This paper aims on differences between Early Neolithic sites in Central Germany and Lesser Poland concerning their position in landscape. Archaeological cultures like Linear Pottery, Stroke Ornamented Pottery and early Lengyel-Polgár groups have been included. North West Saxony and East Thuringia have a huge amount of Early Neolithic sites and a long history of research. The research area in Lesser Poland, placed around the middle course of the Dunajec river, consists out of only a few Early Neolthic sites. A system to compare the divergent archaeological record in both countries has been developed to objectivly compare the sites. Measurable factors like height, slope, distance to rivers have been analyzed as well as qualitative factors such as topographical position or aspect. Besides basic statistic approaches, multivariate methods like Principle Component Analysis or Correspondence Analysis have been complemented by a cluster analysis which could take into account both kinds of data – numeric and qualitative. Two groups can be described by terms of geostatistical positioning. Cultural differences in electing places to live or settle could not have been observed but tendencies of a changing focus on certain factors – e.g. changes the occupation of hilltops in mountanious areas to seeking for short distances to rivers in flat areas.
In this paper we report on systematic survey work on Bronze Age sites in the middle part of the Dunajec river valley, Lesser Poland. For some years now, excavations have been carried out on the site of Janowice AZP 106-65 no. 61. The survey work reported on here aims to establish the chronological and – if possible – functional relation of adjacent sites to the north and south of the hilltop site of Janowice that has a long tradition of settlement during the Bronze and Early Iron Ages. Amongst others we report on systematic surface survey work and geomagnetic prospection carried out on AZP 106-65 no. 57, a site only a little distance downhill from no. 61, on the sites AZP 106-65 nos. 70, 71, 72, 74, 75 and 103 towards the north in the Lubinka valley, and on a number of sites south of Janowice no. 61 in the Zakliczyn basin and adjacent foothills further south (e.g. AZP 107-65 nos. 75 and 83). From this intensive survey work that aims at a complete coverage and verification of sites previously reported by AZP an increasingly better understanding of the dynamics of a (Late) Bronze Age to Early Iron Age microregion is beginning to emerge.
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