LAUSR

Abstract Many ideas about post-marital residence rules in the society of the first farmers in the European temperate zone (Linear Pottery Culture, ca. 5500–4900 cal BC) have been proposed. The prevailing hypothesis is patrilocality and community exogamy, based on strontium isotope, modern DNA, ancient DNA, linguistic and anthropological evidence. However, presenting several different anthropological models and comparing them with strontium isotope results from two LBK cemeteries (Vedrovice and Nitra), we argue that other post-marital residence rules such as ambilocality, avunculocality, shifting residence or predominant matrilocality were also possible. Arguments set in contradiction to one-sided interpretation of strontium isotope results include a possible practice of polygyny, abduction of young women and non-inhumation burials. A hypothetical model combining patrilocality and matrilocality on different social and geographical levels is proposed.