Rössen culture
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Rössen culture, ca. 4500—4000 BC, the western successor to the Linear Pottery culture. Like its predecessor, it kept itself away from the coast, here that of the North Sea, and occupied an approximate circle from the eastern side of the Elbe into northeastern France, the southeastern Low Countries, and the upper Danube valley of Germany.
Settlements displayed a certain increase in defensive measures. The characteristic longhouses (probably used as barns) of the earlier LBK are still present, but now assume something of a trapezoidal shape.
Mixed agriculture was practiced, and domestic animals were kept. Inhumations were in adjacent cemeteries; positioning was either flexed or supine.
It is suggested the Rössen culture may be ancestral to the neolithic culture of Great Britain and Ireland.
In the context of the Kurgan hypothesis, certain intrusive elements are pointed to as some of the earliest evidence for penetration by Kurgan culture-based Indo-European elements, but Mallory indicates this idea has failed to gain any real acceptance. Older, now largely discarded theories attempted to make this a very early Indo-European culture; the present consensus assigns it to indigenous non-Indo-European-speaking people.
Sources
- J. P. Mallory, "Rössen Culture", Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.
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