Balkan prehistory

Vrbjanska Čuka is a tell site in the region of Pelagonia (Macedonia) established 8000 years ago by the Neolithic communities. Later it was used as an agricultural unit during the Roman era and the Middle Ages when it was also employed as a burial area. The excavations performed in the 1980s and during the last five years indicate a Neolithic farming society that constructed large buildings made of daub in a settlement enclosed by a circular ditch. The buildings had many clay structures, such as ovens, granaries, bins and grinding areas for processing cereals and bread production. The Neolithic communities used sophisticated fine pottery and modeled figurines and altars, while the stone tools were mainly used for cutting trees, harvesting and grinding. Apart from the cereal-based food (einkorn wheat, emmer wheat or barley), the inhabitants of Vrbjanska Čuka consumed lentils, peas and a variety of gathered wild fruits, while cattle, caprovine, mussels, fish and wild game meat was also...

This paper advocates a social approach to domestic animals in prehistory, one which situates herding practices in their (human) social context while also recognising the status of animals of social beings in their own right. Domestic animals, it is argued, represent sentient property in the sense that despite being incorporated as ‘objects’ into property relations between humans they remain subjects whose social world overlaps with that of humans. This tension between the status of domestic animals as subject and as object is played out in highly context-specific ways, being linked both to human social organisation and to material/geographical aspects of herding practices. These ideas are used to develop a model for the role of cattle in a process of social change that took place during the later Neolithic Vinča period in the central Balkans.

Recent archaeological researches in the eastern side of the Iron Age settlement from Saharna-Dealul Mănăstirii identified a pit with a wooden structure inside it, in which a skeleton belonging to a 35-45 years old male individual male individual was placed. The skeleton has a healed fracture of the right radius and a deformation of the distal epiphysis of the right ulna as a result of the joint use after the trauma occured. The frontal bone shows radiating fractures and the absence of a portion of the bone. This is either the result of a blunt force trauma, or the collapse of the wooden structure after an indefinite period of time following the deposition of the skeleton. The skeletal pathology indicates an individual that carried out intense physical activity throughout his life.

In these times of confinement, the French Prehistoric Society decided to offer open access to the whole first number of its quarterly bulletin. The articles are fully available in PDF format.
http://www.prehistoire.org/515_p_55320/bulletin-de-la-spf-2020-tome-117.html


Sommaire
Contents

- Éditorial.

- Diversité technique des débitages laminaires au Néolithique ancien à Vaux-et-Borset (Hesbaye, Belgique) : manières de faire, problèmes d’interprétation et perspectives anthropologiques
Technical diversity of blades productions in the Early Neolithic at Vaux-et-Borset (Hesbaye, Belgium): ways of doing things, problems of interpretation and anthropological perspectives
Solène Denis & Laurence Burnez-Lanotte
pp. 7-46.

- Cinquante ans après la découverte : état des connaissances et apport des fouilles récentes sur le site campaniforme de la République à Talmont-Saint-Hilaire (Vendée)
Fifty years on: an overview of the Bell Beaker site « la République » in Talmont-Saint-Hilaire (Vendée, France) in the light of recent excavations
Lolita Rousseau, Henri Gandois, Quentin Favrel, David Cuenca Solana, Catherine Dupont, Nicolas Garnier, Colas Guéret, Marine Laforge, Bertrand Poissonnier & Thomas Vigneau
pp. 47-84.

- The Yamnaya Impact North of the Lower Danube: A Tale of Newcomers and Locals
L'impact Yamnaya au nord du bas Danube : une histoire d'étrangers et d’indigènes
Bianca Preda-Bălănică, Alin Frînculeasa & Volker Heyd
pp. 85-101.

- Au pied du Camp de Recoux, le Champ des Rochers à Soyaux (Charente) : de l'occupation néolithique au complexe funéraire et/ou cultuel de la fin de l'âge du Bronze et de l'âge du Fer
The « Champ des Rochers » in Soyaux (Charente) from the Neolithic settlement to the funerary and
or religious complex of the late Bronze and Iron Age
Isabelle Kerouanton, avec la collaboration de & Bruno Boulestin
pp. 103-132.

- Occupations mésolithiques en contexte de rive : l’exemple de la rue Claudy à Lyon-Vaise (Rhône)
Riverbank Mesolithic occupations: the case study of rue Claudy in Lyon-Vaise
Alexandre Angelin, Alexis Taylor, Mathieu Rué & Stéphane Carrara
pp. 135-139.

- Deux stèles anthropomorphes inédites du Néolithique final gardois : Jonquières (Cannes-et-Clairan) et La Rouquette no 2 (Saint-Hilaire-de-Brethmas)
Two new anthropomorphic stelae from the Final Neolithic in Gard: Jonquières and La Rouquette n° 2
Jules Masson Mourey
pp. 140-143.

- Découvrir, comprendre et interpréter des gravures pariétales : une histoire de la science archéologique à travers l’histoire de l’étude scientifique du Mont Bégo (1868-1947)
Maddalena Cataldi
pp. 144-145.

- De poids et de mesure. Les instruments de pesée en Europe occidentale aux âges des Métaux (XIVe-IIIe s. av. n.è.) : conception, usages et utilisateurs
Thibaud Poigt
pp. 146-149.

- Une aristocratie à l’âge de pierre ? L’égalitarisme des sociétés du Paléolithique supérieur en question (Musée national de Préhistoire, 9-11 octobre 2019)
Jean-Marc Pétillon
pp. 150-153.

- Giligny François et Bostyn Françoise, dir. (2016) – La hache de silex en Val de Seine. Production et diffusion des haches au Néolithique
Anne Augereau
pp. 154-155.

- Querré G., Cassen S. et Vigier E. (2019) – La parure en callaïs du Néolithique européen
Jean Guilaine
pp. 155-158.

- Nicole Pigeot (1950-2019)
Marianne Christensen, Carole Fritz, Dominique Legoupil, Monique Olive, Gilles Tosello & Boris Valentin
pp. 159-164.

- Eugène Bonifay (1927-2019)
Claude Mordant & Jean Courtin
pp. 165-171.

- Assemblée générale du 25 janvier
pp. 172-183.

In the second half of the 20th century, and in particular at the beginning of the 21st century, archaeological discoveries were made, unveiling when, where and why the oldest cities were emerging. For a long time it was believed that the processes of early urbanization should be studied primarily on the example of Mesopotamia, the Nile or the Indus Valleys. However, it turned out that a lot of interesting things happened in this respect in Copper or Early Bronze Ages in Old Europe, not to mention the valleys of the Yangtze River or the banks of the Mississippi River far away from the Old World. Wherever the production economy has made significant progress, people sooner or later started creating unprecedented so far large settlements – mega-sites with thousands of residents, intended to be economic, political, military, religious centers. Some of them became cities, others, for various reasons, disappeared. The appearance and decline of early urbanized structures fit into the rhythm of climatic and cultural changes. The way it happened in Old Europe between 5000-3000 BC will be discussed in this article. Archaeological investigations over the past 20 years show us that the proto-cities of Trypillia culture are part of some global event that began in Europe around 5000 BC.

Rock art has been poorly investigated in Croatia and in the southeast of Europe. The CRORA (CROatian Rock Art) project was launched in 2009 and aims to systematically catalogue, valorize, and present rock art in Croatia. This project has identified 122 parietal art sites (rock art engravings and paintings) in Croatia, dated from the Palaeolithic to the Modern age, were recorded,  demonstrating that this region, with its abundance of karst phenomena, has great potential region for the further systematic survey and study of rock art.
A dozen rock art paintings sites were identified in the frame of this investigative effort - most located in small rock shelters facing river valleys - that exhibit numerous similarities with the schematic rock art found in parts od Italy, France, Portugal and Spain dated to the period from the Neolithic to the dawn of the Bronze Age. Similar sites have also been identified in Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. These new discoveries in Croatia and in the adjacent regions of the eastern Adriatic coast broaden our knowledge of the phenomenon of schematic rock art and open an completely new area for its study.

Riassunto (il progetto CROatian Rock Art e la scoperta di arte rupestre schematica in Croazia)
L'arte rupestre è stata poco studiata in Croazia e nel sud-est dell'Europa. Il progetto CRORA (CROatian Rock Art) è stato lanciato nel 2009 e mira a catalogare, valorizzare e presentare sistematicamente l'arte rupestre in Croazia. Questo progetto ha permesso di documentare un totale di 122 siti, con incisioni e pitture, databili dal Paleolitico all'Età Moderna, dimostrando come questa zona, nonostante i suoi numerosi fenomeni carsici, abbia un grande potenziale per ulteriori indagini sistematiche e studi sull'arte rupestre.
Nell'ambito di questo sforzo investigativo sono stati identificati una dozzina di siti con pitture rupestri, per lo più in piccoli ripari rocciosi lungo i solchi fluviali, che mostrano numerose somiglianze con l'arte rupestre schematica di Italia, Francia, Portogallo e Spagna, databili dal Neolitico agli albori dell'età del Bronzo. Siti simili sono stati individuati anche in Slovenia e Bosnia-Erzegovina. Queste nuove scoperte in Croazia e nelle regioni adiacenti della costa adriatica orientale ampliano la nostra conoscenza del fenomeno dell'arte rupestre schematica e aprono un'area completamente nuova per il suo studio di questo fenomeno.

Although the first systematic excavation of a
Neolithic site in Croatia was completed almost
120 years ago, we still lack a clear picture of its
absolute chronology. The Late Neolithic phase of
the whole Eastern Croatia shares the same destiny.
As an attempt to clarify the issue, several already
published and some more recent regional
absolute dates are presented and discussed in
the paper. Despite those dates, the Late Neolithic
chronology of the given area – embedded
in recently available archaeological data for the
Balkans – remains fairly vague.

The activities related to spatial organization implemented by the prehistoric communities in Amindeon Basin, which are coming into light through the extended rescue excavations on Florina Ephorate of Antiquities in the Lignite Mining Zone of the Public Power Corporation S.A. - Hellas, constitute a special research field, due to the potential exploitation of a large data set regarding the architectural characteristics of the habitations and their synchronic and diachronic differentiations. The prehistoric settlement Anarghiri IXa was inhabited since the end of the 6th millennium BC up to Late Bronze Age. The dominant structural elements in the deepest waterlogged layers are 1513 vertical wooden posts used for the foundation of buildings, whereas a destruction layer of a two-storey stilt house dating at the end of Late Neolithic is also found, containing several clay structures and numerous household artefacts. Fragmented Bronze Age findings are unearthed all over the excavated area of the settlement, in which the most prominent architectural feature is the wooden ellipsoid palisade of the late Early and the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age that encircles the habitation. The earliest evidence of human activity at the settlement Anarghiri XI are dated in the mid- 7th millennium BC and consist of subterranean circular pit-houses and post-framed buildings. The presence of two deep ellipsoid ditches and technical processing of the slopes of the western shoreline constitute the basic interventions of the inhabitants regarding spatial organization during Middle Neolithic. Demarcation of habitation space is a practice applied also during Early Bronze Age, as indicated by three rounded ditches carved on the soft limestone which enclose several postholes, circular carvings, rectilinear trenches and scattered remains of burnt houses. The prehistoric wooden trackway that connects the northern waterside zone of Anarghiri XI with the lakeside settlement Anarghiri IXb is to date a unique example of such a kind of structure not only in Greece, but also in southern Balkans. The majority of 540 wooden structural elements unearthed in a length of 75,5 m are uprights - some of them with processing tool marks - belonging to the foundation of the structure in the marshy soil. The great extent of the excavations, the diachronic development of the settlements, the variety of architectural and spatial organization choices, as well as the good preservation of numerous wooden structural elements form some positive conditions for a multi-leveled methodological approach and interpretative analysis of certain aspects of spatial organization of the prehistoric settlements in Amindeon Basin.

The site of Rudna Glava was discovered in the 1960’s and investigated by Dr Borislav Jovanović. The site yielded extensive and well-preserved evidence of early copper mine workings that provided an important insight into the prehistoric mining activities in Europe. This brief commentary aims to call attention to the most recent recognition in the literature of the importance of the Rudna Glava mining site for understanding the beginnings of prehistoric copper extraction in Europe and worldwide, as well as the development of the study of early metallurgy.

Two million years BCE, a new consciousness was being created on the East African Plateau, as described in Genesis and the author's previous book: The_Land_Between_The_River - Genesis -. This date may challenge some of our established ideas. Similarly, in 2005, Sam Osmanagić, a Bosnian-American entrepreneur, challenged the scientific community when he asserted that some hills near the town of Visoko, Bosnia had not formed naturally and were in fact part of a pyramid complex. The controversy persists to this day. Here is your chance to find out once and for all who was right.

In later prehistory horse ownership was a manifestation of wealth and physical prowess, and demonstrated access to distant lands. Because of the expense and restricted availability of horses, they are often reduced to indicators of status without more nuanced considerations of how lived human-horse interactions enmeshed them in these status displays. To complicate the simple horse/status object equivalence, this article presents a specific case for the symbolic and social significance of horses in Early Iron Age south-eastern Slovenia through the lens of equine iconography, and argues that horses and particularly equestrianism were essential to embodying elite masculine identity. Broadly, this article seeks to move beyond equating high-status goods with high-status people by discussing how particular events, bodily abilities and human-animal relationships were all intertwined in the materialization of social distinction for a particular group.

The Black Sea lies at the junction of three major cultural areas: Europe, Central Asia, and the Near East. It plays a crucial role in enduring discussions about the impact of complex Near Eastern societies on European societies, and the repercussions of early urbanization across Eurasia. This book presents the first comprehensive overview of the Black Sea region in the prehistoric period. It penetrates artificial boundaries imposed by traditions, politics, and language to encompass both the European and Asiatic coasts and both Eastern European and Western scholarly literature. With a critical compilation and synthesis of archaeological data, this study situates the prehistoric Black Sea in a global historical context. By adopting the perspective of technology and innovation, it transcends a purely descriptive account of material culture and emphasizes society, human interaction, and engagement with the material world.

Покретни археолошки материјал с локалитета Црквине
укључује три велике збирке налаза: предмети од печене
глине, камена и кремена који су релативнохронолошком
методом датовани у касну винчанску културу, односно
Винчу Д2. Проучавањем специфичности материјалне
културе сагледан је регионални положај локалитета Црквине у оквиру винчанског културног комплекса као и процес дезинтеграцијевинчанске културе на територији
западне Србије, који се везује за почетак раног енеолита.

The paper presents the findings of the processing of fired clay vessels from the Eneolithic site Crkvine in the village of Mali Borak. Seven basic types of pottery vessels underwent typological-stylistic, as well as technological analysis: 1. tablewares; 2. cups; 3. jars; 4. amphorae; 5. pithoi; 6. pots; 7. ollas (beanpots). Next, an overview was provided of the cultural stance and the role western Serbia played in the happenings that marked the process of disintegration of the Vinca culture. One thousand and sixty fragmented and whole vessels were processed in a unique manner, by microscopic analysis, covering twenty technological and formal-stylistic
features of the finds; over two hundred variable options were determined in this way.

The Green Knight was a character featured in the classic poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (fourteenth century) and its derivative The Green Knight (c. 1500). This knight came into Arthur’s hall and asked any one of his knights to trade blows.

Sir Gawain accepted this challenge and he was allowed to strike first. He cut off the Green Knight’s head. The latter calmly picked it up and told Gawain to meet him on New Year’s Morning for his turn.

On his way to this meeting, Gawain lodged with a lord and each agreed to give the other what he had obtained during each day of Gawain’s stay. On the first day, when the lord was out hunting, Gawain received a kiss from his wife which was duly passed on. On the second day, he received a brace of kisses which were also passed on. On the third day he was given three kisses and some green lace which would magically protect him, but only the three kisses were passed on.

The Green Knight is most often and closely associated with Sir Gawain and the Green Knight ("green", "associated with trees", "a ruler of trees").
Later on, the Nazi's took over this title to name Dr.Green, aka 'Dr.Jozef Mengele')

Having left the lord’s residence, Gawain arrived at the Green Chapel where he was to meet the Green Knight. He knelt for the blow. The Green Knight aimed three blows at Gawain, but the first two did not make contact and the third but lightly cut his neck.

The Green Knight turned out to be the lord with whom he had been staying and he said he would not have cut Gawain at all had the latter told him about the lace. The Green Knight was called Bertilak and he lived at Castle Hutton. The tale bears a striking resemblance to an Irish narrative in which Cu Roi takes the part of the Green Knight and Cuchullain that of Gawain. The Green Knight may have been the Green Man, a wild man featured on inn signboards whose effigy was carried in civic processions.

*Sir Pertolepe was also called the Green Knight, and he was defeated by Sir Gareth.

The long time of studding have been pased since I venture to write this text in intention to contribute in resolving mystery of motifs in the design of Serbian Pirot Kilim – the licenced traditionally  woolen, home woven carpet, rug, from the town Pirot, South Serbia – Turkish: sarkoy. Explanation that folow about one abstract pattern – motif from that carpet, made in geometric manner, which I found interesting because of association on Egyptian symbol Djed, is my personal one. I named this pathern “Djed”, grandpa in Serbian lannguage, and argue it’s meaning as: commander , because of Djed /grandpa in Serbian patriarchal society really was the commander of the household all his life, and  sons were living with him, all the life, to the half part of the 20ct. Tis analogy come from the fact that “Djed” is offten in center of the patthern wich consists ov radiating rhombuses or radiating rectangulars with lot of streith lines spreding horisontally from theirs body in the space around, like we see at the Egyptiyn symbol Djed, too. Analyze is based on history of art, ethnology, antropology, archeology, and other disciplines, in gestalt manner, necessary, I think, in analyzing symbols of this type. I trying to find some similarities with other cultures, especially tribal once, because  tradition of woving in Serbia is the old one, from the 5000 BC, and Serbian society was most the rural one, to the half part of 20 ct. We still have the familly clans and tribes on Balkan today, the most in Monte Negro and Herzegovina – part of the Bosnia and Herzegovina. Balkan was the most pastoral, too, one etnic group Vlasi /Vlach/ got name from wooll’s  hair, in Balkan languages – vlas! But, I have find the similar motifes, from Neolitic times further, too, all around world, from Kordun /the  Southwest part of Croatia/, via Balkan Peninsula, Anatolia, Turkey, Afganistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, some parts of Kina, Malaysia and Philippines, to Middle and South America: Mexico, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina and NorthAamerica - indian tribes Kiowa, Nawajo, Shoshone and many others. Looks like in the beginning of  our civilisation layes the new technologies –  spining and weaveing of the wool. Personally, I think this civiliation had  spreaded from the same place, somewhere in the Ancient Near East, from the middle of the terittories where it later evolved  and where the same traditions exhist today.