Igołomska terasa Wisły w VI tysiącleciu p.n.e. – czas pierwszych rolników / Igołomia terrace of the Vistula River in the 6th millennium BC – time of the first farmers

Abstract

The introduction of an agriculture-economy based on the cultivation of plants and animal husbandry – known as Neolithization – was a breakthrough in human history. The lifestyle that had been led since the dawn of humanity, seasonal migration to search for sources of food, changed relatively abruptly. In Central Europe, including Poland, this process was associated with the appearance of the first farmers known under the archaeological term of the Linear Pottery culture (LBK). Intensive spreading and concentration of settlement occurred at the end of the first phase, reaching peak intensity in the middle phase. Most large, permanently inhabited settlements with longhouses are dated to this period, similar to in other centres in the Odra and Vistula basins. About half of the 1,600 sites associated with LBK in Poland are located in south-eastern Poland. Due to favourable environmental conditions, the Vistula left-bank terrace in the area of what is today Igołomia-Wawrzeńczyce commune, in Kraków district has been intensively populated since the beginning of the Neolithic.