The Rise & Fall of Europe's First Longhouse Builders - European Prehistory

7000 years ago the rivers of central Europe were lined with timber long houses. The builders of these spread rapidly across the continent before declining in dramatic fashion. What can archaeology tell us about the causes behind this expansion and contraction?

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Disclaimer: Use my videos as a rough guide to a topic. I am not an expert, I may get things wrong. This is why I always post my sources so you can critique my work and verify things for yourselves. Of course I aim to be as accurate as possible which is why you will only find reputable sources in my videos. Secondly, information is always subject to changes as new information is uncovered by archaeologists.

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Sources:

1. “Chapter 4: The Spread of Farming into Central Europe.” The First Farmers of Europe an Evolutionary Perspective, by Stephen Shennan, Cambridge University Press, 2018, pp. 79–105.

2. Last, Jonathan. “Longhouse Lifestyles In The Central European Neolithic.” The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe, by Chris Fowler et al., Oxford University Press, 2019, pp. 273–289.

3. Bentley, R. A., et al. “Community Differentiation and Kinship among Europe's First Farmers.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 109, no. 24, 2012, pp. 9326–9330., doi:10.1073/pnas.1113710109.

4. Meyer, Christian, et al. “The Massacre Mass Grave of Schöneck-Kilianstädten Reveals New Insights into Collective Violence in Early Neolithic Central Europe.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 112, no. 36, 2015, pp. 11217–11222., doi:10.1073/pnas.1504365112.

5. Boulestin, Bruno, et al. “Mass Cannibalism in the Linear Pottery Culture at Herxheim (Palatinate, Germany).” Antiquity, vol. 83, no. 322, 2009, pp. 968–982., doi:10.1017/s0003598x00099282.

6. Bramanti, B., et al. “Genetic Discontinuity Between Local Hunter-Gatherers and Central Europe's First Farmers.” Science, vol. 326, no. 5949, 2009, pp. 137–140., doi:10.1126/science.1176869.

[HistoryTime]

YES. Excited to watch this tomorrow as a hungover mess

[vcuheel]

Have you ever thought about using a fork? The audio might be easier to pick up.

[MrBottlecapBill]

They stuck to the rivers because that's the only practical mode of transport in a heavily forested world. Much like Native peoples in the Americas stuck to waterways. More specifically rivers that were navigable by boat.

[Vismondo]

This is right now one of the best channels on historical youtube.

[HUNdAntae]

Funfact: a traditional village farmhouse in Hungary, the "porta" still has a linear structure, tipically the house being perpendicular to the street and usually built on the border of one's plot, with an attached veranda along the whole house, overlooking the "side"yard, where the dogs and poultry are let to roam free or cars/carriages are stored (or various junk of the "we'll use it later" kind 😂).
Workshops, stables, storehouses may be attached to the Greathouse or built on the opposite side of the yard. Behind all of this depending of the size of the land may be veg garden, fruittree orchard, grapewine or even extensive shrubbery of various berry fruits (Knights of Ni had to be hired separately).

[surfk]

Longhouses were no different than other houses. It was location, location, location.
LHRA - LongHouse Realators Association

[randomnamesoicanfindmyself]

absolutely the best prehistory channel

[ThatTaRaGiRL]

May your plastic spoon using, knowledgeable, and incredibly self see it into the new year in good health and happiness! 🙂

[chopin]

You are the nice man who talks into plastic spoons! Happy New Year.

[HistoryTime]

Just ordered The First Farmers of Europe. Looks awesome.

[rayzorrayzor]

I love watching these vids and learning about how our ancestors survived day to day living .
Many years ago after finishing schooling and before I joined the workforce I wanted to see what it would be like “living off the land” and having only myself to rely on.
I took with me everything that the twentieth century had, tools, shelter, clothing, medicine etc and WOW was it hard work just to stay alive, even with all my gear I still wasn’t properly equipped knowledge wise (so be warned), my only saving grace was that I knew when to quit.
Even though my parents choose to call the experience a positive influence on my life I saw the whole thing as a complete failure cos I spent nearly a month recovering and building my strength and weight back up.
Now though after many years have passed and I sit in my nice big centrally heated home watching these vids I realise something I had forgotten about for many years and thought it worth sharing with you all.
You show on yr vids many different landscapes and sceneries when talking about our ancestors and I look at these scenes with a slightly different take than most of yr viewers cos I remember what it was like having to rely totally on oneself and one of the main things is that it’s sooo important not to injure yourself and I can imagine our ancestors thought the same . When I see these landscapes I immediately look at how tricky the terrain is underfoot, a twisted ankle could be fatal, so one tends to pick a route out with ones eyes (this often isn’t a simple straight line) and one tends to scan the area directly infront of yourself and also pick out your next 20paces or so .
This became second nature to me even whilst hunting I was always watching my step.
I would try and keep well clear of grasses more than ankle high as it wasn’t worth the risk of twisting your ankle in an animals burrow etc.
I can imagine my ancestors doing the same as me (looking at the floor 90% of the time), but also having to deal with ambush animals that saw Them as dinner .
A couple more things that are relevant, I soon learned to get a fire going long before dark, Always have a stash of dry wood, it’s better to keep some food and discard it when you make a fresh kill rather than go without, you will be surprised how long that you can keep yr meat edible . Trust me you burn a lot, a very lot of calories just surviving and lastly look after yr feet, they can be yr best friend or worst enemy, let them dry out, rub them, pamper them, take care of them or you will pay a price and that price could be extreme .
Anyway these are just a few things that I came across, just imagine what else our ancestors also had to endure, not just to survive like me but to also prosper, my hat goes off to our ancestors, they put up with and overcome many obstacles that I simply couldn’t even with all my 20th century equipment, oops one thing I forgott to mention was that when I went to bed at night I cannot portray the joy I felt if I wasn’t hungry, if I was dry, and if I was warm then I was ecstatic, it is so surprising that when you have nothing then the smallest joys turn into the biggest grin you’ve ever had.
Take Care . R .

[That-Google-Guy]

Time travel hit list jokes got me good! Literally lol’ed!

And now for some reason, any time I see a person with a microphone clipped to a plastic spoon I think “yes, this is correct. Clearly this is a man of culture.”

THANK YOU FOR THE NEW VID ON THE NEW YEAR!!! Here’s to your channel blowing up to the degree it deserves in 2020!!!

[bredmond]

I once heard that the expansion by the Norse was also driven in part by a similar "less-established younger sibling" mechanism. I bought into it. It was good to see that illustrated here.

[TheArmchairHistorian]

Love your drawings for those thumbnails, do you make them yourself?

[ep]

Hey man I stumbled across your channel a couple days ago and I’ve been watching your videos non stop!! So educational and I love all the effort and care that goes into your videos. Keep up the great work

[HerrGesetz]

Well done. Really watchable stuff, definitely some of the best content on the tube.

[eliran]

I got really hyped up about this channel when I watched the Sumerian grave - human sacrifice video.
Keep up the good work!!

[hhwippedcream]

Pretty cool. Almost a techno-cultural Leigh Van Valen notch in the hilt. Thanks for sharing your research, insight, time in creating this content!

[caesumcrimson]

Watched a couple of your videos now. You have a natural pace and delivery which is relaxed and not overly dramatic and exaggerated like many YouTubers. It's really refreshing and kind of reminds me of early History/ Discovery / Nat Geo doco presenters before those channels got ridiculous and conspiracy theory / dramatised.

Keep it up, interesting topics too that I've never thought of !

[penguinpolo]

Great video Stefan, love how you put personality and little funny quirks into your work. Really interesting and fun to watch. Keep it up! :)