La Marmotta is one of the best-preserved Early Neolithic lakeshore settlements in the Mediterranean, yet its chronology has remained poorly defined. Previous interpretations relied mainly on decoration-based ceramic classifications and a limited radiocarbon dataset, hindering our understanding of the site’s occupational dynamics and its role in the wider European Neolithic. This study presents a revised chronological framework grounded in 35 radiocarbon determinations, including 22 new dates on short-lived botanical remains and selected wooden artifacts. The samples were carefully selected from well-documented contexts to minimise post-depositional disturbance and analyzed using Bayesian modeling. Radiocarbon results were interpreted in parallel with a detailed reassessment of ceramic artifacts and decorations. This integrated approach suggests that ceramic variability does not reflect a succession of different phases, but rather the cultural diversity of a single, dynamic community.

Cemeteries of the Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik culture (LBK, 5500–4900 BC) evoke a sense of emerging permanence of place as agricultural subsistence spread westward through Central Europe. Yet assumptions about the sequence of senescence and longevity of cemetery use are based on limited data. Here, the authors challenge the view that cemetery burial was a long-lasting Neolithic practice, modelling 50 new radiocarbon dates from the cemetery of Schwetzingen alongside published dates from eight other LBK mortuary contexts. The results, they argue, indicate a short-lived, largely contemporaneous cemetery horizon across Central Europe, forcing a re-evaluation of Early Neolithic social history.