It is well known that many Mesolithic and Early Neolithic sites were uncovered during the past century in the Iron Gates region of the North-Central Balkans. The application of diverse analyses on ...the bioarchaeological remains and artefacts raised many questions, but also offered new ideas about the Mesolithic–Neolithic transitional period in the Middle and Lower course of the Danube. Communities in the Iron Gates consumed fish and exploited the riverbank in prehistory. The stable isotope analyses are implying that these human groups fed on aquatic resources in some periods more than others. Fish remains were also found in settlements, and based on fish-related imagery on sculpted boulders and other artefacts, the bond between the people, river, and the ecosystem was compelling. The idea of this article is to present the possible ways of fish processing at Lepenski Vir using chipped stone tools. Three integrated methodologies, with high levels of interpretation, were applied: use-wear, residue, and archaeozoological analyses. Use-wear and residue analyses were performed on both archaeological and experimental chipped stone tools. The results are considered together with the traces of butchery observed on archaeological samples of fish bones, creating a more coherent picture of the everyday habits of the Iron Gates populations.
Objectives
Humanly induced modifications on human and non‐human bones from four archaeological sites of known funerary rituals (one interpreted as cannibalism and three interpreted as funerary ...defleshing and disarticulation after a period of decay) were analyzed to ascertain whether macromorphological and micromorphological characteristics of cut marks can be used to distinguish cannibalistic from secondary burial practices.
Material and methods
Four collections were analyzed: the Magdalenian assemblage from Gough's Cave (UK) and the Mesolithic‐Neolithic bone samples from Lepenski Vir, Padina and Vlasac (Serbia). A total of 647 cut marks (345 on human and 302 on non‐human remains) were imaged and measured using an optical surface measurement system, the Alicona InfiniteFocus, housed at the Natural History Museum (London, UK).
Results
The frequency of cut marks at Gough's Cave exceeds 65%, while it is below 1% in the Serbian sites, and no human tooth marks and only one case of percussion damage have been observed on the three Serbian collections. The distribution of cut marks on human bones is comparable in the four assemblages. Cannibalized human remains, however, present a uniform cut mark distribution, which can be associated with disarticulation of persistent and labile articulations, and the scalping and filleting of muscles. For secondary burials where modification occurred after a period of decay, disarticulation marks are less common and the disarticulation of labile joints is rare. The micromorphometric analyses of cut marks on human and non‐human remains suggest that cut marks produced when cleaning partially decayed bodies are significantly different from cut marks produced during butchery of fresh bodies.
Conclusions
A distinction between cannibalism and secondary treatment of human bodies can be made based on frequency, distribution and micromorphometric characteristics of cut marks.
The paper presents and discusses the results of the first ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis of cyprinid remains recovered from the Mesolithic-Neolithic sites of Vlasac, Lepenski Vir and Padina in the ...Danube Gorges (North-Central Balkans). Cyprinids constitute a significant portion of the identified fish remains recovered from these sites, which is indicative of their dietary role, and their large pharyngeal teeth have been worn as garment appliqués and associated with a great number of buried individuals. aDNA analysis (involving mitochondrial and nuclear markers) of pharyngeal bones with teeth corresponding to those used as appliqués has determined that they originate from anadromous Rutilus frisii (vyrezub), previously unrecorded in the Middle and Lower Danube. At present, the species inhabits the Black, Azov and Caspian Sea basins, but the only known populations in the Danube inhabit solely its upper reaches in Austria. The results of our study and the occurrence of R. frisii in the Danube Gorges further corroborate that its Upper Danube and Black Sea habitat had been connected in the past, i.e. that the species was entering the whole stretch of the river during its spawning migrations. Furthermore, precise taxonomic identification has important implications for a better understanding of fishing practices and their seasonal schedule in the Danube Gorges, and the distribution of cyprinid pharyngeal teeth ornaments in Europe during the Mesolithic.
•aDNA analysis was performed on cyprinid remains from the Danube Gorges.•Cyprinids were exploited for food and production of pharyngeal teeth ornaments.•The species was identified as Rutilus frisii, previously unknown in the area.•This study shows it entered the whole of Danube from the Black Sea.•R. frisii teeth ornaments were probably a widespread Mesolithic phenomenon.
The authors discuss Late Mesolithic ornament suspension techniques on the basis of their analysis of 288 cyprinid fish pharyngeal teeth appliqués found in an infant burial at the site of Vlasac in ...the Danube Gorges region of the north-central Balkans. Our interdisciplinary approach includes archaeozoological and taphonomic analyses of archaeological cyprinid teeth ornaments, experiments on modern reference specimens, and the identification of use-wear traces and morphological and physicochemical signatures of residues on archaeological as well as comparative ethnographic ornaments from a selection of traditional hunter–gatherer societies worldwide. While focusing on one particular case study, the paper aims to provide an analytical and methodological framework for archaeological cases dealing with the reconstruction of materials and techniques used in prehistoric systems of ornamentation. Finally, our findings are compared to a strikingly similar set of cyprinid pharyngeal teeth ornaments from broadly contemporaneous Mesolithic sites found in the Upper Danube region, and a discussion is provided that attempts to account for this similarity.
•Ornamental cyprinid pharyngeal teeth at Vlasac belong to Rutilus genus.•Suspension techniques involved organic glue compound mixed with red ochre.•Cyprinid beads distribution along the body is similar in infant and adult burials.
This paper presents new results of stable isotope analysis made on human and animal bones from Mesolithic–Neolithic sites (9500–5200 cal BC) in the Central Balkans. It reconstructs dietary practices ...in the Mesolithic and documents the development of new subsistence strategies and regional differences during the process of Neolithisation. We achieved these insights into dietary changes by analysing bone collagen δ
13
C (
n
= 75), δ
15
N (
n
= 75) and δ
34
S (
n
= 96) and comparing stable isotope data of Mesolithic–Neolithic communities from the Danube Gorges with the data of the first farmers who lived outside of the Gorges in the Central Balkans. The Bayesian model was employed to evaluate the relative importance of different animal proteins in human diet. Results bring a new overview and highlight important chronological and regional differences. They suggest that Late Mesolithic humans included more anadromous and potamodromous fish in their diet, which is consistent with archaeozoological evidence. On the other hand, differing from archaeozoological data, the model also points to a greater reliance on terrestrial carnivores (dogs) in the Late Mesolithic diet, a pattern that can be also explained by other dietary and environmental factors. In the Transitional and Neolithic period in the Gorges, some individuals have consumed fewer aquatic resources and favoured more terrestrial products. However, one site in the Gorges represents an exception—Ajmana, where we have the earliest farmers in this region since their subsistence economy was mainly oriented toward terrestrial products. Furthermore, results shows that Neolithic individuals inhumated at sites outside of the Danube Gorges in the Balkans had dietary patterns that vary in both terrestrial and freshwater resources, indicating that early farming communities had a diversified diet linked to a local natural environment. Comparative data finally indicates regional differentiations associated with locally available resources but also related to the traditions of prehistoric communities and to specific economic innovations.
Present-day domestic cattle are reproductively active throughout the year, which is a major asset for dairy production. Large wild ungulates, in contrast, are seasonal breeders, as were the last ...historic representatives of the aurochs, the wild ancestors of cattle. Aseasonal reproduction in cattle is a consequence of domestication and herding, but exactly when this capacity developed in domestic cattle is still unknown and the extent to which early farming communities controlled the seasonality of reproduction is debated. Seasonal or aseasonal calving would have shaped the socio-economic practices of ancient farming societies differently, structuring the agropastoral calendar and determining milk availability where dairying is attested. In this study, we reconstruct the calving pattern through the analysis of stable oxygen isotope ratios of cattle tooth enamel from 18 sites across Europe, dating from the 6th mill. cal BC (Early Neolithic) in the Balkans to the 4th mill. cal BC (Middle Neolithic) in Western Europe. Seasonal calving prevailed in Europe between the 6th and 4th millennia cal BC. These results suggest that cattle agropastoral systems in Neolithic Europe were strongly constrained by environmental factors, in particular forage resources. The ensuing fluctuations in milk availability would account for cheese-making, transforming a seasonal milk supply into a storable product.
The application of biomolecular techniques to archaeological materials from the Balkans is providing valuable new information on the prehistory of the region. This is especially relevant for the ...study of the neolithisation process in SE Europe, which gradually affected the rest of the continent. Here, to answer questions regarding diet and subsistence practices in early farming societies in the central Balkans, we combine organic residue analyses of archaeological pottery, taxonomic and isotopic study of domestic animal remains and biomolecular analyses of human dental calculus. The results from the analyses of the lipid residues from pottery suggest that milk was processed in ceramic vessels. Dairy products were shown to be part of the subsistence strategies of the earliest Neolithic communities in the region but were of varying importance in different areas of the Balkan. Conversely, milk proteins were not detected within the dental calculus. The molecular and isotopic identification of meat, dairy, plants and beeswax in the pottery lipids also provided insights into the diversity of diet in these early Neolithic communities, mainly based on terrestrial resources. We also present the first compound-specific radiocarbon dates for the region, obtained directly from absorbed organic residues extracted from pottery, identified as dairy lipids.
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