Linear Pottery Culture

(Bandkeramik culture), an early Neolithic archaeological culture (end of the fifth millennium and beginning of the fourth millennium B.C.) that was widespread in Central Europe. Considered part of the Danubian culture, the Linear Pottery culture is characterized by uniform pottery of spherical and hemispherical shape, decorated with a design of bands consisting of two or three incised parallel lines (S-shaped spirals, meanders). The lines are sometimes interrupted by dots and stabs (“music note,” or “notenkopf,” pottery). Last-shaped axes are the typical tools. Large settlements, consisting of large post houses and pit houses, have been found, among them Köln-Lindenthal in the Federal Republic of Germany, Bylany in Bohemia, and Floreşti in the Moldavian SSR. The population engaged in farming (wheat and barley) and stock raising (cattle, sheep, goats, pigs).