Vinča culture

The Vinča culture, [ʋîːntʃa] also known as Turdaș culture or

Vinča culture
Turdaș–Vinča culture, was a Neolithic archaeological culture in
southeastern Europe, in present-day Serbia, and smaller parts of
Bulgaria and Romania (particularly Transylvania), dated to the
period 5700–4500 BC or 5300–4700/4500 BC.[1][2][3] Named for
its type site, Vinča-Belo Brdo, a large tell settlement discovered
by Serbian archaeologist Miloje Vasić in 1908, it represents the
material remains of a prehistoric society mainly distinguished by
its settlement pattern and ritual behaviour.

Farming technology first introduced to the region during the First

Temperate Neolithic was developed further by the Vinča culture,
fuelling a population boom and producing some of the largest
settlements in prehistoric Europe. These settlements maintained a Alternative Turdaş culture
high degree of cultural uniformity through the long-distance names Tordos culture
exchange of ritual items, but were probably not politically Gradeshnitsa
unified. Various styles of zoomorphic and anthropomorphic culture
figurines are hallmarks of the culture, as are the Vinča symbols, Horizon First Temperate
which some conjecture to be the earliest form of proto-writing. Neolithic
Although not conventionally considered part of the Chalcolithic Period Middle Neolithic
or "Copper Age", the Vinča culture provides the earliest known
Dates c. 5700–4500 BC
example of copper metallurgy.
Type site Vinča-Belo Brdo
Major sites Belogradchik
Drenovac
Contents Gomolava
Geography and demographics Gornja Tuzla
Population Pločnik
Rudna Glava
Chronology
Selevac
Decline
Tărtăria
Economy Turdaş
Subsistence Vratsa
Industry Vršac
Major Vinča sites Characteristics Large tell
Genetics settlements
See also Anthropomorphic
figurines
Notes
Vinča symbols
References
Preceded by Starčevo culture
Further reading
Followed by
External links
Geography and demographics Tărtăria
Turdaş

The Vinča culture occupied a region of southeastern

Europe (i.e. the Balkans) corresponding mainly to
modern-day Serbia but also parts of Romania, Vršac
Gomolava
Bulgaria, Bosnia, Montenegro, North Macedonia,
Vinča-Belo
and Greece.[3] Gornja Tuzla
Brdo
Selevac
Rudna
This region had already been settled by farming Glava
societies of the First Temperate Neolithic, but during
the Vinča period sustained population growth led to
an unprecedented level of settlement size and density
along with the population of areas that were Drenovac
Pločnik
bypassed by earlier settlers. Vinča settlements were
considerably larger than any other contemporary
European culture, in some instances surpassing the
cities of the Aegean and early Near Eastern Bronze
Age a millennium later. One of the largest sites was
Vinča-Belo Brdo (a suburb of Belgrade, Serbia), it
covered 29 hectare and had up to 2,500 people.[4]
Map of Serbia with markers showing the locations
of major Vinča archaeological sites.
Population
Early Vinča settlement population density was 50–
200 people per hectare, in later phases an average of 50–100 people per hectare was common.[1] The
Divostin site was occupied twice between 4900–4650 B.C. and an estimate based on 17 houses suggests
that given a lifespan per house of 56 years 1028 houses were built on the site during that period with a
final population size estimated to be between 868 and 2864.[5] Another large site was Stubline from
4850/4800 BC. it may have contained a maximum population of 4,000. The settlement of Parţa maybe
had 1,575 people living there at the same time.[6][7][8][9][10][11]

DNA analyses show that many samples belonged to the paternal haplogroup H2. Haplogroup G-M201
was also found frequently.[12]

Chronology
The origins of the Vinča culture are debated. Before the advent of radiocarbon dating it was thought, on
the basis of typological similarities, that Vinča and other Neolithic cultures belonging to the 'Dark
Burnished Ware' complex were the product of migrations from Anatolia to the Balkans. This had to be
reassessed in light of radiocarbon dates which showed that the Dark Burnished Ware complex appeared
at least a millennium before Troy I, the putative starting point of the westward migration. An alternative
hypothesis where the Vinča culture developed locally from the preceding Starčevo culture—first
proposed by Colin Renfrew in 1969—is now accepted by many scholars, but the evidence is not
conclusive.[13][14]

The Vinča culture can be divided into two phases, closely linked with those of its type site Vinča-Belo
Brdo:[15]
 Vinča culture Vinča-Belo Brdo Years BC
Early Vinča period Vinča A 5700–4800
Vinča B
Vinča C
Late Vinča period Vinča D 4800–4200
Abandoned

Decline
In its later phase the centre of the Vinča network shifted from
Vinča-Belo Brdo to Vršac, and the long-distance exchange of
obsidian and Spondylus artefacts from modern-day Hungary and
the Aegean respectively became more important than that of
Vinča figurines. Eventually the network lost its cohesion
altogether and fell into decline. It is likely that, after two
millennia of intensive farming, economic stresses caused by
decreasing soil fertility were partly responsible for this Vinča figurine, British Museum
decline.[16]

According to Marija Gimbutas, the Vinča culture was part of Old

Europe – a relatively homogeneous, peaceful and matrifocal culture
that occupied Europe during the Neolithic. According to this
hypothesis its period of decline was followed by an invasion of
warlike, horse-riding Proto-Indo-European tribes from the Pontic-
Caspian steppe.[17]

Economy

Subsistence
Most people in Vinča settlements would have been occupied with
Drawing of one of the Tărtăria
the provision of food. They practised a mixed subsistence economy tablets, dated to 5500–5300 BC
where agriculture, animal husbandry and hunting and foraging all and associated with the Vinča
contributed to the diet of the growing Vinča population. Compared culture. The Vinča symbols on it
to earlier cultures of the First Temperate Neolithic (FTN) these predate the proto-Sumerian
practices were intensified, with increasing specialisation on high- pictographic script. Discovered in
1961 at Tărtăria by the
yield cereal crops and the secondary products of domesticated
archaeologist Nicolae Vlassa.
animals, consistent with the increased population density.[18]

Vinča agriculture introduced common wheat, oat and flax to

temperate Europe, and made greater use of barley than the cultures of the FTN. These innovations
increased crop yields and allowed the manufacture of clothes made from plant textiles as well as animal
products (i.e. leather and wool). There is indirect evidence that Vinča farmers made use of the cattle-
driven plough, which would have had a major effect on the amount of human labour required for
agriculture as well as opening up new area of land for farming. Many of the largest Vinča sites occupy
regions dominated by soil types that would have required ploughing.[18]
Areas with less arable potential were exploited through
transhumant pastoralism, where groups from the lowland villages
moved their livestock to nearby upland areas on a seasonal basis.
Cattle were more important than sheep and goats in Vinča herds
and, in comparison to the cultures of the FTN, livestock was
increasingly kept for milk, leather and as draft animals, rather
than solely for meat. Seasonal movement to upland areas was
also motivated by the exploitation of stone and mineral resources.
Where these were especially rich permanent upland settlements
were established, which would have relied more heavily on
pastoralism for subsistence.[18]

Although increasingly focused on domesticated plants and

animals, the Vinča subsistence economy still made use of wild
food resources. The hunting of deer, boar and aurochs, fishing of
carp and catfish, shell-collecting, fowling and foraging of wild
cereals, forest fruits and nuts made up a significant part of the
Vinča ceramics
diet at some Vinča sites. These, however, were in the minority;
settlements were invariably located with agricultural rather than
wild food potential in mind, and wild resources were usually underexploited unless the area was low in
arable productivity.[18]

Industry
Generally speaking craft production within the Vinča network
was carried out at the household level; there is little evidence for
individual economic specialisation. Nevertheless, some Vinča
artefacts were made with considerable levels of technical skill. A
two-stage method was used to produce pottery with a polished,
multi-coloured finish, known as 'Black-topped' and 'Rainbow
Ware'. Sometimes powdered cinnabar and limonite were applied
to the fired clay for decoration. The style of Vinča clothing can be Vinča figurine
inferred from figurines depicted with open-necked tunics and
decorated skirts. Cloth was woven from both flax and wool (with
flax becoming more important in the later Vinča period), and buttons made from shell or stone were also
used.[19]

The Vinča site of Pločnik has produced the earliest example of copper tools in the world. However, the
people of the Vinča network practised only an early and limited form of metallurgy.[20] Copper ores were
mined on a large scale at sites like Rudna Glava, but only a fraction were smelted and cast into metal
artefacts – and these were ornaments and trinkets rather than functional tools, which continued to be
made from chipped stone, bone and antler. It is likely that the primary use of mined ores was in their
powdered form, in the production of pottery or as bodily decoration.[19]

Major Vinča sites

Belogradchik
Crkvine
 Drenovac
Gomolava
Gornja Tuzla
Pločnik
Rudna Glava
Selevac
Tărtăria
Turdaş
Vinča-Belo Brdo, the type site
Vratsa
Vršac

Genetics
In a 2017 genetic study published in Nature, the remains of six individuals ascribed to the Vinča culture
was analyzed. Of the three samples of Y-DNA extracted, one belonged to G2a2b2a1a, one belonged to
G2a2a, and one belonged to H2. mtDNA extracted were various subclades of U, H, T and K.[21][22]

See also
Tărtăria tablets
Old Europe
Sesklo culture
Varna culture
Hamangia culture
Cucuteni–Trypillia culture
Linear Pottery culture

Notes
1. Suciu 2011
2. Perić 2017
3. Chapman 2000, p. 239.
4. Chapman 1981, pp. 40–51.
5. Porčić, Marko. "An exercise in archaeological demography: estimating the population size of
Late Neolithic settlements in the Central Balkans." Documenta praehistorica 38 (2011): 323.
6. Archaeological Exhibitions (http://www.duncancaldwell.com/Site/Prehistory_Shows.html).
Duncan Caldwell.
7. Jovanović, S.; Savić, Mila; Trailović, Ružica; Janković, Ž.; Šljivar, D. (2003). "Evaluations of
the Domestication Process in Serbia – Palezoological Remnants at Neolithic Settlement of
Belovode" (http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0567-8315/2003/0567-83150306427J.pdf)
(PDF). Acta Veterinaria (Beograd). 53 (5–6): 427–434.
8. The rise of metallurgy in Eurasia: Evolution, organisation and consumption of early metal in
the Balkans (http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk/project/D208DC64-842F-4E99-9C9E-248D8185D75A).
University College London, Institute of Archaeology. 2010.
 9. Porčić, Marko (2012). "Social complexity and inequality in the Late Neolithic of the Central
Balkans – reviewing the evidence" (https://web.archive.org/web/20160303231003/http://arh
eologija.ff.uni-lj.si/documenta/pdf39/39_12.pdf#) (PDF). Department of Archaeology, Faculty
of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia. p. 171. Archived from the original (http://arheo
logija.ff.uni-lj.si/documenta/pdf39/39_12.pdf) (PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 8 October
2014.
10. Porčić, Marko. "An exercise in archaeological demography estimating the population size of
Late Neolithic settlements in the Central Balkans" (https://web.archive.org/web/2016030400
1520/http://arheologija.ff.uni-lj.si/documenta/pdf38/38_25.pdf#) (PDF). Department of
Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia. Archived from the
original (http://arheologija.ff.uni-lj.si/documenta/pdf38/38_25.pdf) (PDF) on 4 March 2016.
Retrieved 8 October 2014.
11. Newsletter of the Association for Coroplastic Studies Number 12, Summer 2014 (http://coro
plasticstudies.univ-lille3.fr/fichiers/fichierspdf/flash/newsletters/2014_12/2014Summer.pdf)
(PDF). Association for Coroplastic Studies. 2014.
12. Lipson, Mark; Szécsényi-Nagy, Anna; Mallick, Swapan; Pósa, Annamária; Stégmár, Balázs;
Keerl, Victoria; Rohland, Nadin; Stewardson, Kristin; Ferry, Matthew (16 November 2017).
"Parallel paleogenomic transects reveal complex genetic history of early European farmers"
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5973800). Nature. 551 (7680): 368–372.
Bibcode:2017Natur.551..368L (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017Natur.551..368L).
doi:10.1038/nature24476 (https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fnature24476). ISSN 0028-0836 (http
s://www.worldcat.org/issn/0028-0836). PMC 5973800 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti
cles/PMC5973800). PMID 29144465 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29144465).
13. Chapman 1981, pp. 1–5.
14. Chapman 1981, pp. 33–39.
15. Chapman 1981, pp. 17–32; calibrated with CalPal (http://www.calpal-online.de).
16. Chapman 1981, pp. 132–139.
17. Gimbutas 1976.
18. Chapman 1981, pp. 84–116.
19. Chapman 1981, pp. 117–131.
20. Cvekic 2007.
21. Lipson 2017.
22. Narasimhan 2019.

References
Chapman, John (1981a). The Vinča Culture of South-East Europe: Studies in Chronology,
Economy and Society (https://books.google.com/books?id=pwSvvQEACAAJ). 1. Oxford:
BAR. ISBN 9780860541394.
Chapman, John (1981b). The Vinča Culture of South-East Europe: Studies in Chronology,
Economy and Society (https://books.google.com/books?id=5bYXAQAAMAAJ). 2. Oxford:
BAR. ISBN 9780860541394.
Chapman, John (2000). Fragmentation in Archaeology: People, Places, and Broken
Objects. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-15803-9.
Cvekic, Ljilja (12 November 2007). "Prehistoric women had passion for fashion" (https://ww
w.reuters.com/article/idUSL0782181520071112?sp=true). Reuters. Retrieved
23 September 2010.
Lipson, Mark (16 November 2017). "Parallel palaeogenomic transects reveal complex
genetic history of early European farmers" (https://www.nature.com/articles/nature24476).
Nature. Nature Research. 551: 368–372. doi:10.1038/nature24476 (https://doi.org/10.103
8%2Fnature24476). PMC 5973800 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC597380
 0). PMID 29144465 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29144465). Retrieved 8 January
2020.
Gimbutas, Marija A., ed. (1976). Neolithic Macedonia as reflected by excavation at Anza,
southeast Yugoslavia. Los Angeles: Institute of Archaeology, University of California.
Narasimhan, Vagheesh M. (6 September 2019). "The formation of human populations in
South and Central Asia" (https://science.sciencemag.org/content/365/6457/eaat7487).
Science. American Association for the Advancement of Science. 365 (6457).
bioRxiv 292581 (https://doi.org/10.1101/292581). doi:10.1126/science.aat7487 (https://doi.o
rg/10.1126%2Fscience.aat7487). Retrieved 8 January 2020.
Perić, Slaviša (June 2017). "Drenovac: a Neolithic settlement in the Middle Morava Valley,
Serbia". Antiquity. 91 (357). doi:10.15184/aqy.2017.41 (https://doi.org/10.15184%2Faqy.201
7.41).
Suciu, Cosmin Ioan (2011). "Early Vinča Culture Dynamic in South-Eastern Transylvania" (h
ttps://www.academia.edu/625659). In Mills, Steve; Mirea, Pavel (eds.). The Lower Danube
in Prehistory: Landscape Changes and Human-Environment Interactions. Bucharest:
Editura Renaissance. pp. 75–86. ISBN 978-606-8321-01-1.
"Serbia's Journey Through Centuries: Prehistory" (http://srbijomkrozvekove.rs/en/prehistory.
html#). srbijomkrozvekove.rs. Retrieved 9 May 2017.

Further reading
Tasić, Nikola; Srejović, Dragoslav; Stojanović, Bratislav (1990). Винча: Центар неолитске
културе у Подунављу (http://www.rastko.rs/arheologija/vinca/vinca_c.html) [Vinča: Centre
of the Neolithic culture of the Danubian region]. Belgrade: Центар за археолошка
истраживања Филозофског факултета.
Vasić, Miloje (1932). Preistorijska Vinča I [Prehistoric Vinča I]. Beograd.
Vasić, Miloje (1936). Preistorijska Vinča II [Prehistoric Vinča II]. Beograd.
Vasić, Miloje (1936). Preistorijska Vinča III [Prehistoric Vinča III]. Beograd.
Vasić, Miloje (1936). Preistorijska Vinča IV [Prehistoric Vinča IV]. Beograd.
Винча и њен свет (http://www.rastko.rs/arheologija/grupa-vinca_svet_c.html) [Vinča and its
world]. Подунавље између 6000 и 3000 г. пре нове ере [The Danubian Region from 6000
to 3000 B. C.] (in Serbian). Belgrade: SANU. 1990.

External links
3D reconstruction of a Vinča house (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3dm__qvp6s) on
YouTube

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