Stroke-ornamented ware
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The Stroke-ornamented ware (culture) or (German) Stichbandkeramik (abbr. STK), Stroked Pottery culture, Danubian Ib culture of V. Gordon Childe, or Middle Danubian culture is a late phase of the Linear Pottery culture, a major archaeological horizon of the European Neolithic (stone age), flourishing ca. 5500—4500 BC. The STK dates approximately to the 5000-4500 part of this time span, being most frequent around 4800/4700 BC. The heaviest concentrations cover most of Germany. The STK represents nothing new in demographics or mode of life, but varies slightly in pottery style and architecture. Sections of the culture manage to survive though the middle Neolithic to the late Neolithic. Accordingly some authors revise Childe to place the style in Danubian II.
[edit] Description
The STK and the Notenkopfkeramik originated in contiguous areas of the middle Danube and both represent a development of the LBK. Much of the Musical Note pottery features incised zig-zag bands going around the pot, with punctures at the line segment junctions. The STK abandons incision in favor bands of small punctures, also in zig-zag patterns, with a vertical band dividing each angle. The effect is a band pattern of contiguous A-frames.
Where the Musical Note pottery went east over the western Bug, the STK moved down the Vistula and Elbe, arriving at the Baltic and the North Sea. We know now that LBK was already there and had assimilated the indigenes, so there are no invasion or colonization questions. The spread of this style must have been basically the transmission of cultural objects. It is found mainly in Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Bavaria. The center is the Harz mountains, where the population made extensive use of stone there in tool-making.
The homes of the STK people show a slight modification that became a major feature of later cultures: one end of the long house was made shorter than the other to achieve a trapezoidal shape. The reason for this modification remains obscure. Also, the STK people developed a preference for cremation rather than burial. The preceding early LBK had used both methods.
In the map included with this article, you can see that the LBK over most of its range has been replaced with the Lengyel and the Rössen, but there are STK survivals on the Vistula.
[edit] Gosek circle
An unusual structure associated with STK has been found at Gosek, south of Berlin: a large, double concentric ring of post holes pierced by gates and surrounded by a ditch. The placement of the gates and some of the posts lead some investigators to hypothesize an observatory similar to Stonehenge, but in wood rather than stone; i.e., the posts mark some positions of celestial bodies. The term, "temple of the sun" is used by the most sanguine investigators. We look forward to the discovery of additional evidence, whenever it occurs.
