The Late Antique dietary habits in Western Serbia: a case study of the Čačak – Dvorište Gimnazije site (original) (raw)
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Most studies of the faunal remains found within and around structures assume that they relate to the subsistence activities of the occupants. From this basic assumption, the data are used to reconstruct diet and economy. More recently, zooarchaeologists have to come understand that faunal remains may also represent other types of activity areas, such as worked bone production, use, and discard. In this paper, we present newly collected data on the worked bone frequency (tool/ornament) remains recovered from the early urban centre of Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath, Israel that challenge this assumption. Detailed microscopic and taphonomic examination of the zooarchaeological assemblage collected during the excavation of several structures from an Early Bronze (EB) III (2800-2500 BC) non-elite neighbourhood at the site suggests that formal and informal worked bone are present in far greater numbers than normally described in most contemporary assemblages. This suggests that the distribution of bones in residential areas may be related more to use and fragmentation of modified bone rather than to subsistence. Based on these data and analyses, we discuss the significance of identifying use wear polish on even fragmentary remains in order to understand faunal osteological frequencies in early urban settings.
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The paper analyzed 364 sites from the fifth millennium BC in northwestern Serbia in order to observe the process of population fission from the large Late Neolithic settlements and the formation of smaller settlements tightly integrated with one another in the Early Eneolithic. Special attention was paid to the chronology, size, pedology, and topography of the settlements. Lowland-valley microregions were densely populated, while hilly and highland areas were sparsely populated. Larger sites are concentrated in the microregions of Mačva, Posavina, Pocerina and Tamnava, while the smaller ones are distributed across all microregions. The largest and most numerous settlements were oriented towards very fertile soil types and microregions, such as Mačva, while settlements on soils unsuitable for cultivation prevail in the microregions of Rađevina and Azbukovica, which are characterized by hills and mountains, as well as in the most populated microregion of Mačva. Hard-to-reach settlements of dominant elevations (hillfort-Gradina type) in the hilly and mountainous areas and slightly elevated settlements enclosed by ditches in the plain areas (Obrovac type), i.e., the formation of small and very small settlements was viewed from the perspective of the transformation of the Neolithic and the establishment of a new, Eneolithic way of life. The analysis showed the necessity of modern archaeological prospection for a precise positioning of all sites in order to increase the quality of pedological and topographical data, as well as for geomagnetic research and targeted projects in order to evaluate the site areas, human activities in the settlements and to control the chronology by dating as many excavated sites with secure contexts as possible.
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The analysis of macro-botanical remains from the late Neolithic site of Vinča-Belo Brdo has provided first information on the range of crops and wild plants present at the site, and has revealed their potential role as foodstuffs. The abundance and distribution of certain plant taxa across different archaeological deposits suggest to what extent they were used within the settlement. The analysed plant remains also offer insight into the types of food consumed by Vinča residents and serve as a basis for inferring the seasonality and method of food provision/production and activities related to plant use.
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The paper summarises archaeobotanical research in Serbia, more specifically, the analysis of plant remains from Neolithic sites and deposits (c. 6200-4500 cal BC). It offers an overview of the type of material analysed (macro- and micro-remains) and the relevant literature, and describes the charred plant assemblages in terms of the recovery method, the archaeological context, and the identified crop and wild taxa. Certain past and present methodological issues and problems regarding archaeobotanical analysis in Serbia are recognised, and the ‘usefulness’ of the obtained results for archaeological interpretations and reconstructions discussed.""
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