This study presents the results of an ornitho‐archaeological analysis of avian bones from Stare gmajne and Blatna Brezovica, two Eneolithic pile dwelling sites in the area of Ljubljansko barje, ...Slovenia. Avian bone remains, together with remnants of huts, tools, mammal bones and bones of other vertebrates, represent the material remnant of a pile dwelling culture from the second half of the fourth millennium BC.
A total of 2091 avian bones or fragments thereof were excavated. The avifauna includes 682 taxonomically identified remains (NISP), assigned to 15 bird taxa. Taxonomically, species from the Anatidae group predominate (68.7% of NISP), mainly Bucephala clangula (40.3% of NISP). Also abundant is Fulica atra (26.2% NISP) from the family Rallidae. In the ecological context, species inhabiting aquatic or marshy habitats prevail. Representatives of three ecomorphological groups of waterbirds were found: diving birds (Podiceps sp., Phalacrocorax carbo, Aythya fuligula, B. clangula and Mergus sp.), waterbirds (Cygnus sp., Anser sp., Anas sp. and F. atra) and the marsh species group (Ardea cinerea).
The absence of medullary bone and the abundance of wintering species in the area are consistent with the hypothesis that the birds were captured during the winter season. Taphonomic evidence (burned bones) suggests that the studied assemblages were human food waste. The abundance of avian bone remains supports the hypothesis that the native peoples were skilled hunters of aquatic birds.
Multi-proxy analysis of the coprolites which were found during excavations at two Late Neolithic (fourth millennium
bc
) pile-dwelling sites (Črnelnik and Stare gmajne) in Slovenia yielded some new ...insights into human–dog relations and behaviour. The digested content is presented in a multidisciplinary approach, in which palynological, palaeoparasitological, archaeobotanical and archaeozoological features are studied and genetic signs are tested. Beside the origin of the coprolites, the size of an animal and the diet, the faeces provided some additional information, such as health, status, nutrition habits, environment and season.
V prispevku obravnavamo najdiščne okoliščine ornamentiranega bronastega bodala s polkrožno zaključeno ročajno ploščo z Iga in zgodnjebronastodobno keramiko z Ljubljanskega barja. Postavljamo ...tezo, da je nekje na območju eneolitskih kolišč severno od Iga pričakovati tudi bronastodobno naselje in da bodalo lahko pripada temu naselju. Dejstvo, da je bilo bodalo najdeno na najdiščnem območju eneolitskega II. kolišča, je potemtakem zgolj posledica okoliščine, da se areala naselbin iz konca eneolitske in zgodnje bronaste dobe vsaj delno prekrivata. Pojasnitev, da bodalo najverjetneje ni ritualno odložena močvirska najdba, temveč je naselbinska najdba, odpira vprašanja o izvoru in pomenu več drugih arheoloških – predvsem kovinskih – najdb z Ljubljanskega barja.
We present new evidence of the intentional use of cereal by-products at Stare gmajne, an Eneolithic piledwelling site in Slovenia, dated approximately 3160-3100 cal BC. The chaff material, which had ...been used for tempering, was discovered inside one of the largest discovered loomweights and analysed. Clay, which was used by the dwellers to make the weight, was tempered with cereal chaff to reinforce it. The practice of tempering, not necessarily for loom weights, has already been proven for earlier settlements, mostly in arid areas where firewood, grazing and building material were scarce. However, tempering has rarely been found in European prehistoric sites. More than 1,800 carbonised and half-carbonised, excellently preserved and well identifiable cereal plant macroremains in less than 11 of waterlogged clayey material were sorted and counted. Among the recognized plant macroremains, barley rachis fragments and glume wheat (emmer and einkorn) by-products such as spikelet forks and glume bases prevailed. A few grains were also found. Cultivation of the main crops of emmer, einkorn and barley at Slovenian Eneolithic pile-dwelling sites was confirmed again. Among the chaff, a new "strange type" of Triticum dicoccum (emmer) spikelet forks was discovered. The size of the weight and the intentional local use of cereal by-products as temper suggest that late Neolithic (Eneolithic) pile-dwelling societies all around the Alps were highly organized and developed due to expansion of crop production and processing.
It is assumed that people practiced woodland management, i.e., coppicing and pollarding, in prehistory, but details are poorly known. This study aims for a better understanding of woodland ...exploitation through time in the wetland basin of the Ljubljansko barje, Slovenia, from 3700-2400 BCE (Before Common Era). To do so, uncarbonized, waterlogged wood from 16 Eneolithic pile dwellings situated in two geographical clusters that cover a time span of c. 1300 years were subjected to age/diameter analysis. It is the first time that age/diameter analysis has been applied to multiple sites from the same region. The investigated posts represent a wide range of taxa, but oak (
sp.) and ash (
sp.) represent 75% of the total, indicating selective use of wood for this purpose. Diameter selection of ash may have taken place as well. At both site clusters, the age/diameter data do not reveal any unequivocal evidence for woodland management. Only at the youngest sites do the data possibly show some gradually changing practices. The outcomes are discussed within the framework of recent discussions about woodland management in Europe.
The paper discusses the environmental changes in the pile-dwelling period (5.7–3.2 ka) at the Ljubljansko barje (Slovenia) which were revealed during the study of settlement pattern and sedimentary ...analysis. The archaeological and radiocarbon data have demonstrated that the oldest pile-dwellings were located closer to the edge of the wetland, and the youngest were positioned closer to the central zone of the basin. The reason for the changes in the settlement pattern lies in the lake's gradual regression: The pile-dwellers at the Ljubljansko barje built their villages on the edge of the relatively deeper water zone as it regressed.
The sedimentary analyses have revealed basal shell-rich marls grading upward into clays with terrigenous input, suggesting a complex lacustrine environment evolving with time into a marshland. At the Resnikov prekop site, a depositional hiatus occurs from 7.4 to 2.2 ka, following which the basin filled with terrigenous sediment delivered by streams from the hilly surroundings. Across the Ljubljansko barje at Stare gmajne and Blatna Brezovica, presumably no depositional hiatus occurred, but the pile-dwellings were located in the marsh, not far from the edge of the deep water zone.
Both analyses clearly demonstrate the interdependence between the gradual regression of the lake and settlement pattern during the period of pile-dwellings. These results fail to support some alternative hypotheses that the sites on the southeastern edge lined the dry land formed by river banks feeding the barje.
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•Development of Eneolithic oak chronology for 3771–3330 BC in Slovenia.•Common tree-ring patterns with German/Swiss oak chronology.•First dendrochronologically dated prehistoric pile ...dwellings at Ljubljansko barje.•Improvement of dendro-archaeological investigations south and south east of the Alps.
We present dendrochronological dating of Eneolithic pile dwellings on Ljubljansko barje, Slovenia, from the 4th millennium BC, partly included on the UNESCO world heritage list in 2011. Samples of oak (Quercus sp.) timbers from the posts on which the dwellings were built have been collected over the past 20 years. They have been dendrochronologically cross-dated and (pre) dated by 14C wiggle-matching. We describe the construction of a 442-year chronology BAR-3330 based on 106 cross-dated tree-ring series of wood from six pile-dwelling sites. Comparison of BAR-3330 with reference chronologies of more than 500km distant areas north of the Alps showed that it can be teleconnected and dated with a combined German Swiss chronology. The time span of BAR-3330 was defined in this way as 3771–3330 BC. We were thus able to date exactly building activities on the pile dwellings Strojanova voda (SV), Hočevarica (HO), Maharski prekop (MP), Črešnja pri Bistri (CR), Spodnje mostišče (SM) and Stare gmajne (SG), in which early copper metallurgy played an important role. This is the first dendrochronological dating of prehistoric pile dwellings south of the Alps using reference chronologies from the north based on teleconnection. It provides an opportunity to continue filling the spatial and temporal gaps in the absolute chronology of the 4th millennium BC in the area south and south east of the Alps.
