Ebook: Climate, crises and the neolithisation of Central Europe between IRD-events 6 and 4

Article // In: Die Neolithisierung Mitteleuropas (The Spread of the Neolithic to Central Europe). — Mainz, 2010. — Pp. 61-80.In Central European prehistoric archaeology the process of "neolithisation" is often understood as a short-term rupture occurring around the expanding agricultural frontier. From a broader, if not global perspective, this reductionist viewpoint is somewhat unproductive.
It is therefore suggested to conceptionalise "neolithisation" as a long-term two thousand years lasting fluctuating process of culture change which sets in by the end of the eighth millennium cal BC and lasts until the Aeneolithic/Jungneolithikum in southern Central Europe or the Early Neolithic/Frühneolithikum in the North. This process appears to have been forced by climate events which are connected to the ice rafting episodes (IRD-events) of the North Atlantic realm.