Longhouses represent the typical architecture of early farming societies of Central Europe. For almost 1000 years, these buildings with earthfast posts remain the typical form of construction (c. 5500–4500 BCE). In the course of this time, a number of architectural elements nevertheless changed. In the first half of the 5th millennium BCE, the variety of architectural construction methods increased. The typology of the ground plan and further architectural elements are hence a crucial basis for dating buildings of this time period. And this is also of great importance because individual house plans cannot be dated using finds from accompanying pits. This article examines previous categorisations for house layouts of the southwest German Middle Neolithic (5000-4500 BCE) on the basis of multivariate methods including geometric morphometrics, principal component analysis, and redundancy analysis. The results show a significant connection between the shape of the outline and a rough chronological classification as well as various constructional characteristics. Our analysis shows that the Middle Neolithic longhouse does not exhibit a continuous change in the shape from “ship-shaped” to “trapezoidal”. Rather, for the older stage, exclusively ship-shaped outlines are typical while for the younger stage a diversification took place. This transformation can be placed in a broader cultural context since diversification processes have also been observed for settlement patterns and agricultural practice during this period.

长屋代表了中欧早期农业社会的典型建筑。在将近 1000 年的时间里，这些带有坚固柱子的建筑物仍然是典型的建筑形式（约公元前 5500-4500 年）。在此期间，许多建筑元素发生了变化。公元前 5 千年上半叶，建筑施工方法的多样性增加了。因此，平面图的类型学和进一步的建筑元素是确定这一时期建筑年代的重要基础。这一点也非常重要，因为无法使用伴随坑中的发现来确定单个房屋平面图的年代。本文根据包括几何形态计量学在内的多元方法，检查了德国西南部新石器时代中期（公元前 5000-4500 年）房屋布局的先前分类，主成分分析和冗余分析。结果显示轮廓的形状与粗略的年代分类以及各种结构特征之间存在显着联系。我们的分析表明，新石器时代中期的长屋并没有出现从“船形”到“梯形”的连续形态变化。相反，对于较老的阶段，完全船形的轮廓是典型的，而对于较年轻的阶段，则发生了多样化。这种转变可以放在更广泛的文化背景下，因为在此期间也观察到定居模式和农业实践的多样化过程。结果显示轮廓的形状与粗略的年代分类以及各种结构特征之间存在显着联系。我们的分析表明，新石器时代中期的长屋并没有出现从“船形”到“梯形”的连续形态变化。相反，对于较老的阶段，完全船形的轮廓是典型的，而对于较年轻的阶段，则发生了多样化。这种转变可以放在更广泛的文化背景下，因为在此期间也观察到定居模式和农业实践的多样化过程。结果显示轮廓的形状与粗略的年代分类以及各种结构特征之间存在显着联系。我们的分析表明，新石器时代中期的长屋并没有出现从“船形”到“梯形”的连续形态变化。相反，对于较老的阶段，完全船形的轮廓是典型的，而对于较年轻的阶段，则发生了多样化。这种转变可以放在更广泛的文化背景下，因为在此期间也观察到定居模式和农业实践的多样化过程。纯粹的船形轮廓是典型的，而在年轻阶段则发生了多样化。这种转变可以放在更广泛的文化背景下，因为在此期间也观察到定居模式和农业实践的多样化过程。纯粹的船形轮廓是典型的，而在年轻阶段则发生了多样化。这种转变可以放在更广泛的文化背景下，因为在此期间也观察到定居模式和农业实践的多样化过程。