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Archaeological Survey in the Lower Morava Valley, Yugoslavia

Author(s): H. A. Bankoff, F. A. Winter and H. J. Greenfield


Source: Current Anthropology, Vol. 21, No. 2 (Apr., 1980), pp. 268-269
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of Wenner-Gren Foundation for
Anthropological Research
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Much of this discussion centered on female divinities and on through typological seriation (Garasanin 1973:298-306; Narod-
Dumezil's models of trifunctionality and dualisms within them. ni Muzej, Nis 1971:23; Narodni Muzej, Beograd 1972:33-34).
Sessions on Indo-Europeans, early and late, in Anatolia were The Paracin group represents the developed Bronze Age of
particularly lively. Much debate centered on precise migration Serbia. Its center appears to be near the confluence of the
routes: from the west, across the Dardanelles, or across the western and the southern Morava. The distribution of Paracin
Caucasus to the east. New evidence for early Kurgan burials sites can be followed eastward to the Timok drainage of eastern
in eastern Anatolia was introduced. The ethnic character of Serbia. To the west, its boundaries with the contemporaneous
the Hittites and the expansion of their kingdom elicited western Serbian Vlatin culture are unclear (cf. Garasanin
considerable discussion. Here, too, the problem of the precise 1973:298-306). Like Slatina sites, all excavated Paracin sites
degree of Indo-Europeanization was raised. to date have been cemeteries, whose artifactual material has
A section dealing with changes in prehistoric economies been seriated. On the basis of the seriation current in Yugo-
brought about by early Indo-Europeans highlighted the slavia, Crkvina can be assigned to the earlier Paracin phase,
introduction of the domesticated horse and widespread metal while Vrela, a neighboring site, contains material more typical
use to Eastern Europe. Other sessions examined transforma- of the later.
tions in Romania, the Carpathian Basin, the Middle Danube, Novacka Cuprija has material from excavated context which
Central Europe, the East Balkans, and Greece. Individual is closely analogous to that of the Mediana group, contempora-
papers dealt with a wide range of topics, including physical neous with or slightly later than later Paracin (Garasanin 1969;
anthropology (methodology and population studies in efforts 1973:307-10). The Mediana group is best known from the
to determine ethnic groupings), reports on the important southern Morava (Garasanin 1969; Narodni Muzej, Nis
cemetary sites of the Tiszapolgar culture (population analysis 1971:24-25). Similarities between the ceramic inventory of
and evidence for social organization), and a number of new this group and that of the Lower Morava sites attributable to
excavations in Eastern Europe. Much discussion was devoted this time (Novacka Cuprija, Ive, perhaps Vrela) include a
to the crucial and difficult problems of the origins and spread preference for micaceous clay in both coarse and fine wares; a
of the Corded Ware and Baden cultures. predominance of flattish bowls with inturned facetted rims;
Papers and summaries of the conference will be published in occurrence of cups with single D-shaped handles or with
forthcoming issues of the Journal of Indo-EuropeanStudies. handles with button-shaped protrusions; and coarse-warebowls
with finger-impressedband decoration and plain rims.
Jerinin Grad produced a Bronze Age assemblage more
typologically northern than those of the other Lower Morava
Archaeological Survey in the Lower Morava sites in that it contained incrusted wares common to the
Valley, Yugoslavia Danube Valley and highly burnished tan fluted ware similar to
that found in the Vojvodina in the so-called Bosut group
(Tasic 1971).
by H. A. BANKOFF, F. A. WINTER,and H. J. GREENFIELD The Iron Age in the Lower Morava is only slightly better
Departmentof Anthropology,BrooklynCollege,Brooklyn,N.Y. known than the Bronze. Late Hallstatt (Iron II) and La Tene
11210, U.S.A. 7 vIIi 79 (Iron III) wares were found during the surface survey at
Brooklyn College and the Beograd Narodni Muzej conducted Jerinin Grad, Novacka Cuprija, Kutrice, and Mramorac.
survey and test excavations of eight Bronze Age sites around Polished wheel-made grey ware was found on the surface at
Smederevska Palanka in the Lower Morava region of north- Jerinin Grad and Novacka Cuprija North, a Celto-Roman-
eastern Yugoslavia during 1977. Ceramic and lithic artifacts period site, and this and other Roman sigillate wares were
attributable to Starcevo, Baden-Kostolac, Slatina, Paracin, found in the test trenches at Novacka Cuprija South. Kutrice
Bosut, La Tene, and Roman cultural groups were found on and Mramorac contain predominantly Iron III and IV pottery.
one or more of these sites. Although the Neolithic sites of the In summary, the survey and test trenches of 1977 allow us to
region have been the subject of some survey and excavation outline the culture-historical sequence of the Lower Morava as
(Garasanin and Garasanin 1951; Garasanin 1959, 1973; Glisic shown in table 1. The earliest occupation of the area, in the 6th
1968; Tringham 1972), Bronze and Iron Age sites have remained millennium B.C. or earlier, is represented by sites with Starcevo
unknown. The 1977 work thus provides a better, although pottery. During the middle and later Neolithic, the area was
still tentative, outline of the cultural sequence of the region. marked by settlements of the Vinca culture, of which Selevac
During the Eneolithic, the Lower Morava marked the south- and Medvenjak are the most prominent. Later, sporadic
ern limit of the Baden culture, although related Baden-Kostolac Baden or Baden-Kostolac occupation is attested to at Crkvina,
finds are known from farther south along the river (cf. Garasanin Jerinin Grad, and Novacka Cuprija. Slatina material, attribut-
1973:226-34; Tasic 1961; Stalio and Jurisic 1961). Pottery able to the Early Bronze Age, found at Crkvina is followed by
attributable to this cultural group was found on the surface at Middle/Late Bronze Age Paracin wares at Crkvina, Jerinin
Crkvina and Jerinin Grad and in excavations at .Novacka Grad, and Vrela. The developed Bronze Age Mediana group
Cuprija. That the excavated material is also closely analogous occurs at Ive, Vrela, and Novacka CupriJa,while late Iron Age
to that from Gladnica (Glisic 1961) links it to Bubanj-Hum Ia settlements are found at Novacka Cuprija, Kutrice, and
(Garasanin 1973:195). No Bodrogkeresztur or Tiszapolgar Mramorac. Roman influience is most obvious at Novacka
material was found on any Lower Morava site. Cuprija South.
Excavations in a pit at Crkvina have provided material for
which we find analogies in the Slatina group of the southern
Morava (Garasanin 1959:66-67, 1973:293-98; Garasanin 1958-
ReferencesCited
59; Narodni Muzej, Nis 1971:22; Narodni Muzej, Beograd GARASANIN, D. 1958-59. Iskopavanjana Gumnistu-Dackom Ritu
1972:32). This group and other material similar to early u Donjoj Slatini.Starinar,n.s., 9-10:257-62.
GARASANIN, M. 1959. Neolithikumund Bronzezeitin Serbienund
Bubanj-Hum II have been hitherto known only from ceme- Makedonien. Bericht der Romisch-Germanischen Kommission
teries. Crkvina thus provides not only the most northerly 39(1958):1-130.
extension of this Morava culture, but also one of the rare .1969. Die praihistorischeSiedlungBrzi Brodbei Nis und das
instances of an excavated Slatina nonburial feature. Material Problem der spatbronzezeitlichenMediana-gruppe.Archaeoiogia
from above the pit shows strong affinities with the Paracin Istgoslavica 10:85-90.
- . 1973.Prelhistorijana tiluS.R. Srbije. 2 vols. Beograd.
group, thus providing in situ stratigraphic confirmation of the GARASANIN, M., and D. GARASANIN. 1951. Arheoloska nalazista ut
relationship between Slatina and Paracin previously deduced Srbiji. Beograd.

268 CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY

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TABLE 1
AN OUTLINE CHRONOLOGY FOR THE LOWER MORAVA REGION

CULTURE

APPROXIMATE Southern Northern


DATE Morava (Lower) Morava SITE

A.D./B.c ............. Roman Roman Novacka Cuprija, Kutrice,


Mramorac
500-1000B.C La Tene Jerinin Grad, Nova6ka Cuprija,
Kutrice, Mramorac
Bosut Jerinin Grad
1000-1500 B.c........ Mediana II Mediana II Novacka Cuprija, Ive, (?)Vrela
1500-2000 B.c.. (Paracin) I Paracin Crkvina
Slatina Slatina Crkvina
2000-2500 B.c.. Bubanj-Hum III
Bubanj-Hum II Baden-KoFtolac Crkvina, Jerinin Grad (surface),
Novacka Cuprija
2500-3500 B.c.. Bubanj-Hum Ib
3500-4000 B.c.. Bubanj-Hum Ia
Vin6a-Plo6nik II Vinca-Plocnik II Medvenjak, Selevac
Vin6a-Plo6nik I Vinca-Plocnik I
Vinca-Tordos
4500-6000 B.c........ Starcevo Starcevo

SOURCES: GaraSanin1973, TasiC1971, PopoviC1965.

GLISIC, J. 1961. Pojava ranih bronzanodopskih kultura na Kosovu related sites and visited others. Field investigations included
i Metohiji. Glasnik Muzeja Kosova i Metohije 6: 133-44. soil-core transects, detailed measurements of structures and
. 1968. "Ekonomika i socialno ekonomski odnosi u neolitu
Podunavsko-Pomoravskog basena," in Neolit centralnog Balkana recordings of their geographical and cultural environs, and test
Edited by L. Trifunovic, pp. 21-61. Beograd. excavations at four sites. Combined with reviews of published
NARODNI MUZEJ, BEOGRAD. 1972. Bronzano Doba Srbije (The Bronze and unpublished information on other sites, the research
Age of Serbia). (Exhibit catalogue.) Beograd. strengthens the case for historic-period origins for these struc-
NARODNI MUZEJ, NiS. 1971. Les civilisations prehistoriques de la
Mor-avaet de la Serbie Orientale. (Exhibit catalogue.) NiS. tures, despite their reputations as "monks' caves," Celtic
PopoviC, V. 1965. Sur la chronologie de l'age du bronze en Serbie et shrines or altars, Phoenician or Libyan colonial remains, and
en Bulgarie. Archaeologia lugoslavica 6:37-54. so on (Burbank 1976, Feldman 1977, Fell 1976, Goodwin 1946,
STALIO, B., and A. JURISIC. 1961. Jasik-Gornja Komarica. Starinar,
n.s. 11: 157-62. Oren 1959, Rothovius 1964).
TASIC, N. 1961. Djurdjevacka Glavica:Prilog proucavanju Vuce- The phenomenon of public fascination with sensational
dolske grupe juzno od Save i Dunava. Starinar, n.s., 11: 143-56. popular archaeology (Cole 1980, Silverberg 1967, Wauchope
. 1971. The Bosut group of the Basarabi complex and the 1962) is as interesting as the empirical archaeological details,
"Thraco-Cimmerian" finds in Yugoslav regions along the Danube but the latter deserve professional note as well. Neudorfer
and in the Central Balkans. Balcanica 2:27-67.
TRINGHAM, R. 1972. Hunters, fishers, and farmers of eastern Europe, (1979) argues persuasively that most of the approximately 50
6000-3000 B.C. London. slab-roofed, straight-walled semisubterranean chambers inves-
tigated in Vermont were built as root cellars. Massachusetts's
structures may be a bit more diverse in function as well as
"EnigmaticStoneStructures"in Western form. Five investigated were completely subterranean except
for small (less than 1 m) rectangular openings in their upper
Massachusetts sides, and they were characterized by corbeled-arch ceilings
topped with a stone slab capstone; their circular to oval bases
by JOHN R. COLE ranged from about 1 m to 3 m in diameter. Another was only
Department of A nthropology, University of Massachusetts- partially buried but otherwise similar, and yet another was
Amherst,Amherst,Mass. 01003, U.S.A. 21 viii 79 characterized by post-and-lintel rather than corbeled-arch con-
struction. The latter two and one other were filled with fresh,
"Enigmatic stone structures" in western Massachusetts and
flowing water and probably were springhouses. Another, adja-
elsewhere in New England have given rise to a large amount of
cent to an 1840 house, included as part of its original masonry
speculation and argument. Some writers have claimed or
construction two bricks which were indistinguishable from
implied that these dry-stone masonry constructions are evi-
those used in the house. Located outside the former kitchen,
dence of pre-Columbian colonization bv one or several Old
it may have been a dry well for sink drainage (as the owners
World civilizations of antiquity (Cook 1978, Feldman 1977,
in fact assumed). The dry structures could have been spring-
Fell 1976, Goodwin 1946, Trento 1978). The popular press has
houses when the water table was different, but they differ from
capitalized upon often extremist claims while paying less
the currently spring-filledchambers in having sand rather than
attention to professionals who argue that the structures seem
stone floors and no evidence of trenching for a gravity-feed
to be historic (Neudorfer 1979; see Cole 1978, 1979 for news
water supply. One, several meters from a 19th-century ceme-
clipping compendia). University of Massachusetts-Amherst
tery, might have been a winter body-storage vault or a cellar
archaeological research directed by me, assisted by Dorothy
for nearby (but now abandoned) houses and a tavern. It and
Krass and Linda Towle and nine graduate and undergraduate
the other dry structures were extremely well insulated, cooled in
students, was undertaken in answer to public curiosity and
summer and warmed in winter by the water table deep below
our own interest in early New England a(idptive technology
the sand floors; one, at least, had walls extending 80 cm deeper
and its relationship to patterns of settlement and abandon-
ment.' The project investigated nine stone structures and two acknowledged,and particularthanksare due to the Town of Pelham
Board of Selectmen and Historical Commissionand the Massa-
1 The assistance and cooperation of landowners in Amherst, chusetts State Archaeologistfor permissionto conduct researchon
Shutesbury,Leverett, and Wendell, Massachusettsare gratefully publiclands.
Vol. 21 * No. 2 * April 1980 269

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