Marko Porčić | University of Belgrade (original) (raw)
Books by Marko Porčić
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Papers by Marko Porčić
Documenta Praehistorica, 2024
Since 2020 a wealth of new data has been generated on the beginning of the Neolithic in the centr... more Since 2020 a wealth of new data has been generated on the beginning of the Neolithic in the central Balkans. The picture that has emerged is broadly consistent with the Wave of Advance model, with the first farmers arriving in the region around 6250 BC and expanding gradually towards the north. In this paper, an updated review of the evidence and interpretations is presented, and potentially problematic or ambiguous aspects of the current interpretations of the Neolithic expansion in the Balkans are identified. Alternative hypotheses and means of their testing are also discussed.
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Journal of Archaeological Science, 2024
Understanding the nature of copying errors in the cultural transmission of material culture is hi... more Understanding the nature of copying errors in the cultural transmission of material culture is highly relevant for students of cultural evolution, especially in the field of evolutionary archaeology. In this paper, we set up a classic transmission chain experiment, which involves making clay anthropomorphic figurines, to explore the nature of the copying error related to the production of 3D objects. The experiment consists of four independent transmission chains, each with 10 participants. Three chains are non-expert chains, as they consist of students of archaeology and psychology with no formal training in arts. The fourth is an expert chain consisting of art students. Our results show that the copying error predictably differs between the experts and the non-experts – it is lower in the expert chain. However, in both groups, the error is higher than predicted by the models that assume that the copying error is only due to imperfections in the perception of linear dimensions. Taken together, these two results suggest that, in addition to the error in perception, the error in the execution contributes significantly to the overall error, as predicted by the recently formulated object-mediated transmission model (Crema et al., 2023). The results of our experiment also show that the errors are often biased rather than random, suggesting that the transmission process involves the transformations anticipated by the cultural attraction theory.
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Društvena nejednakost prepoznata je kao problem današnjice, a proučavanje korena i mehanizama nas... more Društvena nejednakost prepoznata je kao problem današnjice, a
proučavanje korena i mehanizama nastanka društvene nejednakosti predstavlja jedan
od velikih izazova savremene arheologije. Kasni neolit centralnog Balkana (5300–4500
god. p.n.e.) ima poseban značaj za proučavanje društvene nejednakosti u evropskoj
praistoriji, jer je to period u kome ljudi počinju da žive u velikim naseljima, a arheološki
je dokumentovano i prisustvo potencijalnih markera prestiža i statusa. Postavlja se
pitanje da li je u ovim društvima došlo do razvoja nejednakosti, u kom obliku i u kom
stepenu? Cilj rada je da se na osnovu novih podataka o stambenim objektima sa tri
kasnoneolitska lokaliteta na teritoriji Srbije kvantifikuje stepen nejednakosti između
domaćinstava. Dobijeni rezultati će biti kritički ocenjeni i kontekstualizovani u širem
okviru proučavanja društvene nejednakosti u VI i V milenijumu p.n.e. na području
jugoistočne Evrope.
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Journal of Archaeological Science, 2021
This work is a reply to the comment by Edinborough et al. (2021) on our recently published paper ... more This work is a reply to the comment by Edinborough et al. (2021) on our recently published paper (Penezić et al., 2020). In our original paper we presented the results based on the tooth cementum annulation analysis that show that the Neolithic females had higher levels of physiological stress than the Mesolithic females in the Central Balkans. We proposed the hypothesis that this was caused by differences in fertility. In their comment on our paper, Edinborough et al. (2021) question: 1) the accuracy and precision of the TCA analysis as the age estimation method 2) that pregnancies leave traces in the tooth cementum 3) our interpretation of the results. In this reply we argue: 1) that the TCA is a reliable method for age estimation 2) that the reflection of pregnancies in the tooth cementum was established by independent and previously published research and 3) we clarify that our interpretation - that the increased fertility in the Neolithic period may be the cause of the observed patterns - is a hypothesis that needs to be further tested rather than the final conclusion of our original paper.
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by Miljana Radivojević, Thilo Rehren, Benjamin Roberts, Neda Mirković-Marić, Patrick Mertl, Milica Rajicic, Silvia Amicone, Vidan Dimic, Dragana Filipovic, Jelena Bulatović, Marko Porčić, Enrica Bonato, and Ernst Pernicka
The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia: Evolution, Organisation and Consumption of Early Metal in the Balkans, 2021
The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia is a landmark study in the origins of metallurgy. The project a... more The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia is a landmark study in the origins of metallurgy. The project aimed to trace the invention and innovation of metallurgy in the Balkans. It combined targeted excavations and surveys with extensive scientific analyses at two Neolithic-Chalcolithic copper production and consumption sites, Belovode and Pločnik, in Serbia. At Belovode, the project revealed chronologically and contextually secure evidence for copper smelting in the 49th century BC. This confirms the earlier interpretation of c. 7000-year-old metallurgy at the site, making it the earliest record of fully developed metallurgical activity in the world. However, far from being a rare and elite practice, metallurgy at both Belovode and Pločnik is demonstrated to have been a common and communal craft activity.
This monograph reviews the pre-existing scholarship on early metallurgy in the Balkans. It subsequently presents detailed results from the excavations, surveys and scientific analyses conducted at Belovode and Pločnik. These are followed by new and up-to-date regional syntheses by leading specialists on the Neolithic-Chalcolithic material culture, technologies, settlement and subsistence practices in the Central Balkans. Finally, the monograph places the project results in the context of major debates surrounding early metallurgy in Eurasia before proposing a new agenda for global early metallurgy studies.
Open access and fully downloadable from:
https://doi.org/10.32028/9781803270425
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Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2021
What was driving the migrations of the first farmers across Europe? How were demography, society,... more What was driving the migrations of the first farmers across Europe? How were demography, society, and environment interconnected to give rise to the macroregional expansion pattern that archaeology is revealing? We simulate the demography and spatial behavior of the first farming communities in the Central Balkans in order to infer the parameters and mechanisms of the Neolithic expansion in this part of Europe. We compare the simulation output to the empirical record of radiocarbon dates in order to systematically evaluate which expansion scenarios were the most probable. Our results suggest that if the expansion of the Neolithic unfolded in accord with the specific wave of advance model that we presented in this paper, the expansion was driven by very high fertility and community fission to avoid social tensions. The simulation suggests that the number of children born by an average Neolithic woman who lived through her entire fertile period was around 8 children or more, which is on the high end of the ethnographically recorded human total fertility rate spectrum. The most plausible simulated fission threshold values are between 50 and 100 people, which is usually smaller than the estimated environmental carrying capacity. This would suggest that the primary reason for the community fission and for seeking out new land was social rather than ecological.
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Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 2021
In this paper, we test the hypothesis of the Neolithic Demographic Transition in the Central Balk... more In this paper, we test the hypothesis of the Neolithic Demographic
Transition in the Central Balkan Early Neolithic (6250–5300 BC) by applying the method of summed calibrated probability distributions to the set of more than 200 new radiocarbon dates from Serbia. The results suggest that there was an increase in population size after the first farmers arrived to the study area around 6250 BC. This increase lasted for approximately 250 years and was followed by a decrease in the population size proxy after 6000 BC, reaching its minimum around 5800 BC. This was followed by another episode of growth until 5600 BC when population size proxy rapidly declined, reaching the minimum again around 5500 BC. The reconstructed intrinsic growth rate value indicates that the first episode of growth might have been fuelled both by high fertility and migrations, potentially related to the effects of the 8.2 ky event. The second episode of population growth after 5800 BC was probably owing to the high fertility alone. It remains unclear what caused the episodes of population decrease.
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Making Spaces into Places. The North Aegean, the Balkans and Western Anatolia in the Neolithic, 2020
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Journal of Archaeological Science, 2020
We used the tooth cementum annulation method (TCA) to investigate physiological stress before and... more We used the tooth cementum annulation method (TCA) to investigate physiological stress before and during the Neolithic demographic transition in Europe. Episodes of physiological stress are reflected as "stress layers" in the tooth cementum at an almost annual resolution. We used the TCA method to detect and count the number of the stress events for a sample of 21 Mesolithic and 25 Neolithic individuals from the Central Balkans from the period between 9500 and 5400 years BC. In accord with the theory of the Neolithic demographic transition, we hypothesize that the Neolithic individuals will have more stress than the Mesolithic individuals. Our results suggest that the Neolithic females had significantly more stress layers in the tooth cementum per year of life than the Mesolithic females. The difference between Mesolithic and Neolithic males was not statistically significant. We conclude that Neolithic women had more physiological stress episodes than Mesolithic women. The differential pattern between sexes, combined with the fact that pregnancies are one of the major causes of stress layer formation in tooth cementum, might indicate that the observed differences are mostly due to increased fertility in the Neolithic.
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Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2020
The new set of radiocarbon dates was used to explore the timing and tempo of the Neolithic expans... more The new set of radiocarbon dates was used to explore the timing and tempo of the Neolithic expansion across the Central Balkans. Our results suggest that the first farmers arrived in this region around or few decades before 6200 cal BC. The observed spatio-temporal pattern based on the radiocarbon data suggests that the general direction of the expansion was along the south-north axis. The regression analysis (arrival time vs. distance from the origin of expansion in northern Greece) was used to estimate the Neolithic front speed. The results of this analysis suggest that there is a moderate fit of the linear model. Most of the front speed estimates based on the Central Balkan data are between 1 and 2.5 km/year (depending on the data subset and the statistical technique) which is mostly above the expected range (around 1 km/year) for the standard wave of advance model and the empirically determined continental averages. We conclude that the spatio-temporal pattern of the Neolithic expansion in the Central Balkans is broadly consistent with the predictions of the wave of advance model, with the possibility of sporadic leapfrog migration events. The speed of the expansion seems to have been faster in the Central Balkans compared to the continental average.
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Qauternary International, 2020
The Vinča culture represents one the most important archaeological phenomena of the Neolithic and... more The Vinča culture represents one the most important archaeological phenomena of the Neolithic and Eneolithic world in Southeastern Europe. As all other archaeological cultures, the Vinča culture is defined in the era of culture-historical archaeology, representing a set of sites with similar material culture with a core area in the Central Balkans. The task of modern archaeological research is to reconstruct social and cultural processes that gave rise to the observed patterns of material culture. In this paper I explore two partially related issues: 1) the formation of the Vinča culture (Early-Late Neolithic or Starčevo-Vinča transition) 2) regional and settlement demography of the Vinča culture. The transition between the Early Neolithic Starčevo culture and the Late Neolithic Vinča culture was marked mainly by changes in pottery style and technology, as well as in settlement size and architecture. The analysis of the regional population dynamics pattern based on the summed probability of calibrated probability distributions of radiocarbon dates suggest that the population rapidly increased after ~5300 cal BC. The relative population size proxy curve reached its peak ~5200 cal BC and had remained relatively constant until 4500 cal BC when it declined sharply. Estimates of settlement population sizes suggest that changes in the community organization also occurred, as Vinča culture settlements with hundreds of people, even over a thousand in some cases, could support higher levels of scalar stress than earlier Starčevo settlements. The current state of evidence is such that no definite answer can be given regarding the hypotheses about the formation of the Vinča culture.
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PLOS ONE, Dec 19, 2019
Around 8000 years ago, throughout the Neolithic world a new type of artefact appeared, small spoo... more Around 8000 years ago, throughout the Neolithic world a new type of artefact appeared, small spoons masterly made from cattle bone, usually interpreted as tools, due to their intensive traces of use. Contrary to those interpretations, the small dimensions of spoons and presence of intensive traces of use led us to the assumption that they were used for feeding babies. In order to test that assumption we compared 2230 marks on three spoons from the Neolithic site of Grad-Starčevo in Serbia (5800−5450 cal BC) with 3151 primary teeth marks produced experimentally. This study has shown that some of the marks on spoons were made by primary teeth, which indicate their usage in feeding babies. The production of a new type of artefact to feed babies is probably related to the appearance of a new type of weaning food, and the abundance of spoons indicates that new baby gruels became an important innovation in prehistoric baby-care.
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Documenta Praehistorica 46, 2019
The Neolithic way of life was accompanied by an increase in various forms of physiological stress... more The Neolithic way of life was accompanied by an increase in various forms of physiological stress (e.g. disease, malnutrition). Here we use the method of tooth cementum annulation (TCA) analysis in order to detect physiological stress that is probably related to calcium metabolism. The TCA method is applied to a sample of teeth from three Mesolithic and five Neolithic individuals from the Central Balkans. The average number of physiological stress episodes is higher in the Neolithic group – but the statistical significance of this result cannot be evaluated due to the small sample size, therefore these results should be taken as preliminary.
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Etnoantropološki problemi, 2019
Apstrakt: Arheološko iskopavanje, kao osnovna forma terenskog rada u arheolo-giji, često se u okv... more Apstrakt: Arheološko iskopavanje, kao osnovna forma terenskog rada u arheolo-giji, često se u okviru discipline, naročito u srpskoj arheološkoj zajednici, percipira kao fokus arheološkog metoda. Cilj ovog rada je sagledavanje šire slike, odnosno predstavljanje uloge iskopavanja u širem saznajnom kontekstu: 1. Kako izgleda epi-stemološka struktura arheološkog istraživanja i gde se u toj strukturi nalazi iskopa-vanje? 2. Da li arheološko iskopavanje ima neke specifičnosti u odnosu na strukturu drugih nauka, kako prirodnih tako i društvenih? Retko kada se iskopavanje sprovodi kao istraživačka faza konkretnog istraživanja, što razlikuje arheologiju od većine dru-gih nauka, gde faza sakupljanja podataka vremenski sledi postavljanju istraživačkih pitanja i hipoteza. U ovome se ogleda specifična epistemološka pozicija arheološkog iskopavanja, koja je posledica toga da arheološko iskopavanje nije uvek povezano sa akademskim istraživanjima, već se često sprovodi u odsustvu konkretnog istra-živačkog projekta. Najveći broj arheoloških istraživanja vrši se na materijalu koji je već iskopan, dok destruktivna priroda iskopavanja dovodi u pitanje ponovljivost u određenim važnim aspektima istraživačkog procesa, što sve zajedno ima značajne epistemološke implikacije koje će biti razmotrene u ovom radu. Osnovni epistemo-loški problem leži u usklađivanju hipoteza, istraživačkih pitanja i metoda analize sa podacima koji se mogu generisati na osnovu materijala, a koji je iskopan nezavisno od hipoteza, pitanja i dostupnih metoda i tehnika. Ključne reči: teren, iskopavanje, epistemologija, arheološki metod, arheološki zapis * Rad je nastao u okviru projekta Arheološka kultura i identitet na Zapadnom Balkanu (177008) koji finansira Ministarstvo prosvete, nauke i tehnološkog razvoja Republike Srbije, a predstavlja u celini objavljeno saopštenje sa skupa Srpska arheologija između teorije i činjenica VII: Arheološki teren, autoritet i moć održanog 29. i 30. marta 2019. godine na Filozofskom fakultetu Univerziteta u Beogradu. Zahvaljujem se dr Mladenu Nikoliću na korisnim komentarima. Takođe, zahvaljujem se anonimnom recenzentu na sugestijama. Odgovornost za sve preostale propuste i greške je isključivo moja.
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Habitus? The Social Dimension of Technology and Transformation (eds. S. Kadrow and J. Müller), 2019
The long period from ~6500 cal BCE to ~4200 cal BCE in the Balkans is associated with changes in ... more The long period from ~6500 cal BCE to ~4200 cal BCE in the Balkans is associated with changes in different aspects of culture and society, which include changes in technology. As a matter of fact, the entire period is divided into two major units ˗ the Neolithic and Eneolithic ˗ based on the single technological criterion, which is the invention and development of copper metallurgy. As technology can be both cause and/or consequence of sociocultural change, in this paper I review and discuss the appearance and development of technology during the Neolithic and Eneolithic in the Balkans with the aim to address the following questions. What were the major technological changes during this long period? Can we identify their direct or indirect causes in other aspects of culture and society and, most importantly, what were the social implications and consequences of different technological developments?
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Journal of Archaeological Science: reports, 2019
The research of human induced tooth marks on bone surface represents a promising field of investi... more The research of human induced tooth marks on bone surface represents a promising field of investigation of high interest for archaeologists. The aim of this study was to address the issue of equifinality of tooth marks recognition and analysis using experimental setup involving permanent teeth. Five volunteers mouthed and chewed fresh metatarsal bovine bone. A total of > 2000 marks were recorded and the type, geometry and metrics reported. Differences between tooth type and intensity level employed for marks formation were also described. The obtained data may support the identification and recognition of human tooth marks in the archaeological context.
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The Encyclopedia of Archaeological Sciences, 2018
Seriation is a method for relative dating. The purpose of seriation is to arrange archaeological ... more Seriation is a method for relative dating. The purpose of seriation is to arrange archaeological entities into a relative chronological sequence based on their formal properties. This is done by arranging units in a sequence in which the dissimilarity between adjacent pairs of entities in the sequence is minimized, and, therefore, the most similar entities are next to each other in the resulting sequence. Most commonly, seriation is applied to presence/absence data (occurrence seriation) or frequency data (frequency seriation). Seriation can be performed on attributes of artifacts, artifacts, or assemblages. Seriation is a general method that can be performed by different techniques. In contemporary archaeology, it is usually performed by using multivariate exploratory techniques such as correspondence analysis or multidimensional scaling. Recent research within cultural transmission theory has extended the use of seriation beyond relative dating by demonstrating its utility for studying cultural dynamics in time and space.
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Journal of Archaeological Research, 2019
The subject of this paper is the social structure and sociocultural evolution of Balkan Neolithic... more The subject of this paper is the social structure and sociocultural evolution of Balkan Neolithic and Eneolithic societies between 6500 and 4200 BC. I draw on archaeological evidence from three major regions of the Balkans related to demography, settlement, economy, warfare, and differences in status and wealth between individuals and groups to evaluate the degree and kind of social complexity and inequality. The trend in these data is of increase in social complexity and inequality over two millennia following the introduction of agriculture to the Balkans, as the simple and small hamlets of the late seventh and early sixth millennia transformed into large villages and tell sites of the late sixth and fifth millennia, in parallel with the development of copper metallurgy and regional exchange networks. There is no evidence of social stratification or the formation of complex systems of regional integration such as (proto)states or urban centers. The Balkan communities of this period were essentially village communities with social inequalities, when present, limited to differences in prestige and potentially rank.
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Documenta Praehistorica, 2024
Since 2020 a wealth of new data has been generated on the beginning of the Neolithic in the centr... more Since 2020 a wealth of new data has been generated on the beginning of the Neolithic in the central Balkans. The picture that has emerged is broadly consistent with the Wave of Advance model, with the first farmers arriving in the region around 6250 BC and expanding gradually towards the north. In this paper, an updated review of the evidence and interpretations is presented, and potentially problematic or ambiguous aspects of the current interpretations of the Neolithic expansion in the Balkans are identified. Alternative hypotheses and means of their testing are also discussed.
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Journal of Archaeological Science, 2024
Understanding the nature of copying errors in the cultural transmission of material culture is hi... more Understanding the nature of copying errors in the cultural transmission of material culture is highly relevant for students of cultural evolution, especially in the field of evolutionary archaeology. In this paper, we set up a classic transmission chain experiment, which involves making clay anthropomorphic figurines, to explore the nature of the copying error related to the production of 3D objects. The experiment consists of four independent transmission chains, each with 10 participants. Three chains are non-expert chains, as they consist of students of archaeology and psychology with no formal training in arts. The fourth is an expert chain consisting of art students. Our results show that the copying error predictably differs between the experts and the non-experts – it is lower in the expert chain. However, in both groups, the error is higher than predicted by the models that assume that the copying error is only due to imperfections in the perception of linear dimensions. Taken together, these two results suggest that, in addition to the error in perception, the error in the execution contributes significantly to the overall error, as predicted by the recently formulated object-mediated transmission model (Crema et al., 2023). The results of our experiment also show that the errors are often biased rather than random, suggesting that the transmission process involves the transformations anticipated by the cultural attraction theory.
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Društvena nejednakost prepoznata je kao problem današnjice, a proučavanje korena i mehanizama nas... more Društvena nejednakost prepoznata je kao problem današnjice, a
proučavanje korena i mehanizama nastanka društvene nejednakosti predstavlja jedan
od velikih izazova savremene arheologije. Kasni neolit centralnog Balkana (5300–4500
god. p.n.e.) ima poseban značaj za proučavanje društvene nejednakosti u evropskoj
praistoriji, jer je to period u kome ljudi počinju da žive u velikim naseljima, a arheološki
je dokumentovano i prisustvo potencijalnih markera prestiža i statusa. Postavlja se
pitanje da li je u ovim društvima došlo do razvoja nejednakosti, u kom obliku i u kom
stepenu? Cilj rada je da se na osnovu novih podataka o stambenim objektima sa tri
kasnoneolitska lokaliteta na teritoriji Srbije kvantifikuje stepen nejednakosti između
domaćinstava. Dobijeni rezultati će biti kritički ocenjeni i kontekstualizovani u širem
okviru proučavanja društvene nejednakosti u VI i V milenijumu p.n.e. na području
jugoistočne Evrope.
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Journal of Archaeological Science, 2021
This work is a reply to the comment by Edinborough et al. (2021) on our recently published paper ... more This work is a reply to the comment by Edinborough et al. (2021) on our recently published paper (Penezić et al., 2020). In our original paper we presented the results based on the tooth cementum annulation analysis that show that the Neolithic females had higher levels of physiological stress than the Mesolithic females in the Central Balkans. We proposed the hypothesis that this was caused by differences in fertility. In their comment on our paper, Edinborough et al. (2021) question: 1) the accuracy and precision of the TCA analysis as the age estimation method 2) that pregnancies leave traces in the tooth cementum 3) our interpretation of the results. In this reply we argue: 1) that the TCA is a reliable method for age estimation 2) that the reflection of pregnancies in the tooth cementum was established by independent and previously published research and 3) we clarify that our interpretation - that the increased fertility in the Neolithic period may be the cause of the observed patterns - is a hypothesis that needs to be further tested rather than the final conclusion of our original paper.
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by Miljana Radivojević, Thilo Rehren, Benjamin Roberts, Neda Mirković-Marić, Patrick Mertl, Milica Rajicic, Silvia Amicone, Vidan Dimic, Dragana Filipovic, Jelena Bulatović, Marko Porčić, Enrica Bonato, and Ernst Pernicka
The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia: Evolution, Organisation and Consumption of Early Metal in the Balkans, 2021
The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia is a landmark study in the origins of metallurgy. The project a... more The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia is a landmark study in the origins of metallurgy. The project aimed to trace the invention and innovation of metallurgy in the Balkans. It combined targeted excavations and surveys with extensive scientific analyses at two Neolithic-Chalcolithic copper production and consumption sites, Belovode and Pločnik, in Serbia. At Belovode, the project revealed chronologically and contextually secure evidence for copper smelting in the 49th century BC. This confirms the earlier interpretation of c. 7000-year-old metallurgy at the site, making it the earliest record of fully developed metallurgical activity in the world. However, far from being a rare and elite practice, metallurgy at both Belovode and Pločnik is demonstrated to have been a common and communal craft activity.
This monograph reviews the pre-existing scholarship on early metallurgy in the Balkans. It subsequently presents detailed results from the excavations, surveys and scientific analyses conducted at Belovode and Pločnik. These are followed by new and up-to-date regional syntheses by leading specialists on the Neolithic-Chalcolithic material culture, technologies, settlement and subsistence practices in the Central Balkans. Finally, the monograph places the project results in the context of major debates surrounding early metallurgy in Eurasia before proposing a new agenda for global early metallurgy studies.
Open access and fully downloadable from:
https://doi.org/10.32028/9781803270425
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Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2021
What was driving the migrations of the first farmers across Europe? How were demography, society,... more What was driving the migrations of the first farmers across Europe? How were demography, society, and environment interconnected to give rise to the macroregional expansion pattern that archaeology is revealing? We simulate the demography and spatial behavior of the first farming communities in the Central Balkans in order to infer the parameters and mechanisms of the Neolithic expansion in this part of Europe. We compare the simulation output to the empirical record of radiocarbon dates in order to systematically evaluate which expansion scenarios were the most probable. Our results suggest that if the expansion of the Neolithic unfolded in accord with the specific wave of advance model that we presented in this paper, the expansion was driven by very high fertility and community fission to avoid social tensions. The simulation suggests that the number of children born by an average Neolithic woman who lived through her entire fertile period was around 8 children or more, which is on the high end of the ethnographically recorded human total fertility rate spectrum. The most plausible simulated fission threshold values are between 50 and 100 people, which is usually smaller than the estimated environmental carrying capacity. This would suggest that the primary reason for the community fission and for seeking out new land was social rather than ecological.
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Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 2021
In this paper, we test the hypothesis of the Neolithic Demographic Transition in the Central Balk... more In this paper, we test the hypothesis of the Neolithic Demographic
Transition in the Central Balkan Early Neolithic (6250–5300 BC) by applying the method of summed calibrated probability distributions to the set of more than 200 new radiocarbon dates from Serbia. The results suggest that there was an increase in population size after the first farmers arrived to the study area around 6250 BC. This increase lasted for approximately 250 years and was followed by a decrease in the population size proxy after 6000 BC, reaching its minimum around 5800 BC. This was followed by another episode of growth until 5600 BC when population size proxy rapidly declined, reaching the minimum again around 5500 BC. The reconstructed intrinsic growth rate value indicates that the first episode of growth might have been fuelled both by high fertility and migrations, potentially related to the effects of the 8.2 ky event. The second episode of population growth after 5800 BC was probably owing to the high fertility alone. It remains unclear what caused the episodes of population decrease.
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Making Spaces into Places. The North Aegean, the Balkans and Western Anatolia in the Neolithic, 2020
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Journal of Archaeological Science, 2020
We used the tooth cementum annulation method (TCA) to investigate physiological stress before and... more We used the tooth cementum annulation method (TCA) to investigate physiological stress before and during the Neolithic demographic transition in Europe. Episodes of physiological stress are reflected as "stress layers" in the tooth cementum at an almost annual resolution. We used the TCA method to detect and count the number of the stress events for a sample of 21 Mesolithic and 25 Neolithic individuals from the Central Balkans from the period between 9500 and 5400 years BC. In accord with the theory of the Neolithic demographic transition, we hypothesize that the Neolithic individuals will have more stress than the Mesolithic individuals. Our results suggest that the Neolithic females had significantly more stress layers in the tooth cementum per year of life than the Mesolithic females. The difference between Mesolithic and Neolithic males was not statistically significant. We conclude that Neolithic women had more physiological stress episodes than Mesolithic women. The differential pattern between sexes, combined with the fact that pregnancies are one of the major causes of stress layer formation in tooth cementum, might indicate that the observed differences are mostly due to increased fertility in the Neolithic.
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Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2020
The new set of radiocarbon dates was used to explore the timing and tempo of the Neolithic expans... more The new set of radiocarbon dates was used to explore the timing and tempo of the Neolithic expansion across the Central Balkans. Our results suggest that the first farmers arrived in this region around or few decades before 6200 cal BC. The observed spatio-temporal pattern based on the radiocarbon data suggests that the general direction of the expansion was along the south-north axis. The regression analysis (arrival time vs. distance from the origin of expansion in northern Greece) was used to estimate the Neolithic front speed. The results of this analysis suggest that there is a moderate fit of the linear model. Most of the front speed estimates based on the Central Balkan data are between 1 and 2.5 km/year (depending on the data subset and the statistical technique) which is mostly above the expected range (around 1 km/year) for the standard wave of advance model and the empirically determined continental averages. We conclude that the spatio-temporal pattern of the Neolithic expansion in the Central Balkans is broadly consistent with the predictions of the wave of advance model, with the possibility of sporadic leapfrog migration events. The speed of the expansion seems to have been faster in the Central Balkans compared to the continental average.
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Qauternary International, 2020
The Vinča culture represents one the most important archaeological phenomena of the Neolithic and... more The Vinča culture represents one the most important archaeological phenomena of the Neolithic and Eneolithic world in Southeastern Europe. As all other archaeological cultures, the Vinča culture is defined in the era of culture-historical archaeology, representing a set of sites with similar material culture with a core area in the Central Balkans. The task of modern archaeological research is to reconstruct social and cultural processes that gave rise to the observed patterns of material culture. In this paper I explore two partially related issues: 1) the formation of the Vinča culture (Early-Late Neolithic or Starčevo-Vinča transition) 2) regional and settlement demography of the Vinča culture. The transition between the Early Neolithic Starčevo culture and the Late Neolithic Vinča culture was marked mainly by changes in pottery style and technology, as well as in settlement size and architecture. The analysis of the regional population dynamics pattern based on the summed probability of calibrated probability distributions of radiocarbon dates suggest that the population rapidly increased after ~5300 cal BC. The relative population size proxy curve reached its peak ~5200 cal BC and had remained relatively constant until 4500 cal BC when it declined sharply. Estimates of settlement population sizes suggest that changes in the community organization also occurred, as Vinča culture settlements with hundreds of people, even over a thousand in some cases, could support higher levels of scalar stress than earlier Starčevo settlements. The current state of evidence is such that no definite answer can be given regarding the hypotheses about the formation of the Vinča culture.
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PLOS ONE, Dec 19, 2019
Around 8000 years ago, throughout the Neolithic world a new type of artefact appeared, small spoo... more Around 8000 years ago, throughout the Neolithic world a new type of artefact appeared, small spoons masterly made from cattle bone, usually interpreted as tools, due to their intensive traces of use. Contrary to those interpretations, the small dimensions of spoons and presence of intensive traces of use led us to the assumption that they were used for feeding babies. In order to test that assumption we compared 2230 marks on three spoons from the Neolithic site of Grad-Starčevo in Serbia (5800−5450 cal BC) with 3151 primary teeth marks produced experimentally. This study has shown that some of the marks on spoons were made by primary teeth, which indicate their usage in feeding babies. The production of a new type of artefact to feed babies is probably related to the appearance of a new type of weaning food, and the abundance of spoons indicates that new baby gruels became an important innovation in prehistoric baby-care.
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Documenta Praehistorica 46, 2019
The Neolithic way of life was accompanied by an increase in various forms of physiological stress... more The Neolithic way of life was accompanied by an increase in various forms of physiological stress (e.g. disease, malnutrition). Here we use the method of tooth cementum annulation (TCA) analysis in order to detect physiological stress that is probably related to calcium metabolism. The TCA method is applied to a sample of teeth from three Mesolithic and five Neolithic individuals from the Central Balkans. The average number of physiological stress episodes is higher in the Neolithic group – but the statistical significance of this result cannot be evaluated due to the small sample size, therefore these results should be taken as preliminary.
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Etnoantropološki problemi, 2019
Apstrakt: Arheološko iskopavanje, kao osnovna forma terenskog rada u arheolo-giji, često se u okv... more Apstrakt: Arheološko iskopavanje, kao osnovna forma terenskog rada u arheolo-giji, često se u okviru discipline, naročito u srpskoj arheološkoj zajednici, percipira kao fokus arheološkog metoda. Cilj ovog rada je sagledavanje šire slike, odnosno predstavljanje uloge iskopavanja u širem saznajnom kontekstu: 1. Kako izgleda epi-stemološka struktura arheološkog istraživanja i gde se u toj strukturi nalazi iskopa-vanje? 2. Da li arheološko iskopavanje ima neke specifičnosti u odnosu na strukturu drugih nauka, kako prirodnih tako i društvenih? Retko kada se iskopavanje sprovodi kao istraživačka faza konkretnog istraživanja, što razlikuje arheologiju od većine dru-gih nauka, gde faza sakupljanja podataka vremenski sledi postavljanju istraživačkih pitanja i hipoteza. U ovome se ogleda specifična epistemološka pozicija arheološkog iskopavanja, koja je posledica toga da arheološko iskopavanje nije uvek povezano sa akademskim istraživanjima, već se često sprovodi u odsustvu konkretnog istra-živačkog projekta. Najveći broj arheoloških istraživanja vrši se na materijalu koji je već iskopan, dok destruktivna priroda iskopavanja dovodi u pitanje ponovljivost u određenim važnim aspektima istraživačkog procesa, što sve zajedno ima značajne epistemološke implikacije koje će biti razmotrene u ovom radu. Osnovni epistemo-loški problem leži u usklađivanju hipoteza, istraživačkih pitanja i metoda analize sa podacima koji se mogu generisati na osnovu materijala, a koji je iskopan nezavisno od hipoteza, pitanja i dostupnih metoda i tehnika. Ključne reči: teren, iskopavanje, epistemologija, arheološki metod, arheološki zapis * Rad je nastao u okviru projekta Arheološka kultura i identitet na Zapadnom Balkanu (177008) koji finansira Ministarstvo prosvete, nauke i tehnološkog razvoja Republike Srbije, a predstavlja u celini objavljeno saopštenje sa skupa Srpska arheologija između teorije i činjenica VII: Arheološki teren, autoritet i moć održanog 29. i 30. marta 2019. godine na Filozofskom fakultetu Univerziteta u Beogradu. Zahvaljujem se dr Mladenu Nikoliću na korisnim komentarima. Takođe, zahvaljujem se anonimnom recenzentu na sugestijama. Odgovornost za sve preostale propuste i greške je isključivo moja.
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Habitus? The Social Dimension of Technology and Transformation (eds. S. Kadrow and J. Müller), 2019
The long period from ~6500 cal BCE to ~4200 cal BCE in the Balkans is associated with changes in ... more The long period from ~6500 cal BCE to ~4200 cal BCE in the Balkans is associated with changes in different aspects of culture and society, which include changes in technology. As a matter of fact, the entire period is divided into two major units ˗ the Neolithic and Eneolithic ˗ based on the single technological criterion, which is the invention and development of copper metallurgy. As technology can be both cause and/or consequence of sociocultural change, in this paper I review and discuss the appearance and development of technology during the Neolithic and Eneolithic in the Balkans with the aim to address the following questions. What were the major technological changes during this long period? Can we identify their direct or indirect causes in other aspects of culture and society and, most importantly, what were the social implications and consequences of different technological developments?
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Journal of Archaeological Science: reports, 2019
The research of human induced tooth marks on bone surface represents a promising field of investi... more The research of human induced tooth marks on bone surface represents a promising field of investigation of high interest for archaeologists. The aim of this study was to address the issue of equifinality of tooth marks recognition and analysis using experimental setup involving permanent teeth. Five volunteers mouthed and chewed fresh metatarsal bovine bone. A total of > 2000 marks were recorded and the type, geometry and metrics reported. Differences between tooth type and intensity level employed for marks formation were also described. The obtained data may support the identification and recognition of human tooth marks in the archaeological context.
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The Encyclopedia of Archaeological Sciences, 2018
Seriation is a method for relative dating. The purpose of seriation is to arrange archaeological ... more Seriation is a method for relative dating. The purpose of seriation is to arrange archaeological entities into a relative chronological sequence based on their formal properties. This is done by arranging units in a sequence in which the dissimilarity between adjacent pairs of entities in the sequence is minimized, and, therefore, the most similar entities are next to each other in the resulting sequence. Most commonly, seriation is applied to presence/absence data (occurrence seriation) or frequency data (frequency seriation). Seriation can be performed on attributes of artifacts, artifacts, or assemblages. Seriation is a general method that can be performed by different techniques. In contemporary archaeology, it is usually performed by using multivariate exploratory techniques such as correspondence analysis or multidimensional scaling. Recent research within cultural transmission theory has extended the use of seriation beyond relative dating by demonstrating its utility for studying cultural dynamics in time and space.
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Journal of Archaeological Research, 2019
The subject of this paper is the social structure and sociocultural evolution of Balkan Neolithic... more The subject of this paper is the social structure and sociocultural evolution of Balkan Neolithic and Eneolithic societies between 6500 and 4200 BC. I draw on archaeological evidence from three major regions of the Balkans related to demography, settlement, economy, warfare, and differences in status and wealth between individuals and groups to evaluate the degree and kind of social complexity and inequality. The trend in these data is of increase in social complexity and inequality over two millennia following the introduction of agriculture to the Balkans, as the simple and small hamlets of the late seventh and early sixth millennia transformed into large villages and tell sites of the late sixth and fifth millennia, in parallel with the development of copper metallurgy and regional exchange networks. There is no evidence of social stratification or the formation of complex systems of regional integration such as (proto)states or urban centers. The Balkan communities of this period were essentially village communities with social inequalities, when present, limited to differences in prestige and potentially rank.
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Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2018
Archaeological interpretations of continuity and abandonment can have significant implications for... more Archaeological interpretations of continuity and abandonment can have significant implications for descendant communities. Such interpretations are contingent on the social and spatial scale of analysis. We assess the evidence for continuity among the Coast Salish at four of social-spatial scales using a suite of radiocarbon dates
derived from Tsleil-Wat (Burrard Inlet and Indian Arm) and the Fraser Valley (∼3500–250 cal BP). We define continuity as the ability to pass on place-based knowledge inter-generationally – conservatively a span of
60 years. For each social-spatial scale, we evaluate whether we have the minimum number of radiocarbon dates required to assess continuity. We also utilize demographic modeling of the radiocarbon dates to evaluate whether there are significant gaps in the data that would indicate discontinuities in occupation. Overlapping
radiocarbon dates suggest continuity at various social-spatial scales, but our ability to detect long-term continuity increases with sample size and size of the social-spatial unit. The modeling did not reveal gaps in occupation, but low statistical power limits our ability to make conclusive interpretations. These analyses highlight
both the importance of choosing appropriate scales of analysis and the potential limitations of archaeological data sets for evaluating continuity at culturally meaningful scales in the past.
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In this paper, we analyze Early Neolithic (6200–5300 calBC) Starče-vo culture anthropomorphic cla... more In this paper, we analyze Early Neolithic (6200–5300 calBC) Starče-vo culture anthropomorphic clay figurines from the Central and Northern Bal-kan. Our aim is to explore whether figurines were used to represent pregnancy and fertility. We recorded bodily attributes related to pregnancy and birth of the 159 Starčevo culture figurines such the presence of pronounced belly, as well as the presence of primary and secondary sexual characteristics. The results of our analysis show that pregnancy was not unambiguously represented in the Early Neolithic Starčevo figurines, therefore hypotheses about connections between the making of figurines and fertility have no apparent empirical basis.
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Demographic reconstructions (paleodemography) have become increasingly important in the archaeolo... more Demographic reconstructions (paleodemography) have become increasingly important in the archaeology of the European Neolithic as it has been hypothesized that transition to farming and sedentism resulted in an unprecedented population growth – a full scale demographic transition with profound and long-term consequences for society, culture and biology. These changes cannot be understood without the knowledge of demographic factors which played a dual role as both causes and consequences of various socio-cultural and biological processes. In this lecture I present methods and empirical results of the latest paleodemographic research of the Central Balkan Mesolithic and Neolithic populations. During the 6th millennium BCE Central Balkans was the corridor for the spread of the Neolithic from Greece to Central Europe and beyond. There is evidence of contact and interaction between the first farmers and the local Mesolithic communities in the Danube Gorges area that provides a rare opportunity to study the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in great detail. After the establishment of the Neolithic way of life, the Central Balkans witnessed a rise of the Late Neolithic communities during the first half of the 5th millennium with more complex society, economy and technology. Given the theoretical relevance of demography for understanding the particularities of the historical process, paleodemographic research has been undertaken in order to address these important questions: 1. How can archaeologists reconstruct population dynamics in the Central Balkan Mesolithic and Neolithic at various spatial and chronological scales? 2. Is there a population increase corresponding to the hypothesized Neolithic Demographic Transition in Central Balkans on the macroregional and microregional scales? 3. Is there a correlation between climate, demography and culture in the period between 9000 and 4500 years BCE?
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The Central Balkans has great importance for understanding the spread of the Neolithic in Europe,... more The Central Balkans has great importance for understanding the spread of the Neolithic in Europe, especially the issues related to the Neolithic demographic transition, yet little is known about the population dynamics of this region during this critical period. In this study, which is a part of the ERC BIRTH project, we apply the method of summed calibrated probability distributions on the published radiocarbon dates from Serbia in order to make a preliminary reconstruction of population dynamics during the Neolithic in the Central Balkans. The results suggest that there were interesting demographic events: 1) an initial population increase episode related to the earliest Neolithic ~6000 calBC followed by a trough ~5700 calBC which was in turn followed by a rebound 2) another decrease between 5500 and 5400 calBC, just before the transition from the Early (Starčevo) into the Late Neolithic (Vinča) period 4) major population growth during the Late Neolithic period. It should be emphasized that these results should be taken as preliminary and tentative as they are based on a relatively small set of published radiocarbon dates collated from various sources motivated by different research agendas which might have introduced some bias into the results.
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The Neolithic transition, the passage from mobile foraging to sedentary farming, was a major shif... more The Neolithic transition, the passage from mobile foraging to sedentary farming, was a major shift during human prehistory and remains a pressing scientific question. It is hypothesized that this “new way of life” correlates with one of the first important events of demographic expansion. The development of methods allowing for paleodemographic comparison, especially using summed probability distributions of C-14 dates, provides the opportunity to test assumptions about fertility changes between the Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic. Summed probability distributions of 250 radiocarbon dates are used as a demographic proxy fort population fluctuations from the Early Mesolithic to the Neolithic in the Danube Gorges (from 9500–5500 BC). We also use two paleodemographic indicators of growth rate and fertility calculated from Danube Gorges skeletal sample (Hajdučka Vodenica, Vlasac, Lepenski Vir, Padina, Ajmana) as independent proxies for inferring changes in population size through time. We then compare the results from two different paleodemographic methods in order to get a more complex picture of population dynamics. Our preliminary results suggest a gradual population growth during the Mesolithic period, followed by an abrupt demographic increase during the Transitional period.
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In this paper we present preliminary results of computer simulations of cultural transmission pro... more In this paper we present preliminary results of computer simulations of cultural transmission processes in the Central Balkans. We adopt the theoretical framework of evolutionary archaeology in order to model and simulate the cultural interaction between hypothetical sites dispersed across the Balkans in accordance with the Neolithic criteria of settlement. We simulate a range of transmission models from the evolutionary archaeology literature in order to compare their results to the empirically observed patterns of material culture variability such as traditional archaeological cultures. Our preliminary results show that a series of random local interactions can result in spatial groupings of typologically similar assemblages, closely corresponding to spatial distributions of traditional archaeological cultures, even in the absence of any other “external” factor such as an overarching regional political structure or shared collective identity.
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Arheološka kultura i dalje opstaje kao osnovni analitički i interpretativni koncept u srpskoj ar... more Arheološka kultura i dalje opstaje kao osnovni analitički i interpretativni koncept u srpskoj arheologiji uprkos brojnim kritikama. Cilj ovog rada jeste da pruži odgovor na pitanje kako se koncept arheološke kulture može formalizovati i kakve su epistemološke implikacije ove formalizacije. Formalna analiza arheološke kulture podrazumeva eksplikaciju, tj. logičku i kvantitativnu formalizaciju procesa koji stoji u osnovi tradicionalnog „prepoznavanja“ arheoloških kultura. Osnovni rezultat formalne analize jeste da postoje stvarni obrasci formalne varijacije materijalne kulture u prostoru i vremenu koji se ponekad mogu poklapati sa tradicionalno definisanim arheološkim kulturama. Ovi obrasci su stvarni u analitičkom smislu, tj stvarni su za zadate ulazne podatke i nivo analize. Za razliku od tradicionalnog pristupa gde se ovakvi obrasci izjednačavaju sa arheološkim kulturama, koje se dalje esencijalistički izjednačavaju sa kvazi-organskim entitetima kao što su narodi, u ovom radu se insistira na tome da prepoznati obrasci predstavljaju polaznu tačku tj. empirijsku situaciju koju treba objasniti u antropološkim i istorijskim terminima. U radu je predstavljeno kako obrasci tradicionalno prepoznati kao „arheološke kulture“ mogu da nastanu kao posledica različitih procesa tj. različitih društvenih i istorijskih realnosti. Osnovni zaključci su da tradicionalne arheološke kulture nisu korisne ni analitički ni interpretativno iz dva razloga: 1) zato što se radi o subjektivno definisanim obrascima bez teorijske zasnovanosti 2) zato što empirijski obrazac ne može biti objašnjenje sam po sebi, već upravo fenomen koji zahteva objašnjenje. Kao opšti teorijski okvir za identifikovanje i objašnjavanje obrazaca formalne varijacije materijalne kulture u prostoru i vremenu predlaže se teorija dvojnog nasleđivanja, odnosno skup metoda razvijen u okviru evolucionističke (darvinističke) arheologije.
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Pronalaženje odgovora na pitanje šta su predstavljale i čemu su služile antropomorfne figurine u ... more Pronalaženje odgovora na pitanje šta su predstavljale i čemu su služile antropomorfne figurine u kasnom neolitu Balkana predstavlja jedan od najtežih zadataka praistorijske arheologije. S obzirom na to da nije moguće samo na osnovu formalnih atributa figurina doći do ovog odgovora, alternativni pristup je da se druge klase arheoloških podataka iskoriste kao uporedni okviri za sagledavanje varijacije formalnih atributa figurina. Upotreba figurine podrazumeva, između ostalog, i fizičku manipulaciju figurinom kao predmetom, a svaki predmet ima svoju kulturnu "biografiju" koja podrazumeva put od izrade, preko upotrebe, do odbacivanja ili pohranjivanja. Na osnovu prethodnih istraživanja postoje indicije da se u zavisnoti od arheološkog konteksta (kuća, jama, sloj) javljaju drugačiji oblici fragmentacije figurina. Cilj ovog rada jeste da na podacima sa lokaliteta Selevac-Staro Selo testira hipotezu da postoji veza izmedju arheološkog konteksta u kome je figurina pronađena, kao uporednog okvira za trajektoriju upotrebnog ciklusa figurine, i modaliteta njene fragmentacije kao direktnog pokazatelja posledica upotrebe (namernog ili slučajnog lomljenja). Analizom je utvrđeno da podaci podržavaju istraživačku hipotezu tj. da postoji statistički značajna veza između konteksta i modaliteta fragmentacije – posebno je izražena tendencija da gornja polovina figurina bude deponovana u jamama, dok se cele figurine nalaze uglavnom u kućama. Nalaz da su u kućama bile uglavnom cele figurine je očekivan i u skladu je sa podacima sa drugih lokaliteta. Pristrasnost u deponovanju jednog određenog modaliteta fragmentacije u jame može se dovesti u vezu sa hipotezama o namernoj fragmentaciji i strukturisanoj depoziciji u kasnom neolitu Balkana, pod uslovom da se pokaže da je verovatnoća dobijanja datog modaliteta slučajnim putem mala.
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Late Neolithic and Early Copper Age societies in Europe did not develop into early states like th... more Late Neolithic and Early Copper Age societies in Europe did not develop into early states like their counterparts in the Near East and Egypt. Looking for causes of this divergence in evolutionary trajectories has always been a challenging research problem. Recently, claims have been made that hierarchy, specialization, inequality and urbanism were present in the Late Neolithic societies of the Vinča culture.
The aim of this paper is to review and critically evaluate relevant archaeological evidence regarding these issues. Social complexity and inequality are important concepts in the theory of socio-cultural evolution. Theory suggests that the relevant evidence would be related to population size, economic intensification, differential access to valued items reflected in household and funerary domains, as well as indicators of standardized and specialized production of material culture. It is concluded that although there are indications that inequalities were present, and that there was a potential for developing institutionalized inequality, there is no clear and unambiguous evidence that institutionalized inequality in the form of complex polities such as chiefdoms or states actually developed.
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XLI СКУПШТИНА И ГОДИШЊИ СКУП СРПСКОГ АРХЕОЛОШКОГ ДРУШТВА, 2018
Током ископавања насеља Винча-Бело Брдо од 1908. до 1934. нађено је више од 1000 предмета фигурал... more Током ископавања насеља Винча-Бело Брдо од 1908. до 1934. нађено је више од 1000 предмета фигуралне пластике из времена винчанске културе. Фигурине су до данас биле предмет више стилско-типолошких студија, а уобичајено су тумачене као предмети култа и уметности или као представе божанства плодности. Наше истраживање фигуралне пластике са локалитета Бело Брдо у Винчи спроведено је у оквиру пројекта BIRTH (Births, mothers and babies: prehistoric fertility in the Balkans between 10000-5000 BC) који испитује демографске промене у периоду мезолит-неолит. Уколико следимо широко прихваћену идеју да су неолитске популације Балкана пролазиле кроз демографску транзицију која укључује увећање стопе рађања и раст популације, претпоставка је да су биолошки процеси као рађање и трудноћа можда рефлектовани и у материјалној култури, пре свега на фигуралној пластици. Неолитске фигурине су свакако најпогодније средство за приказивање промена на људском телу и наша намера је да тестирамо да ли су коришћене за иконографско представљање једног биолошког процеса-трудноће. Анализиране су 874 антропоморфне фигурине из Археолошке збирке Филозофског факултета у Београду, при чему смо бележили присуство примарних и секундарних полних карактеристика, односно телесне атрибуте повезане са трудноћом, као што су наглашен стомак, изглед пупка и облик тела. Резултати наше компаративне анализе требало би да покажу да ли су наведени физички атрибути везани за трудноћу, на појавном нивоу, приказани на фигуринама и, ако јесу, колика је њихова учесталост у узорку.
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24th Neolithic Seminar. Neolithisation Processes in Eurasia: Retrospect and Prospect, 2018
Neolithization brought great changes to the prehistoric communities in different parts of Eurasi... more Neolithization brought great changes to the prehistoric communities in different parts
of Eurasia. One aspect of change, thoroughly studied in recent years, is the Neolithic
demographic transition. It has been suggested that the demographic expansion on the
onset of Neolithic was caused by increased fertility – increase in the number of pregnancies and consequently babies – which was feasible due to sedentary life and more stable food supplies. These changes in fertility and daily life could have been displayed in material culture. In this study we analyze anthropomorphic figurines as possible representations of body and corporeality. In order to test the hypothesis that Neolithic figurines are related to fertility (i.e., that they directly represent pregnant women), we record attributes of figurine bodies that are related to pregnancy and sex on figurines from different sites in the Central Balkans. If they are, the attributes related to fertility should be frequently depicted on figurines, especially in the initial stages of Neolithic, when the population boom happened.
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25th Neolithic Seminar. Evolution and Cultural Changes in Prehistory, 2019
The study of the typological variability of artefacts in space and time is usually recognized as ... more The study of the typological variability of artefacts in space and time is usually recognized as a focus of traditional approaches in prehistoric archaeology. But despite the fact that traditional culture-historical approaches can indeed be criticized as problematic from both theoretical and methodological standpoints, the central task of archaeology remains interpreting the formal variability of material culture in space and time in terms of anthropological and historical reality. In this paper we demonstrate how cultural transmission theory provides a theoretical and methodological framework for tackling an old problem in European prehistoric archaeology – the interpretation of the Balkan Neolithic anthropomorphic figurines. We present preliminary results from the empirical study of the Late Neolithic figurines from Vinča, the eponymous site of the Vinča culture in the vicinity of Belgrade. The figurine collection from Vinča consists of more than 1000 figurine fragments from a thick cultural layer spanning 800 years of life in this Late Neolithic settlement. As such, the Vinča collection is ideal for exploring the cultural evolution of this important class of material culture. In order to understand the mechanisms behind the formal variation of figurine attributes, we demonstrate how archaeology, experimental social psychology and computer simulation research can be combined if the figurines are studied from the perspective of cultural transmission theory.
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Sa lokaliteta Vinča-Belo brdo potiče više od hiljadu primeraka antropomorfne plastike koje su bil... more Sa lokaliteta Vinča-Belo brdo potiče više od hiljadu primeraka antropomorfne plastike koje su bile predmet više različitih analiza. U ovom radu ispitujemo zastupljenost polnih karakteristika na vinčanskim figurinama i njihov odnos sa drugim telesnim odlikama. Opservacija pola na statuetama i ponekad iz njega izvedene ideje o prepoznavanju roda poslednjih godina izazvale su disonantna mišljenja o opravdanosti ovog metodološkog pristupa. Cilj našeg rada je nastavak diskusije o korisnosti istraživanja ikonografske elaboracije antropomorfnih figurina kao analitičkog puta za razumevanje prikaza pola na predmetima ove vrste. Istraživački uzorak čini 875 fragmentovanih i celih figurina sa lokaliteta Vinča-Belo Brdo, iz fonda Arheološke zbirke Filozofskog fakulteta u Beogradu. Prisustvo ili odsustvo polnih obeležja biće prikazani u odnosu na druge formalne karakteristike poput stepena složenosti izrade, položaja tela (dinamike pokreta), položaja gornjih i donjih ekstremiteta, kao i prikaza nakita i odeće. Na kraju, izložićemo i razmotriti zastupljenost određenih asocijativnih obrazaca u našem uzorku i njihovu potencijalnu vrednost za dalja istraživanja ikonografije vinčanskih figurina.
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EAA 2019. Beyond Paradigms, 2019
Mokrin necropolis, situated in the northeastern part of the Republic of Serbia, is one of the mos... more Mokrin necropolis, situated in the northeastern part of the Republic of Serbia, is one of the most important Early Bronze Age cemetery sites and has been the subject of numerous studies aiming to answer important questions about social structure, culture and physical anthropology of the Early Bronze Age communities. However, the chronology of the necropolis is still poorly grasped – with only six radiocarbon dates placing the necropolis within the wide limits between 2100 and 1800 BC, fine-tuned
chronology, especially when it comes to the relative sequence of graves, is a difficult goal to achieve, which in turn impedes deeper understanding of important anthropological and historical questions. Previous studies that tried to establish the relative chronology of Mokrin necropolis made use of analogies with other sites and seriations based on the presence/absence of traditionally (subjectively) established types of grave goods. In this study we revisit the issue of the relative chronology of the
Mokrin necropolis. We recorded the shape of the pottery vessels using morphometrics in order to have objective measure of vessel form variation as a basis for the phyletic seriation. Multivariate statistics is used to derive seriation solutions based on different metric attributes combined with qualitative attributes. We compare our results with previously proposed chronologies and to the available radiocarbon evidence.
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24th Neolithic Seminar, Neolithisation Processes in Eurasia: Retrospect and Prospect. Ljubljana, 26. – 27. October 2018. Abstract book, p. 11., 2018
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IUAES inter congress – World anthropologies and privatization of knowledge: engaging anthropology in public. Dubrovnik, Croatia. 4-8. May 2016, p. 108, 2016
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1st Conference on the EARLY NEOLITHIC of EUROPE - ENE2019, 6 – 8. November 2019, Barcelona, Spain., 2019
The use of summed calibrated radiocarbon probability distributions method (SCPD) has been widely ... more The use of summed calibrated radiocarbon probability distributions method (SCPD) has been widely used in palaeodemographic reconstructions of population dynamics worldwide. Recent application of the method in the Central Balkans, based on published C14 dates, has shown partial correspondence with the predictions for the first phase of the Neolithic demographic transition, but instead of detecting one episode of major population increase in the population proxy curve, as we would expect based on the theory, the resulting pattern was a bimodal curve suggesting two episodes of population increase and two episodes of decrease. In order to clarify the situation and make a robust and valid reconstruction of the Early Neolithic population dynamics in the Central Balkans, more than 200 new radiocarbon samples were collected in a probabilistic manner from the Early Neolithic sites in Serbia by the ERC funded project BIRTH - Births, mothers and babies: Prehistoric fertility in the Balkans between 10000-5000 cal BC. We present and discuss the new results based on the new set of samples taken specifically and exclusively to meet the requirements of the SCPD method.
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Proceedings of the European Society for the study of Human Evolution , 2017
A major transition occurred during the Early-middle Holocene: Humans entered a new adaptive niche... more A major transition occurred during the Early-middle Holocene: Humans entered a new adaptive niche by settling in favored environments and by domesticating other species. Today, a growing body of archaeological evidence documents the timing of this transition and the study of prehistoric human remains relates this process to specific bodily adaptations. However, it is noteworthy that: 1. varying methodologies and heterogeneous markers have been used; 2. these different markers of physical activity - of different nature and relating complementary biological information - have barely been compared; 3. because of the availability of well-preserved samples, these markers could not always be applied to ecologically homogeneous population or to population for which multiple archaeological line of evidence on subsistence strategies were available. The context of Danube Gorges prehistoric sites (Balkans, 9500-5500 BC) - where the remains of more than 500 human skeletons have been discovered - well-contextualized and covering a sequence spanning the whole Mesolithic and the Early Neolithic - provides the opportunity to analyze jointly behavioral and morphological adaptations on an homogeneous Early Holocene population. The sites of the Lepenski Vir culture document the gradual transformations of mobile hunter-gatherers and fishermen (Early Mesolithic) toward a population of sedentary fishermen (Late Mesolithic - Early Neolithic), which adopted ceramics and finally practiced animal husbandry (Neolithic). Recent results of geochemical analyses indicate that a number of Neolithic individuals were non-locals, originating in some geologically differentiated areas outside the Danube Gorges; these migrants may have brought Neolithic socio-cultural novelties in the gorges (ceramics, polished axes, new type of flint used for tools, different adornments, new funerary gestures...). Therefore, in this study, bone markers of physical activities (enthesopathology, osteoarthrosis) have been analyzed on a sample of 200 adults individuals, together with a new technique of virtual analysis specifically applied on humerus and femurs: morphometric mappings. This technique considers the diaphyses of long bones as “tubes” which can be virtually unrolled and read like maps; measurements of the external topography of diaphyses (the robusticity of muscles attachments), of the thickness of cortical bone (bone robusticity) and
of the internal geometry of bones (second moments area) are virtually taken all along the diaphysis and then projected like maps. These morphometric maps enable thereby to locate with precision along the whole diaphysis the main differences in term of muscle attachments, cortical thickness and bone geometry. Plus, the technique also enable to obtain “average maps” of groups of individuals, which makes possible statistical comparisons. Results: 1. confirm long bone morphological adaptation to sedentism, especially a gradual and diachronic trend of systematic decline in lower limbs robusticity, a trend toward more circularity in the geometric sections of lower limbs mid-shaft diaphyses, a reduction in the robusticity of specific entheseal sites and a decline in the extent of pathological entheseal sites located on the lower limbs; 2. suggest a sexual dimorphism possibly correlated to the first development
of a sexual division of labor; 3. indicate that the inner bone morphology as well as outer topography of muscle-attachments of nonlocals individuals are different from locals foragers (migrants from neighboring farming communities?). These results demonstrate the value of the Human Behavioral Ecology approach to our understanding of the broad process of human bio-cultural adaptations.
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The Exhibition Catalogue
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The exhibition marks the ERC’s 10th anniversary and was organised in 2017 by the first ERC-funded... more The exhibition marks the ERC’s 10th anniversary and was organised in 2017 by the first ERC-funded project in Serbia (BIRTH: Birth, mothers and babies: prehistoric fertility in the Balkans 10000–5000 BC; PI Sofija Stefanovic) and the BioSense Institute in Novi Sad, Vojvodina. The displayed objects included artefacts collected from Neolithic sites in Serbia and Macedonia, as well as selected Neolithic botanical and faunal remains.
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