Re: Hemp (or, rather, LBK)

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 325
Date: 1999-11-23

Mark wrote:

>The Corded Ware horizon is named for its characteristic pots, incised
with linear decorations made with cord. I've never read anything that
explicitly states this cord was made from hemp. I've also not read what
is exactly meant by the 'linear band' in the Linear Band/LBK
(Linearbandkeramik ) culture. Does anyone here know anything? The LBK
evidence antedates the appearance of narcotic hemp. Since the
seed-impressions are on this pottery, one can presume they used it to
make cord (what other use would it have been put to?).

------------------------
The pottery had INCISED linear, band-like motifs.
The lines were straight or wavy, with several
"local styles", especially in the later phases
of the Linear Pottery culture.

The LP (or LBK) people are also famous for their
longhouses, which were probably the largest buildings
on earth at that time, measuring up to 40-45 m in
length. A single village usually comprised
several such houses; they housed both people
and animals. The main structure was timberwork
-- and that was a couple of millennia before the
first attestation of metal tools in Europe!

Piotr