During the international conference ‘Settlement, Communication and Exchange around the Western Carpathians’ held in Kraków in October 2012, attention was focused on the complex issues of long-term cultural change in the populations surrounding the Western Carpathians, with the aim of striking a balance between local cultural dynamics, subsistence economy and the alleged importance of far-reaching contacts, and communication and exchange involved in this process. Specialists from Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the United States met and discussed for two days their archaeological findings relating to questions of (Trans)Carpathian communication, settlement patterns, and agricultural and technological changes that occurred (mainly) during the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Additionally, case studies from Northern Poland and Eastern Germany were included to provide a perspective on the variability of traditions and economic strategies in different natural environments and topographical settings. Drawing on a broad spectrum of methods (including anthropological, archaeobotanical, geochemical, and geophysical), and adhering to different theoretical approaches, the objective was to contribute to a more holistic understanding of prehistoric settlement strategies, adaptation to marginal (and not so marginal) environments, and the role of communication for prehistoric populations to the north and south of the Western Carpathians.

Table of Contents:

Preface (Tobias L. Kienlin - Pawel Valde-Nowak - Marta Korczynska - Klaus Cappenberg - Jakob Ociepka);

The Western Carpathian Highlands During the Neolithic (Peter Bogucki);

TransCarpathian Contacts in the Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age (Slawomir Kadrow);

Long Houses on Hilltop - Camps in the Mountains: Some Aspects of the Neolithic in the Dunajec Project (Pawel Valde-Nowak);

Landscape as a Feature: Using GIS and Statistics to Compare Two Types of Early Neolithic Sites in Lesser Poland (Klaus Cappenberg);

One Too Many Settlements: Das bandkeramische Eythra im Kontext weiterer Siedlungsregionen in Nordwestsachsen (Harald Stauble);

Technology of the Earliest Vessels in the Upper Vistula River Basin - Imports against Local Production (Agnieszka Czekaj-Zastawny - Anna Rauba-Bukowska);

Long-Distance Exchange at the End of the 5th Millennium calBC - Bodrogkeresztur Culture Pottery at the Baltic Coast (Agnieszka Czekaj-Zastawny - Jacek Kabacinski - Thomas Terberger);

Settlement and Economic Transformations in Western Little Poland between 3500 BC and 2500 BC: Internal Development vs. External Implantation (Marek Nowak);

Settlement, Economy and Climate between 3200 and 2500 BC: Late Neolithic Transformations in South-Eastern Poland (Andrzej Pelisiak);

‘Alternative Trajectories in Bronze Age Landscapes and the ‘Failure’ to Enclose: A Case Study from the Middle Dunajec Valley (Tobias L. Kienlin, Marta Korczyńska & Klaus Cappenberg) [Open Access: Download] ;

Erwagungen zur geomagnetischen Prospektion im mittleren Dunajectal, Kleinpolen (Jakob Ociepka);

Plant Remains Found in Archaeological Sites in the Carpathian Foothills - Preliminary Report (Maria Litynska-Zajac - Magdalena Moskal-del Hoyo - Katarzyna Cywa);

Stones Collecting and Preliminary Discrimination on the Archaeological Site - Janowice (AZP 106-65 no. 61) Case Study (Michal Wasilewski);

Dynamics of the Depositional Processes: The Example of the Tree Windthrow Structure at the Graveyard in Janowice, site 44 (AZP 106-65/103) (Marta Korczynska);

Preliminary Results of the Anthropological Analysis of Human Bones from Janowice (AZP 106-65 No. 103) (Anita Szczepanek);

The Remains of the Medieval Settlement in Janowice, Comm. Plesna, Site 44 (Michal Wojenka);

The Bronze Age Settlement in Maszkowice (Western Carpathians) - Analyses and Interpretations (Marcin S. Przybyla - Magdalena Skoneczna);

The West Carpathians as a Contact Zone in the Bronze Age in Light of Hoards and Isolated Finds of Metal Objects (Wojciech Blajer);

Transcarpathian Influences on the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age Settlement at Wierzchoslawice Site 15 (Ireneusz Miras - Lukasz Oleszczak);

Magnetic Prospection and Excavation Verification of a Site from the Late Pre-Roman Period in Wielka Wies (District Tarnow) (Artur Buszek);

Settlement Strategies in the Early Bronze Age in South-Western Slovakia (Jozef Batora - Peter Toth);

Tard-Tatardomb: An Update on the Intensive Survey Work on the Multi-Layer Hatvan and Fuzesabony Period Settlement (Klara P. Fischl - Tobias L. Kienlin - Tamas Pusztai - Helmut Bruckner - Simone Klumpp - Beata Tugya - Gyorgy Lengyel);

New Geophysical Data on the Internal Structure of the Gava Sites of Andrid-Corlat and Cauas-Sighetiu in North-Western Romania (Tobias L. Kienlin - Liviu Marta) ;