Lateglacial Hunter-Gatherers in the Iron Gates
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Edinburgh Research Explorer Lateglacial hunter-gatherers in the Iron Gates Citation for published version: Bonsall, C & Boroneant, A 2016, Lateglacial hunter-gatherers in the Iron Gates: A brief review of the archaeological and chronological evidence. in R Krauß & H Floss (eds), Southeast Europe Before Neolithisation: Proceedings of the International Workshop within the Collaborative Research Centres sfb 1070 “RessourcenKulturen”, Schloss Hohentübingen, 9th of May 2014 . pp. 149-164, International Workshop within the Collaborative Research Centres SFB 1070 “RESSOURCENKULTUREN”, Schloß Hohentübingen, Germany, 9/05/14. https://doi.org/10.15496/publikation-10762 Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.15496/publikation-10762 Link: Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research Explorer Document Version: Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Published In: Southeast Europe Before Neolithisation General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 07. Oct. 2021 149 CLIVE BONSALL AND ADINA BORONEANT� Lateglacial Hunter-Gatherers in the Iron Gates A Brief Review of the Archaeological and Chronological Evidence Keywords: Lateglacial, Epigravettian, on human remains from Cuina Turcului raise the hunter-gatherers, Iron Gates possibility of a continuation of the Epigravettian into the Holocene . The absence of 14C dates for the Younger Dryas may be a function of the radiocar- Acknowledgements bon sampling strategy . Previous claims for the ex- istence of Epigravettian occupations at open-air We thank László Bartosiewicz for identifying the sites in the Iron Gates have yet to be substantiated . animal bones selected for AMS 14C dating, and An- drei Soficaru of the ‘Francisc I. Rainer’ Institute of Anthropology of the Romanian Academy for Introduction permission to sample the human remains from Climente II and Cuina Turcului for AMS 14C dating The Lateglacial period was part of a major global and stable isotope analysis . climate change event (Termination 1) that marked the end of the Last Glaciation . It began with an abrupt warming (the Bølling-Allerød) at 14 700. cal Abstract BP, followed by a return to colder conditions ca . 12.900 cal BP (the Younger Dryas) and a final rapid This paper provides an overview of the evidence warming ca . 11 700. cal BP leading to the Holocene for human occupation of the Iron Gates section and the establishment of full interglacial condi- of the lower Danube Valley during the Lateglacial tions . period, between ca . 14 .700 and 11 .700 cal BP . Late Several sites in the Iron Gates have produced or Final Epigravettian assemblages of chipped evidence of hunter-gatherer occupation during the stone and bone artefacts were recovered in exca- Lateglacial period (fig. 1) . In this paper we provide vations in the 1950s and 1960s at three cave sites a brief overview of the archaeological evidence in the Romanian sector of the Iron Gates: Hoților, and comment on the significance of new AMS 14C Climente II and Cuina Turcului . Radiometric and dates on animal bones and human remains . We AMS 14C dates from the sites fall mainly in the also reflect upon two important questions: (i) was Bølling-Allerød interstadial . However, direct dates settlement of the Iron Gates continuous through- 150 Clive Bonsall and Adina Boroneant� Fig. 1. Iron Gates sites with evidence of later Stone Age occupation. Named sites have a documented or presumed Epigravettian component. out the period, (ii) are the archaeological remains Inter-regional comparisons with better docu- that have been assigned to this period part of a mented sequences in Italy and southwest France unitary cultural entity? resulted in the introduction of cultural labels such as ‘Azilian’, ‘Romanellian’, ‘Romanello-Azilian’ and ‘Tardigravettian’ to characterize the Lateglacial Final Palaeolithic, Epipalaeolithic or finds from the Iron Gates, although these terms Early Mesolithic? were largely abandoned elsewhere following Bar- tolomei et al .’s (1979) revision of the Late Upper Any discussion of the archaeology of the Iron Palaeolithic sequence in Italy and their use of the Gates is made more difficult by inconsistent use of term ‘Epigravettian’ in place of Tardigravettian. terminology (fig. 2) . For example, in their review of the European Up- Some authors have applied the terms ‘Epi- per Palaeolithic, Djindjian et al . (1999, 302 – 309) palaeolithic’ to the Lateglacial hunter-gatherers treat the Iron Gates sites as part of their ‘Mediter- of the Iron Gates and ‘Mesolithic’ to those of the ranean Final Epigravettian’ technocomplex . Early Holocene (e.g. Păunescu 2000; Borić 2011). Some Romanian archaeologists, whilst ac- Others have tended to regard ‘Epipalaeolithic’ knowledging the external parallels, have pre- and ‘Mesolithic’ as synonyms and applied these ferred to differentiate the Lateglacial assemblages terms either to the whole of the time-range from from the Iron Gates by the use of the cultural la- c. 15.000 – 8100 cal BP (e.g. Boroneanț 2000; Bonsall bel ‘Clisurean’, derived from a local name (Clisu- 2008), or restricted them to the Early Holocene de- ra Dunării) for the Romanian part of the Iron noting Lateglacial finds as ‘Final Palaeolithic’ (e.g. Gates gorge (e.g. Nicolăescu-Plopşor et al. 1965; Mihailović 2008). Boroneanț 2000). Lateglacial Hunter-Gatherers in the Iron Gates 151 Fig. 2. Periodization, chronology and terminology of the later Stone Age in the Iron Gates, according to Srejovic� (1969) and Boroneant� (2000). Original cultural Formal Site Hor. designation tools Debitage Total References Cuina ‘Romanello- Păunescu 1970; 1978; I 1340 27,012 28,352 Turcului Azilian’ 2000 Cuina ‘Romanello- Păunescu 1970; 1978; II 2022 42,240 44,262 Turcului Azilian’ 2000 ‘Late Epigravet- Climente II tian to Early 514 5864 6378 Boroneanț 1970 Romanellian’ Ostrovul I – II ‘Romanellian’ 256 3337 3593 Boroneanț 1970 Banului Nicolăescu-Plopşor/ ‘Azilian’ / Păunescu 1961; Hoților 86 978 1064 ‘Clisurean’ Nicolăescu-Plopşor et al. 1965; Păunescu 2002 Climente I ‘Proto-Clisurean’ 94 230 324 Boroneanț 1973 Tab. 1. Lithic artefact inventories from Epigravettian horizons (artefact totals after Pa�unescu 2000; 2002). 152 Clive Bonsall and Adina Boroneant� Epigravettian (‘Clisurean’) in the Iron Gates (2000) as awls, projectile points, chisels and a har- poon fragment. A significant number of bone tools Research undertaken in the second half of the were decorated with incisions forming abstract twentieth century led to the recognition (or pre- patterns including repetitive geometric designs sumption) of Lateglacial occupations in a number (parallel lines, zig-zags, triangles and lozenges), of sites in the Iron Gates region (fig. 1). The first short irregular lines (isolated or in groups) and finds were made in the 1950s at Peștera Hoților simple hatching and cross-hatching sometimes (Thieves’ Cave) at Băile Herculane in the valley framed between two parallel lines . Such decora- of the river Cerna (Nicolăescu-Plopşor/Păunescu tions were applied mainly to bone; only two ant- 1961) . Most finds, however, were made at sites ler fragments with incised decoration were found . along the Romanian bank of the Danube between Also attributed to the Epigravettian horizons were 1964 and 1969 during rescue excavations linked 15 pierced animal teeth (deer, wolf and wild boar), to the construction of the Iron Gates I dam . Epi- two pierced fish vertebrae, and pierced shells of gravettian ‘layers’ were recognized in the rock- freshwater and marine molluscs . According to shelter of Cuina Turcului and the cave sites of Păunescu (2000, 344) no consistent typological dif- Climente I and II, as well as in the open-air site of ferences could be observed between the bone ar- Ostrovu Banului (Boroneanț 1970; 1973; Păunescu tefact assemblages from the two main Epigravet- 1970; 1978) . In several other sites, Epigravettian tian horizons, although Srejović (1969, 14) argued occupations were posited on the basis of artefact that the geometric motifs belonged to an earlier typology – at Veterani Cave by Boroneanț (1973; phase than the hatched motifs . 2000), and at the open-air sites of Răzvrata, Vetera- Excavations in Climente II cave identified a ni Terasă, Icoana and Schela Cladovei by Păunescu layer up to 70cm thick, interpreted as belonging (1989; 2000) . At none of these sites, however, is to the period ‘from the end of the Epigravettian there supporting evidence of Lateglacial occupa- to the beginning of the Romanellian’ (Boroneanț tion from stratigraphy or radiocarbon dating (see 1970, 2) . From this layer were recovered nearly Discussion) . 6000 chipped stone artefacts, over 40 bone and Of the five ‘main’ sites, the most productive antler artefacts (including a broken harpoon head archaeologically was Cuina Turcului rockshelter and two decorated pieces), four pierced animal where two ‘Tardigravettian’ horizons were distin- teeth (deer, wolf), a Dentalium shell, a number