Great Transformation on a Microscale: The Targowisko Settlement Region

Abstract The aim of the article is to characterize the well-recognized early Neolithic settlement region of Targowisko in SE Poland. It is located in southern Poland, on the northern outskirts of Western Carpathians, 30 km to the east of Krakow. It functioned throughout the development of the entire Linienbandkeramik and the subsequent Malice culture, in the period from 5300 to 4500 BC. The analysis of the settlement and internal colonization processes of the region showed their dynamic nature and the relative instability of the particular microregions, typically the increased mobility of small groups of people undertaking risky colonization actions in the Targowisko area. The region also offers a rare opportunity to trace the nature of socio-cultural change on a microscale. Impulses from various cultural environments contributed to the formation of the MC, which proves its heterogeneous character and the complicated course of its genesis.