Bayesian modeling the 14C calendar chronologies of the Neolithic-Eneolithic transition. Case studies from Slovenia and Croatia (original) (raw)
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Beiträge zur Kupferzeit am Rande der Südostalpen. Akten des 4. Wildoner Fachgesprächs am 16. und 17. Juni 2016 in Wildon/Steiermark (Österreich) , 2020
In the present paper we present and discuss the results of Bayesian chronological modeling of the Gradec pri Mirni and Bukovnica settlement and the Ajdovska jama cave necropolis calendar chronologies. Archaeological records at these key sites traverse the supposed transition between the Neolithic and Eneolithic periods and are essential in explanations of the cultural dynamics in the 5 th millennium BC. In the discussion we argue that the 3 rd quarter of the millennium in Slovenia is characterized by gradual and continuous changes in pottery production leading to the transformation of material culture and by continuity of settlement until a final rupture of the settlement pattern, which correlates with events of rapid climate change. Furthermore, an unprecedented temporality of the burial rituals in the Ajdovska jama cave necropolis is presented with a brief period of excarnation followed by centuries-long commemoration of ancestors.
Documenta Praehistorica 39 (2012)
In the paper, Bayesian analysis of 14C dates implemented in the OxCal program is used to develop calendric time-scale chronologies of individual sites and archaeological cultures of the 5th millennium calBC in Slovenia and Croatia. Case studies are presented in which 14C dates are analyzed and reinterpreted with the aid of contextual archaeological data. At the site level, stratigraphic sequences are used in models to constrain and then precisely date activities within them. At the regional level, the results of the chronological modeling of archaeological cultures are used to present them on a calendric time-scale and within a broader spatial framework of Central and Southeastern Europe. Special emphasis is placed upon critical comparison between modeled calendar and cultural sequences. On the basis of this comparison, some inconsistencies and contradictions in the relative chronological schemes of periods and archaeological cultures are presented.
Regional Absolute Chronologies of the Late Neolithic in Serbia. The case study of At near Vršac
2022
The paper presents the concept, methodology and preliminary results of the project Regional Absolute Chronologies of the Late Neolithic in Serbia that started in 2020 using a case study from the site of At near Vršac in northeast Serbia. The aim of the project is to create multiple new regional chronological strands consisting of Bayesian modelled radiocarbon dates from sites with material culture belonging to the tradition of the Late Neolithic period Vinča culture. Combining statistical seriation of pottery assemblages and the Bayesian statistical modelling framework of several case studies from various regions of Serbia, new regional chronological anchor points will be created, thus avoiding constant comparison with the assemblage and dating of the eponymous site of Belo Brdo in Vinča. This approach will overcome the effects of the regionalization of material culture evident in most ceramic assemblages located further than 100 kilometres away from the type site. Using archival archaeological records from previous excavations will enable an establishment of a geography of chronological reference points which would then provide new insights into the dynamics of the evolution of the Late Neolithic Vinča societies and changes that occurred throughout its territory during the late sixth and the larger part of the fifth millennia BCE.
North Croatian Late Neolithic relative and absolute chronologies: current state of research
In: Miroslav Marić, Jelena Bulatović, Nemanja Marković (eds): Relatively Absolute. Relative and Absolute Chronologies in the Neolithic of Southeast Europe, Special Editions 156, Institute for Balkan Studies, Serbian Academy of Science and Arts, Belgrade, 119-134., 2023
Relative chronology of the Late Neolithic in the Sava-Drava-Danube interfluve region (northern Croatia) was introduced in the 1960s and following decades when diversification of pottery styles was more closely studied and named as separate cultures. The most substantial contribution to building a micro-regional relative chronology based on the typology of pottery finds was that of S. Dimitrijević, with later attempts by Z. Marković to re-define relative chronology and add to the still scarce typology of already established pottery stiles. However, splitting up relative chronology into three or four stages of the same “culture” prevailed and is still in use. Attempts to define the absolute chronology are still scarce. Although a fair number of radiocarbon dates have been published, especially in the last 20 years, the quality of samples, lack of sampling strategy, and problematic results received render most of them poorly usable. In addition, there have been no attempts to build a local chronology by combining Bayesian modelling of radiocarbon dates with full statistical seriation of finds from individual sites. This paper focuses on problems related to the past methodology, a new approach to building a more precise local chronology and discusses conclusions about the Late Neolithic microregional chronology of several recently published papers.
PLOS ONE, 2020
In archaeological research, changes in material culture and the evolution of styles are taken as major indicators for socio-cultural transformation. They form the basis for typo-chronological classification and the establishment of phases and periods. Central European Bronze Age material culture from burials reveals changes during the Bronze Age and represents a perfect case study for analyzing phenomena of cultural change and the adoption of innovation in the societies of prehistoric Europe. Our study focuses on the large-scale change in material culture which took place in the second millennium BC and the emergence at the same period of new burial rites: the shift from inhumation burials in flat graves to complex mounds and simple cremation burials. Paul Reinecke was the first to divide the European Bronze Age (EBA) into two phases, Bz A1 and A2. The shift from the first to the second phase has so far been ascribed to technical advances. Our study adopted an innovative approach to quantifying this phenomenon. Through regressive reciprocal averaging and Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon-dated grave contexts located in Switzerland and southern Germany, we modelled chronological changes in the material culture and changes in burial rites in these regions in a probabilistic way. We used kernel density models to summarize radiocarbon dates, with the aim of visualizing cultural changes in the third and second millennium BC. In 2015, Stockhammer et al. cast doubt on the chronological sequence of the Reinecke phases of the EBA on the basis of newly collected radiocarbon dates from southern Germany. Our intervention is a direct response to the results of that study. We fully agree with Stockhammer's et al. dating of the start of EBA, but propose a markedly different dating of the EBA/MBA transition. Our modelling of radiocarbon data demonstrates a statistically significant typological sequence of phases Bz A1, Bz A2 and Bz B and disproves their postulated chronological overlap. The linking of the archaeological relative-chronological system with absolute dates is of major importance to understanding the temporal dimension of the EBA phases.
With the introduction of the radiocarbon method in 1949 and the calibration curve constantly improving since 1965, but especially due to the development of the more accurate accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating some 30 yr ago, the application of the 14C method in prehistory revolutionized traditional chronological frameworks. Theories and models are adjusted to new 14C sequences, and such sequences even lead to the creation of new theories and models. In our contribution, we refer to 2 major issues that are still heavily debated, although their first absolute dating occurred some decades ago: 1) the transition from the Mesolithic to the Early Neolithic in the eastern and western Aegean. Very high 14C data for the beginning of the Neolithic in Greece around 7000 BC fueled debates around the Preceramic period in Thessaly (Argissa-Magoula, Sesklo) and the Early Neolithic in Macedonia (Nea Nikomedeia). A reinterpretation of these data shows that the Neolithic in Greece did not start prior to 6400/6300 BC; 2) the beginning and the end of the Chalcolithic period in SE Europe. Shifting from relative chronologies dating the Chalcolithic to the 3rd millennium BC to an absolute chronology assigning the Kodžadermen-Gumelni˛a-Karanovo VI cultural complex to the 5th millennium BC, the exact beginning and the end of the period are still under research. New data from Varna (Bulgaria) and Pietrele (Romania) suggest that start and end of the SE European Chalcolithic have to be dated deeper into the 5th millennium BC.
With the introduction of the radiocarbon method in 1949 and the calibration curve constantly improving since 1965, but especially due to the development of the more accurate accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating some 30 yr ago, the application of the 14 C method in prehistory revolutionized traditional chronological frameworks. Theories and models are adjusted to new 14 C sequences, and such sequences even lead to the creation of new theories and models. In our contribution, we refer to 2 major issues that are still heavily debated, although their first absolute dating occurred some decades ago: 1) the transition from the Mesolithic to the Early Neolithic in the eastern and western Aegean. Very high 14 C data for the beginning of the Neolithic in Greece around 7000 BC fueled debates around the Preceramic period in Thessaly (Argissa-Magoula, Sesklo) and the Early Neolithic in Macedonia (Nea Nikomedeia). A reinterpretation of these data shows that the Neolithic in Greece did not start prior to 6400/6300 BC; 2) the beginning and the end of the Chalcolithic period in SE Europe. Shifting from relative chronologies dating the Chalcolithic to the 3rd millennium BC to an absolute chronology assigning the Kodžadermen-Gumelni˛a-Karanovo VI cultural complex to the 5th millennium BC, the exact beginning and the end of the period are still under research. New data from Varna (Bulgaria) and Pietrele (Romania) suggest that start and end of the SE European Chalcolithic have to be dated deeper into the 5th millennium BC.
2020
In archaeological research, changes in material culture and the evolution of styles are taken as major indicators for socio-cultural transformation. They form the basis for typo-chronological classification and the establishment of phases and periods. Central European Bronze Age material culture from burials reveals changes during the Bronze Age and represents a perfect case study for analyzing phenomena of cultural change and the adoption of innovation in the societies of prehistoric Europe. Our study focuses on the large-scale change in material culture which took place in the second millennium BC and the emergence at the same period of new burial rites: the shift from inhumation burials in flat graves to complex mounds and simple cremation burials. Paul Reinecke was the first to divide the European Bronze Age (EBA) into two phases, Bz A1 and A2. The shift from the first to the second phase has so far been ascribed to technical advances. Our study adopted an innovative approach to...
The volume assembles contributions presented at two international conferences dedicated to recent studies on the Neolithic and Eneolithic of Southeast and Eastern Central Europe. Twenty years after the publication of the last comprehensive and broad scale conference on the historical concept, materiality and chronology of the Copper Age the International Conference “The Transition from the Neolithic to the Eneolithic in Central and South-Eastern Europe in the Light of Recent Research” took place in Timişoara, Romania on 10–12 November 2011, focussing on regional overviews over the transition from the Neolithic to the Eneolithic. The meeting brought together new data and new perspectives on the final periods of the Neolithic as well as the transition process to the Eneolithic. In 2013, the editors of the present volume organised the session A32 at the 19th meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) at Plzeň, Czech Republic on “Relative vs absolute chronology of the Neolithic of the Carpathian Basin and South Eastern Europe”. The thematic scope of the EAA session was focussed rather on approaches to adjust and revise traditional relative chronologies using new radiocarbon dates and calibration models (Bayesian statistics). Only a part of the EAA session contributions, however, was submitted. The editors therefore decided to integrate the Plzeň papers into the volume originally planned as the Timişoara proceedings. The present volume, thus, has developed a broader scope – both in terms of chronology (from Early Neolithic to Late Eneolithic) and geography (from Greece to Slovenia and Ukraine). It represents a cross section of ongoing research on the Neolithic and Eneolithic in Southeast and Eastern Central Europe.