Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-r7xzm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T16:17:47.178Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Interwoven Strands for Refining the Chronology of the Neolithic Tell of Vinča-Belo Brdo, Serbia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2016

Nenad Tasić
Affiliation:
Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade University, Čika Ljubina 18–20, Belgrade, Serbia
Miroslav Marić
Affiliation:
The Institute for Balkan Studies, Serbian Academy of Science and Arts, Knez Mihailova 35, Belgrade, Serbia
Dragana Filipović
Affiliation:
The Institute for Balkan Studies, Serbian Academy of Science and Arts, Knez Mihailova 35, Belgrade, Serbia
Kristina Penezić
Affiliation:
Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade University, Čika Ljubina 18–20, Belgrade, Serbia
Elaine Dunbar
Affiliation:
SUERC Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory, Scottish Enterprise Technology Park, Rankine Avenue, East Kilbride G75 0QF, UK
Paula Reimer
Affiliation:
14CHRONO Centre, Queen's University Belfast, 42 Fitzwilliam Street, Belfast BT9 6AX, UK
Alistair Barclay
Affiliation:
Wessex Archaeology, Portway House, Old Sarum Park, Salisbury SP4 6EB, UK
Alex Bayliss
Affiliation:
Historic England, 1 Waterhouse Square, 138–42 Holborn, London EC1N 2ST, UK
Bisserka Gaydarska
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Conservation, Cardiff University, John Percival Building. Colum Drive, Cardiff CF10 3EU, UK
Alasdair Whittle*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Conservation, Cardiff University, John Percival Building. Colum Drive, Cardiff CF10 3EU, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Email: whittle@cardiff.ac.uk.

Abstract

A formally modeled radiocarbon chronology for a new profile through the great Neolithic tell of Vinča-Belo Brdo, Serbia, is the third interwoven strand in refining the chronology of the tell. This now joins models for the whole sequence based on the archive of early excavations, and for the last two known horizons at the top of the settlement mound, investigated in recent decades. In the new deep sounding, Vinča culture occupation from the 52nd century cal BC is slightly later than in the main sequence, probably reflecting the horizontal extension of the tell as it began to grow. The last dated occupation falls in the late 47th–early 46th century cal BC, slightly earlier than in the main sequence, but the top of the profile is affected by the slippage that caused the new excavations. Formal estimates are given for the succession and varying durations of burnt and unburnt houses, and indicate a period in the first part of the 5th millennium without house burning. Overall, the combined results from the three interwoven strands serve to produce a radically enhanced understanding of the temporality of the tell, which builds on, rather than supplants, previous research. We knew previously that Vinča-Belo Brdo was very long-lived, but now we can time that history with much greater precision. We can assert with much greater confidence that its vertical buildup was steady and largely uninterrupted. We have begun, from the work on the top of the tell and in the new deep sounding, to grasp better the fluctuations in house durations from generation to generation, and can now contrast the relative fortunes of unburnt and burnt houses. We can say much more about the timing and tempo of the ending of the tell, and about the possible circumstances in which that took place.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2016 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anthony, DW, Chi, JY. 2010. The Lost World of Old Europe: The Danube Valley, 5000–3500 BC. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ashmore, P. 1999. Radiocarbon dating: avoiding errors by avoiding mixed samples. Antiquity 73(279):124130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bayliss, A, Farid, S, Higham, T. 2014. Time will tell: practising Bayesian chronological modeling on the East Mound. In: Hodder I, editor. Çatalhöyük Excavations: The 2000–2008 Seasons. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. p 5390.Google Scholar
Bayliss, A, Brock, F, Farid, S, Hodder, I, Southon, J, Taylor, RE. 2015. Getting to the bottom of it all: a Bayesian approach to dating the start of Çatalhöyük. Journal of World Prehistory 28:126.Google Scholar
Borić, D. 2009. Absolute dating of metallurgical innovations in the Vinča culture of the Balkans. In: Kienlin TK, Roberts BW, editors. Metals and Societies: Studies in Honour of Barbara S. Ottaway. Bonn: Habelt. p 191245.Google Scholar
Borić, D. 2015. The end of the Vinča world: modelling the Late Neolithic to Copper Age transition and the notion of archaeological culture. In: Hansen S, Raczky P, Anders A, Reingruber A, editors. Neolithic and Copper Age between the Carpathians and the Aegean Sea: Chronologies and Technologies from the 6th to the 4th Millennium BCE. Bonn: Habelt. p 157217.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 1995. Radiocarbon calibration and analysis of stratigraphy: the OxCal program. Radiocarbon 37(2):425430.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2008. Deposition models for chronological records. Quaternary Science Reviews 27:4260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009a. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51(1):337360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009b. Dealing with outliers and offsets in radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon 51(3):10231045.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C, Lee, S. 2013. Recent and planned developments of the program OxCal. Radiocarbon 55(2):720730.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buck, CE, Cavanagh, WG, Litton, CD. 1996. Bayesian Approach to Interpreting Archaeological Data. Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Chapman, J. 1981. The Vinča Culture of South-East Europe: Studies in Chronology, Economy and Society, British Archaeological Reports 117. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Chapman, J. 1997. The origins of tells in eastern Hungary. In: Topping P, editor. Neolithic Landscapes. Oxford: Oxbow Books. p 139164.Google Scholar
Chapman, J. 2000. Fragmentation in Archaeology: People, Places and Broken Objects in the Prehistory of South-Eastern Europe. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Childe, VG. 1929. The Danube in Prehistory. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Dean, JS. 1978. Independent dating in archaeological analysis. In: Schiffer MB, editor. Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory. New York: Academic Press. p 223255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Draşovean, F, Schier, W, Bayliss, A, Gaydarska, B, Whittle, A. Forthcoming. The temporality of the house: Neolithic contexts and histories. Current Anthropology.Google Scholar
Dunbar, E, Cook, GT, Naysmith, P, Tripney, BG, Xu, S. 2016. AMS 14C dating at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC) radiocarbon dating laboratory. Radiocarbon 58(1):923.Google Scholar
Hervella, M, Rotea, M, Izagirre, N, Constaninescu, M, Alonso, S, Ioana, M, Lazăr, C, Ridiche, F, Soficaru, AD, Netea, MG, De-La-Rua, C. 2015. Ancient DNA from South-East Europe reveals different events during Early and Middle Neolithic influencing the European genetic heritage. PLoS ONE 10(6):e0128810.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hofmann, R. 2013. Okolište 2 — Spätneolithische Keramik und Siedlungsentwicklung in Zentralbosnien. Bonn: Habelt.Google Scholar
Kaiser, T, Voytek, B. 1983. Sedentism and economic change in the Balkan Neolithic. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 2(4):323353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lazarovici, G. 1979. Neoliticul Banatului. Cluj-Napoca: Bibliotheca Musei Napocensis.Google Scholar
Marciniak, A, Barański, MZ, Bayliss, A, Czerniak, L, Goslar, T, Southon, J, Taylor, RE. 2015. Fragmenting times: interpreting a Bayesian chronology for the late Neolithic occupation of Çatalhöyük East, Turkey. Antiquity 89(343):154176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olsen, J, Heinemeier, J, Hornstrup, K, Bennike, P, Thrane, H. 2013. ‘Old wood’ effect in radiocarbon dating of prehistoric cremated bone. Journal of Archaeological Science 40(1):3034.Google Scholar
Orton, D. 2010. Both subject and object: herding, inalienability and sentient property in prehistory. World Archaeology 42(2):188200.Google Scholar
Plug, H, van der Plicht, J, Akkermans, PMMG. 2014. Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria: dating of Neolithic cemeteries. Radiocarbon 56(2):543554.Google Scholar
Raczky, P, Anders, A, Sebők, K, Csippán, P, Tóth, Z. 2015. The times of Polgár-Csőszhalom. Chronologies of human activities in a Late Neolithic settlement in northeastern Hungary. In: Hansen S, Raczky P, Anders A, Reingruber A, editors. Neolithic and Copper Age between the Carpathians and the Aegean Sea: Chronologies and Technologies from the 6th to the 4th millennium BCE. Bonn: Habelt. p 2148.Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Blackwell, P, Bronk Ramsey, C, Buck, CE, Cheng, H, Edwards, RL, Friedrich, M, Grootes, PM, Guilderson, TP, Haflidason, H, Hajdas, I, Hatté, C, Heaton, TJ, Hoffmann, DL, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kaiser, KF, Kromer, B, Manning, SW, Niu, M, Reimer, RW, Richards, DA, Scott, EM, Southon, JR, Staff, RA, Turney, CSM, van der Plicht, J. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55(4):18691887.Google Scholar
Reimer, P, Hoper, S, MacDonald, J, Reimer, R, Thompson, M. 2015. Laboratory Protocols used for AMS Radiocarbon Dating at the 14 CHRONO Centre, The Queen’s University Belfast. Swindon: English Heritage Research Report Series 5.Google Scholar
Reingruber, A. 2015. Absolute and relative chronologies in the lower Danube area during the 5th millennium BC. In: Hansen S, Raczky P, Anders A, Reingruber A, editors. Neolithic and Copper Age between the Carpathians and the Aegean Sea: Chronologies and Technologies from the 6th to the 4th Millennium BCE. Bonn: Habelt. p 301324.Google Scholar
Rosenstock, E. 2009. Tells in Südwestasien und Südosteuropa: Entstehung, Verbreitung und Definition eines Siedlungsphänomens . Grunbach: Greiner.Google Scholar
Schier, W. 1996. The relative and absolute chronology of Vinča: new evidence from the type site. In: Draşovean F, editor. The Vinča Culture, Its Role and Cultural Connections . Timişoara: The Museum of Banat. p 141162.Google Scholar
Schier, W. 2000. Measuring change: the Neolithic pottery sequence of Vinča-Belo Brdo. Documenta Praehistorica 27:187197.Google Scholar
Schier, W, Draşovean, F, Bayliss, A, Gaydarska, B, Whittle, A. Forthcoming. Scientific dating and chronological modelling. In: Draşovean F, Schier W, editors. Uivar „Gomila“ — A Prehistoric Tell settlement in Romanian Banat. Volume I: Site, Architecture, Stratigraphy and Dating .Google Scholar
Slota, PJ Jr, Jull, AJT, Linick, TW, Toolin, LJ. 1987. Preparation of small samples for 14C accelerator targets by catalytic reduction of CO. Radiocarbon 29(2):303306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snoeck, C, Brock, F, Schulting, RJ. 2014. Carbon exchanges between bone apatite and fuels during cremation: impact on radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 56(2):591602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stalio, B. 1968. Naselje i stan neolitskog perioda (Settlements and dwellings of the Neolithic period). In: Trifunović L, editor. Neolit centralnog Balkana. Beograd: Narodni Muzej. p 77106.Google Scholar
Stalio, B. 1984. Naselje i stan (Settlement and dwellings). In: Srejović D, Stojanović B, Tasić N, Krstić D, editors. Vinča u praistoriji i srednjem veku. Beograd: Srpska Akademija Nauka i Umetnosti. p 3441.Google Scholar
Stevanović, M. 2002. Burned houses in the Neolithic of southeast Europe. In: Gheorghiu D, editor. Fire in Archaeology. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports 1089. p 5562.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Polach, HA. 1977. Discussion: reporting of 14C data. Radiocarbon 19(3):355363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M, Reimer, P. 1993. Extended 14C data base and revised CALIB 3.0 14C age calibration program. Radiocarbon 35(1):215230.Google Scholar
Tasić, NN. 2005. Vinča—the third glance (excavations 1998–2002). In: Nikolova L, Fritz J, Higgins J, editors. Prehistoric Archaeology and Anthropological Theory and Education. Salt Lake City and Karlovo: International Institute of Anthropology. p 18.Google Scholar
Tasić, NN. 2009. Neolitska kvadratura kruga (Squaring the Circle—Neolithic Way). Beograd: Zavod za udzbenike.Google Scholar
Tasić, NN, Ignjatović, M. 2008. Od tradicionalne do moderne metodologije. Istraživanja u Vinči 1978–2008. In: Nikolić E, editor. Vinča — praistorijska metropola, istraživanja 1908–2008. Beograd: Vizartis. p 87119.Google Scholar
Tasić, N, Marić, M, Penezić, K, Filipović, D, Borojević, K, Borić, D, Reimer, P, Russell, N, Bayliss, A, Barclay, A, Gaydarska, B, Whittle, A. 2015. The end of the affair: formal chronological modelling for the top of the Neolithic tell of Vinča-Belo Brdo. Antiquity 89(347):10641082.Google Scholar
Tasić, N, Marić, M, Bronk Ramsey, C, Kromer, B, Barclay, A, Bayliss, A, Beavan, N, Gaydarska, B, Whittle, A. 2016. Vinča-Belo Brdo, Serbia: the times of a tell. Germania. In press.Google Scholar
Tringham, R. 1991. Households with faces: the challenge of gender in prehistoric architectural remains. In: Gero J, Conkey M, editors. Engendering Archaeology: Women and Prehistory. Oxford: Blackwell. p 93131.Google Scholar
Tringham, R. 2005. Weaving house life and death into places: a blueprint for a hypermedia narrative. In: Bailey D, Whittle A, Cummings V, editors. (Un)settling the Neolithic. Oxford: Oxbow Books. p 98111.Google Scholar
Tringham, R, Krstić, D. 1990. Selevac in the wider context of European prehistory. In: Tringham R, Krstić D, editors. Selevac: A Neolithic Village in Yugoslavia . Los Angeles: Institute of Archaeology, UCLA. p 567616.Google Scholar
Tripković, B, Milić, M. 2009. The origin and exchange of obsidian from Vinča-Belo Brdo. Starinar 58:7186.Google Scholar
van der Plicht, J, Akkermans, PMMG, Nieuwenhuyse, O, Kaneda, A, Russell, A. 2011. Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria: radiocarbon chronology, cultural change, and the 8.2ka event. Radiocarbon 53(2):229243.Google Scholar
Vasić, M. 1932. Preistoriska Vinča 1. Beograd: Državna štamparija Kraljevine Jugoslavije.Google Scholar
Vasić, M. 1936a. Preistoriska Vinča 2. Beograd: Državna štamparija Kraljevine Jugoslavije.Google Scholar
Vasić, M. 1936b. Preistoriska Vinča 3. Beograd: Državna štamparija Kraljevine Jugoslavije.Google Scholar
Vasić, M. 1936c. Preistoriska Vinča 4. Beograd: Državna štamparija Kraljevine Jugoslavije.Google Scholar
Vogel, JS, Southon, JR, Nelson, DE, Brown, TA. 1984. Performance of catalytically condensed carbon for use in accelerator mass spectrometry. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 5(2):289293.Google Scholar
Ward, GK, Wilson, SR. 1978. Procedures for comparing and combining radiocarbon age determinations: a critique. Archaeometry 20(1):1931.Google Scholar
Whittle, A. 1996. Europe in the Neolithic: The Creation of New Worlds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wylie, A. 2002. Thinking from Things: Essays in the Philosophy of Archaeology. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar