Stroke-ornamented ware culture
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The Stroke-ornamented ware (culture) or (German) Stichbandkeramik (abbr. STbK), Stroked Pottery culture, Danubian Ib culture of V. Gordon Childe, or Middle Danubian culture is the successor of the Linear Pottery culture, a major archaeological horizon of the European Neolithic (stone age) in Central Eastern Europe, flourishing ca. 5500—4500 BC. The STK dates approximately to the 4600-4400 part of this time span. It is found in Eastern Germany, Austria, Poland and the Czech Republic.
[edit] Description
The STbK and the Notenkopfkeramik are 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 expanded east over the western Bug, the STK moved down the Vistula and Elbe. The spread of this style must have been basically the transmission of cultural objects. 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. Similar structures are known in Bavaria (Unternberg) and the Czech Republic.
