Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T06:51:51.721Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The end of the affair: formal chronological modelling for the top of the Neolithic tell of Vinča-Belo Brdo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 October 2015

Nenad Tasić ,
Miroslav Marić ,
Kristina Penezić ,
Dragana Filipović ,
Ksenija Borojević ,
Nicola Russell ,
Paula Reimer ,
Alistair Barclay ,
Alex Bayliss  and
Dušan Borić
...Show all authors
Nenad Tasić
Affiliation:
Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade University, Čika Ljubina 18–20, Belgrade
Miroslav Marić
Affiliation:
The Institute for Balkan Studies, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Knez Mihailova 35, Belgrade
Kristina Penezić
Affiliation:
Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade University, Čika Ljubina 18–20, Belgrade
Dragana Filipović
Affiliation:
The Institute for Balkan Studies, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Knez Mihailova 35, Belgrade
Ksenija Borojević
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Fiske Center for Archaeological Research, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston MA 02125, USA
Nicola Russell
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, Northern Ireland
Alistair Barclay
Affiliation:
Wessex Archaeology, Portway House, Old Sarum Park, Salisbury SP4 6EB, UK
Alex Bayliss
Affiliation:
Historic England, 1 Waterhouse Square, 138–142 Holborn, London EC1N 2ST, UK
Dušan Borić
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Conservation, Cardiff University, John Percival Building, Colum Drive, Cardiff CF10 3EU, UK (Email: whittle@cardiff.ac.uk)
Bisserka Gaydarska
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Conservation, Cardiff University, John Percival Building, Colum Drive, Cardiff CF10 3EU, UK (Email: whittle@cardiff.ac.uk)
Alasdair Whittle
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Conservation, Cardiff University, John Percival Building, Colum Drive, Cardiff CF10 3EU, UK (Email: whittle@cardiff.ac.uk)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Bayesian statistical frameworks have been used to calculate explicit, quantified estimates for site chronologies, and have been especially useful for resolving the complex probability distributions of calibrated radiocarbon dates to the level of individual prehistoric lifetimes and generations. Here the technique is applied to the Neolithic tell of Vinča-Belo Brdo in order to answer long-standing questions about the timing and circumstances of its demise. Modelled date estimates place the end of the site in the second half of the forty-sixth century cal BC. Two successive horizons of closely spaced houses each suffered extensive burning; the interval between them was placed at a maximum of 25 years, with the last house probably used for less than 15 years. The evidence suggests that these house burnings were deliberate, and opens new considerations for the causes of the end of the tell-based system in south-east Europe.

Keywords

Vinča-Belo BrdoNeolithicradiocarbon datingBayesian modellinghouse burning
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 89 , Issue 347 , October 2015 , pp. 1064 - 1082
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2015 

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

Bailey, D.W. 1990. The living house: signifying continuity, in Samson, R. (ed.) The social archaeology of houses: 19–48. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Bayliss, A., van der Plicht, J., Bronk Ramsey, C., McCormac, G., Healy, F. & Whittle, A.. 2011. Towards generational timescales: a quantitative interpretation of archaeological chronologies, in Whittle, A., Healy, F. & Bayliss, A. (ed.) Gathering time: dating the early Neolithic enclosures of southern Britain and Ireland: 17–59. Oxford: Oxbow.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bayliss, A., Farid, S. & Higham, T.. 2014. Time will tell: practising Bayesian chronological modelling on the East Mound, in Hodder, I. (ed.) Çatalhöyük excavations: the 2000–2008 seasons: 53–90. Los Angeles (CA): Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.Google Scholar
Borić, D. 2008. First households and ‘house societies’ in European prehistory, in Jones, A. (ed.) Prehistoric Europe: theory and practice: 109–42. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Borić, D. 2009. Absolute dating of metallurgical innovations in the Vinča culture of the Balkans, in Kienlin, T.L. & Roberts, B.W. (ed.) Metals and societies: studies in honour of Barbara S. Ottaway: 191–245. Bonn: Habelt.Google Scholar
Borić, D. In press. The end of the Vinča world: modelling Late Neolithic to Copper Age culture change and the notion of archaeological culture, in Hansen, S., Raczky, P., Anders, A. & Reingruber, A. (ed.) Neolithic and Copper Age between the Carpathians and the Aegean Sea: chronologies and technologies from the 6th to 4th millennia BCE: 157–217. Bonn: Marie Leidorf.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51: 37–60.Google Scholar
Chapman, J. 1981. The Vinča culture of south-east Europe: studies in chronology, economy and society (British Archaeological Reports international series 117). Oxford: Hedges.Google Scholar
Chapman, J. 1999. Burning the ancestors: deliberate housefiring in Balkan prehistory, in Gustafsson, A. & Karlsson, H. (ed.) Glyfer och arkeologiska rum—en vanbok till Jarl Nordbladh: 113–26. Gothenburg: Institute of Archaeology.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, V.G. 1929. The Danube in prehistory. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Crnobrnja, A., Simić, A. & Janković, M.. 2010. Late Vinča culture settlement at Crkvine in Stubline. Starinar 59: 9–25.Google Scholar
Garašanin, M. 1951. Hronologija vinčanske grupe. Ljubljana: Arheološki Seminar, Univerza v Ljubljani.Google Scholar
Garašanin, M. 1979. Centralno-balkanska zona, in Benac, A. (ed.) Praistrija jugoslavenskih zemalja II, neolitsko doba: 79–212. Sarajevo: Akademija Nauka i Umjetmosti Bosne i Hercegovine.Google Scholar
Higham, T., Chapman, J., Slavchev, V., Gaydarska, B., Honch, N., Yordanov, Y. & Dimitrova, B.. 2007. New perspectives on the Varna cemetery (Bulgaria)—AMS dates and social implications. Antiquity 81: 640–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00095636 Google Scholar
Hofmann, D. & Smyth, J. (ed.). 2012. Tracking the Neolithic house: sedentism, architecture and practice. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Kaiser, T. & Voytek, B.. 1983. Sedentism and economic change in the Balkan Neolithic. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 2: 323–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0278-4165(83)90013-2 Google Scholar
Korošec, J. 1953. Delitev vinčanske kulturne plasti. Arheološki Vestnik 4: 5–46.Google Scholar
Link, T. 2006. Das Ende der neolithischen Tellsiedlungen. Ein kulturgeschichtliches Phänomen des 5. Jahrtausends v. Chr. im Karpatenbecken. Bonn: Habelt.Google Scholar
Marjanović-Vujović, G. 1984. Starosrpska nekropola, in Ćelić, S. (ed.) Vinča u praistoriji i srednjem veku: 131–36. Beograd: Srpska Akademija Nauka i Umetnosti.Google Scholar
Milojčić, V. 1949. Chronologie der jüngeren Steinzeit Mittel- und Südosteuropas. Berlin: Archäologisches Institut.Google Scholar
Orton, D. 2010. Both subject and object: herding, inalienability and sentient property in prehistory. World Archaeology 42: 188–200. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00438241003672773 Google Scholar
Orton, D. 2012. Herding, settlement, and chronology in the Balkan Neolithic. European Journal of Archaeology 15: 5–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/1461957112Y.0000000003 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit n.d. Available at: http://c14.arch.ox.ac.uk (accessed 23 June 2015).Google Scholar
Parzinger, H. 1993. Studien zur Chronologie und Kulturgeschichte der Jungstein-, Kupfer- und Frühbronzezeit zwischen Karpaten und Taurus. Mainz: von Zabern.Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Buck, C.E., Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L., Friedrich, M., Grootes, P.M., Guilderson, T.P., Haflidason, H., Hajdas, I., Hatté, C., Heaton, T.J., Hoffmann, D.L., Hogg, A.G., Hughen, K.A., Kaiser, K.F., Kromer, B., Manning, S.W., Niu, M., Reimer, R.W., Richards, D.A., Scott, E.M., Southon, J.R., Staff, R.A., Turney, C.S.M. & van der Plicht, J.. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55: 1869–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.2458/azu_js_rc.55.16947 Google Scholar
Schier, W. 1996. The relative and absolute chronology of Vinča: new evidence from the type site, in Draşovean, F. (ed.) The Vinča culture, its role and cultural connections: 141–62. Timişoara: The Museum of Banat.Google Scholar
Schulting, R. & Fibiger, L.. 2014. Violence in Neolithic north-west Europe: a population perspective, in Whittle, A. & Bickle, P. (ed.) Early farmers: the view from archaeology and science (Proceedings of the British Academy 198): 281–306. Oxford: Oxford University Press for the British Academy.Google Scholar
Stalio, B. 1984. Naselje vinčanske culture—naselje i stan, in Ćelić, S. (ed.) Vinča u praistoriji i srednjem veku: 34–41. Beograd: Srpska Akademija Nauka i Umetnosti.Google Scholar
Stevanović, M. 2002. Burned houses in the Neolithic of southeast Europe, in Gheorghiu, D. (ed.) Fire in archaeology: papers from a session held at the European Association of Archaeologists sixth Annual Meeting in Lisbon, 2000 (British Archaeological Reports international series 1089): 55–62. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Stevanović, M. & Jovanović, B.. 1996. Revisiting Vinča-Belo Brdo. Starinar 47: 193–204.Google Scholar
Tasić, N. 1984. Naselja i grobovi iz bakarnog doba, in Ćelić, S. (ed.) Vinča u praistoriji i srednjem veku: 69–75. Beograd: Srpska Akademija Nauka i Umetnosti.Google Scholar
Tasić, N. 2005. Vinča—the third glance (excavations 1998–2002), in Nikolova, L., Fritz, J. & Higgins, J. (ed.) Prehistoric archaeology and anthropological theory and education: 1–8. Salt Lake City (UT) and Karlovo: International Institute of Anthropology.Google Scholar
Tasić, N., Srejović, D. & Stojanović, B.. 1990. Vinča—centre of the Neolithic culture of the Danubian region. Belgrade: Centre for Archaeological Research, Faculty of Philosophy.Google Scholar
Tasić, N. 2007. Ritual pottery set from Vinča. Glasnik Srpskog Arheološkog Društva 23: 203–10.Google Scholar
Tasić, N.N. & Ignjatović, M.. 2008. Od tradicionalne do moderne metodologije. Istraživanja u Vinči 1978–2008, in Nikolić, D. (ed.) Vinča—praistorijska metropola, istraživanja 1908–2008: 87–119. Beograd: Vizartis.Google Scholar
Tasić, N.N., Vukadinović, M. & Kapuran, A.. 2006. Komparativna arheološka i geofizička ispitivanja na lokalitetu Vinča-Belo Brdo, metodom geoelektričnog skeniranja. Arheologija i prirodne nauke 3: 7–18.Google Scholar
Tringham, R. 1991. Households with faces: the challenge of gender in prehistoric architectural remains, in Gero, J. & Conkey, M. (ed.) Engendering archaeology: women and prehistory: 93–131. Oxford: Blackwell.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. (ed.) (un)Settling the Neolithic: 98–111. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Tringham, R. & Krstić, D.. 1990. Selevac and the transformation of southeast European prehistory, in Tringham, R. & Krstić, D. (ed.) Selevac: a Neolithic village in Yugoslavia: 567–616. Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Tringham, R., Brukner, B. & Voytek, B.. 1985. The Opovo Project: a study of socioeconomic change in the Balkan Neolithic. Journal of Field Archaeology 12: 425–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/009346985791169832 Google Scholar
Vasić, M. 1936. Preistoriska Vinča III: Plastika. Beograd: Državna Štamparija Kraljevine Jugoslavije.Google Scholar
Ward, G.K. & Wilson, S.R.. 1978. Procedures for comparing and combining radiocarbon age determinations: a critique. Archaeometry 20: 19–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4754.1978. tb00208.x Google Scholar
Supplementary material: Image

Tasić supplementary material

Figure S1

Download Tasić supplementary material(Image)
Image 992.7 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

Tasić supplementary material

Tasić supplementary material 1

Download Tasić supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 91.9 KB