of shells (Frank n10). For the conclusive evaluation of all the presented investigations the structure of all households was reconstructed and compared one to each other. The result indicated the biggest houses (biggest "Großbauten") as the leading households only for agricultural belongings. The focal point of other activities is to be found in houses of medium size. Concerning the use of resources there is an increasing importance of cattle within the livestock and an increasing extension of the area where all sorts of stone raw materials come from. Both phenomena might have a causal connection and clearly indicate the extension of the social network within the living time of the settlement (Lenneis n11).