Keep on walk: the role of migration in Linearbandkeramik life

Abstract

Migration played a central role throughout the LBK culture. After summarising the motivations for migration in the earliest LBK, the article outlines how some of these factors remained relevant in later phases. Beyond continued westand eastward expansion, at regional and site levels migration to better one’s social position provided an alternative to patrilineal land inheritance. The main change between the earliest and later phases is the role of material culture after migration events. Initially a means of creating long-distance connections, it later stressed difference from other groups. This process of ethnogenesis is invisible genetically. Overall, migration emerges as a salient behaviour even in ‘sedentary’ Neolithic societies.