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NEOLITHIC SETTLEMENTS on BALKAN a Comparative Study Between Durankulak and Sitagroi

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NEOLITHIC SETTLEMENTS on BALKAN a Comparative Study Between Durankulak and Sitagroi NEOLITHIC SETTLEMENTS ON BALKAN a comparative study between Durankulak and Sitagroi Uppsala University Department of Classical Archaeology and Ancient History Christina Näslund Master thesis 45 p, 2008-2009 Advisor: Gullög Nordquist TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 1. INTRODUCTION......................................................... 1 1.1 Aim.................................................................... 1 1.2 Previous Research .............................................. 2 1.3 Method and materials ......................................... 2 2. CHRONOLOGY........................................................... 5 3. NEOLITHIZATION PROCESS.................................... 8 3.1 Neolithization in summary.................................. 12 4. ENVIRONMENT.......................................................... 13 4.1 The Dobruzha Plain............................................ 14 4.1.1 Durankulak............................................... 14 4.2 Plain of Drama ................................................... 16 4.2.1 Sitagroi..................................................... 18 5. CLIMATE..................................................................... 19 5.1 Cold winters ....................................................... 21 5.2 Mediterranean climate ........................................ 23 5.3 Comparing the environment and the climate....... 24 6. FOOD ........................................................................ 24 6.1 Donkey for dinner .............................................. 26 6.2 Breeding bulls .................................................... 29 6.3 Comparing food.................................................. 34 7. THE EARLIEST SETTLEMENTS ............................... 35 7.1 Hamangia communities ...................................... 36 7. 2 Massive settlements........................................... 38 8. ARCHITECTURE......................................................... 39 8.1 Houses of stone .................................................. 39 8.2 Destroyed by fire................................................ 41 8.3 Comparing architecture ...................................... 42 9. BURIALS ..................................................................... 43 9.1 Comparing burial rites........................................ 44 10. ARTEFACTS.............................................................. 44 10.1 Pottery.............................................................. 44 10.1.1 Lidded vessels......................................... 45 10.1.2 Grey lustre.............................................. 46 10.2 Figurines .......................................................... 48 10.2.1 Adorned idols.......................................... 49 10.2.2 Female figurines..................................... 50 10.3 Chipped stone................................................... 51 10.3.1 Local origin............................................ 52 10.3.2 Honey flint.............................................. 54 10.4 Spondylus......................................................... 55 10.4.1 Shells from the Black Sea........................ 57 10.4.2 Production centre ................................... 59 10.5 Metal................................................................ 61 10.5.1 Fragments............................................... 62 10.5.2 Copper beads.......................................... 62 10.6 Comparing the artefacts.................................... 63 11. THE DAILY LIFE IN DURANKULAK ..................... 65 12. THE DAILY LIFE IN SITAGROI............................... 68 13. CONCLUSION ........................................................... 69 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................. 72 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND TABLES.................... 76 ABSTRACT Näslund, C. 2009: Neolithic Settlement, A comparative study between Durankulak and Sitagroi, Uppsala University. This thesis examines the Neolithic settlements in Durankulak, Danube, north of Bulgaria and Sitagroi in Greek Macedonia at the time when human life went from nomadic and hunting to well organized, agriculture and settled. As a background I present facts about the chronology, I will look for similarities and differences in the climate and the environment of the settlements and then I make a comparison based on the material findings. The facts, analyses and artefacts give a base for understanding the daily life in Durankulak and Sitagroi. By comparing the settlements I will investigate if the Neolithization was a homogenous process on Balkan or if there are differences that indicate external inputs from several directions. Keywords: Durankulak, Sitagroi, Spondylus, Danube, Drama, Dobruzha, Neolithization 1 1. INTRODUCTION The Balkan Peninsula is a crossroad in Europe where people always have met and mixed. There are influences from all directions and it is an excellent area for studying the life of the first farmers. The transmission when humans went from being nomadic gathering- hunting-people to be settled farmers is an important period in the prehistoric Europe that began on Balkan. This period is characterized by the building of houses, an increase in the production of ceramic and the knowledge of metalwork. The agriculture production intensifies with large-scale cultivation of wheat and barley stored in large vessels and permanent silos. Monumental settlement, architecture and the disposal of the dead in small, unmarked cemeteries also mark this period. There is also intensification in expressing personal and group identity witch can be seen from items of personal adornments made of exotic materials such as Spondylus and metal such as copper and gold. New species of animals and plants are noted and there is a new way of organizing the daily life.1 1.1 Aim The aim with this thesis is to investigate if the environment and climate affected the Neolithization process on Balkan. I will do so by investigating the archaeological data from two well dated and published excavations; Sitagroi, on the plain of Drama in the south of Balkan and Durankulak, at the Dobruzha plain where Danube meets the Black Sea. It will be interesting to observe if it can be revealed what the climate and the environment was like during the Neolithization process by looking at the similarities or differences in the daily life between these two areas. My questions are; what differences can bee observed between the Neolithic settlements in Sitagroi and Durankulak? Can the similarities and differences be explained by the climate, vegetation and/or geological conditions? The purpose of this paper is to describe the conditions under which the Neolithic people lived in Durankulak (Hamangia culture I-III) and Sitagroi (Sitagroi culture I-III) by comparing the food, architecture, burials, pottery, figurines, chipped stones, Spondylus and metal. I will furthermore consider this in the context of the vegetation, climate, environment and fauna for each place during this time. 1 Bailey 1998. 2 1.2 Previous Research The Balkan is a well documented area where archaeologists are excavating, publishing and discussing their own country in their own language, but there are few or no comparing studies where scientists look outside the borders of the present countries in this area. Example where parallels are made in specific fields can be seen in Sitagroi II where Elster and Renfrew discuss the metal artefacts from several places in the Balkan Peninsula, but it does not include any overall reasoning. The 1960s active research about Neolithic Balkan had two influences: on one side the Germanic “historicocultural” tradition that focused exclusively on chronology and cultures with little anthropological perspective, on the other the Anglo-Saxon tradition, which focused on individual sites, emphasizing economic and environmental reconstructions.2 In this thesis I will make a first study between two micro-areas, today located in two countries, excavated and studied in different ways. The overall material about artefacts and conditions on the two sites are found in the excavation reports Durankulak, Band II, die prähistorischen gräberfelder von Durankulak, Teil 1 and Teil 2 (2002) by Henrietta Todorova and Excavations at Sitagroi, A prehistoric Village in Northeastern Grease, Volume I (1986) by Renfrew and Gimbutas as well as Elster and Renfrew’s Prehistoric Sitagroi: Excavations in Northeast Greece, 1968-1970. Volume 2: The Final Report (2003). Douglass W. Baileys Balkan Prehistory, Exclusion, incorporation and identity (2002), is an important study of the area at this time that I have used as a background. Another important source is Jean-Paul Demoule and Cahterine Perlés, The Greek Neolithic: A New Review (1993), where the authors discuss five phases in the Greek Neolithic and the present state of research. Other literature, articles and reports I have used are presented in each chapter. 1.3 Method and materials I made my research by visiting Durankulak and Sitagroi. I travelled around the plain of Drama and I lived on the Dobruzha steppe. I have also seen some of the artefacts at museums and had possibilities to take part of photos and notes from Durankulak excavation for this 2 Demoule & Perlés 1993, 356. 3 thesis. I have been able to use the Nordic Library in Athens and libraries at the American Institute, Sofia, the Historical Museum in Yambol and Kabyle, Carolina Rediviva, Uppsala and Medelhavsmuseet in Stockholm. I have also visited the museums in
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