Full of holes: Caves and

rockshelters in the east 

Adriatic between
Mesolithic and Bronze
Age
Dimitrij Mlekuž
Dept. of Archaeology
Faculty of Arts
University of Ljubljana

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

 Affordances

“properties of the real environment as directly perceived

by an agent in the context of practical action”
(Ingold 1992:46)

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 Mobile individuals move
across the landscape on
their daily schedule. As
they move they perceive
affordances.

from Binford 1980

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Grotta Benussi/
Pejca na Sedlu

What does it afford that

an open air locale do
not?

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 “the surroundings are aware, sensate, personified. They
feel. they can be offended. And they must, at every
moment, be treated with proper respect”, Koyukon
informant (Kinsley 1995:37),

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 Animal People
Janet Kigusiuq
Baker Lake, 1981
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 wihkohtowin, ritual eat-all feast among Rock Cree

takes place indoors, in a sealed cabin

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 Personal space/interpersonal distance

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 Flexibility of an
open air camp

from Turnbull 1965

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 Interpersonal distance structures archaeological record

from Binford 1978

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 obore, ograde, hlevi ... so artefakti namenjeni
shranjevanju živali (in ljudi) in tehnologija moči

Cribb 1991
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Wednesday, March 2, 2011
 Mala Triglavca Dry stone wall
(Eneolithic?)
Dry stone wall

Dry stone wall

(Medieval)

Burnt
animal dung Stone platform
(Neolithic/Eneolithic) (Bronze Age)

shranjevanje ljudi 2m
in živali
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 ?

Mitrej
Stenašca

Trhlovca
Mala Triglavca

Podmol

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 Mleko ali meso?
Caput Adriae Combined
100

Phase 1 (N=10)
Phase 2 (N=61)
Phase 3 (N=49)
80

Phase 4 (N=6)
60
% survived

meat
40

milk
20

inf iuv subadult adult

0

0 20 40 60
age in months

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 unintended consequence: new hybrid society emerge,
consisting of humans and non humans alike.
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 Starejše obdobje: 5500-4000 p.n.š.
Specializirane
črede
80% 5%

3%

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 Domača čreda

vsaj 120 repov

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 Podmol

Life history of a
cave: unfolding of
the relations with
humans and non
humans

7500 cal BP

from Turk et al. 1993

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 ash - burnt animal dung

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 deposition practices:
control of flow of
substance into and out
of cave, separating
things that belong
together from those
which do not

from Montagnari Kokelj et al. 2002

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 Conclusions

Caves: locales of dense sociality

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