Th e shelters that people constructed were only temporary;
they took their tents with them when they traveled or built
new shelters from brush and tree branches. A conveniently
located cave also made a good temporary home that might be
revisited every year.
During the Paleolithic everyone lived in groups based
on families, and their settlements were similar, though the
groups varied in size depending on how much food they had
available and what tasks they were carrying out. Th ese tasks
and activities mainly had to do with everyday living, such as
preparing and cooking food and making tools and clothing.
While no group stayed long in any particular place, perhaps
once a year diff erent groups gathered for a day or two to renew
friendships, fi nd marriage partners, and share information.
A few special sites, like the Lascaux Cave complex in France,
were not just for the activities of everyday life. At Lascaux and
a handful of other places the cave walls were decorated with
pictures of animals and other designs. Th ey had social and
religious signifi cance.
At the end of the Pleistocene the climate changed, al-
though people remained gatherers and hunters for hundreds
more years, adapting to the supply of plants and animals
brought by the new warmer climate. Eventually people found
out how to domesticate plants and animals to supply their
needs for food and other materials, and they developed ce-
ramics, though they still relied on stone for sharp-edged cut-
ting tools. Th is was the beginning of agriculture, called the
Neolithic Period, which began in about 7000 b.c.e. in Greece
but not until 2000 b.c.e. in England.
Houses built by Neolithic settlers were made of timber
and mud plaster (or the equivalent), more substantial and
usually larger than in the Paleolithic. Th ey were occupied
for long periods, probably because groups now maintained
their own food supplies. Settlements functioned as hubs from
which many activities were carried out, such as cultivating
fi elds and herding animals. It is hard to generalize about
the locations of Neolithic settlements because their loca-
tions were always compromises that made it possible to meet
a number of needs, such as access to water, arable land for
crops, and grazing land. More people lived in Europe than
before, and because their lifeways left more remains than ear-
lier, hundreds of Neolithic settlements are known throughout
Europe, for example, Cuiry-lés-Chaudardes in France, Brześć
Kujawski in Poland, and Selevac in Serbia. In general, each
settlement fulfi lled the same social and economic functions
as every other settlement, but Neolithic people in many parts
of western Europe built special-purpose monuments inter-
preted as expressions of their supernatural beliefs. Arrange-
ments of large stones called megaliths can be seen at Carnac
in Brittany (France). Passage graves were made with stones
grouped in various ways with or without soil coverings; the
most famous is New Grange in Ireland.
Although settlements were similar, the length of time each
was occupied diff ered. Some settlements were used for long
periods throughout the Neolithic, resulting in the accumula-tion of cultural debris in a large mound (or tell), like Karanovo
in Bulgaria. Th ese are more common in eastern and south-
eastern Europe than in western Europe. Sometimes smaller
settlements, occupied for less time, were located surrounding
a tell, as at Polgár-Csőszhalom in Hungary. Th is suggests that
the older (tell) settlement had some economic or social func-
tion beyond that of the smaller younger settlements.
During the Bronze Age, when metalworking became
widespread, some earlier patterns persisted. Th e basic eco-
nomic activities of cultivating fi elds and grazing livestock
continued; thus settlement sites were still placed to provide
access to the necessary resources. But settlements began to be
distinguishable from one another by the number or variety of
their diff ering functions. In western Germany and the Low
Countries, for example, there were both single farmsteads
and larger villages. As can be seen by their size and internal
complexity, some settlements began to benefi t from increased
trade activity.
In the social system of the Bronze Age (starting as early
as 2800 b.c.e., in southeastern Europe) some people earned
elite status and political power. Trade intensifi ed, even with
far-distant areas, including trade in valuable bronze objects.
It was during this period that many settlements throughout
Europe began to show signs of defensive fortifi cations, such
as being located on hilltops (sometimes called hill forts)
or being surrounded by ditches and wooden palisades. A
Bronze Age tell in Hungary has a double ditch and palisade
system surrounding it; in Spain, a Bronze Age site with stone
walls stands on a high promontory. In Sardinia, in addition
to village settlements, Bronze Age people built stone towers
called nuraghi.
Later still, iron objects began to be made and used in dif-
ferent parts of Europe—albeit at diff erent times. By the Iron
Age (starting around 1000 b.c.e.) iron objects and tools be-
came widely available to most members of society for all as-
pects of daily life. New technology, such as iron-tipped plows,
enabled people to occupy new areas. Th e Iron Age is associ-
ated with increasing social and economic complexity, which
was refl ected in a hierarchical settlement pattern. Territorial-
ity was evident when some groups began to control important
locales, such as river fords or mountain passes. Some villages
or farmsteads remained strongly connected to farming and
stock raising, whereas others added functions, such as being
the residence of a socially elite group. In the Halland area of
Sweden agricultural villages are located on well-drained soil,
and smaller sites are located adjacent to wet areas, perhaps
for special purposes such as hunting. Th e large site of Slöinge
was probably the residence of elite people because the arti-
facts found there include such unusual items as garnets, am-
ber, gold, silver, and imported glass.
Important settlements were usually protected in some
way, oft en by a ditch, palisade, or rampart, sometimes even by
a water barrier such as the crannogs, or artifi cial islands, con-
structed in Ireland. In Poland the site of Biskupin is fortifi ed
and located on a peninsula in a lake for protection. Th e Ironsettlement patterns: Europe 9690895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i969 969 10/10/07 2:30:36 PM