>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
Sherrat thinks the impressions on the Corded Ware were made by hempen cords.
Bandkeramik is 2 millennia earlier. The motifs were probably made with some
sort of combs. They are the first farmers in Europe & colonized the loess
areas in the valleys of the Danube-Rhine basins. As Piotr says, they made
the long houses (loam). They had wheat, pies, pigs, cattle, dogs. They came
from Anatolia to the Balkan to the Rhine delta to England, AFAIR about 20 km
per generation. The Corded Ware came from Ukraine ca.3000 BC over the
N-European plain, was much faster & reached the Rhine delta ca.2800 BC. They
occupied areas also further away from the rivers. They had also wains,
wheels, plows, wool, barley, cords...
Marc