For
many scholars of the European Neolithic the name Bylany
conjures up magical images. From its discovery in 1952 the
Bylany excavations, under the directorship of Bohumil
Soudský, have excited the imagination of all Neolithic researchers. Indeed,
many distinguished Neolithic scholars worked there, either as students or as
budding researchers. Moreover, directly or indirectly, the Bylany excavations
have had a powerful impact on research in all regions of Europe
within the Linearbandkeramik distribution area.
Dr.
Midgley’s research aims to provide an account of the significance of these
excavations for the development of European Neolithic studies. The methods,
practices and theories developed there in the 1950s and 1960s were pioneering
in their contribution to the understanding of the stratigraphy of horizontal
sites, in analysing finds, especially pottery (enormous quantities of which were
recovered every year), in employing statistical methods and some of the
earliest computer analyses of finds. Theoretical models for the interpretation
of an LBK house, village and, indeed, the LBK
culture as a whole, were generated in parallel.
The
influence of the Bylany excavations on the development of Neolithic research in
Europe during the 1960s and 1970s was enormous: for example the incorporation, mutatis
mutandis, of the Bylany practice and methodology in the Aisne valley
research in Picardy, France, or as a stimulus towards the development of new
methodologies and interpretative models in the Aldenhovener Platte research
project in northern Germany. A host of smaller sites across Europe benefited equally from the Bylany research.
And
yet, much of this is poorly known. The excavation of the Bylany Rondel
(1990-93) offered an opportunity for a small group of University
of Edinburgh students to participate in excavations on this site. This also
created an opportunity to explore the history of research on this important
site. Ivan Pavlů has recently (2000) published the long-awaited synthesis
of the Bylany materials “Life on a Neolithic Site. Bylany – Situational
Analysis of Artefacts”, Institute
of Archaeology, Prague. Dr. Midgley’s research is
complementary in that it provides a historical account of the Bylany project
and its impact on research into the Neolithic across Europe.
RELEVANT
PUBLICATIONS
1993
with I.Pavlů, J. Rulf and M. Zápotocká, Fortified settlements or
ceremonial sites: new evidence from Bylany,
Czechoslovakia,
Antiquity 67, 91-6.
1993
Bylany Revisited: Ceremonial Landscapes in the European Neolithic, Past
15, 6-8.
1998
Bylany as an Educational Experience: A View from Abroad. In: I. Pavlů (ed)
Bylany Varia 1, 47-52, Prague.
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