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| Horizon | Old Europe |
|---|---|
| Geographical range | Central Europe |
| Period | Neolithic,Chalcolithic |
| Dates | c. 5000 BC —c. 4000 BC |
| Major sites | Lengyel |
| Preceded by | Linear Pottery culture,Tisza culture |
| Followed by | Funnelbeaker culture,Baden culture,Globular Amphora culture |
TheLengyel culture is anarchaeological culture of theEuropean Neolithic, centered on theMiddle Danube inCentral Europe. It flourished from 5000 to 4000 BC, ending with phase IV, e.g., in Bohemia represented by the 'Jordanow/Jordansmühler culture'. It is followed by theFunnelbeaker culture/TrB culture[1] and theBaden culture. The eponymous type site is atLengyel inTolna county, Hungary.
The Lengyel culture was preceded by theLinear Pottery culture and succeeded by theCorded Ware culture. In its northern extent, overlapped the somewhat later but otherwise approximately contemporaneousFunnelbeaker culture. Also closely related are theStroke-ornamented ware andRössen cultures, adjacent to the north and west, respectively.
Subgroups of the Lengyel horizon include the Austrian/Moravian Painted Ware I and II, Aichbühl, Jordanów/Jordanov/Jordansmühl, Schussenried, Gatersleben, etc.
It is a wide interaction sphere or cultural horizon rather than an archaeological culture in the narrow sense. Its distribution overlaps with theTisza culture and withStroke-Ornamented Pottery (STK) as far north asOsłonki, central Poland.
Lengyel pottery was found in westernHungary, theCzech Republic,Slovakia,Austria,Poland, andSlovenia. SeveralSopot culture finds inCroatia and Hungary were dated to the same general periods as the Lengyel culture finds.Influence in pottery styles is found even further afield, in parts of Germany and Switzerland.
Agriculture and stock raising (mainly cattle, but also pigs, and to a lesser extent,ovicaprids) was practiced, though many wild faunal remains have also been recovered. Settlements consisted of small houses as well as trapezoidlonghouses. These settlements were sometimes open, sometimes surrounded by a defensive ditch.
The Lengyel people also practicedmining. A 2025 archaelogical study of achert mining field in the Krumlov Forest of the Czech Republic, one of the largest in Europe, reported the graves of two adult sisters and an infant within a mine shaft. The women's skeletons bore signs ofvertebral degeneration and earlyarthritis consistent with the heavy labor associated with mining.[2]
Inhumation was in separate cemeteries, in the flexed position with apparently no preference for which side the deceased was laid out in.
Lengyel sites of the later period show signs of the use ofcopper in form of beads and hammered ribbons, marking the dawn of theChalcolithic period in Central Europe.
It was associated with the cover-termOld Europe byMarija Gimbutas, though may have been undergone "kurganization" by theProto-Indo-Europeans and become integrated into the successorGlobular Amphora culture.
According toarchaeogenetic studies, its population had no or negligible amount of Indo-European steppe ancestry.
Lipson et al. (2017), Narasimshan et al. (2019) and Patterson et al. (2022) detected in nine individuals from Hungary ascribed to the Lengyel culture the Y-Haplogroups H, H-P96, I2a2a-S6635, I2a1a1b-S21825, G2a2a1-PF3148, J2a1a2b-Z6055, C1a2-V86, and E1b1b1a1b1-L618.mtDNA extracted were various subclades ofU8b1a2b,N1a1a,T2b,H and H44,J1c,W1.[3][4][5] According to ADMIXTURE analysis they had approximately 85-98%Early European Farmers, 4-12%Western Hunter-Gatherer and 0-3%Western Steppe Herders-related ancestry.[5]
![Lengyel pottery.[6]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aMuseum_Quintana_-_Lengyelkultur_Gef%25C3%25A4%25C3%259F.jpg)
_Neolithische_Widderfigur_von_Jordanow%2c_Schlesien_(cropped).jpg)
_Neolithische_Widderfigur_von_Jordanow%2c_um_etwa_von_3500_bis_2500_v._Chr%2c_s%25C3%25BCdliche_Gruppe_der_TRB%2c_Schlesien.jpg)
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![Stollhof Hoard, Austria, c. 4000 BC.[7][8]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aStollhof_Hoard_02.JPG)
![Gold disc[9]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aGold_disc_1.jpg)
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