Bylany is a Danubian Neolithic (New Stone Age) archaeological site located around east of Prague in the Czech region of Bohemia. Excavation began in 1955 and work continues today.
Bylany (Bohemia, Czech Republic), in addition to Eythra (Saxony, Germany), Herxheim (Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany), Těšetice (Moravia, Czech Republic), is regarded as the residential area for the first farmers in Europe and one of the largest Neolithic settlements in Central Europe. The area is agricultural and consists of many streams, ravines, and marshlands.
The archaeological site at Bylany was the area of two defining Danubian cultures, the Linear Pottery culture (from German: Linearbandkeramik), often abbreviated as LBK, and the Stroked Pottery culture (from German: Stichbandkeramik), often abbreviated as STK. The LBK culture is theorised to have covered the period between 5600-5000 cal. BC, and the STK culture the period between 5000-4400 cal. BC. These dates are contested, and some archaeologists place the dates of the LBK culture closer to 5500-4900/4950 cal. BC.
Excavations and studies over the years have unearthed many artefacts of the Neolithic period. These include pottery fragments (LBK and STK origins), and stone tools. Studies have also uncovered non-moveable features of the period these include longhouses and rondels identified using non-destructive methodologies i.e. aerial and geophysical prospection, and other methods such as magneto-metric analysis. Pottery is used by archaeologists to determine the chronology of events at Bylany as the differing of styles and techniques to decorate and create suggests the time period and culture that produced the artefact. Czech archaeologists in Prague have sort to make a digitised museum to present the site to a global audience. Estimates place the culture at the site at around 5600-5500 cal. BC until approximately 5000-4900 cal. BC. The culture gets its name from the different style of pottery decoration used, which was the narrower engraved lines, increased density of strokes, and proliferation of engraved lines with punctures. The study suggests that the "presence of gel-forming hydrated organic polymers increases the clay's plasticity". This type of device has the advantage of creating realistic spatial models of the artefact.