Wooden Well at the First Farmers’ Settlement Area in Uničov, Czech Republic

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Authors

VOSTROVSKÁ Ivana PETŘÍK Jan PETR Libor KOČÁR Petr KOČÁROVÁ Romana HRADÍLEK Zbyněk KAŠÁK Josef SŮVOVÁ Zdeňka ADAMEKOVÁ Katarína VANĚČEK Zdeňek PEŠKA Jaroslav MUIGG Bernhard RYBNÍČEK Michal KOLÁŘ Tomáš TEGEL Willy KALÁBEK Marek KALÁBKOVÁ Pavlína

Year of publication 2020
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Památky archeologické
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Science

Citation
Web https://doi.org/10.35686/PA2020.2
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.35686/PA2020.2
Keywords Wooden well; past environment; subsistence strategy; Linearbandkeramik; Uničov; eastern Central Europe
Description Some of the most extraordinary finds from the Early Neolithic period are wooden wells. These constructions permit unusual insights into Neolithic settlements, their subsistence and environment, as well as into the surrounding landscape. A recent excavation of a Neo lithic settlement at Uničov in central Moravia, Czech Republic, yielded the discovery of a wooden well with a sediment infill from the beginning of the Neolithic period and allowed to study an array of topics by a multi-proxy approach using a set of complementary methods. Our study of the wooden lining demonstrates the carpeting skills of the first farmers, required also for building socalled ‘longhouses’. By comparing dendrochronological and radiocarbon dating, we estimated the time span of the well’s existence. The construction was used repeatedly over a longer time and was finally filled in intentionally. Studies of the well’s infill shed light on its usage and decline, providing a great proxy for the study of living dynamics and handling of waste in a Neolithic village. The environmental record extracted from botanical residues indicates that the immediate surroundings of the settlement were covered by an open-canopy woodland with a dominance of oak and hazel, and a large proportion of open habitats, whereas the surrounding landscape was not noticeably affected by humans.
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