Contents
Preface of the Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VII
Welcome Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IX
Sven Brummack
New Radiocarbon Dates from Eastern Slovakia. The Cases of Malé Raškovce and Barca Baloty . . . . . . . . 1
Pál Raczky, Alexandra Anders, Katalin Sebők, Péter Csippán, Zsuzsanna Tóth
The Times of Polgár-Csőszhalom. Chronologies of Human Activities in a Late Neolithic
Settlement in Northeastern Hungary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Norbert Faragó
Space-time Characteristics of the Chipped Stone Industry at the Polgár-Csőszhalom
Horizontal Settlement . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Zsuzsanna Siklósi, Michael Prange, Nándor Kalicz, Pál Raczky
New Data on the Provenance of Early Copper Finds from the Great Hungarian Plain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Małgorzata Kaczanowska and Janusz K. Kozłowski
Raw Materials Circulation, Organization of Production and Lithic Technology in the
Neolithic/Early Copper Age Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 93
Elisabetta Starnini, György Szakmány, Sándor Józsa, Zsolt Kasztovszky, Veronika Szilágyi,
Boglárka Maróti, Barbara Voytek, Ferenc Horváth
Lithics from the Tell Site Hódmezővásárhely-Gorzsa (Southeast Hungary): Typology,
Technology, Use and Raw Material Strategies during the Late Neolithic (Tisza Culture) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Attila Gyucha, Richard W. Yerkes, William A. Parkinson, Apostolos Sarris,
Nikos Papadopoulos, Paul R. Duffy, Roderick B. Salisbury
Settlement Nucleation in the Neolithic: A Preliminary Report of the Körös Regional
Archaeological Project’s Investigations at Szeghalom-Kovácshalom and
Vésztő-Mágor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Marcel Burić
Problems of the Late Neolithic Absolute Chronology in Eastern Croatia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Dušan Borić
The End of the Vinča World: Modelling the Neolithic to Copper Age Transition and the
Notion of Archaeological Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Robert Hofmann
The Bosnian Evidence: The New Late Neolithic and Early Copper Age Chronology and
Changing Settlement Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .219
Paolo Biagi
The Middle Neolithic and Chalcolithic Chipped Stone Assemblages of Transylvania:
Their Exploitation, Manufacture and Trans-Carpathian Trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .243
Carsten Mischka
The Iclod Settlement Cluster: Geophysical Survey and Test Excavation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Svend Hansen
Pietrele – A Lakeside Settlement, 5200–4250 BC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Ivan Gatsov and Petranka Nedelcheva
Flint Caches in the Eneolithic Settlement Pietrele-Măgura Gorgana, Romania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Agathe Reingruber
Absolute and Relative Chronologies in the Lower Danube Area during the 5th Millennium
BC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Gheorghe Lazarovici, Cornelia-Magda Lazarovici, Bogdan Constantinescu
New Data and Analyses on Gold Metallurgy during the Romanian Copper Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .325
Michael Müller
On the Distribution of Different Types of Anthropomorphic Figurines of the Copper Age
on the Eastern Balkan Peninsula and in the Lower Danube Valley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .353
Vladimir Slavchev
Pottery as a Source of Information about Copper Age Burial Customs: Data from Burial 43
in the Varna Cemetery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .369
Yavor Boyadzhiev
Tell Yunatsite: Development and Absolute Chronology of the Settlements from the Beginning
of the Chalcolithic to the Early Bronze Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
Ioannis Aslanis
Settlement Patterns in the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age: The Case of the Prehistoric
Settlement of Yunatsite, Bulgaria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .395
Pascal Darcque, Zoï Tsirtsoni, Haido Koukouli-Chryssanthaki, Dimitra Malamidou
New Insights to the Copper Age Economy and Chronology at the Tell Settlement of Dikili
Tash (Northern Greece) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .403
John Chapman, Mikhail Videiko, Bisserka Gaydarska, Natalia Burdo, Duncan Hale
Nebelivka: In Search of the History and Meaning of a Trypillia Copper Age Mega-site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .419
Blagoje Govedarica and Igor Manzura
The Copper Age Settlement of Kartal in Orlovka (Southwest Ukraine) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437
Barbara Horejs and Christoph Schwall
New Light on a Nebulous Period – Western Anatolia in the 4th Millennium BC:
Architecture and Settlement Structures as Cultural Patterns? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .457
Bernhard Weninger and Thomas Harper
The Geographic Corridor for Rapid Climate Change in Southeast Europe and Ukraine . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
List of Authors . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507
Archäologie i
Abstracts
New Radiocarbon Dates from Eastern Slovakia. The Cases of Malé Raškovce and Barca Baloty
Sven Brummack
Several new AMS-high precision radiocarbon dates have been collected from the osteological material kept in the
Zemplínske Museum in Michalovce, Slovakia. This contribution attempts to fill a gap in radiocarbon dates for the
middle and younger Polgár-cultures of Eastern Slovakia and offers an overview of the present state of research on
absolute dating of the Carpathian Copper Age.
The Times of Polgár-Csőszhalom. Chronologies of Human Activities in a Late Neolithic Settlement in Northeastern
Hungary
Pál Raczky, Alexandra Anders, Katalin Sebők, Péter Csippán, Zsuzsanna Tóth
In this study we focus on different levels of space and time, and their interaction at the site of Polgár-Csőszhalom.
Our earlier archaeological investigations there were concerned with macrostructures of the Csőszhalom settlement,
namely the tell encircled by an enclosure system and the horizontal settlement, and we were able to reconstruct
two different space-time reference systems that diverged regarding their basic characteristic features. The accuracy
of classical radiocarbon dates did not permit a comparative and meaningful spatial-temporal examination of the
smaller spatial elements that made up the macro-structures already described of the site. One goal of
our current, long-term research project is a more detailed assessment based on the presently available 32 AMS dates
in order to examine the internal dynamics of the interactions between houses, pits, wells and burials representing
the different physical loci of human activities and events, as well as the spatial and functional associations
of these loci and their spatial ranges. In a visual model of our initial results, the features
and the entirety of the Polgár-Csőszhalom site can be presented as a system of horizontally and vertically
interconnected spatial and social organisational levels, and of corresponding different time-scales. Our basic
assumption is that every spatial scale had its own temporality and dynamics, and that these temporalities can only be
interpreted and contextualised on their own level. At the same time, it also follows from the complexity theory that if
a certain threshold is exceeded, a change in any level will affect the entire system.
In our case study of the complex settlement at Polgár-Csőszhalom, we started from the larger scale-space-range to
zoom in and inspect other levels at a finer grained resolution. Then we examined and reconstructed the rhythm of
temporal changes within the context of different levels and ranges of complexity from another perspective: from the
bottom up. We interpreted the new AMS data on three different levels, using Bayesian statistics: on the level of the
house, on the level of the tell and the horizontal settlement, and on the level of the site’s entirety. The hierarchical
and structured system of the macro-features had similarly complex temporal dynamics. The spatial elements with
different
social ranges had independent place-biographies, which represented the differing frequencies of former events that
blended into the orchestrated consonance of the entire site through levels of decreasing frequency, moving upward
from the levels with the lowest level of organisation. This consonance, blending the diverse frequencies and levels
with differing complexity, incorporates the material relics and categories of finds from individual spatial segments
representing special temporalities in relation to human activities. The space/time dimension of the changes in
ceramic styles, the use of lithics
and copper, as well as of the tools and implements fashioned from them, the consumption of animal products and
their deposition offer a much finer picture of the internal dynamics of the entirety of the Csőszhalom site. Using this
approach, we can explore the segment of former events that have left an imprint in the archaeological
record.
Space-time Characteristics of the Chipped Stone Industry at the Polgár-Csőszhalom Horizontal Settlement
Norbert Faragó
After a dozen years of excavation and another decade that has seen several preliminary reports, a scientific research
group was formed by many specialists at the Institute of Archaeological Sciences, directed by P. Raczky, to achieve an
evaluation of the material of Polgár–Csőszhalom as comprehensively as possible. Spatial analysis combined with
refitting has had a long tradition in French Palaeolithic research. This approach
makes chipped stone tools very suitable for such intra-site evaluations. Now, with the aid
of the latest information technology tools (GIS), hopefully a complex household network analysis can be realized.
This paper gives a short introduction to the methods and means used through the presentation of the very first
results of this long-term project.
New Data on the Provenance of Early Copper Finds from the Great Hungarian Plain
Zsuzsanna Siklósi, Michael Prange, Nándor Kalicz, Pál Raczky
This study discusses the copper finds from Polgár-Csőszhalom and Berettyóújfalu-Herpály, two Late Neolithic tell
settlements on the Great Hungarian Plain. The discussion of the archaeological context and the chronology of the
copper finds are followed by a description of their chemical composition and the results of the lead isotope analyses.
The copper artefacts from both sites can be dated to the second half of the Late Neolithic, to roughly 4700–4450
calBC. Most were made from copper of high purity, which, on the testimony of the lead isotope analyses, were
procured from various sources, among which we were able to identify Serbian and Bulgarian deposits, although
other, yet unknown ore sources should also be considered.
Raw Materials Circulation, Organization of Production, and Lithic Technology in the Neolithic/Early Copper Age
Transition
Małgorzata Kaczanowska and Janusz K. Kozłowski
The paper analyses techno-typological changes and raw material compositions in the Late Neolithic and at the
beginning of the Copper Age periods on the basis of tell-sequences in the Tisza culture (Gorzsa, Öcsöd), the Herpály
culture (Herpály) and the Proto-Tiszapolgár horizon (Bosnyák). These emerging tendencies are traced in the grave
inventories of the Tiszpolgár culture. The tell-type sites shared a strong local tradition during their entire lifespan,
manifested in the same direction of the flow of raw materials and the same technology. These are powerful
arguments for cultural continuity and for the emergence
of tells as centres of permanence and common identity. The signs of the “third Neolithic
(social) revolution” at the boundary of the Late Neolithic and Early Copper ages are present already during the
habitation of the tells, that is, the continuity of networks of contacts and elements of agricultural subsistence
economy. An essential change was that, instead of a tell-type settlement, the focal point of common identity became
burial grounds. Another vital change was specialization of, among others, lithic production,
namely the emergence of specialized craftsmen (including highly skilled knappers,
who made very long blades using pressure technique). In the time interval between the Late Neolithic and the Early
Copper Age, in addition to common traditions of the raw material procurement systems, we can see reorientation of
directions and the increased importance of Trans-Carpathian contacts.
Lithics from the Tell Site Hódmezővásárhely-Gorzsa (Southeast Hungary): Typology, Technology, Use and Raw
Material Strategies during the Late Neolithic (Tisza Culture)
Elisabetta Starnini, György Szakmány, Sándor Józsa, Zsolt Kasztovszky, Veronika Szilágyi,
Boglárka Maróti, Barbara Voytek, Ferenc Horváth
The paper summarizes the present state of the ongoing multidisciplinary research on the stone artefacts (chipped,
polished and ground stone tools) from the excavation of the Late Neolithic tell settlement of HódmezővásárhelyGorzsa, in southeastern Hungary. The excavated area represents the complete sequence of the Tisza culture, from its
early phase to the later. Moreover, the excavation showed that the settlement had a longer life and that it was also
occupied during the Copper, Bronze, Iron, Sarmatian and Middle ages. Some lithic artefacts were collected and
examined from these occupational
horizons as well. However, in the present paper only the preliminary results of the Tisza culture artefacts will be
illustrated. Our method of research involves a multidisciplinary, global approach to the whole stone assemblage, that
is, chipped, polished and ground tools, which were studied from the point of view of typology, technology, use-wear
and raw material analyses. These latter employed different archaeometric technologies, ranging from macro-, meso-,
to microscopic scale descriptions. The results achieved until now have shown that a complex network of interactions
was activated at Gorzsa during the entire Late Neolithic habitation, and that the courses of the Temes/Timi , Tisza
and
Maros rivers acted as main axes for establishing these connections.
Settlement Nucleation in the Neolithic: A Preliminary Report of the Körös Regional Archaeological Project’s
Investigations at Szeghalom-Kovácshalom and Vésztő-Mágor
Attila Gyucha, Richard W. Yerkes, William A. Parkinson, Apostolos Sarris, Nikos Papadopoulos,Paul R. Duffy, Roderick
B. Salisbury
Compared to other parts of the Old World, nucleated,tell-based settlements emerged late in the evolution of
Neolithic villages in the Carpathian Basin. This article presents the results of recent research conducted by the Körös
Regional Archaeological Project and examines the long-term trajectories of two tell-based settlements in the Körös
Region of the Great Hungarian Plain. In this article, we describe the various non-invasive investigative techniques
that were employed to reconstruct the organization of Neolithic
tell-based settlements at Szeghalom-Kovácshalom and Vésztő-Mágor. These techniques
include intensive, gridded, surface collections, magnetometry, ground penetrating radar,
electrical resistance tomography, hyperspectral spectroradiometry, and soil chemistry.
Problems of the Late Neolithic Absolute Chronology in Eastern Croatia
Marcel Burić
Although the first systematic excavation of a Neolithic site in Croatia was completed almost 120 years ago, we still
lack a clear picture of its absolute chronology. The Late Neolithic phase of the whole Eastern Croatia shares the same
destiny. As an attempt to clarify the issue, several already published and some more recent regional absolute dates
are presented and discussed in the paper. Despite those dates, the Late Neolithic
chronology of the given area – embedded in recently available archaeological data for the
Balkans – remains fairly vague.
The Middle Neolithic and Chalcolithic Chipped Stone Assemblages of Transylvania:
Their Exploitation, Manufacture and Trans-Carpathian Trade
Paolo Biagi
This paper deals with the analysis of the chipped stone assemblages recovered from the Transylvanian sites of
Miercurea Sibiului-Petri and Pe tera Ungurească in the Cheile Turzii Gorge. The sites were settled for different
purposes during parts of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods. The industries practiced there have been studied
from the points of view of (1) the exploitation and trade of raw materials, and (2) the typology
of the chipped stone implements. Although the size of the complexes from the two
sites is meagre, they show that the chippable stone resources varied throughout time, according to the different
cultural aspects represented at each site. The procurement of raw materials did not depend exclusively upon
geological and geographical factors, but also upon human choice. The most important exogenous sources are
represented by Carpathian obsidians, “Balkan” and Volhynian flints.
The Iclod Settlement Cluster. Geophysical Survey and Test Excavation
Carsten Mischka
In 2008 and 2010 comprehensive geomagnetic prospection was carried out at the eponymous site of the Late
Neolithic/Early Copper Age Iclod cultural group in Transylvania. Thereby, the remains of burnt houses and an at least
threefold ditch system were detected. The houses as well as the system of ditches are arranged concentrically
around a common centre, an arrangement that is reminiscent of settlements of the Tripolye Culture east of the
Carpathian Mountains. The results of trial trenches
together with geomagnetic prospection of the neighbouring, coeval site of Fundătura, where numerous house plans
were likewise detected, yielded stronger reference points about techniques in house construction. In addition, a
burial containing Pre-Cucuteni pottery found underneath the investigated house plan provided information about
the multi-layered occupation of the site.
Pietrele – A Lakeside Settlement, 5200–4250 BC
Svend Hansen
Without metals a modern industry would not have come into being, nor would there have
been any developments that would have led to its emergence. Archaeological investigations conducted since 2004 at
Pietrele have made important contributions to the understanding of the Copper Age in Southeast Europe including
the construction of a chronological framework, based upon radiocarbon datings that can be connected with
stratigraphically confirmed sequences in pottery. From research on the flat settlement it has become clear that this
settlement not only existed during the time of the settlement mound, but at least 500 years earlier. For the first time
it appears possible that the history of the 5th millennium BC can be traced in one single settlement. In the past ten
years a great deal of new research has changed the picture of this period, especially regarding
chronology.
Flint Caches in the Eneolithic Settlement Pietrele Măgura Gorgana, Romania
Ivan Gatsov and Petranka Nedelcheva
This paper presents the current state of research on some groups of lithic artefacts discovered during the excavation
season 2006 at the Chalcolithic settlement of Pietrele-Măgura Gorgana. These groups of chipped stones were found
in two of the house structures in trench B dating to the second half of 5th millennium BC. The latest
consist mostly of blades, some of them longer than 250 mm, a few crested specimens and retouched implements as
well. The lithic artefacts were made on a high-quality flint raw material and suggest that they were brought to the
settlement from one or several workshops situated on the south bank of the Danube River, within or close to the flint
source in the area of presentday northeastern Bulgaria.
Absolute and Relative Chronologies in the Lower Danube Area during
the 5th Millennium BC
Agathe Reingruber
Some 100 years ago tell sites located along the Lower Danube River began to be investigated and pottery sequences
were elaborated. The various relative chronologies that emerged thereby were provided with calendar dates only
later through the method of comparative stratigraphy and assigned to the 3rd millennium BC. Fifty years ago the first
radiocarbon dates deriving from this region were published: they changed the picture dramatically, pushing the
cultural sequence back to the 4th millennium. Finally, with the establishment of high-precision calibration curves
after 1983, the 5th millennium could be determined as the time for the duration of the Chalcolithic period in the
Balkans. Single radiocarbon datings roughly indicated the centuries to which the different Eneolithic cultures
belonged. Today, 50 years after the values – at that time not yet calibrated – were published from Vără ti in 1963,
whole sequences of dates obtained from short-lived materials have become available, the first such sequence from
Pietrele,
Măgura Gorgana. The structure of the article is envisaged to reflect methodological progress both in archaeology
with improved excavation methods and in archaeometry
with the availability of AMS-equipment. More short-lived samples can be obtained
through systematic soil flotation for botanical remains, and more precise information is supplied concerning their
context. Thus, the length of an archaeological culture or a period can be more precisely contoured and additionally,
with statistical modelling, even the duration of single house phases can be estimated.
New Data and Analyses on Gold Metallurgy during the Romanian Copper Age
Gheorghe Lazarovici, Cornelia-Magda Lazarovici, Bogdan Constantinescu
In this study we present a summary of prehistoric gold ornaments discovered in Romania. In the first part of the
study we focus on the sources of gold in Romania and in Transylvania respectively. Alluvial gold and gold mines have
been analysed in the past decades by different scientific groups, including geologists and physicists, who have
attempted to establish the features of these occurrences of gold. We have achieved a
database for gold items, which includes analyses of archaeological objects from prehistoric and historic times and
from different areas, mainly Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and the Ural Mountains, as well as nuggets or samples from
mines that are kept in different Romanian collections, museums, and universities. The classification
of all objects is quite difficult, because different analytical methods or measuring techniques were involved, and
because the publication standards differ according to the time at which the analyses were made. In our analyses and
classification we have tried to present better correlations that can provide information about the ore sources that
were exploited for gold as a raw material for making ornaments. Tellurium is considered to represent a kind of
directive element for gold sources in Transylvania, and is also present in the Sultana hoard of the Gumelniţa culture
in the Lower Danube area. Therefore, we believe that its association with other trace elements enables the particular
source of gold to be identified. In the last part of our study we present the gold objects found in the cave of Pe"tera
Ungurească (Pe"tera Caprelor) at Cheile Turzii. In this cave we discovered and partially investigated the first known
prehistoric workshop for gold ornaments in Europe. This workshop is related to the socalled “BodrogkeresztúrScheibenhenkel” cultural horizon; it consists of several installations including an oven and a place for a crucible.
During our investigation there more than 78 gold artefacts were discovered, thus enlarging the hitherto known types
and number of these objects related to Bodrogkeresztúr culture. Other famous discoveries (Moigrad, Târgu Mure",
Oradea
or those from Satu Mare district discovered in graves) are ascribed to this culture as well.
Electron microscopic photographs enabled us to make some observations concerning processing techniques used by
Copper Age metalworkers.
On the Distribution of Different Types of Anthropomorphic Figurines of the Copper Age on the Eastern Balkan
Peninsula and the Lower Danube Valley
Michael Müller
The cultures of the Copper Age on the easternBalkan Peninsula and to the north of the Lower Danube River are by
tradition collectively designated as the “KGK VI-Complex”.1 The homogeneity suggested by this term conceals the
fact that these cultures differ distinctly from one another in their pottery design2 and in their use of specific
groups of artefacts.3 In this article an attempt is made to determine the actual extent of similarities between the
archaeological cultural material in the hitherto determined regions, basing on the distribution of selected types of
anthropomorphic figural plastic.4
Pottery as a Source of Information about Copper Age Burial Customs:
Data from Burial 43 in the Varna Cemetery
Vladimir Slavchev
The study of the context, position and type of the pottery found in one of the most remarkable complexes of Varna
cemetery – Burial 43 – provides the opportunity to reconstruct the succession of the rituals performed during the
burial ceremony. Emphasis is placed on the interment of the deceased in accordance with tradition, while at the
same time on specific modifications. These seem to be indicative of changes in beliefs about the afterlife. Apparently,
the message aimed at propagating the idea that in
the after-life a man acquired the status which he had held during life, and for that reason no efforts were spared to
maximize the visualization of his social status. If this interpretation is correct, the change in the burial customs can be
explained with the overall changes in the society: the differences in the social status of its members were so
distinctive that the strict distinction between the representatives of different social groups became standard and was
reflected by the religion.
Tell Yunatsite: Development and Absolute Chronology of the Settlements from the Beginning of the Chalcolithic to
the Early Bronze Age
Yavor Boyadzhiev
The settlement at Yunatsite was founded at the beginning of the Early Chalcolithic and – with an extension of almost
10 hectares – was of impressive size. In the middle of the Early Chalcolithic the highest part of the terrain, which was
naturally defended from east and northeast by the Topolnitsa River, was fortified. A two-metre deep and over sixmetre wide ditch was dug, and a massive clay wall was erected. The wall was approximately five metres wide and is
still preserved to a height of over two metres. The
destruction of the consecutively built structures inside the fortified settlements formed the tell. The tell had a long
life. Until now five building levels of the Karanovo VI culture and three of the Maritsa culture have been recorded.
The 14C dates obtained for the end of the Early Chalcolithic (henceforth, EC) and for the Late Chalcolithic
(henceforth, LC) correspond to the other dates for this period in Bulgaria. They confirm the problems regarding the
14C dating of sites from the second half of the 5th millennium BC in the Balkans. The last Chalcolithic settlement was
destroyed by an attack. After its destruction Tell Yunatsite was abandoned for almost 1000 years. Around 3100 calBC
the tell was settled again by an Early Bronze Age population. A total of 17 consecutive building
levels have been distinguished in the layers of the Early Bronze Age. The series of 14C dates from these levels provide
the grounds to correlate the development of the dates with the flow of the calibration curves. A very good
coincidence for the period 3000–2300 cal. BC is visible.
Settlement Patterns in the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age:
The Case of the Prehistoric Settlement of Yunatsite, Bulgaria
Ioannis Aslanis
The aim of this paper is to discuss two main problems pertaining to the settlement patterns in Chalcolithic and Early
Bronze Age in Southeast Europe: the appearance of fortified settlements and the formation of tell settlement in
Southeast Europe. For this, recent excavation data will be drawn mainly from the Greek-Bulgarian excavation at Tell
Yunatsite in Bulgaria. The first part of the paper offers a definition of a fortification, its necessity, its possible form
and its earliest appearance. Tell Yunatsite represents one of the various fortified forms of Southeast Europe,
consisting of an earthen wall und a
ditch, which encircled the densely built settlement. The second part of the paper discusses what a “tell” (or
“toumba” or “tepe”) is and when its formation began. The settlement of Yunatsite allows a distinction to be made
between two types of tells: tell-formed settlements, which began on the flat land and were fortified, and tellfounded
settlements, which were established on top of abandoned Chalcolithic sites and began as already elevated
settlements. The first type appears mainly during the Chalcolithic period, but also in the beginning of Early Bronze
Age, while the second type emerges only at the beginning of the Early Bronze Age.
New Insights to the Copper Age Economy and Chronology at the Tell Settlement of Dikili Tash (Northern Greece)
Pascal Darcque, Zoï Tsirtsoni, Haido Koukouli-Chryssanthaki, Dimitra Malamidou
Introduction
The tell-site of Dikili Tash, investigated now for more than 50 years (the first soundings in 1920, the first systematic
excavations in 1961), is rather well known to the Balkan and European archaeological community. In addition to a
number of articles and monographs, recent overviews have been presented at several international meetings, all
published in the last decade.1 The work carried out at the site after 2008, within the frame of a new Greek–French
research programme directed by the authors,2 have brought, however, important new evidence about some of the
issues discussed in the Budapest workshop,
namely the economy and chronology of the Copper Age settlement.3 This paper gives a first synthesis of this new
evidence and discusses its impact at the local and regional level.
Nebelivka: In Search of the History and Meaning of a Trypillia Copper Age Mega-site
John Chapman, Mikhail Videiko, Bisserka Gaydarska, Natalia Burdo, Duncan Hale
From being a Late Neolithic–Chalcolithic culture known only to specialists in Central and East European prehistory, in
the last ten years the Trypillia-Cucuteni group has moved intomuch broader prominence, with four metropolitan
museumdisplays (Thessaloniki, Toronto, New York, Oxford). This dissemination of striking artefacts worthy of
exhibition and the general interpretation of these groups is coeval with an increasing interest in one of the most
extraordinary facets of Trypillia societies – the immense settlements known variously as ‘mega-sites’, ‘proto-cities’
and ‘settlement-giants’. In this paper, we seek to define a newagenda for the study of urbanization in Trypillia megasites by contrasting what we already know with what we think we know and what we clearly do not know. The
project is focussed on the mega-site of Nebelivka, with its estimated size of 220–260 ha. A particular emphasis
concerns the identification by Roland Fletcher of mega-sites as the sole global exception to his 1995 settlement limits
model.
The Copper Age Settlement of Kartal in Orlovka (Southwest Ukraine)
Blagoje Govedarica, Igor Manzura
The article presents the preliminary results of the excavation of a multi-layered Copper Age settlement located near
the village of Orlovka on the Lower Danube River in Ukraine.
The archaeological site consists of several cultural layers, which span the time from the Copper Age to the Middle
Ages. Two habitation layers are related to the early and late phases of the Copper Age, which are correspondingly
represented by the Gumelniţa and Cernavodă I cultures. The chronological interval between these two layers is an
average of ca. 700–900 years. The settlements during that time developed in two parts: the larger part situated upon
the hill, which today is exploited to grate extent, and a smaller part located at the foot of the hill. In addition, a flat
Late Copper Age cemetery with inhumations was uncovered at a distance of ca. 300 metres east of the lower
settlement. Diverse structures such as ditches, dwellings, hearths, kilns etc. were studied at both places. The material
of the Gumelniţa culture at Orlovka dates roughly to the middle of the 5th millennium BC, and completely
corresponds to finds from other sites of this culture in southern Bessarabia and south Romanian Moldova. The
settlement of the Late Copper Age Cernavodă I in Orlovka is the first site of this culture discovered in the northwest
Pontic steppe. This substantially clarifies many obscure questions about the prehistory of this region.
New Light on a Nebulous Period – Western Anatolia in the 4th Millennium BC: Architecture and Settlement
Structures as Cultural Patterns?
Barbara Horejs and Christoph Schwall
The Late Chalcolithic period in Western Anatolia and the Eastern Aegean islands can be described as poorly
investigated. In recent decades, however, the number of excavated sites dating to the 5th and 4th millennia BC has
increased. Based on new excavation results from Çukuriçi Höyük, a site on the central Anatolian Aegean coast, in
context with previously published studies of other sites, this contribution aims to shed new light on the Late
Chalcolithic period in Western Anatolia. Our approach focuses on architectural remains and settlement structures
which may point to cultural patterns in this region. It can be demonstrated that different construction techniques of
Late Chalcolithic buildings are observable as local patterns. Stone socles and probably walls built entirely of stone are
recorded in addition to walls built of mud bricks, or wattle-and-daub constructions.
For the superstructure of these socles, walls of mud brick or of simple wattle-and-daub
construction are known. From the architectural structures excavated so far, we categorize four principle types of
domestic buildings in 4th millennium BC Western Anatolia: rectangular buildings, apsidal/elliptic buildings, circular
structures and stone row structures. Solid building techniques with storage facilities as a general pattern in the Late
Chalcolithic seem to indicate permanent settlements as the main living strategy. The closed character of the
settlements – attested by enclosures or the villages’ spatial organization – reflects some complex social organisation,
even if monumental buildings have thus far not been identified.
The Geographic Corridor for Rapid Climate Change in Southeast Europe and Ukraine
Bernhard Weninger and Thomas Harper
Conclusions
With reference to pertinent palaeoclimatological, meteorological and archaeological literature, our detailed
comparison of available 14C data from Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine during the Chalcolithic period suggests
in many aspects a strong qualitative similarity with perceived trends in RCC proxy data. It is hoped that the discussion
here may form a solid foundation for future investigations in climate archaeology, and at least incite greater general
interest in palaeoclimatology as a means of understanding diachronic cultural variation. Far from a “catch all”
scenario (i. e. an RCC “template” of expected behaviours), we suggest that human adaptive responses to climate
change, although systematic, exhibit significant spatiotemporal variation. Seemingly oppositional phenomena, such
as giant-settlement formation in one region being synchronous with settlement abandonment in another, may very
well have common causation. The degree to which the RCC mechanism has a role in this causation remains difficult
to judge, although an initial effort at quantification has been made. Further research into our comparatively welldeveloped archaeological data sets for Ukraine has revealed a significant correlation between modelled demographic
trends relating to the giant-settlement phenomenon and RCC proxies.80 While these results are encouraging, we
conclude that the success of future studies is contingent on the collation of more accurate and expansive regional
archaeological and climatic data. These studies should not only examine super-regional climatic trends and the
remote human responses on a local level, but multiple levels of intermediate responses in ancient environmental and
social systems. In essence, we should strive to reconstruct the entire postulated causal chain. Particular emphasis
should be placed on improving our conceptual modelling, via reference to historical and ethnographic analogies, of
human vulnerability and adaptivity to climatic constraints.