Late Neolithic Vinca communities, spread over much of central and northern Balkans during the late sixth to mid-fifth millennium BC and characterised by unusually large and densely population ...centres, would have required highly organised food production systems. Zooarchaeological analysis indicates that domesticate livestock were herded, but little is known about the seasonal husbandry practices that helped ensure a steady supply of animal products to Vinca farming communities. Here, we present new stable carbon (delta.sup.13 C) and oxygen (delta.sup.18 O) isotopic measurements of incremental bioapatite samples from the teeth of domesticated livestock and wild herbivore teeth from two late Neolithic Vinca culture sites: Vinca-Belo brdo and Stubline (Serbia). Our results show a low variation overall within sheep and goats in terms of pasture type that may have been composed of seasonal halophyte plant communities, which have higher delta.sup.13 C values due to the saline rich growing environments. Cattle feeding strategies were more variable and provided with supplementary forage, such as cut branches or leafy hay, during winter. The sharp distinction in the management of cattle and sheep/goat may be associated with the development of herding strategies that sought to balance livestock feeding behaviours with available forage or, more provocatively, the emergence of household-based control over cattle-an animal that held a central economic and symbolic role in Vinca societies.
Geoarcheology is a term used to describe the work of experts who deal with the archeological record and combine the expertise of their different disciplines, mainly archeology and geology. Because ...such scientists have different educational backgrounds and use different research methods it was expected that they might value archeological sites (or geoarchaeological geosites) somewhat differently. The principal aim of this study is to show the results of the application of a GAM’s (Geosite Assessment Model) main values, rank indicators and sub-indicators according to the experts’ preferences and attitudes, as it was presumed that they are not of the same importance. For this purpose, the authors used a AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process), widely used in decision-making analysis, to define the criteria weights and rank the indicators. Two main groups of expert respondents, geoscientists and archeologists, were surveyed and gave their criteria weights. The results obtained by application of the AHP showed that there is a difference in indicator weights. While both groups gave their highest value to the scientific/educational indictor, the geoscientists gave their higher rank to the scenic/aesthetic rather than to the protection indicator, the archeologists ranked them opposite, and gave their higher rank to the protection indicator and lowest rank to the scenic/aesthetic indicator. This paper further provides information on group decision or consensus on weights and shows the final rankings for both groups, which are further examined and discussed.
The site of Vinča is often regarded as a yardstick for the entire Late Neolithic period of southeast Europe. Neolithic farmers, cattle-breeders, fishers, hunters, craftsmen, tradesmen and artists ...lived here for more than a millennium between 5600 and 4500 B.C. The site contains more than 9 m of cultural deposits, and its exceptional position at the crossroads of natural routes, at the bank of the River Danube, between the vast Pannonian plain and hilly inland made it ideal for scientific research. The site of Vinča-Belo Brdo became known among archaeologists and general public soon after its discovery in 1908. Since then, there three generations of archaeologists have been excavating here. Miloje M. Vasić will be remembered as the first one to bring to light artefacts and dwelling objects of what later became known as the Vinča culture. He had excavated the entire cultural deposit in ten campaigns between 1908 and 1934 at the central part of the site and discovered at least ten dwelling horizons, all yielding rich and abundant archaeological material. The excavations of 1978–1987, led by N. Tasić, D. Srejović and G. Marjanović-Vujović, have ascertained the existence of post Neolithic dwelling horizons dated in the Copper Age, late Bronze Age and Medieval periods. Archaeological material from the site that has been excavated in the course of 105 years has been thoroughly studied, analysed, and published. It seems that it has given all the answers regarding internal division, style and function of pottery, procurement of raw materials, and relationship with other contemporaneous populations, but there are questions which cannot be answered by traditional archaeological means. The ongoing research at Belo Brdo in Vinča which started in 1998 and directed by the author of this text focuses not only on archaeological research but also on attracting and involving experts from different scientific disciplines. Archaeo-botany, archaeo-zoology, geology, geophysics, chemistry, IT, soil sciences, and geography will be used in our attempt to reconstruct some aspects of the palaeoenvironment of the site of Vinča. These new results of applied sciences, combined with archaeological knowledge, will help us answer much more complex questions concerning the relationship of human populations and their environment; explain some of the choices these people made; and perhaps give us an answer as to why they had left the site by the end of the Neolithic.
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.
Archaeological evidence indicates that pig domestication had begun by ∼10,500 y before the present (BP) in the Near East, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) suggests that pigs arrived in Europe alongside ...farmers ∼8,500 y BP. A few thousand years after the introduction of Near Eastern pigs into Europe, however, their characteristic mtDNA signature disappeared and was replaced by haplotypes associated with European wild boars. This turnover could be accounted for by substantial gene flow from local European wild boars, although it is also possible that European wild boars were domesticated independently without any genetic contribution from the Near East. To test these hypotheses, we obtained mtDNA sequences from 2,099 modern and ancient pig samples and 63 nuclear ancient genomes from Near Eastern and European pigs. Our analyses revealed that European domestic pigs dating from 7,100 to 6,000 y BP possessed both Near Eastern and European nuclear ancestry, while later pigs possessed no more than 4% Near Eastern ancestry, indicating that gene flow from European wild boars resulted in a near-complete disappearance of Near East ancestry. In addition, we demonstrate that a variant at a locus encoding black coat color likely originated in the Near East and persisted in European pigs. Altogether, our results indicate that while pigs were not independently domesticated in Europe, the vast majority of human-mediated selection over the past 5,000 y focused on the genomic fraction derived from the European wild boars, and not on the fraction that was selected by early Neolithic farmers over the first 2,500 y of the domestication process.
In European and many African, Middle Eastern and southern Asian populations, lactase persistence (LP) is the most strongly selected monogenic trait to have evolved over the past 10,000 years
. ...Although the selection of LP and the consumption of prehistoric milk must be linked, considerable uncertainty remains concerning their spatiotemporal configuration and specific interactions
. Here we provide detailed distributions of milk exploitation across Europe over the past 9,000 years using around 7,000 pottery fat residues from more than 550 archaeological sites. European milk use was widespread from the Neolithic period onwards but varied spatially and temporally in intensity. Notably, LP selection varying with levels of prehistoric milk exploitation is no better at explaining LP allele frequency trajectories than uniform selection since the Neolithic period. In the UK Biobank
cohort of 500,000 contemporary Europeans, LP genotype was only weakly associated with milk consumption and did not show consistent associations with improved fitness or health indicators. This suggests that other reasons for the beneficial effects of LP should be considered for its rapid frequency increase. We propose that lactase non-persistent individuals consumed milk when it became available but, under conditions of famine and/or increased pathogen exposure, this was disadvantageous, driving LP selection in prehistoric Europe. Comparison of model likelihoods indicates that population fluctuations, settlement density and wild animal exploitation-proxies for these drivers-provide better explanations of LP selection than the extent of milk exploitation. These findings offer new perspectives on prehistoric milk exploitation and LP evolution.
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