The age of clay: The social dynamics of house destruction

This study intends to provide some fresh insights into Neolithic domestic architecture, through the analysis of the social knowledge embedded in architectural technology and the control over the practice of house construction and destruction, as expressed through the Neolithic architecture of Southeast Europe. I see my particular contribution to the explanation of the Neolithic architecture in Southeast Europe as firstly, questioning the epistemological basis of the studies in archaeology which favour the spatial aspect and suggesting the technological aspect as a viable avenue to take in the research of architecture; and secondly, providing new methodology for analyzing the material culture of architecture.; The Neolithic house was the central feature in the society, by way of constituting the largest and most complex single-feature for production and by encapsulating the physical belongings and social activities within it. However, the house during the Neolithic might have also had a symbolic role of securing a post-utilitarian visibility and the successful social reproduction of the owners. The social and material continuity were important to Neolithic societies. The engagement in domestication of plants and animals, as well as domestication of humans, was physically and conceptually a struggle for continuity of human and natural resources.; This dissertation raises the question of the Neolithic houses which were central to the domestic domain in the changing Neolithic society, but were traditionally taken to be uncontroversial features of the cultural environment. It recognizes house burning as a deliberate social practice, and questions its significance for the Neolithic people. This study takes both house construction and destruction as closely related architectural practices which have to be examined simultaneously.; In this dissertation, I suggest that during the Vinca culture period, house fires, by, having a destructive role, played a constructive part as well and helped expand the process of technological and social domestication. The Neolithic house was brought to closure by burning, it was shut off from the active/utilitarian life. Nevertheless, it was being preserved by the same action of fire, by being transformed into the brick-like solid material that stays as such for an indefinite time. As such, house as a place gains visibility in much wider sense than it had been during its utilitarian life.