Average stable C- and N-isotope ratios in human bone collagen can be seen to increase during the

Mesolithic. This may indicate an increase in the importance of aquatic versus terrestrial resources
with time, which could be interpreted as economic intensification. Equally, however, it could
reflect other factors such as changes in the food web.
A new phase of research began in the 1c)c)os with the Romanian-British excavations at Schela
Cladovei and the systematic application of AMS '4C dating and stable isotope analysis to bone
remains from the Iron Gates sites. AMS dating of animal and human bones and bone artefacts from
Lepenski Vir, Schela Cladovei, and elsewhere has exposed flaws in the traditional chronological
framework of the Iron Gates Mesolithic and has laid the foundations of a more secure radiocarbon
based chronology. Stable isotope analysis of human remains has provided a new perspective on the
economic basis of the Mesolithic and the transition to farming in the Iron Gates region, which in
key respects is at variance with previous ideas drawn from osteoarchaeological data.
The degree of 'social complexity' exhibited by thc Mesolithic inhabitants of the Iron Gates and
whether they became more socially complex with time remain contentious issues.
and thus
reflects contact between the inhabitants of Lepenski Vir and nearby farmers in the period between
c. 6300 and 6000 cal BC. However, none of the infant burials from Lepenski Vir has been I4C
dated and so it is not certain that they all belong to the time-range from 6300 to 6000 cal nc.
Moreover the lack of Mesolithic house remains in southeast Europe outside the Iron Gates means
we cannot be sure that the practice of burying infants under house floors was not practised by
indigenous hunter-gatherers before the arrival of farming. As with the lime plaster floors, it nlay
be that the presence of sub-floor burials at Lepenski Vir and their (apparent) absence frorn Late
Mesolithic Vlasac and Early Neolithic Padina is simply a reflection of the special significance
of Lepenski Vir for the Final Mesolithic inhabitants of the region, and not a marker of culture
change.
The evidence ofsymbolic behaviour at Lepenski Vir has also been linked to contact with farmers.
According to Radovanovii- and Voytek (1997) trade relations with neighbouring farmers led to the
illtensification of an already complex social and ideological system within Iron Gates gorge, which
enabled the inhabitants to resist assimilation and preserve their cultural identity and hunter-gatherer
lifestyle longer than was the case in the area downstream of the gorge.
Bonsall et al. (2002) have offered an alternative explanation which links the proliferation of stone
sculptures at Lepenski Vir after c. 6300 cal nc with climate change and a concornitant increase in
flood frequency, magnitude and unpredictability along the Danube. Accepting Srejovit's (I y72)
interpretation of the figural sculptures as apotropaic representations of mythical ancestors or 'fish
gods', Bonsall et al. (2002) suggested they were intended to protect against the growing threat froni
flooding by the Danube, rather than the advancing tide of agriculture.
Arguably, the strongest evidence for the presence of farnlers close to the Iron Gates in the
centuries before 6000 cal ~c is provided by bone chemistry analyses. Stable isotope data indicate
that the people buried at Lepenski Vir during the Final Mesolithic (6300-6000 cal ~c) gen
erally had diets that were very high in aquatic protein, higher even than during earlier phases
of the Mesolithic (Figure 10.3). However, three adults from this period show diets that were
unusually high in terrestrial protein, similar to those of the Early Neolithic after 6000 cal BC.
All three had been accorded the traditional Mesolithic burial rite of extended supine inhurna
tion. One explanation is that these three individuals had spent a significant portion of their lives
anlong a farming population (Bonsall et al. 3004). They may have originated from that popu
lation and married into the Lepenski Vir group. Alternatively, they could have been indigenous
people who nloved to live with farmers and on death were returned to the ancestral home for
burial.
Other interpretations of the stable isotope data nlay be suggested, based on either the inlprecision
of radiocarbon dates or the possibility of earlier 'false' starts to agriculture in the Iron Gates region
(for discussion, see Bonsall et al. 2004). Whichever of the hypotheses discussed by Bonsall et al.
(2004) is preferred, they all suggest that the Lepenski Vir population had at least knotrlle4e of
agriculture and, by in~plication, contacts with farmers for a time before 6000 cal ~c.
Ammerman, A.J., Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., 1971. Measuring the rate and spread of early
farming in Europe. Man 6, 784–688.

Bartosiewicz, L., Bonsall, C., Şişu, V., 2008. Sturgeon fishing along the Middle
and Lower Danube. In: Bonsall, C., Boroneanţ, V., Radovanović, I., (Eds.), The
Iron Gates in Prehistory: new perspectives. BAR International Series 1893,
Archaeopress, Oxford, p. 39–54.
Berger, J.-F., Guilaine, J., 2009. The 8200 cal BP abrupt environmental change
and the Neolithic transition: a Mediterranean perspective. Quaternary
International 200, 31–49

Bocquet-Appel, J-P., 2008. Explaining the Neolithic Demographic Transition. In:

Bocquet-Appel, J-P., Bar-Yosef, O., (Eds.), The Neolithic Demographic
Transition and its Consequences. Springer, Berlin, p. 35–55.

Bonsall, C., 2008. The Mesolithic of the Iron Gates. In : Bailey. G.N., Spikins, P.,
(Eds.), Mesolithic Europe. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 238–279.
THE DIET AND HEALTH STATUS OF
THE EARLY NEOLITHIC COMMUNITIES
OF THE CENTRAL BALKANS (6200-5200
BC)

Bonsall, C., Cook, G. T., Hedges, R. E. M., Higham, T. F. G., Pickard, C.,
Radovanović, I., 2004. Radiocarbon and stable isotope evidence of the dietary
change from the Mesolithic to the Middle Ages in the Iron Gates: new results
from Lepenski Vir. Radiocarbon 46, 293–300.

Bonsall, C., Cook, G., Lennon, R., Harkness, D., Scott, M., Bartosiewicz, L.,
McSweeney, K., 2000. Stable isotopes, radiocarbon and the Mesolithic-Neolithic
transition in the Iron Gates. Documenta Praehistorica XXVII, 119–132.

Bonsall, C., Cook, G., Pickard, C., McSweeney, K., Sayle, K., Bartosiewicz, L.,
Radovanović, I., Higham, T., Soficaru, A., Boroneanţ, A. 2015. Food for thought:
re-assessing Mesolithic diets in the Iron Gates. Radiocarbon 57(4), 689–699.

Bonsall, C., Macklin, M. G., Payton, R. W., Boroneanţ, A., 2002. Climate, floods and
river gods: environmental change and the Meso-Neolithic transition in southeast
Europe. Before Farming 2002/3-4, 1–15.

Bonsall, C., Vasić, R., Boroneanţ, A., Roksandić, M., Soficaru, A., McSweeney,
K., Evatt, A., Aguraiuja, Ü., Pickard, C., Dimitrijević, V., Higham, T., Hamilton,
D., Cook, G., 2015. New AMS 14C dates for human remains from stone age sites
in the Iron Gates reach of the Danube, Southeast Europe. Radiocarbon 57(1),
33–46.

Borić, D., 2002. The Lepenski Vir conundrum: reinterpretation of the Mesolithic
and Neolithic sequences in the Danube Gorges. Antiquity 76, 1026–1039.

Borić, D., 2007. The House between Grand Narrative and Microhistory: a house
society in the Balkans. In: Beck, R.A., (Ed.), The Durable House: House Society
Models in Archaeology. Center for Archaeological Investigation Press,
Carbondale, p. 97–129.

Borić, D., 2011. Adaptations and transformations of the Danube Gorges foragers
(c. 13,000-5500 BC): an overview. In: Krauß, R., (Ed.), Beginnings – New
Research in the Appearance of the Neolithic between Northwest Anatolia and the
Carpathian Basin. Verlag Marie Leidorf Gmbh, Rahden, p. 157–203.
Mihailović, D. 2007. Social Aspects of the Transition to Farming in the Balkans.
Documenta Praehistorica XXXIV, 73–88.

Porčić, M., Blagojević, T., Stefanović, S., 2016. Demography of the Early
Neolithic Population in Central Balkans: Population Dynamics Reconstruction
Using Summed Radiocarbon Probability Distributions. PLoS ONE 11(8):
e0160832. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0160832.

Radovanović, I., 2006. Further notes on Mesolithic-Neolithic contacts in the Iron

Gates region and the Central Balkans. Documenta Praehistorica XXXIII, 107–
124.

Živaljević, I., 2017. Ribolov na Đerdapu u ranom holocenu (10. – 6. milenijum

pre n. e.). Thèse de doctorat, Faculté de philosophie de l'université de Belgrade,
Belgrade.

Zvelebil M., 1986. Mesolithic prelude and Neolithic revolution. In: Zvelebil, M.,
(Ed.), Hunters in Transition: Mesolithic Societies of Temperate Europe and Their
Transition to Farming. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 5-15.

Zvelebil, M., Lillie, M., 2000. Transition to agriculture in Eastern Europe. In: Price,
T.D., (Ed.), Europe's first farmers. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 57–92.

Poštovana Sofija,

Trenutno sam u izradi seminarskog rada iz Paleolita i mezolita Balkana, prijavila sam temu
koja se tiče ishrane u prelazu iz mezolita u neolit. Literature za tu temu ima dosta i mislim da
će mi tema biti samim tim preširoka, te sam htela da se fokusiram na jednu stvar u izradi
rada, a to je uticaj populacijskih kretanja sa Bliskog istoka. Takođe, htela sam da Vas pitam,
pošto nisam pronašla svu literaturu na drajvu a ostaloj preko interneta nemam pristup, da li
imate sledeće radove:
Poštovani profesore,

U pripremi sam seminarskog rada iz predmeta Paleolit i mezolit Balkana i potrebno mi je par
članaka kojima ne mogu da pristupim. Tema koju istražujem tiče se ishrane iz prelaza
mezolita u neolit. Koleginica Sofija Dragosavac me je uputila na Vas za literaturu, a spisak je
sledeći:

Zvelebil M., 1986. Mesolithic prelude and Neolithic revolution. In: Zvelebil, M., (Ed.), Hunters
in Transition: Mesolithic Societies of Temperate Europe and Their Transition to Farming.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 5-15.

Zvelebil, M., Lillie, M., 2000. Transition to agriculture in Eastern Europe. In: Price, T.D., (Ed.),
Europe's first farmers. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 57–92.

Bonsall, C., Macklin, M. G., Payton, R. W., Boroneanţ, A., 2002. Climate, floods and river
gods: environmental change and the Meso-Neolithic transition in southeast Europe. Before
Farming 2002/3-4, 1–15.
Ammerman, A.J., Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., 1971. Measuring the rate and spread of early farming
in Europe. Man 6, 784–688.

Hijatus između mezolita i neolita u Evropi, stepen istraženosti?

Bocquet-Appel, J-P., 2008. Explaining the Neolithic Demographic Transition. In:

Bocquet-Appel, J-P., Bar-Yosef, O., (Eds.), The Neolithic Demographic Transition
and its Consequences. Springer, Berlin, p. 35–55.:

Neolithic demographic transition (NDT)

Assumption number one, which was formulated a long time ago, is the impact of
sedentism on fertility in nomadic forager populations
The third question, which follows on from the model of the NDT, concerns the
impact of population growth on the population itself and its cultural expression.
What were the effects of this growth, not only on population numbers but also on
the various aspects of its evolving structure such as age distribution, the distribu tion
and composition of families, the distribution of households, family systems
(extended or nuclear) and the institutions developed to regulate tensions between
groups/individuals in a steadily growing population?
Binford and
Chasko (1976) detected what they called the “fifirst major demographic transition”
and which, in this volume, is called the NDT
They detect an inflfluence of cereal consumption on fertility (Fig. 2) and conclude
that this fifirst demographic transition would have been a by-product of sedentarism
and its impact on diet and the division of labour.
Fertility remains uniformly low with a low-calorie diet of aquatic an imals (fifish and
some shellfifish), but rises when the energy constraint of mobility
decreases.
The second assumption postulates (i) that the duration of the birth interval is an
(inverse) function of the intensity and frequency of suckling (Konner and Worth
man 1980, Wood et al. 1985, Diaz 1989, Lewis et al. 1991, Peng et al. 1998) and
(ii) that suckling during the transportation of children by their mothers decreases
during the transition on the mobility gradient from nomadic foragers to sedentary
farmers (Bocquet-Appel and Naji 2006, Lee 1979, Sussman 1972). But several stud
ies have shown no correlation between the intensity of suckling and the return of
the reproductive cycle (Fink et al. 1992, Worthman et al. 1993, Tay et al. 1996).
The third assumption is the relative metabolic hypothesis for maternal nutrition
(Huffman et al. 1987, Lunn et al. 1984, Ellison et al. 1993, Ellison 1994, Valeggia
and Ellison 2004). The duration of the birth interval is an (inverse) function of the
energy balance (energy status and energy balance). The energy balance is deter
mined by energy expenditure (on necessary milk production and physical activity)
and postpartum energy intake (mother’s diet).
In ethnographic populations, the average duration of the postpartum taboo is
shorter among mobile foragers than among sedentary farmers
with energy intake from hunting (Table 3, line 1, Fig. 4a), i.e. from low-calorie
food items, only energy expenditure (mobility) has a signifificant inflfluence on fer
tility, which rises when energy expenditure decreases;
– with energy intake from aquatic animals (mainly fifish and some shellfifish, Table 3,
line 2, Fig. 4b), there are two signifificant inflfluences: a relatively weak negative
inflfluence of low-calorie food items and a strong inflfluence of energy expenditure
(mobility). Fertility rises when the low-calorie food items and the energy expen
diture both decrease.
– with energy intake from farming produce (mainly maize, Table 3, line 3, Fig. 4c),
the inflfluences of energy expenditure and energy intake from high-calorie food
items are both signifificant. Fertility increases more when, simultaneously, en
ergy intake from high-calorie food items increases and energy expenditure de
creases, with energy intake exerting a more perceptible inflfluence than energy
expenditure.
But with the growth of the population, the number of
families, of individuals within families and of extended families also increases. This
increase in average family size and in the number of extended families points to a
probable supply of surrogate carers for the mothers, i.e. to more collective respon
sibility for taking on the physical constraints of motherhood and domestic activities
during the nursing period, which causes a further increase in fertility.
With sedentary village life and the corresponding growth in local population density,
mortality rates inherited from the foragers eventually rise, particularly in children
under 5 years of age. Causes of increased infant mortality would include lack of
drinking water supplies, contamination by faeces and the absence of latrines, as well
as reduced breastfeeding. The susceptibility of humans to new infectious diseases
results from complex factors such as modifified exposure to animals, microbial adap
tation, nutritional status and density of the host population. The high proportion
of children in Neolithic burial sites could have resulted from the emergence of
highly virulent zoonoses that were newly acquired.

Bartosiewicz, L., Bonsall, C., Şişu, V., 2008. Sturgeon fishing along the Middle and
Lower Danube. In: Bonsall, C., Boroneanţ, V., Radovanović, I., (Eds.), The Iron
Gates in Prehistory: new perspectives. BAR International Series 1893,
Archaeopress, Oxford, p. 39–54. :

Migrating sturgeons were the largest fifish in the middle and lower Danube region.
Most of these species, however, have been
brought to the brink of extinction by habitat loss and overfifishing. This review is a
synthesis of sporadic archaeological evidence, zoologic al and environmental data as
well as ethnohistorical information in two regions: the Iron Gates at the southeast
edge of the Carpathian
Basin and the Hungarian section of the Danube within the basin. In addition to
ichthyological and taphonomic questions, fifishing tech niques as well as the varying
perceptions of these large fifish are summarized in an attempt to draft a
multidisciplinary interpretive frame work for the archaeological evaluation of future
fifinds.

Their
dwindling stocks, brought to the brink of extinction in the
20th century, are only a pale shadow of their economic im portance until the recent
past.
When plotted together with modern, historical data (Khin
1957), the distribution of these estimated lengths largely cor responds to that of the
largest specimens from historical
periods (Fig. 2). The latter display a slight positive skew, and
the distribution of the prehistoric specimens is within the
same range, suggesting that randomly caught prehistoric
sturgeons were as large at Schela Cladovei as the largest
modern specimens in Hungary. While, owing to the small
number of cases no signifificant difference can be observed
between the two groups, the Schela Cladovei sturgeons were
indubitably large. Sporadic records of the amount of meat
 some record animals represented (Table 3) indicate that ap proximately two-thirds of
the live weight estimated for large
prehistoric sturgeons represented edible protein, and other
lines of evidence show that fifish were the major source of an imal protein in the diet
of the Mesolithic inhabitants o
Schela Cladovei (Bonsall et al. 1997, 2000).

Figure 5. Sturgeon species of major importance in the Danube, drawn to scale on the basis of mean lengths in
Table 4
(compiled and redrawn to scale after Berinkey 1967 and Pintér 1989).
Isotopic studies of human remains by Bonsall et al. (1997,
2000, 2004) have confifirmed the results of previous faunal
analyses (e.g. Bökönyi 1978, Bartosiewicz et al. 1995), in dicating that Mesolithic populations in the
Iron Gates con sumed considerable amounts of fifish (aquatic resources were
still exploited during the Early Neolithic, but the dietary role
of terrestrial resources increased)
the upstream movement of beluga sturgeon
may have symbolized life to the prehistoric inhabitants of the
gorge, possibly counterweighted by the downstream orienta tion of the deceased in Mesolithic
burials along the
riverbank

Berger, J.-F., Guilaine, J., 2009. The 8200 cal BP abrupt environmental change
and the Neolithic transition: a Mediterranean perspective. Quaternary
International 200, 31–49:

A major environmental and societal event struck the Mediterranean basin during the
9th millennium cal BP. A sudden and major
climatic crisis occurred in the Northern Hemisphere around 8200 cal BP leading to
hyper arid conditions along a tropical zone between
15 1 and 40 1 North (Near and Middle East), cooler and wetter conditions in
western and central Europe, and marked climatic irregularity
in the northern Mediterranean basin. At the same time, frequent cultural gaps are
observed in cave infifillings from Greece to the Spanish
peninsula between 8500 and 8000 cal BP, making the vision of the European
Mesolithic–Neolithic transition more complex.
Furthermore, a stratigraphic and socio-economic rupture associated with a spatial
redistribution of sites characterizes the PPNB-NC/
Yarmoukian transition in the Near East. The impact of these climatic and
environmental changes in the fifirst centuries of the
neolithisation of Mediterranean Europe is discussed, using the socio-cultural,
economic, stratigraphic and chronological evidence for the
fifirst farmers and last hunter-gatherers. This evidence is compared to recent
paleoclimatic and geo-archaeological data obtained from
prehistoric contexts, in order to measure the hydro-morphological impact on
activities in valleys and karstic rockshelters.
r 2008 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved
Archaeological data show dynamics evolving parallel to
the climate–environmental flfluctuations observed during
the 9th Millennium BP and in reaction to changes in
environmental conditions
This dessication hypoth esis is also put forward to explain the transformations
affecting the site of Aı¨ ¨ n Ghazal in Jordan ( Simmons, 2000 ).
In northern Levant, the cultural answers may be different.
Ceramic appears earlier (around 9000 cal BP) but a cultural
gap from the PPNB to the PN is also attested.
The abandonment of riverine settlements in the Danube
Iron Gates at the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition is
mentioned by Bonsall et al. (2001) . In the last 40 years,
the majority of the late Mesolithic sites excavated at the
Iron Gates shows a hiatus of about three centuries
(between 8.3 and 7.95 ka), except for Lepenski Vir which
is interpreted as a religious site. The authors do not exclude
a possible intense activity of the Danube during the 8200
event, but there is relatively little geomorphological
evidence available in these narrow gorges
This last event continued until 8150 cal BP,
period where the number of Neolithic sites rapidly
increased in coastal and inland areas across the Balkans.
Here we
should perhaps consider other factors, such as pandemics
due to fifirst contacts between farmers and hunter–gatherers,
or a specifific concentration of settlement along coastal areas
(which unfortunately cannot be verifified today because of
the marine transgression) or in the flfloodplains and small
valleys during the centuries corresponding to dessication of
the Mediterranean area (which is still very diffificult to prove
taking into account the depth of early Holocene flfluvial
deposits and erosion processes).

Deforestation due to natural fifires caused by climatic

conditions can be seen as offering a major opportunity for
the fifirst Neolithic colonists of southeast Europe.
Bonsall, C., 2008. The Mesolithic of the Iron Gates. In : Bailey. G.N., Spikins, P.,
(Eds.), Mesolithic Europe. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 238–279.:

The lron Gates region may be defined as the 230-km-long section of the Danube
valley that
forms the border between Rolilania and Serbia. Marking the beginning of the 'lower
Danube', it
con~prises two distinct physiographic zones with contrasting geology and relief.
. The gorge is developed in rocks of rnainly Palaeozoic and Mesozoic age, which
include limestone formations in which caves and rockshelters occur. The terrain on either side of
the gorge is moutltainous, rising to over 700 111 above the river on the Serbian side. The average
gradient of the river within the gorge is much steeper than elsewhere along the middle or lower
1)allube. Before it was impounded, strong currents, turbulent flow, rapids and rock reefs char
acterized this section of the river, irnpeding navigation; current velocity varied between 3.5 and
18 k1t1 per hour.
The lron Gates is the 'jewel in the crown' of the Southeast European Mesolithic,
renowned
for its exceptional record of human occupation during the Late Glacial and the earlier
part of the
Holocene between approximately 13,000 and 5500 cal BC: - a time segment that
encompasses the
whole of the Mesolithic and the beginning of the Neolithic'.
Elsewhere in Southeast Europe, the Mesolithic has proved difficult to find. There are
some
notable cave and rockshelter sites scattered through the Balkans, such as Franchthi
and Theopetra
(Greece), Crvena Stijena, Medena Stijena, and Odtnut (Montenegro), PupiEina and
Vela Spila
(Croatia), and Mala Triglavca (Slovenia). But open-air sites are mostly surface sites
on which only
stone artefacts have survived.
They include several cave and
rockshelter sites, all on the Romanian side of the river, and a larger number of opcn-
air sites.
Open-air sites also have been found downriver, in the nlore open section of the
Ilanube valley
between the Iron Gates I and I1 dams. The open-air sites are on low terraces along
the Danube
or small islands in the river. In spite of the contrast in physical setting between the
gorge and thc
downstrealn sector, the archaeological records of the two zones show many
similarities
he Iron Gates Mesolithic is often viewed in its
own terlns, without close reference to events in other regions of Europe.
Opinion is divided over when the Mesolithic of the Iron Gates begins and ends, but almost
no one places its beginning at the onset of the Holocene, as is the convention elsewhere. Some
authors prefer the terrn 'Epipalaeolithic' to Mesolithic, arguing for continuity with the local Upper
Palaeolithic. Others make a clear distinction between Epipalaeolithic and Mesolithic and use the
terms accordingly. Because of the generally niicrolithic character of the lithic assenlblages, sonle
authors regard the whole of the period fro111 the beginning of the Late Glacial to the adoption of
farming in the Middle Holocene as 'Mesolithic' (e.g., Jovanovii- lghga) or 'Epipalaeolithic' (e.g.,
Boroneanf 1973). Boroneanf (1989) divided the period into two cultures - 'Clisurean' dati~lg to the
Late Glacial, and 'Schela Cladovei' dating to the Holocene. The latter he equated with the Lcpenski
Vir culture identified by Srejovii- on the Serbian bank of the Danube. Interestingly, in his earlier
work, Srejovii- did not describe the Lepenski Vir culture as Mesolithic, but as 'Epipalaeolithic' in
its early phase, and 'Proto-Neolithic' in its later phase, reflecting his belief in an indigenous origin
of farming and pottery manufacture in the region (Srejovii- 1969).
As research progressed, it became the conventional view that the hunter-gatherer sites of the
Late Glacial-Holocene show evidence of increasing social complexity and sedentism with time,
and that an important shift in residential mobility patterns and subsistence practices occurred in
the early Holocene approximately 7600 cal BC - when, supposedly, people abandoned the caves
and rockshelters they had used as residential sites during the Late Glacial and initial Holocene, and
began to establish permanent or semipermanent settlements on the banks of the Danube based on
intensive exploitation of riverine resources. Many researchers have argued that the establishment of
open-air settlements on the Danube approximately 7600 cal BC should be regarded as the beginning
of the 'Mesolithic' in the region, and that what came before is 'Epipalaeolithic' (e.g., Voytek and
Tringham 1989).
The lack of open-air settlements along the Danube older than 9500 cal BC is perhaps better
explained in terms of the Late Glacial river environment. During the Younger Dryas, in particular,
higher seasonal discharges associated with snowmelt and glacial meltwater are likely to have been a
deterrent to settlement of the riverbank. People probably lived on higher ground, such as older river
terraces, above the level of flooding - areas that were not surveyed
Repeated, seasonal flooding and high rates of flow during the Younger
Ilryas would tend to result in deep burial or erosion of any riverbank sites occupied during this
phase or earlier in the Late Glacial.
For ~nuch of the Holocene, the Danube was characterized by smaller annual variations ill
discharge, which allowed settlements to be established closer to the river. That people occu
pied sites along the riverbank very early in the Holocetle is demonstrated by '4C dating of hulllan
remains from several sites. One burial from Vlasac has a I4C age of c. 98-50 BP (9300 cal BC) (Bonsall
et al. 1997, 2000, Cook et al. 2002) and there are burials from Lepenski Vir, Padina and Vlasac
with 14C ages ranging between c. 8400 and 97-50 B1' (7500 to 92-50 cal RC)
The character and duration of the Early Mesolithic occupations at Lepenski Vir, Padina, and
Vlasac is unclear. None of the architectural remains at these sites is securely dated to this period; in
fact the vast majority of the surviving structural features appear to belong to later Mesolithic and/or
Early Neolithic occupations3. There are a few AMS '4C dates on animal bones which show that
they derive from early occupations (Table lo. I), but as yet there are no direct age lneasurements
for antler/bone artefacts or art objects that would allow any of thern to be assigned to the Early
Mesolithic.
In the absence of well-dated faunal and archaeobotanical assemblages, the econon~ic basis of
these early riverside settlements must be inferred from stable isotope analysis of dated human
remains. Skeletons fro111 Lepenski Vir, Paditla and Vlasac dated between c. 9850 and 8400 HI'
(9300 to 7500 cal nc) all exhibit very high bone collagen C- and N-isotope values, reflecting
a diet in which a large proportion of the protein must have been obtained frorn freshwater fish
or animals that consumed freshwater fish (Fipre 10.3). These data suggest that already by the
beginning of the Holocene the inhabitants of the Iron Gates gorge were heavily reliant on the
Danube for their subsistence needs. It is interesting that the averages of the 613C and 6ISN val
ues are lower than the Late Mesolithic averages. Average 6ISN for 7 Early Mesolithic burials is
14.3%0, while the average for 21 Late Mesolithic burials is 1-5.2%0. A Student's t-test shows the
difference between the two groups to be statistically significant at the p 5 0.05 level of proba
bility. The lower average 6I5N value of the Early Mesolithic skeletons may indicate that riverine
resources were marginally less important in the period before 7200 cal nc than later or1 in the
Mesolithic.
Given that the C- and N-isotope corllposition of bone collagen in adults reflects average diet
over a period of years to decades (for discussion, see Alllbrose 1993: r 10-1 I), the results from
Lepenski Vir and Vlasac imply that consulnption of fish was not just a seasonal activity for the
Early Mesolithic inhabitants of these sites. Kegardless of whether fishing was carried out year
round or undertaken intensively at a particular time, or times, of year and the surplus stored for
later consumption, the stable isotope evidence implies that these foraging communities were in
some degree sedentary.
Eight sites have radiocarbon dates in this time range: Hajdutka Vodenica, Icoana, Padina, Razvrata,
and Vlasac in the gorge, and Schela Cladovei, Ostrovu Banului, and Ostrovu Mare in the down
stream section (Table 10.1, Figures 10.1-10.2). But only Schela Cladovei and Vlasac have large
series of dates more or less spanning the period.
The Romanian-British project at Schela Cladovei (Bonsall et al. 1997, Bonsall et al. 2002,
Boroneanf et al. 1999) has so far produced 45 AMS '4C dates, all from secure contexts. Thirty-six
dates span the period from c. 8100 to 7450 BP (7100 to 6300 cal BC), and no evidence of earlier
Mesolithic occupation was found.
The Late Mesolithic societies of the Iron Gates are often described as conlplex hunter-
gatherers,
characterized by sedentism, construction of substantial houses, intensive use of local
resources
for food and tools, food storage, exchange, and social ranking (e.g., Voytek and
Tringham 1989,
RadovanoviC and Voytek 1997). However, several aspects of this interpretation are
open to question.
The Late Mesolithic economy appears to have been relatively diverse. Faunal remains
show that
the inhabitants of Schela Cladovei and Vlasac harvested a broad spectrum of animal
resources.
Large herbivores (red deer, roe deer, wild pig, and aurochs) were exploited for meat
and raw
materials.
Many of the fish caught were of very large size; Bartosiewicz et al.
(forthcon~ing) estimate individual specimens ofsturgeon to have weighed as much as
150 kilograms.
Stable isotope analysis of human remains fronl Vlasac and Schela Cladovei provides a
good
indication of the relative importance of terrestrial and freshwater resources. Uonsall
et al. (1997,
2000, 2004) exanlined a number of skeletons dating between c. 7100 and 6600 cal nc.
All showed
elevated C- and N-isotope values, suggesting diets in which the greater part
(approxin~ately 60-
85 percent) of the protein was derived directly or indirectly fro111 freshwater food
sources. The
averages of the 6'" and 6I5N values are slightly heavier than those of skeletons dating
to the earlier
Mesolithic.
In theory, food sources high in carbohydrate or fat but low in protein (e.g., certain
plant foods)
could have contributed significantly to diet without affecting bone collagen stable
isotope values.
Other evidence is against this. Uonsall et al. (1997) noted a lack of caries and the
presence of heavy
calculus on the teeth of Late Mesolithic individuals buried at Schela Cladovei,
suggesting diets low in
carbohydrate and high in protein.
The role of storage in the Late Mesolithic of the Iron Gates is an inlportant issue. Food stor
age is generally seen as crucial to the develop~nent of complex hunter-gatherer societies, and
solme archaeologists (e.g., Voytek and Tringham 19x9) have argued that it was central to the Late
Mesolithic economy of the Iron Gates.
As Aines and Maschner (1999: 127) have observed, basic techniques for preserving fish and
-
shellfish - sun and wind drying and sirloking have probably been known since at least the Late
l'leistocene, and it is reasoilable to suppose that they were also fal'amiliar to the Mesolithic foragers of
the Iron Gates. The sunny, dry summers that characterize this part of Europe would have provided
ideal conditions for drying (at least sinall) fish on outdoor racks, and it is likely that some food
storage occurred, But was storage practised on a large scale?
Fishing along the Danube is considerably Inore productive during the warmer
months of the year (March/April to September/October). The main food fish are either not avail
able during the winter or are difficult to capture. Catfish becorne less active as water temperature
decreases atid may cease to feed, carp tend to nlove into (coi31paratively warmer) deeper waters
where they are less accessible, while sterlet also congregate irr bottom holes and show little activity.
Historical records suggest that winter freezing of the Ihnube occurred more often during the
'Little Ice Age' c. AD 1500-1850 than in the period since then. Sirnilar coofiilg phases occurred
during the time-range of the Iron Gates Mesolithic c, 7300 cal B(: and c. 6200 cal BC, each lastitlg
several hundred years. A reduction of 2 degrees C: in niean summer and annual temperatures across
~riid-latitude Europe characterised the second of these episodes, kllowtt as the '8200 cal UP cold
event' (Magny et al. 2003). The more rigorous cli~llatic conditions of these cooling phases may
have had the effect ofreducing the izumbers of carp and catfish available in the I)anube, as these
species require a water temperature of at least 18 degrees C to reproduce (13artosiewicz and Borisall
2004: 258, table 7). The tinzi~ig of sturgeon ~nigrations along the Danube also way have been
affected.
Thus Mesolithic corllnlunities in the Iron Gates rnay not have been able to survive sorne (i.e.,
very long or severe) winters without food storage mettiods. Yet there are no structural remains froin
the Iron Gates sites that would indicate large-scale preservation and storage of fish or other food
iterns. This in itself is not concfusive, as certain kinds of storage facilities nlay leave few or no traces
in archaeological record. Containers made ofbasketry, bark, wood, or animal skint'tissue are highly
unlikely to have survived in the free-draining, calcareo~ts soils of the lron Gates sites, while small
pits and the postholes of fish-drying racks or raised caches could have been erased by pedogenetic
alteration of the sediments since the Mesolithic, or si~nply overlooked during excavations that
for the rnost part were conducted rapidly under rescue conditions. Voytek and Tringham (1989)
suggested that sorne of the rectangular stone-bordered pits, widely interpreted as hearths, could
have been used for storage, and there is sonie evidence to support this interpretation. The soil
infilling one such feature at Schela Cladovei contained large numbers of snlall fish bones. None of
these were obviously tire-damaged and nlagnetic susceptibility readings on soil satnples front the
stone-bordered pit failed to identify it as a hearth
Ilog bones wcrc particularly nunicrous at Vlasac. Among the 9,831
bone ti-agments of the three most iniportant mammals consurned at the site dog accounted for
20 percent and was second ill inlportance to red deer (68 percent) and more nunierous than wild
pig (12 percent) (Hokiinyi 1975: table I)"'. The fact that the dog bones wcrc often disarticulated
and fi-agniented, like tliose of-deer and wild pig, SLlggrsts that dogs were regarded as a food source;
and the brc,~kagc p'lttcrns exhibited by lo~~g honcs .III~ skulls indicated to Hiikijnyi (1975: 168)
that dogs were eaten. Clason (1080) drew si~ililar conclusions from the large nutilbers of dog bones
found ~t 1';ldin;l ;~rld the state of frag~nentation and charring of the bones.
Use of dog? as food would not be inconsistent with the stable isotope evidence of hunian diet
irom the Iro~i (;.ltcs Mesolithic. Ilogs arc omnivores a~id
a large proportion of their diet may consist
of left-over hunian food. Bone collagen stable isotope values of (probably) Mesolithic dogs from
Vl~sac (Grupe et al. 2003) s~ggest they ate significant amounts of fish, and regular consumption of
dog ~iieat may have cotltributed to the even higher levels of ''<: anti "N present in the bones of
Mesolithic liunians.
C:onsumptio~i of dog meat is widely reported among ethnogl-aphically-kmwn hunter-gatherers,
and alto has been cicnio~lstratcd fioni several Mesolithic sites in Europe (Uenecke and Hanik 2002).
The evidence for Iiur~~an consutl~ptioti of dog flesh at some sites in the Iron Gates is sufficiently
strong as to suggest that dogs were reared primarily for eating - a practice that has occasionally been
documented among recent hunter-g~ttiercrs (c.g., Powers 1877) and was widespread among farming
societies in ancient and histol-ic:ll ti~nes, especi;illy those who, like the Aztecs and Polynesians, lacked
luge domesticated animals (I~iamond 1997)".
In general ternis, the larger the dog the greater its food value and it is interesting that the Vlasac
dogs were I,lrgcr on ;iveragc than those fro111 Early Neolithic (Stari-evo-Kiiros-Cri~ culture) contexts
in the Iron <;ares m~d surrounding regions (B6kiinyi 1975: 175-6). This size difference may reflect
a change in thc uses to which dogs were put between the Mesolithic and the Neolithic when
ciomcsticatcd livestock heca~ne available, and lends support to the suggestion that dogs were reared
for eating during the Mesolithic. The keeping of dogt for human consutnption may have been
part of a deliber;lte strategy for coping with seasonal (especially winter) food shortages, and as such
could be regrirded as a form of indirect storage.
Eth~iographic studies suggest that winter tcarcity is not the only, nor necessarily the primary,
reason for large-scale food storage by hunter-gatherers. Storage can be an important component
of exchange systems; surplus food may be traded and dried foods, especially, which weigh less and
preserve longer, can be tr;lnsported over large distances. I'eople also stored food for 'social' reasons -
storage fiicilit~tcd social gatherings and the allocation of time to nonsubsistence activities. For
To what degree these were also factors in the Iron Gates Mesolithic, thousands of years before
the emergence of conlplex hunter-gatherer societies on the Northwest Coast, is diff~cult to gauge
from the archaeological record and remains a source of debate.
If sites such as Vlasac and Schela Cladovei represent permanent or semi-permanent base camps,
then individual Mesolithic comnlunities were probably relatively small, numbering tens rather than
hundreds of people - especially within the gorge where settlenlent space adjacent to the river was
limited. Such small com~llunities would not be reproductively or socially viable, and their survival
would depend on participation in wider social networks (cf. Chapman 1989, Bonsall et al. I y97).
People from different communities may have gathered together periodically for purposes of social
intercourse, finding mates, sharing information, trade, ceremonial, and worship. Such gathering
would have required a food supply but may not have necessitated heavy reliance on storage especially if they were
timed to coincide with seasonal concentrations of migrating sturgeon.
Evidence that the inhabitants of Vlasac and Schela Cladovei engaged in trade or other forms of
exchange with neighbouring groups is the presence in some of the graves of the shells of marine
molluscs (Srejovii- and Letica 1978, Uoroneanf et al. ~yyy), which probably originated in the
Adriatic or Aegean. These alrnost certainly were acquired through exchange rather than procu~ed
directly from the source. The shells were nlade into 'beads' using various techniques.
There is evidence that relations with other groups were not always peaceful. A significant pro
portion of the adults buried at Schela Cladovei (nearly 15 percent of those examined) died violently,
shot by arrows equipped with bone points (Figure 10.5). Others suffered broken bones, including
skull fractures, which also may have bee11 the result of violence
Iloes the level of violence at Schela Cladovei tell us anything about mobility patterns in the Iron
Gates Mesolithic? Anlong recent hunter-gatherers warfare appears to have been more frequent and
more intense among sedentary peoples, presurnably because they had more possessions to defend,
but it was by no means unknown anlong non-sedentary foragers (cf. Divale 1972: table 2). In
both cases, casualties caused by warfare could account for a significant proportion of all adult illale
deaths.
There is a conspicuous gap in the radiocarbon dates for both Schela Cladovei and Vlasac between
c. 7450 and 7100 BP (6300 and 6000 cal ~c), and very few other sites in the Iron Gates have '4C
dates in this tinle-range (Figure 10.63-c). This implies a significant decrease in activity at the sites
or a change in the nature of that activity.
Proxy climate records show this to have been a period of cooler and wetter climate affecting
n~uch of western and central Europe, when the Ilanube and other river systems experienced nlore
frequent and more extreme flooding
Sites on the banks of the Danube would have been vulnerable to big floods, and it is possible
that people chose to relocate their settlements, or at least their houses and living areas, onto higher
ground further away from the river. Any sites located on higher terraces or on the plateau above
the valley are likely to have escaped detection during the archaeological surveys of the 1960s to
1980s, as those areas were not surveyed systematically. It is unlikely that activity ceased altogether
at the riverbank sites. Probably they continued to be used as places from which to conduct fishing
activities and at which to land boats.
The only site that can be shown to have remained in regular use during this period is Lepenski
Vir. Occupying a unique position facing the imposing Treskavac Mountain on the opposite bank
of the Danube (Figure IO.~), Lepenski Vir has a number of features that set it apart from other
Iron Gates sites. These only become apparent in the archaeological record after c. 6300 cal BC and
include: buildings with lime plaster floors, the apparently deliberate placement of burials within
or beneath some of the buildings, an unusually high frequency of decorated objects including the
famous sculptured boulders which were often placed on the floors of buildings, and the deposition
of parts of animal carcasses inside some of the buildings which suggest symbolic, and in some cases
sacrificial, acts (Bokonyi 1972, Dimitrijevit 2000, forthcoming).
These distinctive features of Lepenslu Vir suggest that it was a 'sacred site' used primarily as
a centre for burial and ritual, and some archaeologists have speculated that the plaster-floored
structures served as temples or shrines, rather than houses
Although Lepenski Vir between 6300 to 6000 cal BC shows some novel features compared to
the preceding period, the underlying cultural tradition is still clearly 'Mesolithic'. Burial practices
remain essentially the same, with extended supine inhumation as the norm (Figure 10.8). Bone
chemistry analyses reveal that the majority of individuals who were buried at Lepenski Vir between
6300 and 6000 cal BC placed the same heavy emphasis on aquatic food sources as their Late
Mesolithic predecessors at Schela Cladovei and Vlasac. In fact, median human bone collagen
S13C and 615N values are even heavier, which may indicate that dependence on the aquatic food
web increased still further during this final phase of the Mesolithic
According to the radiocarbon evidence the Late Mesolithic occupation at Schela Cladovei came
to an end c. 6300 cal BC. Tbe site was reoccupied c. 6000 cal BC and, from the outset, a change ill
cultural patterns is apparent. Livestock keeping is indicated by abundant remains of domestic cattle,
pigs and sheep/goats, although hunting and fishing still contributed to the economy. There were
clear changes in niaterial culture and technology, reflected in the appearance of pottery, ground
stone artefacts, and new forms of bone tools (Figure 10.9). There are traces of buildings with a
rectangular ground plan in contrast to the trapezoidal structures of the Late Mesolithic, as well
as evidence for trade or exchange in exotic materials such as obsidian and high-quality 'Balkan'
flint (Figure 10.10). No burials dating to this period have been identified at Schela Ciadovei, but
evidence fron~ other sites in the downstreanl area such as Velesnica (Vasii- forthcoming) suggests a
change in funerary practices around this time with the appearance of burials in which the body is
almost invariably placed in the crouched position.
These new elements can all be paralleled in early farming settlements of the Stari-evo-Koros-Cri?
complex, which by 6000 cal BC occupied a large area of southeast and central Europe surrounding
the Iron Gates. Thus, there seems little doubt that the part ofthe Danube valley that lies immediately
downstream of the Iron Gates gorge had been assimilated into the Stari-evo-Koros-Cri complex
by 6000 cal BC.
But when was agriculture introduced to downstream area? Whittle et al. (2002) have shown
that Neolithic farmers were already present in the Morava catchment, approximately150 km to the
southwest, by 6200 cal BC. However, farming settlements are not recorded along the Danube or in
its catchment area beyond for a further 150-200 years. The earliest '4C dates for Early Neolithic
(Koros) settlements on the Pannonian Plain (Whittle et al. 2002) are no older than the date of the
appearance of agriculture at Schela Cladovei. The same applies to the first Neolithic settlements in
Romania north of the Danube. Sites attributed to the earliest phase of the Cris culture ('Pre-Cris'
[Paul 19951 or 'Cri? I' [Lazarovici 19931) on the Banat plain and in Transylvania have '4C ages
clustering around 7100 BP (6000 cal BC) (Biagi et al. zoo5), which are statistically indistinguishable
from the earliest 14C dates for Neolithic activity on the Pannonian Plain and at Schela Cladovei.
One interpretation of the radiocarbon evidence is that the spread of agriculture through the
Balkan Peninsula came to a standstill c. 6200 cal BC to the south of the Danube, and a new phase
of expansion began c. 6000 cal BC when agriculture spread rapidly along the Danube and its
tributaries in northeast Serbia, Hungary, and Romania. The apparent delay in the appearance of
Early Neolithic settlements on the floodplains and lower terraces of the Danube and its northern
tributaries has been attributed to severe flooding associated with the distinct global cooling phase
between 6300 and 6000 cal BC (Bonsall et al. 2002). Frequent, large-scale, and unpredictable floods
would have been a deterrent to farming of valley bottoms and may have excluded large areas from
the possibility of cultivation and stockraising.
Central to this debate is the site of Lepenski Vir, which shows
evidence of frequent, perhaps continuous, use between c. 6300 and 5500 cal BC. Arguably, this is
the only site in the entire Iron Gates region where the events of that time range can be studied as a
more or less uninterrupted process.
Fragments ofpottery, and occasionally whole pots, were found lying on the floors of some ofthe
trapezoidal buildings at Lepenski Vi
A new form of burial also appeared. The traditional Mesolithic burial rite of extended supine
inhumation was replaced by crouched inhumation characteristic of the StarEevo-Koros-Crig com plex.
The latest example of a burial in the Mesolithic tradition has a reservoir-corrected '4C age of
7133 ct 75 BP (c. 6000 cal BC), and the earliest dated instance of a Neolithic-type burial is 7036 f 95
BP (c. 5950 cal BC) (Bonsall et al. 2004, Bonsall et al. in preparation, Bonsall 2005).
The persistence of Mesolithic traditions and the preponderance of wild over domestic animal
remains in the period after 6000 cal BC have led some authors to propose that the inhabitants of
the Iron Gates gorge remained hunter-gatherers for centuries after a Neolithic economy based
on cereal cultivation and stockraising had been established in the surrounding areas (e.g., Clason
1980, Voytek and Tringham 1989, Radovanovii: 1996, Radovanovii: and Voytek I 997, Zvelebil
and Lillie 2000). According to this theory, the presence of pottery and bones of livestock is the
result of trade or exchange with neighbouring farmers.
Other evidence contradicts this interpretation. The appearance of new burial practices around
this time implies more than mere trade contacts, and can only be explained in terms of either
acculturation or immigration. Moreover, bone collagen stable isotope analysis suggests that the
people buried at Lepenski Vir after 6000 cal BC did not subsist mainly on fish and other aquatic
foods like their Mesolithic predecessors, but derived a large proportion of their dietary protein
from terrestrial sources could have been accomplished without an economy in which agriculture played a
significant role
From these lines of evidence, it can be argued that the later Stone Age people of the Iron Gates
gorge made the transition to agriculture and adopted other facets of Early Neolithic culture at
roughly the same time as their neighbours on the Pannonian and Wallachian plains. However, in
all three areas to varying degrees fishing and hunting continued to be part of the Early Neolithic
economy (cf. Clason 1980, Bonsall et al. 1997, Bartosiewicz et al. 2001, Whittle et al. 2002).
The riparian sites within the gorge seem unlikely places from which to have conducted farming
activities, and the possibility exists that after 6000 cal BC they were used not as primary residential
sites, but as seasonal fishing camps, perhaps maintained in order to take advantage of the sturgeon
migrations in late spring/early summer and autumn. This would explain the much smaller numbers
of Early Neolithic (vs. Mesolithic) burials and the low frequencies of bones of domestic livestock
in the sites.
As suggested earlier, the spread of farming may have come to a temporary standstill c. 6200 cal BC
to the south of the Iron Gates. By that time a farming settlement had been established at Blagotin
in the catchment area of the West Morava river (Whittle et al. 2002). However, the agricultural
frontier may have extended hrther north along the Morava and other southern tributaries of the
Danube. This raises the possibility that the hunter-gatherers of the Iron Gates were in contact with
farmers to the south for a time before the eventual establishment of farming in the Iron Gates
region. Some authors have argued that there was contact between the two populations by 6300
cal BC if not earlier (e.g., RadovanoviC 1996, Tringham 2000, Whittle et al. 2002, BoriC and Miracle
2004) although these claims are often based on 'data', such as the supposed early appearance of
pottery at Lepenski Vir and Padina, which have yet to be verified.
For reasons already discussed, Lepenski Vir is the site most likely to furnish evidence of forager
farmer contacts.
The appearance of lime plaster floors (Figure 10.12) at Lepenski Vir c. 6300 cal BC might be
interpreted as evidence of contact with farmers, since the technique is otherwise unknown in
the European Mesolithic. The earliest evidence of lime plaster pyrotechnology is from the Late
Epipalaeolithic (Natufian) period in the Levant. Buildings with plaster floors proliferate in the
Near East during the PPNB phase (8800-6900 cal BC) (Gourdin and Kingery 1975, Kingery
et al. 1988, Thomas 2005) and are first encountered in Europe in the Greek Early Neolithic (Perks
2001). However, the earliest Greek examples are no older than those at Lepenski Vir. Moreover,
to date, plaster floors have not been found on Early Neolithic sites in the region between Greece
and the Danube - an area in which limestone abounds - and this raises doubts that the use of the
technique at Lepenski Vir was inspired by contact with farmers. An equally plausible case could
be made for an independent invention of lime plaster pyrotechnology in the northern Balkans, or
its transmission from the Near East to southeast Europe before the Neolithic