High-Resolution AMS Dating of Architecture, Boulder Artworks and the Transition to Farming at Lepenski Vir

Borić, Dušan; Higham, Thomas; Cristiani, Emanuela; Dimitrijević, Vesna; Nehlich, Olaf; Griffiths, Seren; Alexander, Craig; Mihailović, Bojana; Filipović, Dragana; Allué, Ethel; Buckley, Michael

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-31884-7

Cited by 19 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The Danube Gorges region provides key evidence of a long-lasting Late Glacial and Early Holocene occupation along a riverine environment. The unique Mesolithic and Early Neolithic archaeological record of mortuary practices and the wealth of recently obtained biomolecular evidence from this region reveals an important case for contacts and admixture between local foragers with western and eastern Eurasian hunter-gatherer genetic ancestries and farming groups of northwestern-Anatolian ancestry who spread along the Danubian route from the mid-seventh millennium BC ( 12 – 14 ).…”

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confidence: 99%

Tracking the transition to agriculture in Southern Europe through ancient DNA analysis of dental calculus

Ottoni

Borić

Cheronet

et al. 2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Archaeological dental calculus, or mineralized plaque, is a key tool to track the evolution of oral microbiota across time in response to processes that impacted our culture and biology, such as the rise of farming during the Neolithic. However, the extent to which the human oral flora changed from prehistory until present has remained elusive due to the scarcity of data on the microbiomes of prehistoric humans. Here, we present our reconstruction of oral microbiomes via shotgun metagenomics of dental calculus in 44 ancient foragers and farmers from two regions playing a pivotal role in the spread of farming across Europe—the Balkans and the Italian Peninsula. We show that the introduction of farming in Southern Europe did not alter significantly the oral microbiomes of local forager groups, and it was in particular associated with a higher abundance of the species Olsenella sp. oral taxon 807. The human oral environment in prehistory was dominated by a microbial species, Anaerolineaceae bacterium oral taxon 439, that diversified geographically. A Near Eastern lineage of this bacterial commensal dispersed with Neolithic farmers and replaced the variant present in the local foragers. Our findings also illustrate that major taxonomic shifts in human oral microbiome composition occurred after the Neolithic and that the functional profile of modern humans evolved in recent times to develop peculiar mechanisms of antibiotic resistance that were previously absent.

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confidence: 99%

Tracking the transition to agriculture in Southern Europe through ancient DNA analysis of dental calculus

Ottoni

Borić

Cheronet

et al. 2021

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…The settlement at Lepenski Vir filled the entire cove, where large numbers of trapezoidal buildings, graves and stone sculptures were discovered (Srejovi≤ 1969). Exhaustive discussions regarding the organisation of settlement and the simultaneity and manner of habitat construction were conducted in the past, and more recently the discussion has shifted from the sphere of stratigraphic considerations and relative-chronological correlations to that of dating individual contexts (Radovanovi≤ 1996;Gara∏anin, Radovanovi≤ 2001;Bori≤ 2002;Peri≤, Nikoli≤ 2016;Bori≤ et al 2018). These discussions gave rise to many original ideas about different aspects of the site of Lepenski Vir.…”

Section: Late Mesolithic -Late Phasementioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is now clear, however, that Lepenski Vir was intensively inhabited for about 200 years (Bori≤ et al 2018), that burial took place within the settlement (inside and between the houses) and that the sacral component (most convincingly evidenced by funeral rituals and stone sculptures) was very pronounced (Srejovi≤ 1969;Radovanovi≤ 1996;. In this context, the question arises as to what gave rise to such a specific form of religious expression at Lepenski Vir, which led some researchers to treat the site as a religious centre (Roksandic 2012) and the habitations within it as sanctuaries (Srejo-vi≤ 1969), regardless of the evidence that everyday activities were also conducted at the site (Radova-novi≤ 1996; Dimitrijevi≤ 2008).…”

Section: Late Mesolithic -Late Phasementioning

confidence: 99%

The Iron Gates Mesolithic in a Regional Context

Mihailović

2021

Doc. praeh.

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The specific character of the Iron Gates Mesolithic material culture derives from the geomorphological and ecological features of the Iron Gates gorge in the Early Holocene. However, the Mesolithic of this geographic area can be entirely linked to the general flows of Mesolithic development in Europe as well as to the phenomena observed in the Adriatic-Ionian and Aegean zones. This demonstrates that the cultural, technological and economic changes which occurred during the Early Holocene were influenced by the same or similar factors as the entire area of the Balkan Peninsula. The absence of Mesolithic settlements outside the Iron Gates raises the question of whether the interior parts of the Central Balkans were inhabited during the Early Holocene. As hinted by the research in the Iron Gates and the Adriatic hinterland, Mesolithic settlements were probably located outside the denser forested areas (in the littoral and high-altitude zones) but this remains to be confirmed. Based on the assessment of the demographic potential of Mesolithic and Neolithic communities, four scenarios of Neolithisation of different parts of the Balkan Peninsula have been proposed.

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“…The rich GST assemblages recovered at several Mesolithic sites in the Danube Gorges (e.g., Lepenski Vir, Vlasac, Padina, Hajdučka Vodenica) mainly consist of naturally shaped sandstones pebbles (Antonović et al 2006;Borić et al 2014;Srejović 1969;Srejović and Babovic 2011), although boulder artworks and mortars were also recovered at Lepenski Vir (Borić et al 2018) as well as fish stone clubs, sometimes engraved with carved linear patterns (Srejović 1969(Srejović , 1972Srejović and Babovic 2011). To date, research on the abovementioned GSTs has mainly focused on the characterization of their morpho-technological features (Antonović et al 2006;Borić et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sandstone Ground Stone Technology: a Multi-level Use Wear and Residue Approach to Investigate the Function of Pounding and Grinding Tools

Cristiani

Zupancich

2020

J Archaeol Method Theory

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Ground stone tool (GST) technology includes artefacts utilized in pounding or grinding activities and characterized by long life cycles and multiple uses. The introduction of such technology dates back to early prehistory, and for this reason, it is used as prime evidence for tackling a wide range of archaeological questions such as the origins of technology, patterns of daily subsistence and lifeways. In this paper, we contribute to the field of study of GSTs by discussing the application of a novel multi-level analytical approach combining use wear and residue observations at low and high magnification with residue spatial distribution investigated using GIS. We aim to assess the potential of a combined use wear and residue approach to (1) discriminate specific gestures and worked materials on sandstone GSTs and (2) understand the potential of residue distributions for reconstructing ancient GST functions and, more specifically, the role of GSTs recovered at Mesolithic sites of the Danube Gorges region in the Central Balkans. We identified diagnostic surface modifications associated with the use of GSTs in different activities involving both animal and plant materials. Morphological characteristics of residues have been described under reflected and transmitted light and characterized using biochemical staining. Finally, we mapped residues across the utilized surfaces of experimental tools to link patterns of residue spatial distribution to specific materials and gestures. We expect our methodological approach will be taken up by other researchers in order to produce comparable datasets on GSTs and improve our understanding of their ancient functional biographies.

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High-Resolution AMS Dating of Architecture, Boulder Artworks and the Transition to Farming at Lepenski Vir

Cited by 19 publications

References 29 publications

Tracking the transition to agriculture in Southern Europe through ancient DNA analysis of dental calculus

Tracking the transition to agriculture in Southern Europe through ancient DNA analysis of dental calculus

The Iron Gates Mesolithic in a Regional Context

Sandstone Ground Stone Technology: a Multi-level Use Wear and Residue Approach to Investigate the Function of Pounding and Grinding Tools

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