An international team of archaeologists with the ROOTS Cluster of Excellence has discovered a Late Neolithic settlement near the Tamiš River in the northernmost part of Serbia.
Map of the sites surveyed by the ROOTS team. Image credit: Fynn Wilkes / EU.
The newly-discovered settlement is located near the modern village of Jarkovac in the Serbian province of Vojvodina.
“This discovery is of outstanding importance, as hardly any larger Late Neolithic settlements are known in the Serbian Banat region,” said Kiel University’s Professor Martin Furholt.
“With the help of geophysical methods, we were able to fully map its extent in March of this year. It covers an area of eleven to 13 ha and is surrounded by four to six ditches.”
“A settlement of this size is spectacular,” said Fynn Wilkes, a doctoral student at Kiel University.
“The geophysical data also give us a clear idea of the structure of the site 7,000 years ago.”
“Parallel to the geophysical investigations, we also systematically surveyed the surfaces of the surrounding area for artifacts.”
“This surface material indicates that the settlement represents a residential site of the Vinča culture, which is dated to between 5400 and 4400 BCE.”
“However, there are also strong influences from the regional Banat culture.”
“This is also remarkable, as only a few settlements with material from the Banat culture are known from what is now Serbia.”
The site of Jarkovac in Serbia has a surface area of up to 13 ha and is surrounded by four to six ditches. The deep black angular anomalies indicate a large number of burnt houses. Image credit: Cluster ROOTS / Museum of Vojvodina Novi Sad / National Museum Zrenjanin / National Museum Pančevo.
The ROOTS archaeologists also investigated several Late Neolithic circular features in Hungary.
“These so-called rondels are attributed to the Lengyel culture (5000/4900-4500/4400 BCE),” they said.
“We also used both geophysical technologies and systematic walking surveys of the surrounding area.”
Thanks to the combination of both methods, we were able to differentiate the eras represented at the individual sites more clearly than before.”
“This enabled us to re-evaluate some of the already known sites in Hungary,” said Dr. Kata Furholt, an archaeologist at Kiel University.
“For example, sites that were previously categorized as Late Neolithic circular ditches turned out to be much younger structures.”
“The highlights of the fieldwork in Hungary included the re-evaluation of a settlement previously dated to the Late Neolithic period, which is very likely to belong to the Late Copper Age and Early Bronze Age Vučedol culture (3000/2900-2500/2400 BCE), as well as the complete documentation of a Late Neolithic circular ditch in the village of Vokány.”
“Southeast Europe is a very important region in order to answer the question how knowledge and technologies spread in early periods of human history and how this was related to social inequalities,” Professor Furholt said.
“This is where new technologies and knowledge, such as metalworking, first appeared in Europe.”
“With the newly discovered and reclassified sites, we are collecting important data for a better understanding of social inequality and knowledge transfer.”
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