Description
This project explains the significant absence of figurines among the first farmers of Northern Europe. Small clay figurines make a characteristic feature of Europe's earliest agricultural societies and were part of the initial Neolithic package including domesticated crops and animals, polished stone tools, pottery etc. From the 8th to the 6th millennium BC, Neolithic life spread into Europe from its origin in the Near East. However, as farming reached Central Europe the number of figurines decreased and when agriculture expanded to Northern Europe they had disappeared. This project seeks explanations for the absence of figurines in deep socio-cultural and ritual-religious differences clearly dividing Neolithic Europe in a figurative south-eastern part and an imageless northern part.| Period | 1 Sept 2022 → 31 Aug 2025 |
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| Degree of Recognition | International |
Keywords
- Neolithic Europe
- Figurines
- Figurative representations
- Prehistoric art
- Neolithization
- Socio-cultural change
- Religious/ideological change
Documents & Links
Related content
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Research output
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Everything Was Better in the Good Old Days: On the End of the LBK and the Emergence of Lengyel Culture Figurines
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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Figurative Representations in the North European Neolithic—Are They There?
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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Activities
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University of Edinburgh
Activity: Visiting an external institution types › Visiting an external academic institution