Vučedol culture
The Vučedol culture is a late Eeolithic culture that existed between 3000 and 2500/2400 BC. In Slovenia , Croatia , Bosnia , northern Serbia and western Hungary as well as in southern Slovakia and Lower Austria . The eponymous archaeological site is located in Vučedol -Gradac, about 5 kilometers downstream from the city of Vukovar in eastern Croatia.
The Mondsee culture in Austria is closely related .
Research history
First excavations were in 1875 by Karl Dežman in Ljubljana Marshes place (the Ljubljana moor). Further evidence of the Vučedol culture emerged from the excavations carried out by Robert Rudolf Schmidt in 1938 on the "Gradac" of Vučedol (near Vukovar ). The settlement is also the eponymous site of archaeological culture.
Settlements
The settlements were located on the bank terraces of the Danube , on mountain peaks ( hilltop settlements ) and on the settlement hills ( tells ), some of which had been inhabited since the early Neolithic . The size is very different, Ciganica near Vinkovci is the largest excavated settlement with 1800 m².
In Vinkovci the houses were very close to each other and were arranged in a double circle. The houses are usually very light, with walls made of a mesh of thin saplings (around 5 cm) that were smeared with clay. The floor was made of rammed earth, the roof was perhaps covered with reeds, although the walls of the houses are actually too thin to support a soft roof. The houses usually had one or two rooms, with a hearth in the center of the house. Furniture has not survived, but there are clay models of chairs and tables. These objects could also belong in the sacred area and not belong to the usual furnishings. In some settlements, vessels were found that were embedded in the ground and that served either as water or storage containers. The ovens were outside the houses, as were underground bell-shaped storage pits that were used to store grain. Some of them also contained storage vessels, so they were probably used as earth cellars. Sometimes in these pits the remains of pigs, dogs, calves and deer can be found, perhaps victims, who marked the abandonment of these structures.
The settlements on the Laibacher Moor, on the other hand, are pile dwellings .
Material culture
The ceramic is very fine-toned and has a very rich inventory of forms. Typical are incised decorations that were filled with a white paste of ground snail shells and resin ( incrustation ), with which the pattern clearly stands out from the mostly black, polished surface of the vessel. Red inlays stained with hematite are rare . The surface of the vessel is usually black and polished. Sometimes the inside of the bowls was so intensely decorated that they could hardly be used in practice. Typical are jugs and cups with contrasting neck, feet bowls and amphorae round bottom, some with barbotine rustication in the lower region of the vessel. The so-called "battle axes" made of copper are also characteristic. They were made with two-part molds.
Economy
Agriculture and cattle breeding formed the basis of nutrition, with cattle predominating among the pet bones. In some settlements of the late Vučedol culture, such as Vinkovci, there is a noticeably high number of deer bones, but whether this is a general trend can only be proven by more excavations.
Fish remains were also very common in Vučedol on the Danube. Harpoons made of deer antlers were probably greater for catching fish. Textile production is proven by round loom weights made of clay.
transport
Four-wheeled carts, which were probably pulled by oxen, are documented by clay models. From the Ljubljana Marshes originate dugouts . The settlement of islands such as Hvar , Korčula and Cres proves the use of ships.
funeral
Body burial predominates within the settlement, cremation under a burial mound is extremely rare and so far only proven in Velika Humka and Humka. In Mala Gruda there was a richly furnished body burial under a hill. Individual human bones can also be found in many settlement pits, an indication that excarnation was common.
Relative chronology and regional structure
A general distinction is made between a Slavonian and a Laibacher group, in Hungary the Zók group and in Austria the Melk group . It is disputed whether the Kosihy-Caka group of southern Slovakia is still part of Vučedol.
- Pre-Classical Period A
- Early Classical Period B1
- Classic period B2
- Period of diffusion with regional breakdowns, C:
- Eastern Croatian (Slavonian-Syrmian type),
- West Croatian-Slovenian (Ljubljansko Barje type),
- West Bosnian (Hrustovac type),
- South Bosnian (Debelo Brdo type),
- North Serbian (Đurđevačka Glavica type),
- Transdanubian (Pannonian-Hungarian type),
- Eastern Austrian-Czech division.
Important sites
- Laibacher Moor
- Mala Gruda (grave)
- Sarvaš
- Vinkovci
- Vučedol
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Aleksandar Durman and Bogomil Obelić: Radiocarbon dating of the Vučedol culture complex , 1989
- ^ RR Schmidt: The Vučedol Castle . Croatian State Dr., Zagreb 1945.
- ↑ Hans JJG Holm: The Earliest Wheel Finds, their Archeology and Indo-European Terminology in Time and Space, and Early Migrations around the Caucasus. Series Minor 43. Budapest: ARCHAEOLINGUA ALAPÍTVÁNY. ISBN 978-615-5766-29-9 . (Cw7)
- ↑ Primas, Margarita., Della Casa, Philippe .: Velika Gruda. Commissioned by R. Habelt, Bonn 1996, ISBN 3-7749-2667-0 .