Climatic Influences on Appearance and Development of Neolithic Cultures in Southern Outskirts of Carpathian Basin

Abstract

Southern outskirts of Carpathian basin, namely the region between Sava, Drava and Danube rivers, have specific climate conditions today partially influenced by geological structure and geographical position. In this region Neolithic Starèevo and Sopot cultures are observed. Radiocarbon dates for Neolithic cultures are used to build a time frame which is compared with climate proxies, especially with Holocene rapid climate events (8.2, 5.9 and 4.2 ka), to draw a conclusion on when and how these cultures developed in southern regions of Carpathian basin. Lacking firm geoarchaeological data the results are not conclusive but can provide some insight on how the climate may have directly and indirectly influenced development of Neolithic and beginning of Eneolithic period in the region.

Spearheading into the Neolithic: Last Foragers and First Farmers in the Dinaric Alps of Montenegro

“…With the exception of the Mesolithic sequences in the context of the Danube Gorges area (e.g. Bonsall, 2008; Borić, 2011, 2016 and references therein; Borić et al, 2014), the Mesolithic period in most of south-eastern Europe still remains patchy, with large blank areas in Greece (Galanidou, 2011), the eastern and central Balkans (Gurova & Bonsall, 2014), and most of the Carpathian Basin (but for the latter region see Eichmann et al, 2010). The situation is somewhat better along the eastern Adriatic coast, where an abundance of karstic features such as caves and rock shelters contributed to Mesolithic deposits being identified more readily (e.g.…”

Holocene hydroclimate changes in continental Croatia recorded in speleothem δ13C and δ18O from Nova Grgosova Cave

“…Particularly in speleothems, this should leave a paleoenvironmental signal in form of higher δ 13 C values (Jiménez de Cisneros and Caballero, 2011), so the earlier discussed positive δ 13 C shift around 7.4 ka in NG stalagmites could be explained by anthropogenic deforestation. However, Neolithisation – a shift from the hunter-gatherer nomadic to sedentary agricultural lifestyle – ushered also permanent settlements often built on the riverbanks (Botić, 2016a). In continental Croatia, Early Neolithic sites were discovered mainly in the eastern part in the lowlands (Botić, 2016b), while the hilly region of NG cave retains no sign of human settlements, supporting hydroclimate causes of isotopic variations, rather than anthropogenic.…”

What is ‘European Archaeology’? What Should it be?

“…This is the case of the complex transition to anatomically modern humans that involved two different kinds of Homo sapiens , and possibly saw the development of complex artistic behaviour (Conard, 2008, 2011); of the peculiar interactions in the shift from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic (e.g. Borić, 2011; Guilaine, 2015; Thorpe, 2015); or in the development of megalithism (Renfrew, 1976), or of the Bronze Age (Childe, 1958; Coles & Harding, 1979; Kristiansen & Larsson, 2005), a period in our narrative that is so bound up with the notion of Europe, as illustrated by the 1994–95 campaign of the Council of Europe promoting the Bronze Age as the first Golden Age of Europe. Ultimately, this is also the historical context in which the EAA took shape in 1993–94.…”