Padina and Starcevo: Game, Fish and Cattle
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PADINA AND STARCEVO: GAME, FISH AND CATTLE A. T. Clason CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 2. THE SITES 2. 1. Padina 2.2. Starcevo 3. THE SPECIES 3. I. Mammals 3. 2. Birds 3-3· Rep ti les 3 + Fishes 3.5. Molluscs 4. DISCUSSION 4. 1. Near East 4.2. Southern Europe 4.3. The route to the middle Danube basin 4+ The Iron Gate 4.5. Padina 4.6. StarC:evo 4.7. Recapitulation 5 · ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 6. NOTES 7. LITERATURE A. T. CLASON i. INTRODUCTION* I N I 1 ( In i971 Prof. Dr. R. W. Ehrich ), one of the exca f vators of the settlement of Starcevo, asked me to study the animal remains which were collected during the excavations in I 9 32, r 969 and I 970. l Some years later Dr. B. Jovanovic2) invited me to study the faunal remains which were collected Beograd J' during the excavation of the Late Mesolithic/Early I < I Neolithic settlement of Padina in the Djerdap \ ' region (Iron Gate). Since both sites are situated on ) " " a bank of the Danube in Yugoslavia (fig. i ) , and ( both are important for our understanding of the / ) end of the Mesolithic period and the introduction --1 '....\ of agriculture in Central Europe, I decided to ) I J- _ review the results of both studies together. \. _ ,1 For several reasons it would have been pointless ......,_, to estimate the minimum number of individuals, the meat yield of the diffe rent species and their Fig. 1. The geographic situation of Padina and Starcevo. contribution to the daily diet of the former inhab itants. In the first place a large proportion of the animal remains were not collected. In the second N place the former inhabitants used numerous bones RUNA NIA for making tools. Especially those of Starcevo had the habit of carving segments out of the long bones t of cattle and red deer to make large fish-hooks. Not to mention the spoons carved out of the meta podiae of cattle (Nandris, 1972). The inhabitants of Padina also used bones to fabricate tools. In the 0 5 10km third place only a small, much disturbed, part of the '-------'---' settlement of Starcevo could be excavated for most of it had been destroyed. Nothing is known about Fig. 2. The settlements Padina, Lepenski Vir, Vlasac, Cuina its extensions, number of houses, etc. This also ap Turcului and Icoana in the Iran Gate. The Danube is the plies to a certain extent to Padina, although this site boundary between Yugoslavia and Romania. was more completely excavated. Because of these reasons only the number of bones will be given and the percentages in which 2. THE SITES they were collected. Small species are in this way certainly underrepresented. Of the large mammal 2. r. Padina species probably the same percentages have been thrown away as were collected, so that these per Padina is situated on a narrow strip ot ioess in the centages are at least an indication for the percen Iron Gate (Djerdap) on the Yugoslavian side of the tages in which the species were kept, or better Danube (fig. 2). The area of the settlement was slaughtered or killed in hunting. divided by J ovanovic ( r 97 r, r 974) in three main sectors (fig. 3), in which he could distinguish three major habitation periods: * Tables 7-60 have been reproduced as microfiches, which are furnished in an envelope attached to the rear cover of I. The prehistoric period. Late Mesolithic (Epipalaeolith this volume. ic) of the lower basin of the Danube (A), Old Neolithic Padi11a and S tarcevo : GaJ11e, Fish and Catt/e of the Djerdap (Iron Gate), a variation of the complex of Remains of the Late Mesolithic (A) were found in Starcevo-<:;:risculture (B), Recent Eneolithic of the cen sector I and II. The Neolithic (B) could be divided tral Danube basin (Kostolac-Cotofeni) which are restric into three phases B B and B . The first row of ted to isolated finds (C), Iron Age of the central and l' 2 3 lower Danube basin (the type of Basarabia-Gomolava houses, nr. 5 -10 in sector III, along the Danube Bosut) (D). belongs to phase B1 . The fi rst row of houses in II. The classical period is represented by the foundations of sector I, nr. 1-3, and the second row in sector III, a Roman tower, some objects and cremation graves (E). nr. r 1-1 5, belong to phase B . The third row of III. The medieval period is represented by silver and gold 2 houses in sector III, nr. r 6-z r, belongs to phase B coins of the second half of the XIVth century. 3 (fig. 4). No traces of this phase were found in sector Fig. 3. The excavated area at Padina in the Iron Gate (after Fig. 4. Detail of sector III with the house places j-2 1. A cross J ovanovic, 197 1 ). The shaded area in sector III is given in section of the shaded area is given in fig. 5 (adapted from detail in fig. 4. Å Jovanovic, 1971). ' ' ' ' \ 17 - ' --" ... ' , 1 ' ' f'\ l_ _J 19 "l_ j' I'-- __ ,, 11 ' .,,....... " \ " > I ' ' 'I �. /':6 L J- i_ __ _j (� 7 00 LJ. IOm 143 A. T. CLASON PA DINA 64.569 \J CROSS-SECTION OF SECTOR III ( Early Neolithic - Pad ina B) HOUSE 16 FLOOR � \J 60.798 < HOU SE 13 � FLOOR HOUSE 6 Fig. Proposed cross-section j FLOOR 5. - - ·----- - ---- of sector 111 of Padina. Early Neolithic - Padina B (data l 0 1 m provided by Jovanovic). bl..ld..I I. The floor plan of the houses is trapezoid, with a Neolithic village consisted of three rows of houses hearth in the middle. The walls were of dry-stacked on different levels (fig. 5). According to Jovanovic stones. The backs of the houses were cut into the not all houses were inhabited at the same time. He loess plateau on which the settlement was situated. bases this assumption on the finds associated with The roofs were probably of wood. In this way the the houses, but this assumption is not corroborated by C14-dates. The C14-dates seem to suggest that what must have been the first two phases were TA8LE 1 younger than the two younger phases. The same confusion in C14-dates is found in Lepenski Vir and 1 4 Chronology and C -dates of Padina, Lepenski Vir and Vlasac. Vlasac (table r). The fa et that the C14-dates do not Padina Lepenski Vir Vla sac confirm the archaeological stratification, can be 83 Neolithic (Starc./Cris) III not dated III possibly explained by taking into account the faet 0 5125 ± 50 8C (Starcevo) 5490 ± 10 8C that these narrow loess strips along the gorge were Sector I no houses Sector li houses no. 16-21 intensively used during the period during which they were inhabited. Owing to this organic mate 82 Neolithic (StarC./Cris) li li 5525 - rial could have easily become mixed, unobserved 5150 ± 80 8C 4610 ± 100 8C 5985 ± 100 8C Sector I houses no. 1-3 4680 ± 100 8C by the excavators3). Sector III houses no. 11-15 Because of the slope, could earlier material from I b4915 8 1 Older Neolithic I 5880 ± 1 00 8C - higher up have slid down over later deposits (fig. (StarC./Cris) 4670 ± 5330 8C a4965 ± 100 8C Sector III houses no. 5-10 5). The kind of excavation by horizontal layers 4620 ± 55 8C would mask this. Also, if there were sloping levels, 5115 ± 110 8C excavation by artificial strata could produce con (possible Proto Padina Proto Lepenski temporaneity on one level and a reversed strati was not found) Vir not dated graphy as well. A. Late Palaeolithic It is for this reason that the fauna! remains were 4615 ± 40 8C (charcoal) divided into only five main groups: I. Late Meso Sector I and li lithic; II. Late Mesolithic/Early Neolithic; III. 7500-5500 8C (human bones) Early Neolithic; IV. Early Neolithic/Early Iran 144 Age; V. Iran Age/Roman period. The majority of Padi11a a11d Stareevo: Ga111e, Fish a11d Cattle posits, on which the ancient settlement was situat ed, were used by brickmakers, who destroyed most of the settlement. Starcevo was fi rst excavated in 193 l by Grbic and Fewkes, who examined two pits ( l and 2) , the contents of which, including the animal ·bones, were brought to the Peabody Mu seum of Harvard University and were not available to me (Ehrich, 1977). In l 9 p the major excavation of Starcevo took place under the direction of Fewkes and Ehrich. After a lapse of nearly 40 years, Ehrich and Dr. --- 5km Gara5anin of the National Museum in Beograd ex cavated three trenches on the upper flatland, some E::::::::3 V77?I i=-=-::lMARSH BLACK SOIL AHO what to the North and West of the old excavations. � CHERNOZfM l::L:LL'.J ALLUVIUM t..=..=JMIH ERAL BOG SOIL These were dug in public land under cultivation while five others were opened in private garden Fig. 6. The geographic situation of Starcevo (adapted from land to the South. The inhabitants of the village Barker, 1975). improved their land with the humic earth from the prehistoric sites, which makes the fauna! remains unreliable. They are partly mixed with recent the fa una! remains belongs to the Late Mesolithic bones. The stratification is not certain. and Early Neolithic. The differences in the per In l 9 p four main lev els were recognized which centages of the species in both groups, seem to were then called humus, subhumus, culture and pit indicate that the material was right! y alloted to level.