Vinča culture
Characteristics | Large tell settlements Anthropomorphic figurines Vinča symbols |
---|---|
Preceded by | Starčevo culture |
Followed by | Tiszapolgár culture |
The Neolithic |
---|
↑ Mesolithic |
↓ Chalcolithic |
The Vinča culture (ʋîːntʃa), also known as Turdaș culture, Turdaș–Vinča culture or Vinča-Turdaș culture, is a Neolithic archaeological culture of Southeast Europe, dated to the period 5400–4500 BC.[1][2][3] Named for its type site, Vinča-Belo Brdo, a large tell settlement discovered by Serbian archaeologist Miloje Vasić in 1908, it represents the material remains of a prehistoric society mainly distinguished by its settlement pattern and ritual behaviour.
Farming technology first introduced to the region during the First Temperate Neolithic was developed further by the Vinča culture. It was noted for dark-burnished pottery, and fuelling a population boom and producing some of the largest settlements in prehistoric Europe. These settlements maintained a high degree of cultural uniformity through the long-distance exchange of ritual items, but were probably not politically unified. Various styles of zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figurines are hallmarks of the culture, as are the Vinča symbols, which some conjecture to be the earliest form of proto-writing. Although not conventionally considered part of the Chalcolithic or "Copper Age", the Vinča culture provides the earliest known example of copper smelting in the Old World.[4]
Geography and demographics
The Vinča culture occupied a region of
This region had already been settled by farming societies of the
Early Vinča settlement population density was 50–200 people per hectare, in later phases an average of 50–100 people per hectare was common.
Origin
The origins of the Vinča culture are still debated and there exist two mainstream theories,[18][19][20] as stated by Marko Porčić (2016), "currently there is no sufficient evidence to accept or to reject out any of the hypotheses proposed for the issue of Vinča culture origins".[21] It is also debatable whether it can be conceptually considered as a "culture" or a "phenomenon".[6][20]
The first hypothesis is that the Vinča culture developed locally from the preceding Neolithic Starčevo culture—first proposed by Colin Renfrew (1969) and Ruth Tringham (1971)—and it became accepted by many scholars,[19] showing "strong links with the contemporaneous Karanovo (phases III to Kodžadermen-Gumelnita-Karanovo VI) in Bulgaria, Precucuteni-Tripolye A in Moldavia and Ukraine, Dimini in Greece, and the late manifestations of the Starčevo culture and early Sopot culture in eastern Croatia".[19][20] However, the evidence is not conclusive,[20][22][23] and according to recent research "the earliest Vinča sites in the south seem to be as early as those in the north" and have lack of local continuity.[19][20]
According to the second hypothesis—first proposed by V. Gordon Childe (1929) and Milutin Garašanin (1982)—on the basis of typological similarities, paleodemography and archaeogenetics, the Vinča culture and those of 'Dark Burnished Ware' developed by a second wave population movement from Anatolia to the Balkans after happened demographic-cultural decline and discontinuity between Early-Late Neolithic in the Central Balkans.[20][19] Recent studies suggest possibility of both local and migration origin, also related to the emergence of Dudești and Boian culture in Romania, or a combination of both origins.[20][24][25][26]
Archaeogenetics
The 2017 and 2018
A 2021 study found that Neolithic farmers, including those of the Vinča culture, produced much less cytokine levels for inflammation than earlier hunter-gatherers, which evolutionary introduction to the European genomic heritage helps the immune system of modern Europeans.[30]
Chronology
There exist several divisions of the culture, according to J. Chapman (1981) it can be divided into two main
In the Vinča C phase happened many significant changes to pottery style, settlement and pyrometallurgical activities and increase in ritual figurines among others because of which it is also called as "Vinča C shock" and "Gradac Phase" (Vinča B2-C1).[36][37] The phenomenon was particularly strong in the South-Moravian and Kosovian variation of the culture.[38]
Vinča culture | Vinča-Belo Brdo | Years BC |
---|---|---|
Early Vinča period | Vinča A | 5400/5300–5200 |
Vinča B | 5200–5000/4950 | |
Vinča C | 5000/4950–4850/4800 | |
Late Vinča period | Vinča D | 4850/4800–4600/4500 |
Decline
In its late Vinča D phase the centre of the Vinča network shifted from Vinča-Belo Brdo to
According to Marija Gimbutas, the Vinča culture was part of Old Europe – a relatively homogeneous, peaceful and matrifocal culture that occupied Europe during the Neolithic. According to this hypothesis its period of decline was followed by an invasion of warlike, horse-riding Proto-Indo-European tribes from the Pontic–Caspian steppe.[40] However, this "New Age sentiment" viewpoint was prevalent until 1990s when started to emerge evidences of violent massacres and defensively-enclosed fortified settlements in Neolithic period.[17]
Economy
Subsistence
Most people in Vinča settlements would have been occupied with the provision of food. They practised a mixed subsistence economy where
Vinča agriculture introduced common wheat, oat and flax to temperate Europe, and made greater use of barley than the cultures of the FTN. These innovations increased crop yields and allowed the manufacture of clothes made from plant textiles as well as animal products (i.e. leather and wool). There is indirect evidence that Vinča farmers made use of the cattle-driven plough, which would have had a major effect on the amount of human labour required for agriculture as well as opening up new area of land for farming. Many of the largest Vinča sites occupy regions dominated by soil types that would have required ploughing.[41]
Areas with less arable potential were exploited through transhumant pastoralism, where groups from the lowland villages moved their livestock to nearby upland areas on a seasonal basis. Cattle were more important than sheep and goats in Vinča herds and, in comparison to the cultures of the FTN, livestock was increasingly kept for milk, leather and as draft animals, rather than solely for meat. Seasonal movement to upland areas was also motivated by the exploitation of stone and mineral resources. Where these were especially rich permanent upland settlements were established, which would have relied more heavily on pastoralism for subsistence.[41]
Although increasingly focused on domesticated plants and animals, the Vinča subsistence economy still made use of wild food resources. The hunting of
Industry
Generally speaking craft production within the Vinča network was carried out at the household level; there is little evidence for individual
The Vinča site of Pločnik has produced the earliest example of copper tools in the world. However, the people of the Vinča network practised only an early and limited form of metallurgy.[44] Copper ores were mined on a large scale at sites like Rudna Glava, but only a fraction were smelted and cast into metal artefacts – and these were ornaments and trinkets rather than functional tools, which continued to be made from chipped stone, bone and antler. It is likely that the primary use of mined ores was in their powdered form, in the production of pottery or as bodily decoration.[43]
Gallery
-
The Tărtăria tablets
-
Vinča figurine, the Goddess on the Throne
-
Double-headed figurine
-
Vinča figurine, British Museum
-
Vinča figurine
-
Vinča pottery
-
Vinča pottery
-
Pottery with sculpted lid (reconstruction)
-
Vinča-Belo Brdo tell site
-
Magura cave drawings
Major Vinča sites
Map of Serbia with markers showing the locations of major Vinča archaeological sites.- Belogradchik
- Crkvine
- Drenovac
- Gomolava
- Gornja Tuzla
- Pločnik
- Rudna Glava
- Selevac
- Tărtăria
- Turdaş
- Vinča-Belo Brdo, the type site
- Vratsa
- Vršac
See also
References
Citations
- ^ a b Suciu 2011
- ^ Perić 2017
- ^ Roberts, Radivojević & Marić 2021
- ISSN 0305-4403.
- ^ Tasić 2015, p. 8.
- ^ a b Porčić 2020, pp. 57–58
- ^ Roberts, Radivojević & Marić 2021, p. 38.
- ^ Chapman 2000, p. 239.
- ^ Porčić 2020, pp. 59, 62
- ^ Rassmann & Furholt 2021, p. 459
- ^ a b Chapman 1981, pp. 40–51.
- ^ Roberts, Radivojević & Marić 2021, p. 44.
- ^ doi:10.4312/dp.38.25.
- .
- ^ Porčić, Marko (2012). "Social complexity and inequality in the Late Neolithic of the Central Balkans – reviewing the evidence" (PDF). Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia. p. 171. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
- ^ Roberts, Radivojević & Marić 2021, p. 46.
- ^ a b Borić & Hanks 2018, pp. 336–337.
- ^ Tasić 2015, pp. 1–2.
- ^ a b c d e Porčić 2020, pp. 59–60
- ^ a b c d e f g Roberts, Radivojević & Marić 2021, pp. 38–39.
- ^ Porčić 2020, pp. 62
- ^ Chapman 1981, pp. 1–5.
- ^ Chapman 1981, pp. 33–39.
- ^ Porčić 2020, pp. 59–60, 62
- PMID 26053041.
- ^ a b c Hofmanová, Zuzana (2017). Palaeogenomic and Biostatistical Analysis of Ancient DNA Data from Mesolithic and Neolithic Skeletal Remains (PDF) (PhD). Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. pp. 46, 51, 128, 130–131, 133.
- PMID 29144465.
- PMID 29466330.
- ^ S2CID 245509501.
- . Retrieved 29 November 2023.
- ^ Chapman 1981, pp. 17–32; calibrated with CalPal.
- ^ Tasić 2015, pp. 17–19.
- ^ Tasić 2015, pp. 19–20, 41, 51, 54–55.
- ^ Borić & Hanks 2018, p. 337.
- ^ Roberts, Radivojević & Marić 2021, p. 42.
- ^ Tasić 2015, pp. 8, 16–17, 55.
- ^ Roberts, Radivojević & Marić 2021, pp. 43–44.
- ^ Roberts, Radivojević & Marić 2021, p. 43.
- ^ Chapman 1981, pp. 132–139.
- ^ Gimbutas 1976.
- ^ a b c d Chapman 1981, pp. 84–116.
- S2CID 254295028. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
- ^ a b Chapman 1981, pp. 117–131.
- ^ Cvekic 2007.
Bibliography
- Borić, Dušan; Hanks, Bryan (2018). "Enclosing the Neolithic World: A Vinča Culture Enclosed and Fortified Settlement in the Balkans". S2CID 150068332.
- Chapman, John (1981). The Vinča culture of south-east Europe: Studies in chronology, economy and society (2 vols). BAR International Series. Vol. 117. Oxford: BAR. ISBN 0-86054-139-8.
- Chapman, John (2000). Fragmentation in Archaeology: People, Places, and Broken Objects. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-15803-9.
- Cvekic, Ljilja (12 November 2007). "Prehistoric women had passion for fashion". Reuters. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
- Gimbutas, Marija A., ed. (1976). Neolithic Macedonia as reflected by excavation at Anza, southeast Yugoslavia. Los Angeles: Institute of Archaeology, University of California.
- Jakucs, János (2016). "Between the Vinča and Linearbandkeramik Worlds: The Diversity of Practices and Identities in the 54th–53rd Centuries cal BC in Southwest Hungary and Beyond". PMID 27746586.
- Lipson, Mark (2017). "Parallel palaeogenomic transects reveal complex genetic history of early European farmers". PMID 29144465.
- Narasimhan, Vagheesh M. (6 September 2019). "The formation of human populations in South and Central Asia". PMID 31488661.
- Perić, Slaviša (June 2017). "Drenovac: a Neolithic settlement in the Middle Morava Valley, Serbia". Antiquity. 91 (357). .
- Porčić, Marko (2020). "Observations on the origin and demography of the Vinča culture". S2CID 218815232.
- Roberts, Benjamin W.; Radivojević, Miljana; Marić, Miroslav (2021). "The Vinča culture: an overview". In Radivojević, Miljana; Roberts, Benjamin (eds.). The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia: Evolution, Organisation and Consumption of Early Metal in the Balkans. Summertown, Oxford: S2CID 245057541.
- Rassmann, K; Furholt, M. (2021). "The social organisation of the Vinča culture settlements. New evidence from magnetic and archaeological excavation data". In Radivojević, Miljana; Roberts, Benjamin (eds.). The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia: Evolution, Organisation and Consumption of Early Metal in the Balkans. Summertown, Oxford: S2CID 245057541.
- Suciu, Cosmin Ioan (2011). "Early Vinča Culture Dynamic in South-Eastern Transylvania". In Mills, Steve; Mirea, Pavel (eds.). The Lower Danube in Prehistory: Landscape Changes and Human-Environment Interactions. Bucharest: Editura Renaissance. pp. 75–86. ISBN 978-606-8321-01-1.
- Tasić, Nenad (2015). "Vinča-Belo Brdo, Serbia: The times of a tell". Germania. Anzeiger der Römisch-Germanischen Kommission des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts. 93 (1–2): 1–76. ISSN 0016-8874.
- Whittle, Alasdair (2016). "A Vinča potscape: formal chronological models for the use and development of Vinča ceramics in south-east Europe". Documenta Praehistorica. XLIII. University of Ljubljana Press: 1–60. hdl:11573/1545305.
Further reading
- Amicone, Silvia (2020). "Beneath the surface: Exploring variability in pottery paste recipes within Vinča culture". S2CID 218993018.
- Botić, Katarina (2020). "Middle Neolithic trasformation: Starčevo–LBK–Vinča meeting point and the emergence of Ražište style in Drava river valley". S2CID 216336481.
- Chapman, John (2020). "The Vinča group - (Almost) 40 years on John Chapman (independent scholar)" (PDF). S2CID 225663493.
- Diaconescu, Dragoș (2020). "The early Vinča culture in Transylvania: Considerations regarding its chronological position using correspondence analysis". S2CID 225654476.
- Hofmann, Robert (2020). "Orientation of Neolithic dwellings in Central and Southeast Europe: Common denominator between the Vinča and Linearbandkeramik worlds". S2CID 219487233.
- Jakucs, János; Vanda, Voicsek (2015). "The northermost distribution of the early Vinča Culture in the Danube valley: a preliminary study from Szederkény-Kukorica-dűlő (Baranya County, southern Hungary)". Antaeus. 33. Communicationes ex Instituto Archaeologico Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae: 13–54.
- Jakucs, János (2020). "LBK and Vinča in South-East Transdanubia: Comments on merging, interleaving and diversity" (PDF). S2CID 216362702.
- ISBN 9781108422925.
- Tasić, Nikola; Srejović, Dragoslav; Stojanović, Bratislav (1990). Винча: Центар неолитске културе у Подунављу [Vinča: Centre of the Neolithic culture of the Danubian region]. Belgrade: Центар за археолошка истраживања Филозофског факултета.
- Vasić, Miloje (1932). Preistorijska Vinča I [Prehistoric Vinča I]. Beograd.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Vasić, Miloje (1936). Preistorijska Vinča II [Prehistoric Vinča II]. Beograd.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Vasić, Miloje (1936). Preistorijska Vinča III [Prehistoric Vinča III]. Beograd.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Vasić, Miloje (1936). Preistorijska Vinča IV [Prehistoric Vinča IV]. Beograd.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Weninger, Bernhard (2020). "Barcode seriation and concepts of Gauge Theory. The 14C-Chronology of Starčevo, LBK, and early Vinča". S2CID 219057197.
- Подунавље између 6000 и 3000 г. пре нове ере [The Danubian Region from 6000 to 3000 B. C.] Винча и њен свет [Vinča and its world] (in Serbian). Belgrade: SANU. 1990.
External links
- The Lost World of Old Europe: The Danube Valley 5000-3500 BC, Exhibition Video (2010)
- narodnimuzej.rs - Vinca culture artefacts