* 7 elon) B®) ; THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS Marya Gimbutas EDITED BY JOAN MARLER ing HarperSanFrancisco A Division of HarperCollins Publishers ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In the course of thirty years of research and excavation in Europe, hundreds of archeologists wholeheartedly shared with me the new infor- mation essential for the process of reconstruct- ing the Old European culture. Their names are in the notes and the bibliography and I am in- debted to all of them. Much was learned through excavations of Neolithic sites (Obre in Bosnia, 1967-68, Anza and Sitagroi in Macedonia, 1968-70, Achilleion in Thessaly, 1973-74, and Scaloria in Southeastern Italy, 1978-80): heart- felt thanks to my collaborators Drs. Alojz Benac (Sarajevo), Sandor Bok6ny (Budapest}, James | Mallory (Belfast), the late Janos Nemeskéri Design and Production: Design Office, San Francisco Bruce Kortebein, Marilyn Perry THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS: The World of Old Europe. Copyright ©1991 by Marija Gimbutas. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or repro- duced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For infor- mation address HarperCollins Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022. FIRST EDITION Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gimbutas, Marija Alseikaité The civilization of the goddess : the world of Old Europe / Marija Gimbutas.—Ist ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-06-250368-5 (hard : alk. paper) ISBN 0-06-250337-5 (pbk.| 1. Religion, Prehistoric—Europe. 2. Goddesses—Europe. 3. Neolithic period— Europe. 4. Europe—Antiquities. I. Title. GN799.R4G54 199] 936—dc20 90-55792 CIE 91 92 93 94 95 K.P 1098 7654321 This edition is printed on acid-free paper that meets the American National Standards Institute 239.48 Standard. (Budapest), Colin and Jane Renfrew (Cambridge), Daniel Shimabuku (Los Angeles], Santo Tine (Genoa), and Shan M. M. Winn (Hattiesburg). The preparation of this book coincides with the beginning of the application of radiocarbon dating to the Neolithic materials and the calibration with the tree-ring chronology. For guidance in the complicated process of dating I am indebted to my colleagues at the University of California, Drs. Hans Suess and Rainer Berger. For inspiration and assistance warm thanks to my friends, Indo-Europeanists, and archeologists, Drs. Edgar C. Polomé, Wolfgang Meid, Martin Huld, Eric P- Hamp, Miriam Robbins Dexter, Elizabeth Barber, David Anthony, Michael Herity, Sarunas Milisauskas, and Rimuté Rimantiené. And for invaluable help to my former students Dr. Karlene Jones-Bley, Patricia MacDonell, Michael Everson, Kristina Kelertas, Dr. Susan Skomal, Starr Goode, and the late Zipporah Sabsay. For the continuous assistance in draft- ing the illustrations many thanks to James Bennett and for grant-in-aid to the Ahmanson Foundation. For the final shape of this book deepest grati- tude belongs to my editor Joan Marler and to the editing and design staff of Design Office and HarperSanFrancisco. we eS fA vu 8 Ff 10 CONTENTS Preface: What Is Civilization? vii The Beginnings and Spread of Agriculture The Neolithic Cultures of Southeastern and Central Europe The Climax of European Civilization: East-Central Europe, 5500-3500 B.C. The Neolithic Cultures of Northern Europe Neolithic Cultures of the Adriatic and Central Mediterranean The Neolithic of Western Europe The Religion of the Goddess The Sacred Script Social Structure The End of Old Europe: The Intrusion of Steppe Pastoralists from South Russia and the Transformation of Europe Notes 404 Glossary of Cultures and Major Sites 418 Glossary of Technical Terms 431 Chronologies 436 Tables and Plots of Radiocarbon Dates 437 Illustration Sources and Credits 498 Bibliography 503 ’ Index 512 11 5] 125 PGS 183 ae] 307 323 351 PREFACE What Is Civilization? y purpose in this book is to bring into our awareness essential Mt aspects of European prehistory that have been unknown or simply not treated on a pan-European scale. This material, when acknowledged, may affect our vision of the past as well as our sense of potential for the present and future. We must refocus our collective memory. The necessity for this has never been greater as we discover that the path of “progress” is extinguishing the very conditions for life on earth. This book examines the way of life, religion, and social structure of the peoples who inhabited Europe from the 7th to the 3rd millennia BC., which I have termed Old Europe, referring to Neolithic Europe before the Indo-Europeans. During this period, our ancestors developed settled agricultural communities, experienced a large growth in population, and developed a rich and sophisticated artistic expression and a complex symbolic system formulated around the worship of the Goddess in her various aspects. Substantial evidence for a rapidly growing Neolithic culture that began in the middle of the 7th millennium B.C. exists in the Aegean area, the Balkans, and in east-central Europe. A second area of focus is the central Mediterranean world. In the western Mediterranean coastal zone, the transition from hunting and food gathering to agriculture took the entire 7th millennium for a full transition. In western Europe, the transition from food gathering to agriculture took place only in the early 5th millen- nium BC. The first half of this book is dedicated to the definition, distribution, and chronologies of culture groups throughout the period of c. 6500- 3500 B.C. (in western and northern Europe, somewhat beyond 3500 B.C.}. - Regional groups reveal a surprising variety of styles, inventiveness, and imagination in the arts and architecture. Subsequent chapters discuss reli- gion, script, and social structure. The last chapter focuses on the decline of these cultures, the intrusions of alien people with a totally different economic, social, and ideological structure that gradually changed the face of the Old European world. These events not only explain the disinte- gration of the civilization of Old Europe but define the transition to viii/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS patriarchal and belligerent societies. As interdisciplinary research (archeo- logical data, linguistics, mythology, and early historic data) confirms, this transition coincides with the Indo-Europeanization of Europe. The use of the word civilization needs an explanation. Archeologists and historians have assumed that civilization implies a hierarchical polli- tical and religious organization, warfare, a class stratification, and a complex division of labor. This pattern is indeed typical of androcratic {male-dominated} societies such as Indo-European but does not apply to the gynocentric (mother/woman-centered} cultures described in this book. The civilization that flourished in Old Europe between 6500 and 3500 B.C. and in Crete until 1450 B.C. enjoyed a long period of uninterrupted peace- ful living which produced artistic expressions of graceful beauty and refinement, demonstrating a higher quality of life than many androcratic, classed societies. I reject the assumption that civilization refers only to androcratic war- rior societies. The generative basis of any civilization lies in its degree of artistic creation, aesthetic achievements, nonmaterial values, and freedom which make life meaningful and enjoyable for all its citizens, as well as a balance of powers between the sexes, Neolithic Europe was not a time “before civilization’ (used as the title for Colin Renfrew’s book on Neolithic and Copper Age Europe, 1973). It was, instead, a true civiliza- tion in the best meaning of the word. In the 5th and early 4th millennia B.C., just before its demise in east-central Europe, Old Europeans had towns with a considerable concentration of population, temples several stories high, a sacred script, spacious houses of four or five rooms, pro- fessional ceramicists, weavers, copper and gold metallurgists, and other artisans producing a range of sophisticated goods. A flourishing network of trade routes existed that circulated items such as obsidian, shells, marble, copper, and salt over hundreds of kilometers. All of this was not ex nihilo. Next door, in Anatolia, a multitude of temples appeared in the town of Catal Hiyik which had wall paintings of extraordinary richness and sophistication a thousand years earlier than the high-level architecture, wall paintings, sculptures, and ceramic art of Europe. Before Catal Htiiyiik, there were three more millennia in which the evolutionary transition to agriculture and a settled civilized life took place. The rich display of religious symbolism which flowered in central Anatolia and in Old Europe is part of an unbroken continuity from Upper Paleolithic times. It is a gross misunderstanding to imagine warfare as endemic to the human condition. Widespread fighting and fortification building have indeed been the way of life for most of our direct ancestors from the Bronze Age up until now. However, this was not the case in the Paleolithic and Neolithic. There are no depictions of arms (weapons used against other PREFACE §/ix ee _ —_ —_ Hamangian Stiff Nude, clay figurine from the Cernavoda graveyard, c. 4800 BC. | \ x/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS humans} in Paleolithic cave paintings, nor are there remains of weapons used by man against man during the Neolithic of Old Europe. From some hundred and fifty paintings that survived at Catal Hiytk, there is not one depicting a scene of conflict or fighting, or of war or torture. Old European village sites are not remarkable for their defensive posi- tions but were chosen for their convenient setting, good water and soil, and availability of animal pastures. Hill forts in inaccessible locations are not known to Old Europe, nor are daggers, spears, and halberds. Neolithic villages were occasionally encircled by ditches but seldom by palisades or stone retaining walls. Earthen ramparts and other defensive structures occur only in later Neolithic and Copper Age settlements when measures were taken to protect villages from an influx of human intruders. These changes became visible in central Europe only toward the end of the Sth and during the 4th millennium B.C. The focus on religion is also significant here. Previous books on Neolithic Europe have focused on habitat, tool kits, pottery, trade, and environmental problems, treating religion as “irrelevant.” This is an incomprehensible omission since secular and sacred life in those days were one and indivisible. By ignoring the religious aspects of Neolithic life, we neglect the totality of culture. Archeologists cannot remain scientific materialists forever, neglecting a multidisciplinary approach. A combination of fields—archeology, mythology, linguistics, and historical data—provides the possibility for apprehending both the material and spiritual realities of prehistoric cultures. Furthermore, Neolithic social structure and religion were intertwined and were reflections of each other. Archeology of the last half of our century is plagued by extremes. “A bal- anced amalgam is needed,” reminds James Mellaart, “one which combines the best of both schools (i.e., digs ‘for rubbish’ and digs ‘for temples’) and does not promote sectarian rivalry between the ‘art’ and ‘science’ based approaches to archaeology.” The primordial deity for our Paleolithic and Neolithic ancestors was female, reflecting the sovereignty of motherhood. In fact, there are no images that have been found of a Father God throughout the prehistoric record. Paleolithic and Neolithic symbols and images cluster around a self-generating Goddess and her basic functions as Giver-of-Life, Wielder- of-Death, and as Regeneratrix. This symbolic system represents cyclical, nonlinear, mythical time. The religion of the Goddess reflected a matristic, matrilineal, and endogamic social order for most of early human history. This was not necessarily “matriarchy,” which wrongly implies “rule” by women as a mirror image of androcracy. A matrifocal tradition continued throughout the early agricultural societies of Europe, Anatolia, and the Near East, as well as Minoan Crete. The emphasis in these cultures was on technolo- PREFACE gies that nourished people's lives, in contrast to the androcratic focus on domination. The Old European social structure was in direct contrast with the Indo- European system that replaced it. As archeological, historical, linguistic, and religious evidence shows, Old European society was organized around a theacratic, communal temple community, guided by a queen-priestess, her brother or uncle, and a council of women as the governing body. In spite of the revered status of women in religious life, the cemetery evi- dence throughout the 5th and most of the 4th millennia B.C. does not suggest any imbalance between the sexes or a subservience of one sex to the other. It suggests, instead, a condition of mutual respect. The primary grave goods for both sexes are symbolic of the sacred cycles of regenera- tion, although burial goods also honor personal achievements in the arts, crafts, trade, and other professions. The Old European society lacked the centralized structure of a chiefdom of the Indo-European type. However, it was not simply composed of small- scale segmentary societies throughout the millennial duration of the Neolithic and Copper Age. The Old European society grew from small agricultural village communities in the earliest Neolithic, to expanded composites of social units in the 5th millennium B.C. East-central Euro- pean settlements were larger than the largest proto-urban tells in the Near East. The Late Cucuteni culture, c. 4000-3500 B.C., reached an urban stage with towns of up to 10,000 inhabitants at the center of a district sur- rounded by medium and smaller size villages. | Note: The chronology used in this volume is radiocarbon, calibrated with tree-ring counting. The dates for each culture group from the 7th to the 3rd millennia BC. are given in the appendix. (B.C. indicates a calibrated date, b.c. an uncalibrated date, while B.P. refers to years before the present.} Ixi 2/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS The retreat of the last ice age brought a warming of the world’s climate which stimulated a rich abundance of wild plant and animal life and an increase in human populations. The transition from hunting and gathering to perma- nent settlements and the domestication of plants and animals was a gradual development between c. 9000 and 6500 B.C. The milder conditions of the Boreal period during the 8th millennium B.C., resulting in a dramatic rise of sea level, had a strong influence on plant and food resources for humans and animals. In the coastal regions and along inland lakes, marshes and peat areas were created that spawned a rich habitat for fish, molluscs, shellfish, and water birds. These concentrated food supplies and the spread of deciduous oak forests attracted humans toward a more settled life. In the Mediterranean region rose the exploitation of legumes and frutts. Not all animals and cereals were domesticated at one time nor in the same region. The dog had already been domesticated from the wolf in central Europe by the Magdalenian period of the Upper Paleolithic.! Sheep were domesticated in the hilly flanks of the Zagros Mountains (Iran, Iraq) and in the Taurus Mountains (Turkey) before 7000 B.C. where they had previously been hunted in the wild. Cattle and pigs followed between 7500 and 6500 B.C. in Anatolia and domestication continued locally in Europe from 6500 to 5500 B.C.2 The domesticated horse was unknown to the Near East and east- central Europe before the end of the Sth millennium B.C. There were three domesticated grains on which the early agriculture was based: einkorn wheat (Triticum mono- coccum), emmer wheat (triticum dicoccum), and two-row barley (Hordeum vulgare ssp. distichum). These were domesticated during the 8th and 7th millennia in settlements between southeast Europe and Afghanistan. To this day wild wheat, both einkorn and emmery, is found between Greece and Afghanistan, and wild barley still grows between the Aegean basin and Baluchistan.? Settled village life was also a gradual development. The precursors of seden- tary farmers lived as semisedentary food gatherers several millennia before agriculture developed, providing a transitional link between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. Such were the Natufians who lived in caves as well as in open air settlements along the eastern Mediterranean coast, 10,000- 8,000 B.C. Natufians were biologically modern human beings, similar to modern Mediterraneans,* who harvested and stored the plentiful wild wheat and barley. Numbers of mortars and stones for grinding grains and seeds, and many toothed sickle blades of flint were found in their settlements. There were also tools made of bone: awls, needles, spatulae, reaping knives, fishhooks, and harpoons—tools that for millennia to come would typify Neolithic inven- tories. Their animal sculptures of bone represent a continuity of Upper Paleo- lithic traditions, while dentalium shells used for beads, imported from the Medt- terranean and Red Seas, indicate their navigational communication with distant areas. They hunted gazelle, deer, and pigs, and kept domesticated dogs but no other domesticated animals. By 8000 B.C. cereals were fully domes- ticated in the eastern Mediterranean area, and the Natufian culture was followed in the east Mediterranean and Anatolia by Pre-Pottery Neolithic (food- producing culture without pottery). By 7000-6500 B.C., the Near East and southeast Europe were sharing a full agrarian complex wherein all commu- nities were dependent upon a rich variety of cereals, legumes (peas and lentils), sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle. It was in this period that the production of ceramics was discovered. Because it is virtually indestructible, pottery remained the most abundantly recorded fossil throughout the Neolithic. The Spread of Agriculture in Europe Several Theories “Revolution” The hypothesis that a ready-made agricultural complex was imported to Europe from the Near East is no longer acceptable. It was fashionable, in the days of V. Gordon Childe, to consider the introduction of agriculture as a “revolu- tion,” but the Neolithization of Europe is now seen to have been much more complex. The process was long and not uniform, and was dependent upon vari- ous geographical and natural conditions. A Biological Model of Diffusion Another hypothesis also became par- tially obsolete due to intensive research of Mesolithic and Early Neolithic strata in the western Mediterranean zone. In 1936, geneticist R.A. Fisher proposed a biological model of diffusion which was promoted by the book of A. J. Ammerman and L. L. Cavalli-Sforza entitled, The Neolithic Transition and the Genetics of Populations in Europe (1984). Its thesis sought to explain the spread of agriculture as a diffusionary process brought about by population growth and displacement. This model proposed that it is not the idea of farm- ing that spread, but the farmers them- selves. The authors stated that if an increase in population coincides with a local migratory activity, a wave of population explosion will ensue, pro- gressing at a constant radial rate that can be measured mathematically. The distance of the migratory activity is taken to be eighteen kilometers for each generation of twenty-five years, or one kilometer per year. Although this method is theoretically sound, espe- cially when population increases are associated with migratory movements, it cannot be applied in practice to all parts of Europe. We must base our views, instead, on actual archeological data combined with radiocarbon dating. The Conversion of Food Gatherers to Agriculture and the Spread of Migrating Farmers The earliest signs in Europe of a transi- tion from hunting-gathering to a food producing economy are found in the Mediterranean area. The process of Neolithization took place in two ways: through the conversion of local food gatherers to agriculture in the western and central Mediterranean region; and through the spread of agriculture with migrating farmers from southeast to northwest in southeastern and central Europe in combination with the conver- sion of local populations. Western and Central Mediterranean Zone Gradual Adoption of Domestication by the Mesolithic Population in Southern France and Spain For a long time it was believed that the Neolithic of this region started with the spread of Cardial or Impresso pottery (pottery impressed with the edge of cardium edule shells, widely found in the central and western Mediterranean area} from the east Mediterranean. In the 1980s it became clear that the Neolithi- zation of coastal regions of the western Mediterranean was accomplished by a gradual adoption of domestication by the local Mesolithic Castelnovian culture in eastern Spain and southern France. In addition, a rather specialized proto- agricultural exploitation of pulse crops and greens began in southern France some 10,000 years ago. The use of legumes including lambs lettuce, lentils, peas, bitter vetch, grass peas, and chick peas is evidenced in several Mesolithic sites in Provence and Languedoc.® The presence of sheep and goats and the use of legumes and greens as well as the con- tinuity of Upper Paleolithic industries indicate no major dichotomy between the hunter-gatherers and incipient agriculturalists. The excavation of strati- fied cave and rock-shelter sites, in com- bination with radiocarbon dating in eastern coastal Spain and southern France, has shown that this process took place during the 7th millennium BC. 1/THE BEGINNINGS AND SPREAD OF AGRICULTURE /3 (see discussion in chap. 6}. Many factors played a part in this process: the amelio- ration of climate, the increased seden- tism of fishermen and shell gatherers, and the natural environment. Evidence from Iberia and France has shown that the domestication of animals began considerably earlier than the cultivation of cereals and the use of pottery. Sheep and even pigs and cattle appear in aceramic strata in the early 7th millennium BC., and perhaps earlier. Pottery and grains are well attested in the strata dated between 6500-6000 B.C. Lithic complexes in these Mesolithic, or more accurately proto-Neolithic, layers indicate a gradual continuity with no breaks. Thus, the sum of accumulated data suggests that the western Mediter- ranean Neolithic was the result of a development by means of self-contained cultural mechanisms. Although gradual cultural develop- ment cannot be disputed, influences from the East cannot be denied. Domes- ticated sheep and goats that are found in Mesolithic strata do not have direct local predecessors. The sheep are related to the Near Eastern mouflon and the goats developed, not from the local Capra ibex or Capra pyrenaica, but from the Near Eastern Capra aegagrus. This leaves archeologists in the realm of hypothesis. It is for future research to establish when and how these species arrived. One guess is that the caprovines arrived through the central Mediterranean coastal regions from the Aegean area and not directly from the Near East. It is known that the navigators with early pottery and caprovines from the Aegean area reached the islands west of Greece (the island of Corfu; see chap. 5). In the west Mediterranean zone, caprovines never achieved the high economic importance that they had in the Near Eastern, Aegean, and in‘all of southeast European Neolithic. 4/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS The Gradual Adoption of Agriculture in the Circum-Adriatic and Central Mediterranean The circum-Adriatic region was settled by the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic food gatherers whose lithic industries show no break of tradition up to the beginning of the Pottery (“Impresso”) Neolithic.* The importation of agricul- ture from the Near East or even the Aegean area is here also quite unlikely. Corsica and Sardinia were settled by pre- Neolithic groups no later than during the 8th millennium BC. (the earliest radiocarbon dates of Corsica are from Strette 9140 B.P. and from Araguina Sennola at Bonifacio, 8650 B.P.). There, the Neolithic culture with pottery is dated to the end of the 7th millennium B.C. Soon thereafter, Sardinian obsidian was discovered and traded widely, becoming a true catalyst for the commu- nication between the western central Mediterranean and the Adriatic regions (see chap. 5). Southeast Europe A food producing economy was estab- lished in the Aegean basin before the middle of the 7th millennium B.C. We do not know yet to what extent the Neolithic economy was spread by new immigrants or if these ideas were passed on from Anatolia over a period of genera- tions without large scale migrations. Were the Mesolithic populations absorbed? The evidence suggests that all of these factors may have contributed to some extent. It is generally true that by this time the predominant farm stock animals, sheep and goats, were already fully domesticated in the earliest south- eastern European Neolithic sites. The exceedingly high ratio of domesticated animals to wild fauna in the earliest known Neolithic sites argues for an initial intrusion from outside Europe of both stock and peoples. Unfortunately, the period prior to the Neolithic is poorly represented in the archeological record. The climatic warming which accompanied the post- glacial period caused a rise in sea level which may have submerged many Mesolithic deposits on the Aegean islands and coastal regions. Mesolithic and Neolithic habitation layers have been found only at Franchthi, a cave in the Argolid region of the Peloponnese, although, even here, a continuity of cul- ture is not clear. Skeletal material found in the cave reveals two possibilities: the early population is either from local Mesolithic stock or is of eastern origin.’ Heterogeneous Physical Type The physical anthropological material from farther north, from the Nea Nikomedeia site in Greek Macedonia, is taxonomically heterogeneous. According to Angel, several types were present: the Dinaric-Mediterranean and the so-called Basic White type with Cro- Magnon characteristics. This variability is explained in terms of gradual inter- mixing, over the centuries, of the farm- ing populations with hunter-gatherers. The heterogeneous physical type is also attested in the Staréevo culture in the central and northern Balkans (see chap. 2). In the Iron Gate region of the Danube, cultural continuity is evi- denced from the Upper Paleolithic and through the Mesolithic shown by the continuous local European Cro-Magnon population, lithic industries, religion, and art. This is called “the Balkan- Danubian Epigravettian and Mesolithic culture” or “Lepenski Vir culture” (Lepenski Vir is one of the fourteen other excavated sites famous for its shrines and sculptures to which we shall return in chaps. 2, and 7). A food produc- ing economy appeared here only with the arrival of central Balkan (Staréevo] Neolithic people around 6000 B.C.8 The robust Cro-Magnons in this region were either replaced by the gracile Mediterraneans coming from the south or progressively merged with the newcomers.? Navigation and Trade— Decisive Catalysts for the Rise of Culture Navigational skills, trade, and barter creating increased human contact seem to have been very important catalysts for the unprecedented rise of Neolithic cul- ture. From the 8th millennium B.C., even before the Neolithic, there is evidence of trade in flint and obsidian.!° With the beginning of a food producing economy, a constant growth of communication is indicated by imported obsidian, marble, colorful stones, and spondylus shells. Obsidian—volcanic glass formed from silica rich lava—was ideal for sickle blades and other cutting tools. It was, therefore, in great demand and is found hundreds of kilometers from the original source areas. The principal source of obsidian for the Aegean area and for all of Greece was the island of Melos in the southern Aegean.!! The sources for the central Mediterranean, the circum- Adriatic, and inland western Yugoslavia were Sardinia (Monte Arci) and the Lipari volcano north of Sicily. The source for the Carpathian basin and the Danubian lowlands were the Carpathian Mountains in northeastern Hungary and northwestern Romania. Marble, used for bowls, dishes, ornaments, and figurines, was available from many sources, but the Paros and Skyros islands in the southern and northern Aegean may have been the main suppliers since Neolithic sites have been found there. Aegean spondylus shells were in demand for the manufacture of beads, pendants, and bracelets. These were diffused in large quantities from the Aegean Sea north- ward to Bulgaria and Romania and then along the Danube to central Europe.!? Shells from the Adriatic spread to western Yugoslavia and to southeastern Italy. A Full-fledged Neolithic Economy in Greece by 6500 B.C. By 6500 B.C., coastal Greece and the nearby inland plains supported a full-fledged Neolithic economy that produced ceramics as well as domesti- cated sheep, goats, cattle, pigs, and dogs. A complete set of domestic fauna occurred here about five hundred years earlier than in southwest Asia. Wheat, barley, vetch, lentils, peas, and flax were cultivated. Emmer wheat, bread wheat, and sheep had presumably been imported from Anatolia, while cattle and pigs were domesticated independently in southeastern Europe. Agricultural tools included hoes of stone and antler, sickles of wood or bone set with 1/THE BEGINNINGS AND SPREAD OF AGRICULTURE /S obsidian, chert, or flint teeth (FIGURE FIGURE 1-1 , ; a sca 1-1), and grinding stones, mortars and . FIGURE 1-1 (1) Antler pestles. sickle handle from tell The spread of Neolithic technology into east-central Europe was relatively rapid after a Neolithic economy became established in the Aegean and the Medi- terranean zone. The Mediterranean climate of that time was wetter than it is today, creating favorable conditions for agriculture. Azmak, Central Bulgaria. Karanovo | period, c. 5900-5800 B.C. Length 30.8 cm. (2) Obsidian blades as they were inserted in a wood sickle handle. From Achilleton, Thessaly, c. 6200 B.C. The Spread of Agriculture from Southeast to Northwest The advance of agriculture in Europe as co shown on the map (FIGURE 1-2) indi- | cates that seaways were crucial for the accelerated diffusion of Neolithic ideas. Navigation across the Aegean and Adriatic Seas and along the Mediterra- nean coasts was not difficult. The trade in obsidian and shells testifies to this. Inland, communication was slower. It took about 500 years for agriculture to spread from the Aegean to the Danube, and another 500 years from the Middle Danube basin to eastern France and Holland. Northern Europe between Den- mark and Lithuania was converted to agriculture only around 4000-3500 B.C. Neolithic Towns in Anatolia (Turkey) he earliest Neolithic culture in 2 southeast Europe is tightly bound with that of Anatolia. Settlements in both areas have yielded similar tools, jewelry, statuary, and a related temple-building tradition with the same deities worshiped using the same symbolic language. In Anatolia, as in the east Mediterranean area, the developmental stages from the semi- sedentary Natufian to the Pre-Pottery , Neolithic are well recorded, whereas we lack this information for southeast Europe. Although contact between j Greece and Turkey must have started during the Pre-Pottery period, around 7000 BC. or before, western Turkey is little explored and the direct points of ‘ contact are not as yet known. The most important Neolithic settlements are in 6/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 1-2 4500 B.C. yy, 3500 B.C. 4200 B.C. 5500 B.C. 4 5500 B.C. C \ Same, \ 5500 . a 5500 B.C. , A | i MM ON 5500 8. 6000-5500 B.C. 6500 B.C, 5 eV iti es j | © 7000 B.C. KEY Upper Mesolithic Castelnovian Mesolithic with incipient animal domestication Mesolithic (Pre-Roucadur) of central France os Dniester-Bug (Grebeniki) Kukrek and Crimean Murzak Koba Neolithic 5500ec. Dates marking spread of agriculture —_— Extent of Neolithic with pottery Ce ee FIGURE 1-2 Spread of farming In Europe. Dates shown (based on radio- carbon and dendro- chronology) are for full-fledged Neolithic with pottery. In the west- ern Mediterranean zone animal domestication began about a millen- nium before the transi- tion to fully developed agriculture. In southeast- ern Europe, the Neolithic Started with a full- fledged agricultural complex (with cereals and all domesticated animals except the horse), central Anatolia, 300 to 600 km from the Aegean Sea. In spite of the distance inland, it is clear that there is a general similarity of culture. The earliest towns of Anatolia devel- oped an amazingly high cultural level as seen in the two most important: Catal Htiytik, dating from the end of the 8th to the end of the 7th millennia B.C., and Hacilar, from the end of the 7th to the early 6th millennia BC. Catal Hiyuk The excavation of the 7th millennium B.C. town of Catal Hityiik by James Mellaart in 1961-63 and 1965 has revolu- tionized our views on the prehistory of Anatolia and the entire Old World." Catal Hiytik consists of two riverside mounds situated on a dry plateau 1000 meters above sea level on the Konya plain in south-central Turkey. The larger mound occupies about 32 acres (16 hec- tares}, one acre of which was excavated. The breathtaking discovery of thirteen building levels with houses, temples, murals, reliefs, sculptures, trade items, and other finds was an eye-opener to the level of Neolithic culture that existed in the 7th millennium B.C. The close cultural similarity of the southeast European Neolithic with that of Anatolia makes it indispensable to look first at Catal Hiyuik, a monument of concentrated information that sheds light on many aspects of Neolithic life: economy, trade, architecture, house and temple furnishings, religion, and art. The Konya plain was an especially rich part of the Old World, one that abounded in wild cereal grasses and domesticable animals. The town that developed there and continued for more than a thousand years is dated in calibrated chronology to c. 7250-6150 BC. (in uncalibrated chro- nology, 6500-5750 b.c.; the latter dates were used in books and articles pub- lished by Mellaart and other authors before 1989). Catal Hityik did not emerge out of a vacuum. Below it was another mound with twelve levels of an aceramic culture. The bottom levels belonged to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic and Late Natufian which yielded mate- rials related to cultures in Syria and 1/THE BEGINNINGS AND SPREAD OF AGRICULTURE /7 Palestine. The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A level contained a temple model, figurines, loom weights, limestone plaquettes with a rich decoration, and fragments of poly- chrome wall painting. The late Natufian (bottom level) included wooden plaques with designs, shale plaques, geometric microliths, and other finds.'* These preceding levels at Catal Hiiytik express the long development of a single culture from the 10th to the 8th millennia BC. During these early millennia, experi- ments in local domestication of cereals and animals, especially aurochs, must have been made. The inventive spirit of these early people is reflected by a vari- ety of designs on plaques and the poly- chrome painting of walls. Religious objects, models of temples, and figurines found here continue throughout the whole Neolithic sequence. Catal Hiiytik was an orderly settle- ment that reflects a remarkable stability of social organization throughout many hundreds of years. It is the largest town of the Early Neolithic period in the whole of the Old World, and it is esti- mated that up to 7,000 inhabitants could have lived there at one time. (The famous Jericho in the Jordan valley, as it is now estimated, could have housed no more than 400-900 inhabitants).'s The houses of Catal Hiiyiik were densely grouped; many were built against existing structures and open courtyards occurred randomly. (FIGURE 1-3) Houses were timber framed and built of mud brick with flat roofs. There were no doors, and people entered their homes through openings in the roof. Lack of debris or remains of meals inside these houses suggest that the occupants kept their houses scrupulously clean. Interiors were sparsely furnished and raised mud platforms served as seats and beds. From the size of the houses, some 25 square meters, and the number of beds, Mellaart guessed that none of the excavated houses could have accommo- dated more than eight persons. Kitchens occupied about a third of a house’s total floor space and ovens were set low in the walls. Storage rooms contained plaited baskets for grain, tools, and other uN supplies. 8/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 1-3 NOT EXCAVATED COURTYARD « Hee i hi ihiee fs Lid Dy Yy os . fil) YE Ui WY, [jE << i Y SS x ss, uw LETTS A I, HY a\ & LY UG, YEN 4 Y 4 ELL COURTYARD oerlrae . SSS Wee 7/ ie UL if TTP i A A 4 A \" Ufiee Ui "h fy MW VY Hp Ye Uh Wy fie Ye YY) 4 Vv) 4 4 ee ‘ a \\ Ae VW yi YP Ke 7. pp We ‘e y 4 4 1 , ZZ L Wr SS SS ifs Y y 1S P 4; ) % y) YY ], a ee FIGURE 1-3 Plan (a) and schematic reconstruc- tion (b) of a section of Catal HiyUk town with mud brick houses rising in terraces. Houses had flat roofs and entry was by roof. Level Vi; mid-7th mill. B.C. Temples are marked with an X. Vil ty y y y d Gite. Wi Ls Y y ifs i\ My % “ay way ifs pftiees y, Y, Y YY i) 4 U} ere “a 4, NOT EXCAVATED The townsfolk cultivated three types of wheat and one of barley, and grew or gathered a wide range of green and root vegetables and fruits. While cattle provided them with most of their meat supply and with dairy products, they also kept goats and hunted deer and wild pigs. Throughout the existence of the town there was a continuous trading activity in obsidian and flint. Obsidian was obtained from Hasan Dag volcano and other places in central Anatolia. This volcanic glass was used not only for cut- ting tools, but also for mirrors which they were able to polish without any scratches. Calcite and alabaster (used for jewlery and figurines) probably came from the Kayseri region, and fine white marble from western Anatolia. The western hills beyond Konya, rich in brightly colored iron oxides, may have provided a number of pigments for paint- ing. The copper ores, hematite, limonite, manganese, galena, and lignite were probably from the Taurus Mountains. Shells were imported from.the Mediter- ranean Sea, while rock crystal, carnelian, jasper, chalcedony, and other rocks used for beads whose sources are not clearly known were very likely imported from distant places. Trade must have con- tributed appreciably to the wealth and prosperity of Catal Hiyiik, and indus- tries flourished with specialized workers in obsidian carving, metallurgy, weaving, wood carving, and other disciplines. Many artifacts display the highest stan- dard of craftsmanship. It is clearly evident that the practice of religion was integrated into people’s daily lives. Temples were found within the area of habitation .in houses similar to those in which people lived. From 300 excavated rooms, 88 had painted walls. Each painting was from 12 to 18 m long. (Sketched reconstructions of many of these were published by James Mellaart in The Goddess of Anatolia, vol. 1, 1989.) The eastern and northern walls in which platforms were found were painted above with ingenuity and an amazing diversity of designs. These were emphasized with plaster reliefs and bucrania (bull heads or skulls}. The colors used were yellow and brown ochres (from iron oxides), bright blues and greens (from copper ore}, deep and bright reds (from mercury oxide and hematite], mauves and purples (from manganese), and lead gray (from galena). Mica dust was used to provide the pig- ments with a glitter effect. Mellaart observed that these wall paintings had a ritual function and that when a painting had served its purpose, it was covered over with a layer of white plaster. Later, as the need arose, a new picture would be painted on the clean background. The main theme of these wall paint- ings and reliefs revolves around the Goddess of Regeneration portrayed as a frog-shaped woman giving birth. She is associated with animals, and around her are both the vulture, representing the death aspect, and the bull head, representing regeneration. There is also a myriad of accompanying symbols rhythmically lined out along the edges, framing the panels. Most of these sym- bols are abstracted representations of horns, triangles, rhombs or double tri- angles, or hourglass shapes and butter- flies. Symbols are duplicated, triplicated, multiplied, juxtaposed, shown in reverse, and in positive and negative designs. The variety of these combinations of motifs is virtually endless. In addition, there are also some half-naturalistic portrayals of deer hunts, women carrying fish nets, mountains, plants, and water with fish. (We shall return to the tem- ples of Catal Htiyiik in chap. 7; see plates 38 and 39 for examples of wall paintings; for temples with vultures, see fig. 7-26, for bull heads and horns see figs. 7-51, 7-52). The dead were buried under platforms in the houses after their skeletons had been excarnated (stripped of flesh and internal organs through exposure to birds, probably in open-sided towers). Burials of women painted with ochre were found under the floors of temples and under wall paintings. The rich burial of a woman interred with three tusked lower jaws of wild boars arranged around her head, was found under the largest temple (in E VU, 14). The largest painting which it contained portrayed a town (presumably Catal Htyiuk itself) with a volcano erupting behind it. The size of both the temple and the wall painting, as well as the unusual symbolic grave items, suggests that this woman had a respected position in the society, perhaps as a queen-priestess. The prominence of older women or girls is similarly dis- tinctive in European burials found under the floors, near the house, under long earthen mounds, or in cemeteries, as discussed in chapter 9. There are no male graves with such extraordinary symbolic items. | The physical anthropological study of nearly 300 skeletons found at Catal Hiiyiik as yet is not completed. The preliminary reports divide the peoples into long-headed Eurafricans (54.2 per- cent}, long-headed proto-Mediterraneans (16.9 percent}, and short-headed (Brachy- cephalic) Alpines (22.9 percent). The most numerous group resembles Upper Paleolithic Combe Capelle humans from southern France, described as the Medi- terranean version of Cro-Magnon. The point to be emphasized, as Mellaart has remarked, is that the bulk of the popu- lation was still close to its Upper Paleo- lithic ancestry. Hacilar and After Hacilar, located 220 km west of Catal Hiiyiik, also excavated by Mellaart, was a smaller town of about 50 houses.’* Its beginning is contemporaneous with the - end of Catal Hiiyik and it continued throughout the first half of the 6th millennium B.C. It is contemporary with the rising Neolithic culture in south- eastern Europe—Sesklo, Staréevo, and Karanovo groups—while having its own style of pottery and sculptural art. After Hacilar, Anatolian Neolithic is not well known, whereas the culture of southeastern Europe flourished and reached its climax between 5500 and 4500 BC. The two areas diverged and local cultural entities were formed in different ecological and geographical zones. In the next chapter we shall describe these areas in some detail beginning with the Aegean area and the Balkans and ending with central Europe. 1/THE BEGINNINGS AND SPREAD OF AGRICULTURE /9 As it is seen from the temples with their wall paintings and statuary, the Anatolian Neolithic was a Goddess civi- lization characterized by the dominance of the worship of the Goddess imbued with mysterious generative power, the importance of temples that functioned as social foci and catalysts for creativity in arts and religious expression, and by the balanced matrilineal social struc- ture. From around 6500 B., the same features of culture are found in south- eastern Europe and later in most of Europe up to the time of the demise of this civilization, between 4500 and 2500 B.C. However, in the Mediterranean islands such as Crete and Thera this civilization flourished until the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C. Even if we admit the presence of Anatolian influence on southeast Europe during the 7th millennium B.C., we cannot see it as a transplantation like a tree at a certain time, rather this influence affected the European conti- nent as a gradual flow of a river. Further- more, we cannot equate this matristic and art-loving civilization with a proto- Indo-European culture (a cradle of Indo-European speakers) which is reconstructed by means of comparative Indo-European linguistics and mythol- ogy as a patriarchal, patrilineal, warlike, mobile (horse-riding) culture, and having a pantheon of dominant male gods. This equation, as proposed by Colin Renfrew in 1987,!” is based on a misconception of cultural structures and goes against the evidence of Indo-European studies. want Vy i a ——) —\ h L —y A | Ya +. th _h aS \ vr vai a A aaa Neolithic Cultures of Southeastern and Central Europe 12/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS Southeastern and central Europe contains the most outstanding Neolithic cultures of Europe. While many tradt- tions are shared with Anatolia and the East Mediterranean, these cultures are remarkable for their own creativity in art and architecture, and for their ability to explore and adapt to a variety of environmental conditions. There is a strong cultural inter- relationship between the Aegean area (Greece) and Anatolia (Turkey). A strong connection also exists between the southeast and the Danubian plain, and with the region north and west of it. The stream of agriculturation moved up from the southeast to northwest, branching off to the east and west. It flowed like a river, following fertile lands and stopping at or avoiding the mountains. This flow was in stages: It first covered the coastal regions and plains of the Aegean and southern Balkans, c. 6500 B.C.; it spread next along the Lower and Middle Danube plain, c. 6000 B.C.; reaching the Upper Danube and the river valleys north of it, c. 5500 B.C. The Southeast and Central European Neolithic is known from hundreds of excavated sites—unlike the Anatolian, which is known from only several. It is therefore possible to speak of the distri- bution of culture groups and to pursue the development of their individual features throughout a millennium or more. It is a true blessing and challenge to the students of European prehistory to explore this great variety of cultural material instead of the monotony of uniformity. Within this diversity was an expres- sion of the way of life, the belief system, rituals, symbols, and the social struc- ture which was more or less the same during this period between the Aegean and Central Europe. The interrelation- ship between the various culture groups within this territory is the result of a gradual influx of peoples from the south and their influence on and intermixing with local hunter-fishers who survived in such areas as the Upper Tisza basin, the Iron Gate region, and the Dniester- Bug basins. Six groups will be introduced, starting with the Aegean area in the south and ending with the Dniester Bug basins in Moldavia and the Ukraine. 1. The Sesklo culture in northern Greece with the fertile region of Thessaly as its bread basket. Excava- tions began here in the very beginning of the 20th century and continued throughout the second half of this century. 2. The Starcevo (Kérés, Cris) culture, distributed over the continental Yugo- slavia, southeast Hungary and south- ern Romania. This culture is still vaguely researched, although informa- tion from excavations has markedly increased during the last three decades. 3. The Karanovo culture in central Bulgaria, much related to the Starcevo, discovered in the late fifties and sixties through the intensive excavation of large tells (mounds). 4. The Linearbandkeramik (LBK) culture of central Europe, between France and Romania. This is the most widely distributed culture, which has also been the best explored throughout our century by teams of archeologists from France, Holland, Germany, Czech- oslovakia, Poland, and Romania. 5. The Bukk culture in the Upper Tisza basin (northeast Hungary and eastern Slovakia), known by its sacred caves in the Carpathians, from as early as 1876, and from further explorations and publication in the twenties as well as from work in recent decades. 6. The Dniester-Bug culture in the black soil region, discovered in the fifties and sixties. In this area, the domestication of cattle and pigs and the grinding of wild seeds seem to have started independently from the main stream of agriculturation in southeast Europe, before influences from the Starcevo-Cris culture appeared. FIGURE 2-1 Tells (mounds of habitation debris) from Thessaly. (1) Argisa tell, west of Larisa, Thessaly, with an accumulation of over 12 mof Neolithic and Early Bronze Age debris. (2) Profile of the Sesklo tell, c. 12 m of cultural deposits, with Early Neolithic (Early Ceramic) at the base and classical Sesklo on the top, c. 65th-57th cents. B.C. Sesklo is 14 km west of Volos, Thessaly, N Greece. The Aegean Neolithic: The Sesklo Culture of Northern Greece he Thessalian and Macedonian plains are Greece’s richest agricultural lands. In modern times as well as for thousands of years these plains have served as the bread baskets of Greece. The large Thessalian Plain is drained by the Penneos River and the Macedonian by the Aliakmon River. Their many tributaries flow down from the mountains before merging and flowing out into the Aegean Sea. The earliest Neolithic settlements were founded on natural elevations near a water source—river or stream. This area is within the Mediterranean climatic zone with dry hot summers and cold wet winters. Eighty-five hundred years ago the climate was moister, with lush vege- tation; the river valleys were covered with oak and pistachio groves. Tells—Mounds of Settlement Debris The plains of northern Greece are dotted with mounds called tells, “magulas” in Greek, which are mound-shaped layers of settlement debris from the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. Going west from the Bay of Volos and across the plain between the modern towns of Karditsa, Trikala, and Larisa, one can easily count hundreds of them, standing five to fifteen meters high. (FIGURE 2~1) These mounds hold the secrets of people who lived there for many centuries between 8500 and 4500 years ago. Mudbrick and layers of clay daub used for house walls crumbled in time and new houses were built over the old ones causing the tells to grow higher, layer by layer. These human-made hills are mysteri- ous and archeologists are often intrigued by a desire to unravel their secrets. I was one of them. This irresistible fascination let to the excavation in 1973-74 of one of the early Neolithic tells on the south- ern edge of the Thessalian Plain. This site, Achilleion, near Farsala, proved to be the key for understanding the chro- nology, architecture, pottery evolution, and religion of the Neolithic Aegean.! a ee eee eee" FIGURE 2-1 2/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF SOUTHEASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE ad /13 14/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 2-2 sO orology FIGURE 2-2 Distribution = Prom the hundreds of well-preserved of major Early and tells, only about thirty have been profes- Mingle MEG Stes sionally excavated in this century. The in Greece, c. 6500- - : : 5500 BC. first systematic exploration began in 1901 when Chrestos Tsountas launched his extensive investigation of the mound of Sesklo.2 The name of that site was subsequently given to the culture of Neolithic settlements throughout Thes- saly and southern Macedonia. The Early Neolithic of southern Greece, the Peloponnese, and the Aegean Islands is related to the Sesklo of Thessaly and should be regarded as part of that culture. (FIGURE 2-2) In Tsountas’ time, the Sesklo culture was believed to have begun about 3000 B.C. Radiocarbon dates now verify the earliest stages with pot- tery, domestic animals, and cultivation of wheat, barley, lentils, and peas at 6500 BC. or somewhat earlier. The stratigraphy of the Achilleion mound in central Thessaly and the forty-two radiocarbon dated samples from this mound have served to deter- mine a chronology of the Sesklo culture with greater accuracy. The gradual succession from one cultural phase to the next is observable from the time habitation began in Achilleion, 6500-6400 B.C. until 5600 B.C. Only a few of the other excavated sites have been dated by the radiocarbon method. Of these, Sesklo in Thessaly, Elateia in Phocis?, Nea Nikomedeia in Greek western Macedonia’, Argisa’, and the Franchthi Cave in the Peloponnese® have yielded more than one date of similar age. (TABLE 1) Early Sesklo corre- sponds to Early Neolithic (6500-6000 B.C.)’ and Classical Sesklo to Middle Neolithic (6000-5500 B.C.}. Its climax v9 ? Nea Nikomedeia e 0) ae | a Larisa oa? lag Tsangli Sidari Trikala ~Otzakig | ~ a ‘\ re Argisa ‘@ i \ S kl ax ( Soufli®e / Ren? oa f * Nog Tsani ©] Ow Jgoshios Pétros CORFU MA Achilleion 2/ ~ =~ a ane —— Elateia e ( gean Sea b | Athens Ae Corinth my d? 7 Nemea e YQ Lerna ® ov 2, — eZ, 0 bb & Franchthi Cave @ . iy) q) Cc N\ =) MELOS b KEY was reached by 6000 B.C. (’ > Large plain of Thessaly During the first half of the 7th millen- i el nium BC. there probably existed a pre- pottery stage, as yet vaguely documented in Thessaly, but evidenced in the Pelo- ponnese by the Franchthi cave, in Crete at Knossos, and on the island of Kythnos. Architecture In the Sesklo culture people built their villages of separate houses, a marked departure from settlement patterns of the Near East where communities are clusters of interconnected dwellings with common walls. Sesklo sites of the Middle Neolithic were ringed on the landward side by V-shaped ditches proba- bly for protection against wild animals. In every phase of Achilleion there is evidence of house building, and the fluctuation of climate from cooler and damper (6500-6000 B.C.) to warmer 2/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF SOUTHEASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE /145 (6000-5500 B.C.) was reflected in its architecture. The earliest buildings were pit houses in the mid-7th millennium B.C. which were replaced with rectan- gular houses with pisé walls around 6300 B.C. Timber post houses appeared around 6200 (FIGURE 2-3), and between 6100-6000 there were timber post houses up to six meters long with wattle and daub walls. In the period between 6000-5600 solid rectangular houses of mudbrick were built on stone founda- tions. (FIGURE 2-4] FIGURE 2-3 spy aint Mininrentiiy yan } ir ayy Coes aay SMALL tiny ee a!) / vi Re thf , \ ate: Has i \ aie i, A } », y ’ -_ Z if ey Rr » = yn ye” . x hy | Re RE PE i a che ¢ 2 oe 3! \p rah) Ni Ky A \ Mags Weg gq dy a y ff fl Vi | sa { IW, til NG 7B TINY I RTT TL id gare’ WO MAL : anne’ MANSY) f/ , a y TE to OO See PACES ? Bet “SOE DOH ES ao yon yglem & ° 4 & MH, ‘Wy. / “Czy Ni Nill, Rs \y NH / ‘, “Ny " ll, ” {trade \ \ SUTIN ELAN Hy ye WAT sp “450 ae ¥ 8 OS Be peace le Maye '\ | if 3: bd =k iar a 3 - 2. +) s rely we Teeoks: BAL G wD Dts toe NON ( 3k FIGURE 2-3 Timber-post houses with walls of wattle-and-daub, round plastered hearths, and domed ovens with clay platforms in the court- yards. Achilleion tl, near Farsala, Thessaly, 6300-6200 B.C. Reconstructed by D. Shimabuku. Mor Msi tlalet { iy 16/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS — a FIGURE 2-4 Stone foun- dations of Sesklo houses in Thessaly from 5900- 5700 8.C., as they can be seen today, le a FIGURE 2-5 (1) Artist's reconstuction of the classical Sesklo village. Some 30 houses are surrounded by stone retaining walls including Internal stone walls. Based on Tsountas’s excavation, 1901. (2) The rest of the set- tlement extends over adjacent slopes, covering 20-25 acres. 5900- 5700 BC. 2/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF SOUTHEASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE /17 FIGURE 2-5 The settlement of thirty or more houses at Sesklo, on the central knoll, apart from the scattered settlement on = Ae see i ir = ee | adjacent hill slopes, was surrounded by Pe Pern te eats, a ae retaining walls of stone (see artist’s Pees ars) PRATT UN mend FO mini a a ek _ teconstruction based on Tsountas’s i cal ON Eg BGSAL Gita ANA tai? Nat ae excavation, fig. 2-5). Demetrios Theo- ime alts ‘ charis, who continued excavations at Sesklo between 1958 and 1976 has bee > estimated that the entire settlement mm: ~~~ covered an area of 20 to 25 acres.’ @--2eex" “(For further discussion of Sesklo, see WN x chap. 9.) ae . The most common houses had only one room, whereas two-room houses, as clarified by excavations at Achilleion, were temples consisting of a temple proper in one room and a workshop in the other (see fig. 7-46). Some houses had two stories or an attic supported by buttresses. Pitched roofs are indicated by miniature temple models of clay. Domed ovens were in the courtyards and had either a rectangular bench attached at one side or a large circular platform in front. (FIGURES 2-6, 1) Figurines of the pregnant-goddess type were found near the ovens or on these platforms (see figs. 7-48 and 7-49), and grinding stones, grain, stone and bone tools, and pots were found nearby. Food preparation and other work was done here, which may account for the conspicuous absence of rubbish on house floors and a tidiness remarkable for this period. Fadl 18/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 2-6 if 2 ee ez eee Sn) ae a: GRRE Gate ene 0 RE Gee ees Ce De ee LE VP LPAD MEL OR Pk yf UE VR Ras, Wee eo Te Xe. “dia te = | ee Se QQQAA QQYY oe kK ’ ‘ ee ‘ Tigaicnyee: ° or \. ' TEA TET fe FIGURE 2-6 (1) Domed ovens with a bench or circular platform in courtyards of Sesklo villages. Vases, hand milling stones, pestles, and pounders were found nearby. (a) Achil- leion Il, c. 6300-6200 B.c., (b) Achilleion IVa, 5900- 5800 B.c. The cross-section shows sev- eral layers of plastering interspersed with layers of black earth. (2) Hand-milling stones and axes used for wood- working from Achilleion lV, Thessaly, c. 5900- 5800 B.c. Small axes were produced of greenstone. Triangular miniature axes were frequently never used and seem to have served as symbols, but their butts display damage, probably from hafting. (3) Tools used for the textile industry. (a) Clay spindle whorls. (b) Clay spools. (c) Bone needles. (a) and (b), Achilleion Ill, c. 6100- 5900 B.c.; (c) Achilleion Il, c. 6200 B.C. (4) Clay spoon from Achilleion tb, c. 6300 B.c. 2/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF SOUTHEASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE /19 Economy Throughout its duration, the Sesklo culture was sustained by a stable econ- omy based on the cultivation of wheat (emmer, einkorn, and club wheat}, bar- ley, millet, lentils, vetch, and peas.° The earliest levels are characterized by a mixed crop which was a form of subsis- tence agriculture ensuring that some return was obtained from the land what- ever the climate or soil conditions. These annual crops were cultivated to provide a storable surplus of large edible seeds which could supply starch, pro- tein, and vegetable oils for the commu- nity throughout the year. The fertility of the soil was replenished by intentionally introducing pulse crops with the cereals which activated nitrogen fixed in the root nodules, thus replacing what was leached from the soil during rainy periods. At first, sheep and goats were the most numerous domesticated animals, followed by cattle and pigs. The ratio of caprovines gradually declined—from 82 percent at Achilleion I (middle of the 7th millennium B.C.) to 70.6 percent in Phase IV (early 6th millennium B.C.)— as the importance of cattle and pigs correspondingly rose. This change indi- cates an increasing reliance of animal husbandry on local resources. There were domesticable wild forms of cattle and pigs in Greece, and the occurrence of transitional forms in occupation deposits is indicative of a small-scale practice of local domestication. The climate, damper than at present, pro- duced oak groves and forested mountains. sheltering roe, red and fallow deer, aurochs, wild swine, red fox, hare, wild cat, badger, and ibex. Nevertheless, hunt- ing seems to have been minimal, as only three to six percent of animal bones identified at Achilleion and other sites are those of wild animals. Seasonal fruits, acorns, nuts, and berries added variety to the diet. The harvesting and grinding of grass crops is indicated by large quantities of obsidian and chert sickle blades, hand-milling stones, pestles, and pounders. (FIGURE 2-6, 1} Chisels, axes, and adzes speak for wood- working (FIGURE 2-6, 2) while spools, spindle whorls, loom weights, awls, and very fine bone needles with pierced eyes indicate textile production. (FIGURE 2-6, 3) A variety of clay ladles and spoons have been found (FIGURE 2-6, 4} as well as fishhooks and harpoon points of bone. Among the products of Early Neolithic craftsmen are marble, por- phyry, or greenstone vases and dishes; tiny pendants, beads, and figurines of finely worked blackstone, greenstone, marble, or alabaster; and alabaster and clay seals incised with meanders, spirals, triangles, and zig-zags. A seal or gaming board of alabaster with a meandroid design from Achilleion is a good exam- ple of their exquisite craftmanship. (PLATE 2} Pottery Pottery is the most conspicuous indus- try, richly represented in each phase starting with the middle of the 7th millennium B.C. Gradually changing shapes and technology are very helpful for the establishment of chronological phases. The painting of symbols on pottery occurred simultaneously with, or shortly after, the inception of ceramics. By 6400-6300 B.C., several motifs—triangles, zig-zags, chevrons, and net patterns—are recognizably dominant. (FIGURE 2-7; PLATE 3} 20/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 2-7 see 3 FIGURE 2-7 Earliest painted pottery (red on white-slipped back- ground) from Sesklo Ib, c. 6400-6300 Bc. from Argisa, Otzaki, and Sesklo, Thessaly. Ceres 8 FIGURE 2~8 Early pottery shapes imitated stone vessel forms. (1) Green- stone dish and (2) pot- tery dish, Achilleion la, c. 6400 Bc. a FIGURE 2-9 Developmen- tal stages of pottery from the earliest phase, c. 6500-6400 B.c. to the classical Sesklo period, c. 5800-5700 Bc., based on excavation and chronology of Achilleion near Farsala, Thessaly. Phase Ib and Il, outflar- ing rims, small knobs, and pierced lug handles appear. Phase Ill and IV, a wide assortment of wares in red, brown, and black clays, some very thin walled and well fired. A high percentage exhibit a fine white kaolin slip beneath designs painted in con- trasting shades of red iron oxides. | FIGURE 2-10 Red on white painted Sesklo vases from Achilleion with magnificent “flame” designs, c, 6100-5900 Bc. Achilleion, tllb-Iva, southern Thessaly. FIGURE 2-8 The rounded shapes and ringed bases of the earliest pottery jars and dishes are clearly in imitation of stone vessels that continued to be produced in the Early Pottery period. (FIGURE 2-8) Changes in pottery reflect a progressive technologi- cal development from simply shaped globular or semiglobular burnished pots with a blunt lip, some with a ring base, in Early Neolithic I, to a wide assort- ment of wares in red, brown, and black clays, some very thin walled and well fired, from the Middle Neolithic (Classi- cal Sesklo}. (FIGURE 2-9) A high percent- age of this later pottery exhibits a fine white kaolin slip beneath designs painted in contrasting shades of red iron oxides. Banded “flames,” triangles, zig- zags, lozenges, and steps characterize the celebrated Sesklo Style of painted pottery. (FIGURE 2-10; PLATE 4}. Orni- thomorphic (bird-shaped) and anthropo- morphic vases were produced. Goddess masks are frequently found attached to the necks of ritual vases. (PLATE 5} FIGURE 2-9 2/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF SOUTHEASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE a é ) “a Ou Oise t /21 FIGURE 2-10 22/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS Sculptural Art The tradition of modeling or carving figurines was inherited from the Upper Paleolithic. In the Aegean area, as in the Near East, their manufacture precedes that of pottery. Clay figurines are known, for instance, from the pre- pottery site at Knossos, Crete. Clay, marble, alabaster, greenstone, and black- stone figurines are documented from the very beginning of the Sesklo series and are evidenced in every phase. In later Sesklo phases about 90 percent of the total number are of clay over pebbles or over cylindrical or round clay cores, while the number of stone figurines decreases. The miniature figurines, some two to six centimeters high, are better preserved than the larger sculptures which are usually found fragmented. At Achilleion, in an excavated area little more than 100 square meters, more than 200 clay figurines came to light. One hundred thirty-two were found within temples, ninety-nine were in the court- yard near a dais or oven, and others were found discarded in pits. It is safe to say that the majority of figurines were kept in groups on altars within temples and in courtyards on a dais and at the bread oven. Almost always they were found in association with fine ware, offering containers, lamps, ladles, and handled seals. This site has revealed that certain types of female figurines (Bird Goddess, Snake Goddess, Nurse} were temple or house goddesses. Others, such as the Pregnant Goddess, were wor- shiped in the courtyard at specially pre- pared platforms, with offering pits near the bread ovens (see figs. 7-46 to 7-49}. From the two hundred figurines found at Achilleion, only two fragmented ones were representing a male god, seated on a stool with hands on knees. Sculptural art was abstract and sym- bolic, produced for religious purposes for the reenactment of seasonal and other rituals, as protective house deities or ancestresses, and as ex votos. Although the Sesklo artists did not seem inter- ested in portraying the human body in naturalistic detail, their masterful abil- ity to do so is nevertheless expressed in certain pieces. (FIGURES 2-11, 2-12, PLATE 1} FIGURE 2-11 FIGURE 2-11 Seated female figures of clay from the classical Sesklo culture, highly burnished and cream slipped. c. 5800-5600 B.C. (1) Nicea near Larisa. H 5.7 cm. (2) Farsala, S Thessaly. H 7 cm. 2/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF SOUTHEASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE /23 FIGURE 2-12 FIGURE 2-13 FIGURE 2-12 (1) Head (mask) of a large sculp- ture in clay. Soufli tell at Larisa; early 6th mill. B.c. H. 8 cm. (2) Masked head with an open mouth that served as a spout for a large libation vase. Achilleion, c. 5800 BC. H6 cm, Found in temple. FIGURE 2-13 Dimini vase from Rakhmani, Thes- saly. Spirals sweep across a striated background, with a chevron on the handle; painted dark brown on cream. Mid-5th mill. B.c. Continuity into the Late Neolithic The Sesklo culture continued into the Late Neolithic and is called Dimini in the 5th millennium BC. In contrast to the Danubian basin, very few copper and gold items have been found in Greece. The name Dimini derives from the eponymous settlement, four kilometers west of Volos in Thessaly, excavated in the beginning of this century.!! Dimini materials, characterized by painted and black wares (FIGURE 2-13}, have been recovered in a series of strati- fied tells in Thessaly overlying Neolithic deposits. Outstanding are the Argisa, Otzaki, Arapi, Soufli, Zarkou, and Rakhmani tells in the area of Larisa.” The Dimini period is a long-lasting, continuous cultural development, placed within 5500-4000 B.C., represented by phases J-vil.!8 In Attica, the excavations of the cave of Kitsos' yielded a series of radiocarbon dates which place the incised and matt- painted pottery, obsidian tools, and other finds into the 46th and 42nd centuries BC. (TABLE 1) The Cycladic Islands seem to have continued their own Neolithic culture. The excavation at Saliagos near Antiparos (a small island at Paros} in the southern part of the Aegean has revealed a settlement with stone walls and a bastionlike structure. The radio- carbon dates obtained from shells date _ the Saliagos finds between 5200-4600 B.C. (TABLE 1) The Kephala site on the island of Kea, with analogies in Attica and in the Peloponnese, is placed at the very end of the Aegean Neolithic.’* Its rhyton and marble vessels resemble those of the Cycladic Early Bronze Age. 24/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 2-14 Se FIGURE 2-14 Neolithic culture groups in the Balkan Peninsula and in east-central Europe, 6300-5300 Bc. Warsaw Kiev @ Prague Carpathian Mts. a reap, Vienna WN Budapest 10 ° ol 1 ( eek A A ; Seep, Transylvanian Alps A «4 Belgrad . \s inate a eigrade \ Bucharest rn Alps Y awe ) Black Sea STARCEVO 21-23% 2 p° 4 se A. ee palkaP o ® 38 Marica KARANOVO | Adriatic Sea IMPRESSO Catal Hiytik el ail 0 200 km ee KEY Starcevo (K6r6s-Cris) sites 1. oO 10. li. 12. 13. 14. LS. 16. LY. 18. 13. 20. Anza, central Macedonia, SE Yugosla- via; stratified settlement with three layers below the Early Vinéa stratum. . Circea, Lower Danube, SW Romania, settlement. . Dévavanya, Kérés group, Hungary, settlement. . Divostin near Kraguevac, central Yugo- slavia. Settlement with Staréevo and Late Vinéa deposits. . Endréd-Szujésketeszt, district of Békés, E Hungary. Settlement, K6rés group. . Galabnik, upper Struma, W Bulgaria. Settlement of the Struma group. GradeSnica, near Vraca, NW Bulgaria, settlement with Staréevo and Vinéa deposits. . Gura Baciului, Transylvania, NW Romania, settlement. Kopancs, settlement of the Kérés group, SE Hungary. Kotacpart-Vatatanya, settlement of the KG6ros group, SE Hungary. Let, upper Olt, N Romania, stratified settlement. Obre I, NW of Sarajevo, Bosnia. Late Staréevo (Kakanj} stratified settlement followed by Butmir settlement in nearby Obre II. Perieni on R. Prut, NE Romania, settlement. Porodin near Bitolj, Pelagonia, S Yugo- slavia, tell settlement. Réske-Lidvar, Kérés group settlement, SE Hungary. Pernik and Slatino settlements, upper Struma valley, W Bulgaria. Szajol-Fels6féld, Kérés group settle- ment, SE Hungary. Teci¢c, R. Morava, central Yugoslavia, settlement and graves. VeluSina tell near Bitolj and Porodin, Pelagonia, S Yugoslavia. Vr8nik near Anza, distr. Stip, SE Yugo- slavia. Settlement. 21-23. Mesolithic and Early Neolithic 24. Vlasac, Padina and Lepenski Vir sites in the Iron Gates region, N Yugoslavia (striated area}. The local culture con- tinuous from the Upper Paleolithic Gravettian was ultimately absorbed by the Staréevo population. Mehtelek, Proto-Bukk (Szatmar) settle- ment; obsidian and flint source. Sites of Karanovo Culture 1. ue 3. 4. Azmak, Stara Zagora, C Bulgaria; stratified settlement tell. Cevdar, east of Sofia; stratified settle- ment tell. Karanovo, Nova Zagora, C Bulgaria; stratified settlement tell. Muldava, Plovdiv, C Bulgaria; set- tlement. 2/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF SOUTHEASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE /25 The Starcéevo (K6rés, Cris) Culture of the Central Balkans and the Lower Danube Basin he Neolithic of Yugoslavia, not including the Adriatic coast, southern Romania, and south- eastern Hungary, is represented by the Starcevo culture (FIGURE 2-14), named for the site excavated near Belgrade in 1932.'”7 The northern Staréevo group is called the K6rés culture in Hungary,’ named after the Kérés River, and the Cris culture in Romania after the river Cris (same as K6rés]. Nevertheless, all of these terms refer to branches in some- what different ecological niches of a sin- gle culture, sharing traditions closely related to those of Thessaly and Macedonia. .The lowlands, inland valleys, and plains of the Balkan Peninsula and the Danube Basin were settled by 6300- 6000 B.C., and the Neolithic in this area continued without major changes for a millennium. (TABLE 2} The inhabitants built their villages on river terraces or on sloping land above streams where the soil was conducive to agriculture, with houses arranged in linear rows facing the river. The area of settled territory cov- ered up to ten acres or extended for almost a kilometer along the river. Staréevo deposits rarely yield a layer of material more than one meter thick. Their timber houses have disintegrated into the soil, leaving little debris. This is why there are no Staréevo tells north of Macedonia. The Spread of Agriculture from Thessaly and Macedonia Across Central Yugoslavia and Western Bulgaria to the Danube Basin The diffusion of agriculture and stock breeding to the north of Greece is documented by excavations in central Macedonia, particularly at Anza in Ovée Polje, midway between the Aegean area and the Danubian plain.’ Research at Anza {author's excavation) demonstrates that climatic changes created ecological conditions suitable for the spread of agriculture. When the initial settlement of Anza I was established, about 6300- 6200 BC., climatic conditions were cooler and damper than at present. Deciduous forests offered a plentiful supply of timber, wild animals, acorns, nuts, cornelian cherries, wild grapes, and berries, while the spectrum of cultivated crops and domesticated animals was generally the same as that of Greece. The people first domesticated sheep and goats, then later cattle and pigs, which altogether account for 96.5 percent of all animal bones at this site. Their principal crop was emmer wheat, supplemented by club and einkorn wheat, hulled six- row barley, peas, and lentils. In the Vardar-Morava region of central Yugoslavia, no Mesolithic hunter-fisher sites are known at present. The premise that the first agriculturalists in Yugosla- vian Macedonia were immigrants from Thessaly is supported by the analysis of human skeletons which shows that the basic population of Anza was a Mediter- ranean type of the Aegean area. Cultural materials link the colonists of Mace- donia with the Sesklo folk of Thessaly: stamp seals, fine burnished wares with white-on-red painted symbolic designs; greenstone carvings, musical pipes, offer- ing vessels, and anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines suggesting similar- ities of ritual and mythical imagery. Throughout the Lower Danube basin, the earliest agricultural settlements demonstrate a surprising uniformity of character. Pottery shapes and designs are remarkably similar between Romania and Macedonia.”° At this stage of research, the archeo- logical record suggests that food produc- tion technology was carried northward to the Danube basin by migrating popu- lations from Macedonia. Immigrant groups seem to have followed the Vardar and Struma valleys, then up the Morava basin west of the Rhodope and Balkan Mountains to the Danube valley (FiG- URE 2-14, arrows} “m” 26/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS Physical Type of the Population The physical type of the population of most sites (Teci¢, central Serbia; Obre, Bosnia; Deszk, southeastern Hungary} has been shown to be the gracile Medi- terranean (small statured; narrow faced}. But some sites in the central Balkans (Divostin}, in Transylvania (Gura Baciului}, the sites of the Tisza Basin, and particularly of the Kords region of southeastern Hungary, have yielded skeletal material that suggests a mixture of dolichocranial Mediterranean with local Cro-Magnon and brachycranial types.2) This heterogeneity suggests the intermixing of the immigrants with the local Mesolithic populations. As already mentioned in chapter 1, the gracile Mediterraneans continued to move north until they entered the Iron Gate region of the Danube valley in northern Yugoslavia and southern Romania. There they were halted by the local Mesolithic populations. These were hunters and fishermen of the massive Cro-Magnon type,22 whose culture is called Lepenski Vir, named after the famous site of more than fifty temples and numerous stone sculptures. (See radiocarbon dates, table 2.} Economy Although these immigrants brought an economic pattern which was basically the same as that of Neolithic Greece, it was necessary for them to adapt to this subhumid climatic zone of forests in which hunting and fishing were primary food sources. The abundance of antler harpoons, clay net-sinkers, fish bones, and thick layers of river shells recovered from villages is comparable to the high percentage of wild animal bones, includ- ing red and roe deer, aurochs, boar, bear, lynx, fox, badger, and birds. Sheep and goats continued to be the predominant domesticated animals, although proof of experimental cattle breeding comes from a number of southern Hungarian sites where a transi- tional form, between the local wild Bos primigenius and the imported domesti- cated Bos taurus, has been identified. In Bosnia, cattle bones constituted fifty to sixty percent of all domesticated FIGURE 2-15 FIGURE 2-16 Batali eee Hee wis Sto —ia—4 . os ae - aaa, = RNA is 5 ; FIGURE 2-15 (1) Starcevo (KOrds) house; recon- struction. Tiszajend, SE Hungary. (2) Clay model of a timber house (or a temple) with a bull's head on the gable. Roszke-Ludvar, SE Hungary. FIGURE 2-16 During the early 6th millennium B.C. spirals become a major motif in ceramic design, enlivening Old European pottery with their fluid dynamism, These early spiral motifs are painted dark brown on orange. Star¢éevo 5800-5500 B.C. (1) Staréevo and Vin- kovci, N Yugoslavia; (2) Anza Il near Stip, SE Yugoslavia. FIGURE 2-17 FIGURE 2-17 Footed bowls and dishes, characteristic Late Starcevo ware in Bosnia, W Yugoslavia, Obre |, northwest of Sarajevo; approx. 5300 B.C. 2/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF SOUTHEASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE /27 bones as shown by excavations at Obre I, northwest of Sarajevo.”* Cattle were raised for meat and milk. The number of pigs was minimal. Architecture Throughout the Danube basin, the architecture of the later Staréevo period is characterized by timber frame dwell- ings with wattle-and-daub walls and clay-plastered floors. (FIGURE 2-15) The Late Starcéevo settlement at Obre I in Bosnia indicates that by 5500 BC., the people built houses that were substan- tial rectangular structures up to nine meters in length and seven meters wide, often built on stone foundations and containing round hearths.?5 The actual temples were two-room hceuses, similar to those of the Sesklo culture. Such was the largest house at Obre I out of five houses excavated. This structure differed from the other smaller, one-room residential houses, not only in size but in architectural details. The floor of the main room was carefully covered with stone slabs while floors of other houses were paved only by a com- pact layer of clay. A horseshoe shaped hearth was in the room’s center in front of which were found religious items of exceptional quality—vessels with large ring handles, shallow plates, and footed vessels.2° These items were most likely used by the townsfolk in their collective rituals. Trade The main items of trade continued to be Aegean spondylus shells used for the manufacture of bracelets, rings, and beads, and a variety of hard stones including flint and obsidian used for blades, scrapers, burins, points, axes, and adzes. Obsidian for use in the making tools was imported from at least two sources: Sardinia via the Adriatic Sea, the Dalma- tian coast, and the Neretva pass to Bosnia,”’ and from the Carpathian foot- hills of northeastern Hungary and east- ern Slovakia. The latter supplied the K6rés group. The Mehtelek site in the Szamos River valley, more than 150 kilometers northeast of the main area of K6rés distribution, is significant.”* Eighty percent of the chipped stone industry of this site was based on obsid- ian which was made into tools at the site as well as traded in a semifinished condition. Pottery There is a definite departure from the Sesklo type observable by 5900-5800 B.C. Starcéevo pottery is marked by the appearance of brown-on-orange painted curvilinear designs and fingernail- pinched storage vessels, while the most distinctive products of the Staréevo population are its barbotine pottery (decorated with thin clay paste) and the spherical jars, footed bowls, dishes, and bird-shaped vases found even in the northern and western areas of the Starcéevo distribution. (FIGURES 2-16 and 2-17) Exquisite anthropomorphic and ornithomorphic vases with intricate symbolic decoration and painting in sev- eral colors suggest a highly developed artistic sensibility. (PLATE 6) 28/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 2-18 [az FIGURE 2-18 Ceramic forms from three phases of the Staréevo culture as produced by the Stratified site at Anza (Anzabegovo) near Stip, Cc Macedonia. wR we RE ER RRMA wg Uy (1) 6300-5900 B.c., represented by maroon- Slipped and red- burnished thin-walled vases in the earliest (ja) phase, around 6300- 6100 B.c., and white- painted on a ground of red, brown, or black in (Ib) around 6100- 6000 B.c. (2) 5900-5600 B.c., typi- fied by chocolate-brown on orange slip painted vases. Curvilinear design and “barbotine’ (appli- qué) decoration appear. (3) 5600-5300 B.c., shapes and utility wares with barbotine and impressed decoration continue. The painted design is more tectonic; converging vertical lines are painted lengthwise from top to foot. LID @ CU) FIGURE 2-19 Lael FIGURE 2-20 2/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF SOUTHEASTERN AND CENTRALEUROPE /29 tae as FIGURE 2-19 Stag with Supernatural antlers. A figure in relief on a large vase from Czépa, the K6rds group, SE Hun- gary, c. 5500-5300 Bc. EE FIGURE 2-20 Bird-shaped vases of the Kérdés group In SE Hungary, c. 5500 BC. 1 11 erm. get FIGURE 2-21 Offering containers. (1) Lepensk Vir; (2) Dudesti Vechi, Timisoara, W Romania. c. 5700-5500 Bc. FIGURE 2-21 The Anza settlement of the Vardar basin in central Macedonia has yielded a yardstick for the chronology and evolu- tion of ceramic forms based on stratigra- phy and radiocarbon dates. (FIGURE 2-18) Exquisitely painted Staréevo pottery—vases decorated with relief figures (FIGURE 2-19), ornithomorphic and anthropomorphic vases (FIGURE 2-20), miniature four-legged offering vessels (FIGURE 2-21), and female figurines—were all produced for ritual purposes. Figurines of clay were more numerous in the south than in the north, where they were probably made of wood and have not survived for posterity. Influences from Bulgaria and the Adriatic coasts are traceable in the final phases of the Staréevo culture. These stimulated change that resulted in the formation, around 5400-5200 B.C. of the Vinéa, Butmir, Tisza, and Lengyel cultures discussed in chapter 3. In the western part of Yugoslavia, Staréevo traditions continued to approximately 5000 B.C.” 30/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS The Karanovo Culture in Central Bulgaria veritable land of milk and iA honey greeted the agricultural- ists who settled in central Bulgaria, probably not later than 6300 B.C. (TABLE 2-3). Massive tells are con- centrated in the Marica basin where fer- tile soils and a mild climate were ideally suited to farming. The long duration of these settlements is demonstrated by great accumulations of habitation mate- rial such as the thirteen meter high mound of Karanovo, whose name is applied to the cultural tradition of this area. Owing to the relative isolation of this region created by the Rhodope and Balkan mountains, the Karanovo culture developed a character somewhat difter- ent from that of the central Balkan Staréevo complex. | Major Excavations Decisive information about the Karanovo culture was produced by exca- vations carried out by V. Mikov and G.I. Georgiev in 1936-37 and 1946-57, and continued in 1984-90 by S. Hiller and V. Nikolov at the Karanovo mound near Nova Zagora.*° Archeologists distin- guished six successive phases, I-VI, which were substantiated and expanded by the excavation by G.I. Georgiev of the Azmak mound at Stara Zagora in 1960-63. New excavations at Karanovo opened one more layer containing houses below Karanovo I (yet unpub- lished). This will throw new light on the beginning phases of Karanovo I. Subsequent excavations of the Kazanlak tell at Stara Zagora (with eight meters of Neolithic deposit}? and other settle- ments provide a clear picture of the Karanovo lifestyle. FIGURE 2-22 a we el © RR we Villages and Houses Early Karanovo settlements were well- planned communities containing an estimated 300 inhabitants within an area of 3 hectares (a hectare equals 10,000 square meters). Single-room dwellings of six or seven square meters were neatly aligned in parallel rows (FIGURE 2-22, 1}, separated by log-paved streets. The people constructed their houses on a framework of thin wooden poles covered by a lattice work of branches and coated with a thick layer of clay. A total of sixty buildings has been estimated for the basal level at Karanovo. Houses contained massive clay ovens as well as large quantities of ceramics and marble vases. (FIGURE 2-22, 2} Ovens were also built in the spaces between the houses. Inside walls in some houses were painted, suggesting that among the village houses, some were probably used as temples. Among the agricultural tools were quern stones, hand-milling stones, pestles, and antler sickle-handles (see fig. 1-1, 1} Bone spoons of exquisite workmanship were also found. (FIGURE 2-23} = == 7 FIGURE 2-22 (1) A sche- matized Karanovo | village plan. (2) Interior of a one-room house from Karanovo | period. Muldava tell near Plov- div. Left rear, a beehive oven with an ash pit, To the right of It is an accumulation of vases, loom weights, and stone tools, Early 6th mill B.C. FIGURE 2-23 Bone spoons or spatulas per- haps used for collecting grain, from Karanovo | tell at Azmak, ¢ Bul- garia. Early 6th mill B.C. Stara Zagora Museum. 31.5cm, 14.4 cm, and 13.2 om. 2/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF SOUTHEASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE Economy The distribution of sites in the Nova Zagora region demonstrates that settle- ments were intentionally located on potentially arable soils.*° A cultivated area surrounded the basal village within a two-kilometer radius, while at larger settlements, more than 760 hectares were tilled.3* The longevity of these settlements definitely implies that some form of crop rotation was practiced. It is presumed that half the land was left fallow at all times, or planted to restore nitrogen to the soil. Chief crops were einkorn and emmer wheat, barley, peas, and lentils. Only emmer wheat, barley, and pulses seem to have been fully processed, as indicated by large, pure samples. All Neolithic levels contained. sickles of deer antler with flint teeth millstones and bone spatulas, perhaps used for scraping flour. Sheep and goats were the predominant domesticated animals, followed by cattle and pigs. However, the amount of graz- ing land along the river was too limited for year-round use, and herds were prob- ably moved to hilly regions in the spring and early summer. /31 32/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 2-24 _<--— —-a FIGURE 2-24 Presentative Karanovo | tulip-shaped vases. (1) Painted in white on red in net- patterned hanging trian- gles and dotted bands. H. 17 cm. (2) White-on- red painted, spiral- decorated, standing ona high conical foot. Early 6th mill. B.C. Azmak tell at Stara Zagora, C Bul- garia. H 28.4 cm, — er) FIGURE 2~25 Semi- globular jar and dish Standing On a ring base with cut-outs, (1) deco- rated around the body with hanging and inverted triangles filled with a net pattern. (2) decorated with crescents and S-spirals, white-on-red painted. Karanovo | culture, Muldava settlement, C Bulgaria, c. 5800 B.c. FIGURE 2-25 ~ tine Ge OO md Pottery Remarkably advanced, hard, well-fired pottery without any organic admixture is found in the early levels of all syste- matically excavated tells. Distinctive tulip-shaped bowls and.tall jars with hollow ring bases or cylindrical legs were red slipped and white painted. (FIGURE 2-24) Such pottery is far from “primitive” and is certainly not the earliest to be found in this area. Sophisti- cated craftsmanship is demonstrated by 2/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF SOUTHEASTERN AND CENTRALEUROPE /33 exquisite footed vases (FIGURE 2-25}, and by a series of small triangular or rectangular vessels. New treatments introduced during the Karanovo II phase are channeled or fluted decorations and black colored fabric as a result of a con- trolled reducing atmosphere. Karanovo Il produced an even greater variety of shapes. Typical of this phase are tall vases with zoomorphic, doglike handles. (FIGURE 2-26} The typology of Karanovo I-III pottery is shown in figure 2-27. <-> FIGURE 2-26 Karanovo Ii vases with dog-shaped handles (1,2) and an ornithomorphic/ anthropomorphic lid handle. (3) Black bur- nished. Azmak tell at Stara Zagora. Mid-6th mill BC. H 14 cm. FIGURE 2-26 34/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 2-27 ar [— ——_ FIGURE 2-27 Typology of pottery from Karanovo ], ll, and It, C Bulgaria. TT L,.¢. S900=5800 B.C, ll, 5700-5600 B.c. lll, c. 5600-5500 Bc. SS FIGURE 2-28 Distribution of the Linearbandkera- mik culture (LBK) in cen- tral Europe. Shaded areas show concentra- tion of sites. Approx. 2/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF SOUTHEASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE /35S FIGURE 2-28 KEY OD NAD AWD = Elsloo Sittard K6ln-Lindenthal Aldenhoven Flomborn Rixheim . Lautereck . Hienheim . Réssen . Sondershausen . Bylany . Olszanica . Nitra oS N t werrsaaee ed a a1 = J U Cs )_§ Baltic Sea > \ es = A . er “Se, \ ~N \ NEMUNAS —— e | “ \ i ™ DNIEPER-DONETS 7 DC rs /, k % ~- Dy» : ies a, DNIESTER-BUG en Dniester a Danube — {| KARANOVO Figurines The repertory and style of figurine types from Karanovo villages are much related to those of Sesklo and Staréevo. Well rep- resented are the Bird Goddess terracotta images with beaked noses and protrud- ing, egg-shaped posteriors; the pregnant goddess type holding one hand over her pregnant belly; stiff nudes with a supernatural pubic triangle, as well as zoomorphic figurines. The stift-nude sculptures were often carved of white marble,*> an indication that these people traded for marble with the Aegean islands. The predominance of a variety of goddess figurines over an extended geographical area indicates a complex and consistent pattern of religious devo- tion centered around a multifaceted female deity. The Neolithic of Central Europe: The Linearbandkeramik (LBK) - Culture his is the best known culture in central Europe and perhaps the most classically Neolithic in the ancient world,” said V. Gordon Childe in his Dawn of European Civilization of 1925. After seventy years, we can still agree that this culture, between eastern France and Romania (FIGURE 2-28}, is best known internationally because of excellent excavations during the last decades by the French, Dutch, German, Czech, Polish, 4nd American arche- ologists. Childe called it Danubian I culture; however, since it was not dis- tributed over the Lower Danube River system, the term Danubian creates a problem. Archeologists still continue to use Bandkeramik and the English Linear Pottery. Vy 4 36/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 2~29 Characteris- tic vases of the early LBK decorated with spirals, breasts, bi-lines, horns, and concentric rectan- gles from the sites in the Znojmo area near Brno, Moravia. 5500-5000 Bc. The presently used term Linearband- keramik is abbreviated to LBK. It should be noted that linear bands do not accu- rately describe this pottery since its design includes spirals, snakes, mean- ders, rectangles, concentric squares, triangles, V’s, chevrons, two lines, three lines, M's, X’s, a.o. (FIGURES 2-29 and 2-30) In addition, there are figures in relief expressing anthropomorphic and zoomorphic images, horns, breasts, and other symbols found on ceramics from southeastern Europe. Pottery forms, fabric, and symbolism of LBK culture are similar to late Staréevo (K6rés), although there is a general lack of painted ware. Five hundred years elapsed before the Balkan Neolithic (Staréevo} elements and agriculture were introduced into temporate central Europe. Close affini- ties between the Staréevo (Korés) culture and the LBK firmly suggest an actual movement of people from the southeast. The oldest phase of LBK groups in the Middle Danube basin developed around 5600-5400 B.C. directly out of the Starcevo (K6rés} tradition.** Physically, the LBK people are generally related to the small statured gracile Mediterra- neans of the Balkans.?’ 2/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF SOUTHEASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE /37 FIGURE 2-30 (Herek eb ee dei te S44 PAC eC EBMeOHCOrcmeene (eeear ae red i Ce ECF CoE FE ee ME Ere (Merete ver ee € ae , e eeaet a ¢ ‘ Pe mene ese: se pig . ees Ogu an Fue ced oe a per BARag, A <a Metedag Pal 6 5 Tae Peper ban, ay re | “14. Ban. Ara. ae» AAG Ge An “Tae “a & io oe “F46, TAeaN v a ta. Aen f) "44 aann4a4 y Pewg t= bold Waren 9 P ONT tg Oh en "onan gah? & baal red Pom tewnagune tf Ad & AAA AOD 4g 4 aon e ” oF AAAN AAAK ae oot as . Hat roam NARUTO OTE Cog, fr : age a : & 1 " ° rp PPh aE 4 Cf ODN aH M4 Oa FIGURE 2-30 LBK vases incised with symbols: snakes, crosses, V's, lozenges, chevrons, double triangles (hour- glass shapes), anda Saas gga TT frog. (1,3,5) Early; EAM Si! \ (2,4,6-9) Middle and oo AY » Late; (1, 3, 5) Elsloo, ae IU Holland; (2,4,8,9) Kénig- 3 LAY WY saue; (6) Halle-Trotha: and (7) Seehausen, E Germany. Scale (1,3,5): 1/2; (2,4,6,7): 1/3; (8,9): 213, JVaag ae an 199 wn : “ wnt CMONDE ee - GOO HOG Manan’ .. GF 4 ae ac Ae 1 @CO LE ; VA de Ag qa aes WC @ “) anh AK Maears na 38/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS Diffusion, Site Location, and Farming The agriculturalists diffused as far west as eastern France and the Netherlands, and as far north as the lower Oder basin in Germany and Poland. The area from Hungary to Holland is about 1000 kilo- meters across. The similarity of ceramic style and of lithic equipment within this area suggests that diffusion took place in a relatively short time. The climate of the 6th millennium B.C. was warmer than at present, and central Europe was covered with light mixed-oak forests. LBK groups were moving mostly into an unoccupied ecological niche. Charac- teristically, LBK agriculturalists settled almost exclusively on the loess (wind deposited silt) plains, which were easy to work once the forest cover had been removed, and were offered very little competition from the local Mesolithic population. In their settlements on valley bottoms and on sunny terraces of rivers and streams (FIGURE 2-31A), the LBK farmers cultivated emmer wheat as the principal crop, as well as einkorn, bread, club, and spelt wheat; barley, rye, millet, oat, peas, lentils, opium poppy, and flax. Since emmer does not extract nutrients from the soil as vigorously as other cereals, it could have been grown on loess soils for indefinite periods, although a rotation system may also have been used.*8 The LBK people kept domesticated cattle as their prime source of meat, milk, and manure, as well as sheep, goats, pigs, and dogs. Elk, deer, and boar were hunted but hunting was marginal. Some of the villages of this garden type of civilization were occupied for 400- 900 years. FIGURE 2-31A (2 ered FIGURE 2-31A Distribu- tion of LBK settlements in the valley bottom of R. Aisne, E France. KEY xz Alluvial terraces Calcarious plateau Settlements: . Pernant . Missy-sur-Commune . Chassemy Vailly . Cys-la-Commune . Cuiry-les-Chaudardes . Pontavert . Berry-au-Bac “Le Chemin de la Pécherie” 9, Berry-au-Bac “La Croix Maigret” 10. Menneville FIGURE 2-31B FIGURE 2~31C ee ee eee Se ee ee Ne ee on, ee end — ee ee eS 2/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF SOUTHEASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE /39 ES Sa FIGURE 2-318 The use of shoe-last celt for wood- working. (Recon- struction). in ary emt FIGURE 2-31C Typical LBK tools: (1) Wooden sickles with flint blades set in and fastened with pitch (Central Germany). (2) Flint borers (Mohel- nice, Moravia). (3) End scrapers of flint (Sittard, Holland). The basic tool assemblage of the early LBK was composed of ground stone adzes and “shoe-last” celts for wood working (see fig. 2~36). The flint indus- try continued Staréevo traditions and was composed of microlithic round scrapers, backed knives, sickle blades (for setting into wooden handles}, borers, and burins. (FIGURE 2-31B) Local flint sources were explored and some settle- ments specialized in flint mining .and exportation to the neighboring regions. In southern Poland, for instance, a Juras- sic flint was mined by the people of the Olszanica settlement located nearby.*° Obsidian for sickle blades, knives, and other tools was obtained from the Bikk and Tatra Mountains. In later phases of this culture, flint blades were imported from as far as the Dniester region in the southeast for use in the manufacture of tools. Villages and Houses LBK settlements are found in clusters of “settlement cells” and are more dense in some regions than in others. Frequently, enclaves consist of eight to ten sites. In southern Poland, according to a survey | along the Dlubnia River, the density is twenty sites per 25 square kilometers, although the average density of the entire area northeast of Cracow is one per 32 square kilometers.“ Villages range from 125 to more than 500 hectares (about 300 to 1250 acres}, the largest supporting perhaps five hun- dred or more inhabitants. Normally, villages comprised five to eight houses ’ spaced about 20 meters apart. No defen- sive features such as palisades or ditches are found in the early period of this culture. VY 40/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 2-32. | : — ji FIGURE 2-32 Plans of LBK __ el --- eee long-houses with rectan- — ee eee gular enclosures perhaps used as corrals. The 2 . outer walls were daubed with clay, Usually the northern end of the house was ditched, : apparently for reinforce- @ ® ment. Bylany, east of [PH mete ~ Prague. Excavation by ° B. Soudsky | e ¢ ie oe 8 . y ! e2nOr° By | i i @ ° i f i e° | : bai @® oy | . - ¢ i 2 ° om ; | ee at *@ @ @ q@eoereee® Sr e e c @ Y ‘ Ad o@ © ty . oP ; 53 p 8 e@ @ o% i ¢ @ 8 " : ; : ‘hae °@C@. See ee 5 . 9 e L ; 0 ; r e @ Post Holes ° ‘ ®*eiJe @w Ce ° : ° ‘ .. oumueee = Ditches 8 bd & Cee . ~ ® e3 6 & . e pais ° $38 : 4 g ae es s @ &8 ; e & e «¢ © os : 6 @ e ce oe es § @ 4 : e@ « s e ® © 2 @ ® + Hee T. sU08 es ess FIGURE 2-33 LS FIGURE 2-33 A longitudi- nal cross-section and a reconstruction of a large EE SEE EES ee aaa house at Bylany. Excava- tion by B. Soudsky. End 6th mill. B.C. Length c. 45cm, MY 2: LIM VE beg | =s5 Ue re aoa LT 1 be ag Tne, . AB pe Zee rnin ane! [gi ee | ee [gee OCW eee | ~ AL is | ie tk SLL i ¥ I KAM ah PEER WANG mount Sy a oe ; | ‘ # e 2/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF SOUTHEASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE /41 The LBK is best known for its long- FIGURE 2-34 , EEE houses built of upright timber, and FIGURE 2-34 LBK grave many have been excavated in Czechoslo- inventory; pot, spondy- vakia, Poland, Germany, Holland, and France.*! Since prototypes do not exist in the Starcevo culture, a local develop- ment is assumed. Timber was abundant, and it is quite normal to find wooden architecture in central Europe. Dwellings were large, rectangular timber structures, and of the 108 iden- tified as dwellings at Bylany, east of Prague, no more than five to eight were occupied at the same time. Large struc- tures, sometimes 45 meters in length, were surrounded by a fence with a gate, resembling cattle enclosures. (FIGURE 2-32) Houses were generally 5.5 to 7 meters wide and varied in length. Five rows of posts ran the length of each structure; the two outer rows braced lus arm ring (fragment) and a stone celt (two views). ‘‘Musical note’ decorated phase. Early 5th mill. B.C. Nitra, Slovakia. inhumation cemeteries, graves were in oval pits with walls covered with clay plaster or stones. The extended or : slightly flexed dead were sometimes \ Gi : buried with one or two pots, stone celts, flint arrowheads, stone palettes for color- ing materials, and necklaces and arm rings of spondylus shells. (FIGURE 2-34} (We shall return to an analysis of grave goods and how the cemeteries reflect the social structure of the LBK people in chapter 9.} , ores oe OS hh oo wattle-and-daub walls while interior ae - rows supported the roof. (FIGURE 2-33} ee i fii Ng During later phases (Stroked Pottery and ie ae i | Bi Réssen}, houses became trapezoidal in Yt et i er p te re Oe ie Cemeteries | : al oh i ape: The LBK people buried their dead within 3 | ; at Bs i Be 100-500 meters from the settlement | me fe i HH Ht boundaries, practicing both inhumation De if a and cremation. About two dozen ceme- sea iis BE teries have been excavated, some con- ft a Me i taining more than 100 graves.* In an a | i iB | GBB te ae : & Ba SeSceses 4 re a & ES Re SS BD — w- . :—— x ————— Se ee ee oer te - = Basaa eS {oS ao ep & Tow deity —, Vy 42/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS | rims IoOre >. Be EE - l i -§ 6" J FIGURE 2-35 Middle and Late LBK pottery. (1) ‘Musical note’’ deco- rated bowl. Early 5th mill. 8.C., Bohuslavice, Moravia. (2,3) Stroke- decorated vases from the area of Brno, 47th-46th cents. o—. Chronology The LBK has been subdivided into three main periods on the basis of pottery typology: early—second half of the 6th millennium B.C., typified by the spiral- meander-chevron decorated pottery (see figs. 2-29, 2-30); middle—to the end of the 6th and early 5th millennia BC., characterized by “musical note” deco- rated vases (FIGURES 2-34, top, and 2-35, 1); and late—to mid-5th millen- nium B.C., typified by stroked decoration of pottery. (FIGURE 2-35, 2, 3) (See radio- carbon dates: TABLE 4.} The maximum expansion of the LBK is traced during its middle period. In the east, LBK sites of the middle period are found north of the Carpathian Moun- tains in the Dniester, Siret, Prut, and Bug valleys of northeastern Romania, and a few sites have been spotted even in the Lower Danube region. The LBK set- tlers in the east had strongly influenced the further development of culture in Romania and the western Ukraine where the Dniester-Bug culture apparently fused with the LBK. In Moldavia and the western Ukraine, the LBK formed a substratum for the formation of the Cucuteni (Tripolye} culture. Toward the end of the 5th millennium BC., (4300-4200) the central areas of LBK culture—the Middle and Upper Danube, Elbe, Oder, and Vistula basins—were colonized by the Lengyel and Tiszapolgar people coming from the south, probably as a chain reaction to the first Kurgan wave in east-central Europe. The western part of this culture continued, but in the period between the end of the 5th millennium BC. and c. 3500 BC., profound changes occurred. Settlements are now found outside the ecological niche of valley bottoms, with some defended by palisades built of tree trunks. These changes signal the shift from a peaceful, unfortified lifestyle, to one that required protection against invasion. 2/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF SOUTHEASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE /43 Recent research in Holland, Germany, and France has revealed a continuity of village life of LBK descendants in the Rhine area and in eastern France (in the Paris basin and in Hainaut} for almost a millennium, up to the middle of the 4th millennium BC. In the Rhine basin, the LBK proper was followed by the Hinkelstein, Grossgartach, Réssen, and Epi-Réssen phases. In the Paris basin and Hainaut, the post-LBK culture (in French known as Post-Rubané}, distinct in its regional character, is known under a series of names given after the major excavated sites. The sequence in the Paris basin mins as follows: Villeneuve- Saint Germain (with three phases}, d‘Augy-Sainte-Pallaye, Cerny, R6ssen III (with influences from the Rhine area}, and Epi-Roéssen. In the province of Hainaut, a somewhat different variant parallel to Villeneuve-Saint Germain, is known as the Blicque group. One of the peculiarities of the Final LBK and post- LBK culture in the west is its pottery tempered with crushed calcinated bones.*8 The Bukk Culture in the Upper Tisza Basin he name Bukk comes from the Bukk Mountains north of the Hungarian plains, and is used here to identify the culture of the Upper Tisza basin during the 6th millennium B.C., which is also called Eastern Linear- bandkeramik.“ The first finds of this culture were discovered in 1876 in the cave of Aggtelek at the border of north- erm Hungary with eastern Slovakia. Bukk as a culture name has been in use since 192] after the publication of Hillebrand’s and L. Bella’s book, Der Mensch und die Kultur der Urzeit (Budapest). Substantial information on this culture appeared in Ferenz Tompa’s book, Die Bandkeramik in Ungarn, Die Biikker und Theiss-Kultur (Archaeologia Hungarica V-VI, 1929, Budapest). The finds described here were mostly ceramics of several phases. Settlements, workshops, graves, and caves were systematically excavated only after World War II. Distribution In the north, the Bukk people reached the mountains and occupied the source area of obsidian in the region of Tokay. A distinctive aggregation of sites is found along the Upper Tisza and its tributaries Sajo, Hernad, Eger, Bodrog, and Szamos. (FIGURE 2-36} Five hundred and fifty sites have been reported in east- ern Hungary alone. By combining east Slovakian and northwest Romanian sites, the number is increased to more than seven hundred, indicating that the area was fairly densely settled. Physical Type of the Population Most probably, the local Mesolithic hunter-fishers were converted to agricul- ture by influences from the Staréevo (K6rés} culture.*5 This premise of local conversion is supported by studies of skeletal material, indicating that the skeletons from graves in the Miskolc and Borsod areas of northeastern Hungary are of local European (Cro-Magnon] type, which differ markedly from the Mediter- ranean type found in Staréevo popula- tions.** Since settlements from the 8th and 7th millennia BC. are not inves- tigated in this region, the transition from Mesolithic to Neolithic cannot as yet be shown by actual finds. Chronology The earliest Neolithic complex in the Upper Tisza Basin is known as the Szatmar culture.*”? Radiocarbon dates are not available for this phase, but from . analogies with the Staréevo ceramic materials, from symbols and religious figurines, and from analogies with other artifacts such as bone spatulae, the acculturation of the Upper Tisza can be judged to have taken place not later than the middle period of the Staréevo cul- ture, that is, before the middle of the 6th millennium BC. The later phases, Tiszadob and Bukk proper are dated by carbon 14 methods to the second half of the 6th millennium BC. (TABLE 5} 44/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 2-36 NN /\ AN AN Carpathian Mts. A A AA A . AMAA anf /\ .. anes — AN nA AA AR 4 108 oe . e ® oes. A Ipel wis AN Ny hore N ‘ e pe A ry Budapest LENGYEL Danube KEY 1. Domica 2. Ardovo 3. Aggtelek SEES FIGURE 2-36 Distribution of BUkk sites (Tiszadob and Bukk proper phases) in the Upper Tisza basin, c. 5500-5200 Bc. /\ /\ /\ /\ A . i /\ Trade Obsidian nuclei, flakes, and blades appear in abundance in workshops, and large vases filled with flint blades of uniform dimensions must have been prepared for export.*® The presence of spondylus shells in graves of north- eastern Hungary and eastern Slovakia is also indicative of exchange. It is obvious that the Btikk people controlled the obsidian and flint-chipping industry. Farming Farming is suggested by grain impres- sions in house rubble (species as yet unidentified}, quern stones, antler hoes, and flat dishes assumed to have been used for baking. Domesticated animal bones, predominantly cattle followed by sheep, goats, and pigs, constituted 50 to 78 percent (depending upon ecological conditions) of animal bones found. Aurochs, elk, and hare bones indicate forest hunting.” Open Air and Cave Settlements Settlements are found in river valleys, usually on first terraces, or on slopes, and occasionally on the tops of small hills and at the bottom of narrow gorges in the Karst region. Remains of wooden structures were discovered at the entrances to caves in the Bukk and Matra Mountains, while traces of habita- tion and religious worship were found even quite deep in their interiors. In the cave of Domica in eastern Slovakia, such traces were discovered as far as 700 meters from the entrance. Caves were habitable since their temperature of 10-12° C was stable. Caves such as Domica-Aggtelek on the border of eastern Slovakia and Hungary, Borsod in Hungary, and others were occupied for a very long time. Hearths and traces of wooden posts have been found in some of these caves, from which have come the most attractive Bukk pottery. (FIGURES 2-37, 2-38} There is little doubt that caves were used primarily as sanctuaries. Post holes of light structures, 3 by 4m witha hearth inside were excavated in the cave of Domica. In this cave outstandingly beautiful Bukk vases appeared in a large 2/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF SOUTHEASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE /45 FIGURE 2-37 - Son Nye es ar. tess ni ME SESS vw Les ANd. % FIGURE 2-37 An elegant, thin-walled globular vase from the classical BUkk culture. The mirrorlike surface ts incised with a coiling snake motif com- bined with chevrons. Cave of Aggtelek on the border of Hungary and Slovakia, c. 5000 B.C. H 20cm. FIGURE 2-38 Extraordi- nary thin-walled vases decorated by very fine incisions, some with encrustation of white, red, and yellow color from the cave sanctu- aries of Domica (1-4,6-10) and Ardovo (5), E Slovakia, c 5000 BC. FIGURE 2-38 PE SS Wa } PENY, to a 46/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS hall at the source of a river. Quality clay — Figure 2-39 for pottery was obtained from the pits nearby.°° Traces of similar light struc- tures and fine ware were also found in the cave of Aggtelek. An altar of burnt clay 160 cm long was discovered in a niche 200 meters from its entrance which held four sacrificial pits, one large and three small. Fire traces were in the large pit. The small ones probably held containers with offerings. (FIGURE 2-39} There were many potsherds of fine Bukk ware around the altar. There are only a few totally excavated open air settlements in river valleys or on slopes. The best example of a village from the early phase (Tiszadob) is Oros II which occupied 1000 square meters and consisted of twelve houses. Eight of these formed a semicircular row with four in the middle. Houses were sub- terranean or semiterranean, about 4.7 by 2. m, and oriented from northeast to southwest. The pit inside the house was 60 cm deep.*! From the later phase (Bikk proper), a village of five houses anaes FIGURE 2-39 An altar was excavated at Boldogkovaralja.” from the cave of Aggte- These houses were aboveground, c. 4.5 lek with one large pit by 2.5 m, oriented from northeast to with fire traces and southwest. No post holes were found. three small pits for the Instead, there were large pieces of house siping EN "—e containers. BUkk culture, rubble that originally were plastered on - 5000 BC. wickerwork walls. Next to the houses were workshops consisting of large hearths and pits containing obsidian and flint nuclei and blades. A cashe of 567 quartz blades was in a pit west of house No. 5 indicating that the villagers here clearly specialized in preparation of stone tools for export. Graves appeared in habitation sites and particularly under the floors of structures located at a cave entrance. The dead were equipped with vases, sometimes as many as four or five. PF OWN JZ ee og ah i Ss Le aa La 2 2" - eeRe «| eo” ~Se5et me" Pre AARE Seaee + Megs Be RST SRR < Pi S902 85g i an) \ | \ it hy AMI i | II fly itl [| i | hy WANN i i | iL tlt iM \ : ; | Hi FIGURE 2-40 BUkk figu- rine marked with meanders and other symbols. Vulva ts indi- cated in front. Second half of the 6th mill. B.c. Scale 1:1. Pottery Vase shapes originally inspired by south- ern agriculturalists were continued in the Bukk culture: spherical jars, hemi- spherical bowls, round dishes, bottle- shaped vases, footed vessels, and tall “fruitstands” with funnel-shaped con- tainers. This fine ware developed into extraordinary thin-walled pottery, deco- rated by slender incisions, sometimes by encrustations of red, white, and yellow, and by dark brown vertical bands or broad horizontal bands painted around the mouth before firing (see fig. 2-38). Fine ware was frequently slipped or bur- nished and tempered with sand, while crude ware was tempered with chaff. Figurines Bukk figurine art, which is distinct in its rigidly abstract forms, frequently reduced the human body to geometric shapes. Symbols were incised on their flat surfaces. (FIGURE 2-40) Meanders, zig-zags, chevrons, tri-lines, and other typical Old European symbols appear on figurines, anthropomorphic vases, and also on cave walls. 2/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF SOUTHEASTERN AND CENTRALEUROPE /47 The Dniester-Bug Culture he Moldavian region of fertile black soil, northwest of the Black Sea between the Dniester and Bug rivers, was conducive to farming. Local Domestication The sites in this area that have been sys- tematically excavated indicate that there was an extended period of experiments in animal and plant domestication by hunter and fisher groups who had occupied this area from the Mesolithic. Radiocarbon dates have verified a Neo- lithic sequence of three pre-pottery and five ceramic phases at Soroki, lasting from 6500-5000 B.C.* (TABLE 2-6) The two earliest Neolithic levels lack pottery but contain bones of domesticated cattle and pigs, wild grass-wheat seeds (Aegilop cylindrica), and small grinding querns.™ Domestication of cattle and pigs was accomplished independently by the Dniester-Bug population, and wild grass- wheat was gathered some 500 years prior to contacts with Star€evo (Cris) agricul- turalists. High percentages of fish bones (roach of the carp family, eels, and pike} recovered from the earliest villages indi- cate that the availability of fish must have provided the initial impetus toward a settled way of life. Throughout the duration of the Dniester-Bug culture, farming was a secondary aspect of an economy based upon fishing and hunt- ing (aurochs, red and roe deer, and boar). The third phase, c. 5800 B.C., contains not only pottery, but einkorn wheat, the most commonly cultivated species in southeastern Europe. Impressions of husks, ears, and grain of emmer and spelt in the ceramics establish the exis- tence also of these species at a number of sites. Further evidence is the use of straw as pottery temper. Villages, Houses, and Material Equipment The earliest villages were located on terraces formed by post-glacial floods. In the Atlantic period, damper conditions and increased precipitation apparently influenced the movement of settlements into higher areas. Stone was used in the construction of huts and large long- houses that in earlier phases had been chiefly semi-terranean. Houses above ground were built during the last phase. This period also marks the introduction of elements from the LBK culture of central Europe. The material equipment of the Dniester-Bug population was notably different from that of Staréevo and Karanovo agriculturalists. Polished stone tools were rarely produced, while antler was employed in a variety of ways, including the manufacture of axes prob- ably used to prepare the ground for planting. A gradual microlithization of flint tools is observed which is opposite to the change in lithics elsewhere. Small trapezoidal chips set in bone or antler handles were used as scrapers and knives. Burins and perforators were also microlithic. 48/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS Pottery FIGURE 2-41 Co TT The earliest coarse ceramics were large FIGURE 2-41 Earliest pot- pointed- or flat-based pots, decorated tery of the me ee with linear incisions of wavy lines and Pe ieed ae : net-pattern designs, constructed of #9 Wlewtne’. Ere he clays tempered with vegetable matter. early 6th mill. B.C. (FIGURE 2~41) Later, influence from the Staréevo culture is seen in the appear- ance of fine, well-fired, plain (gray or buff} and painted wares (see footed vase of Staréevo-Cris type, fig. 2-18, upper row]. Staréevo elements were superseded during phase IV by LBK styles from central Europe. At this time, the original character of the Neolithic Dniester-Bug culture had all but disappeared. The presence of LBK influence indi- cates a gradual influx of central European people as far as the Dniester valley around 5000 BC. Their presence in Moldavia later contributed to the formation of the Cucuteni culture c. 4800-4700 B.C. ¢, ay Overview "ee ea «4 f ° A “eere a cA ote: - e Sie, one ys wet er, & . n this chapter we have described the process of Neolithization of southeastern and central Europe in the period between 6500 and 5500 B.C. An enormous leap in farming economy, trade, crafts, architecture, and art was made due to the favorable climate of the Atlantic period. The presently arid Med- iterranean and Aegean regions were, at that time, lush with vegetation. Central Europe was warmer than in the present and forest and garden trees flourished. Human populations steadily increased in all areas, as expressed by the growth of villages. There is no evidence of ter- ritorial aggression, and the total absence of lethal weapons implies a peaceful coexistence between all groups and indi- viduals. Villages have no fortifications except occasional V-shaped ditches and retaining walls where structurally neces: sary. Villages were usually founded on choice locations near rivers or streams or on lake terraces, and the use of steep hills or other inaccessable terrain for habitation was unknown during this peaceful period. The achievements that took place during the first thousand years of the Neolithic were not few. Extraordinary progress was made, not only in the domestication of animals and the culti- vation of plants but also in the develop- ment of pottery and house building and in a series of other crafts. Excavations in Greece have revealed a sequence of architectural changes that were deter- mined by the fluctuations of climate. Dwellings from the middle of the 7th millennium B.C. constructed with pisé de terre (rammed earth) walls were replaced, at the end of this millennium, by timber-post houses with wattle-and- daub walls. Solidly built houses with mudbrick walls on stone foundations followed in the early part of the 6th millennium B.C. The earliest pottery _ appears in the middle of the 7th millen- nium B.C. The technological progress in pottery production over the first four to five hundred years, from unfired to well- fired and burnished wares, from very simple rounded shapes to a wide assotrt- ment of vases in orange, red, brown, and black clays, some very thin walled, is breathtaking. Pottery painting began c. 6300 B.C. This period was an age for the flowering of ceramics and must not be seen as simply a “Stone Age.” Stone vases virtually disappeared after the Early Neolithic, in fact, as pottery gradu- ally replaced stone carving, although the carving of figurines, seals, and jewelry continued. The emergence of great numbers of figurines—anthropomorphic and Zoo- morphic, female and male—as well as anthropomorphic, bird-shaped, and animal-shaped vases, miniature replicas of furniture, stools, tables, and thrones, miniature offering tables and containers, libation vases, and lamps, as well as tem- ple models, coincides with the early ceramic period, that is, the second half of the 7th millennium B.C. All of these items, and the great variety of their shapes, speak of an intensive religious ceremonialism. Masked figurines and larger sculptures, some with indications of ritual costumes and headgear or crowns found in a variety of postures and in specific locations associated with their special functions, represent a 2/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF SOUTHEASTERN AND CENTRALEUROPE /49 gamut of divine characters expressing the rich Neolithic pantheon of goddesses and gods. A pattern of worship is estab- lished which continues to the end of Old Europe with very few changes. In the southeast, temples are evidenced in the later centuries of the 7th millennium B.C. These are integrated with regular houses and are distinguished by charac- teristic features: an altar of wood or stones (dais} in the larger room and a workshop for the preparation of ritual objects in the smaller room. ‘This tradi- tion continued during the 6th and 5th millennia throughout most of the Balkans and east-central Europe. At the same time, specific locations of worship are evident, which include not only the temples, but courtyard areas with altars and special offering places. As will be shown in the chapter on religion, tem- ples and other places of worship served a variety of functions and were associated with different categories of divinities. During this millennium, many basic seeds were planted which must be acknowledged for the subsequent stages of cultural evolution to be fully understood. WH My DS YY AL A i aS, WF DOVE’ IY HA QP GRA NOY of “3 QV ly QD XQ t ty es 4° " YD. > ws y y : P ‘ ~, . a os A, & a A, ®. H af *% : 7 ay ee 2 ' « Vi \ WY, WNW WASSSSZ/ = <5 oe JN YY} TT. NG — _ eT, re @ee Be- —— ba he tet sl cS S2/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS From a relatively homogeneous Neolithic culture, regional traditions developed that were characterized by diverse art styles as well as increased specialization and development in cop- per metallurgy and other crafts. Some settlements of this period amounted to townships. The size and number of villages doubled and tripled, reflecting an absolute increase in population, land-use intensification, and a concomi- tant refinement of social organization. The appearance of a complex of new traits during this period, particularly of black polished pottery and copper artifacts, has led many scholars in the past to assume that tides of coloniza- tion must have burst through the Balkans. They would have come, it was thought, either from Anatolia or from the eastern Mediterranean. This cul- tural enrichment seems now to have been the product of an essentially local development, since only internal shifts can be observed. An unprecedented diversity and creativity in ceramic art would hardly be the anticipated result of a substantial ethnic movement. From physical anthropological evidence, it appears that the majority of this popu- lation must have persisted from earlier times. Economic patterns of subsistence economy, predicated on the usual crops and domesticates, continued from Neolithic times with a gradual improve- ment of agricultural and animal-raising techniques. The main innovation in cultivation was a wider use of bread wheat and linseed and a greater specialization in barley production, along with indirect evidence of the use of the plow. A significant increase of cattle and pigs occurred everywhere, while the number of sheep decreased. Between the end of the Neolithic and the end of the Copper Age, the number of cattle in all sites of east-central Europe increased approximately 20 percent.' Local forests abounded in game. In some areas, such as Hungary, Moldavia, the western Ukraine, and northeastern Bulgaria, about 40 percent of the animal bones recovered from settlements are of wild species. Among the hunted animals, the auroch (wild bull) was of prime importance because of its heavy yield of meat, followed by wild swine, red deer, and roe deer.” Frutt, berries, and nuts were also collected where available in the for- ested uplands. Crab apples, cornelian cherries, strawberries, elderberries, gooseberries, hazelnuts, and acorns have been found at a number of sites. Numerous barbed harpoons, fishhooks, and spear points of bone and antler in the Tisza, Vinca, Karanovo and other settlements attest to the intensification of river fishing. Large fish such as carp, catfish, and sturgeon must have contributed greatly to subsis- tence, as did snails and mussels in the coastal regions. Copper metallurgy began around 5500 B.C. and intensified throughout the course of the Sth millennium B.C. Copper mines are known from central Yugoslavia (Rudna Glava) and central Bulgaria (Ai-Bunar and others). In the midst of this millennium, gold was discovered and was used for the manu- facture of religious symbols and jewelry. Craft development and trade reached a climax, while ceramic arts and architecture achieved a true artistic flowering. Vases were produced in a magnificent variety of forms and colors. Decorative techniques included poly- chrome painting, encrustation, black polishing, channeling, graphite and gold painting. The use of potters’ wheels and kilns is a technological surprise in the archeological record, while spa- cious, multiroom houses and two-story temples are evidence of architectural innovations. The sheer numbers of temples, temple models, articulate anthropomorphic and zoomorphic sculptures and figurines, many marked with symbols and script signs or with an indication of ritual dress, libation and other ritual vases, and the consis- tent appearance of symbols and script signs on countless sacred objects increase the possibility for the recon- struction of religious beliefs and rituals. REGIONAL GROUPS AND THEIR CHRONOLOGY FIGURE 3-1 Within the broad geographic region of east-central Europe a multiplicity of cultures developed, each marked by a certain individuality of habitation _ patterns and ceramic art. [FIGURE 3-1} Eleven cultural areas are briefly de- scribed below, starting with the Adriatic and ending with the Black Sea littoral: 1. Danilo-Hvar on the Adriatic Coast . Butmir in Bosnia . Vinéa in the central Balkans . Tisza in the River Tisza basin Lengyel in the Middle Danube basin and north-central Europe Boian in the Lower Danube basin Hamangia on the Black Sea coast Karanovo in Thrace and E Macedonia . Petresti in Transylvania . Cucuteni in Moldavia and the western Ukraine 11. Dnieper-Donets in the Ukraine np wh OO OND —_” A well-rounded picture of each cul- tural group is not available since all have not been equally well researched. There is, however, enough material for insight into their chronology, habitation pat- terns, architecture, art, and religion. Best researched are the Butmir, Vinéa, Tisza, ; Adriatic Sea and Cucuteni cultures. The Danilo-Hvar Culture in Dalmatia he culture that emerged along the Adriatic coast in Dalmatia around 5500 B.C. (FIGURE 3-2} is remarkable for its trade contacts with the west and east. The Danilo people must have been fine navigators. Al- though no actual remains of boats have been discovered, engravings of sailboats on pottery, such as the one from the Grabak cave on the Adriatic Island of -Lesina, offer evidence that sailboats ‘were used. (FIGURE 3-3] They entered into lively contact with Bosnia as well as areas farther inland as distant as Slavonia and Pannonia, thereby influ- encing the formation of the Butmir and Lengyel cultures. The Danilo people exported spondylus shells, transmitted 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /53 FIGURE 3-1 Culture groups in east-central Europe. 5th mill 8.c. go Carpathian Mts. LENGY EL Odessa | i Transylvanian’ o Plateau wo PETRESTT “\ Xo 7 ) BOTAN-GUMELNITA s a HAMANGIA pat = Bucharest ps KARANOVO Black Sea Balkan Mts. Maricg 54/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 3-2. FIGURE 3-2 Danilo-Hvar sites along the Adriatic and Butmir sites in Bosnia. BUTMIR Neboe Kakanj la e @ Obre Kiseljak @ ®@ Okoliste Lisigi¢i | he Butmir @M Sarajevo ; Hvar Island GrapCceva spilja Koréula Se PeljeSac Periinsula 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /55 obsidian from Italy, andspreadtheirown FiGURE3-3 ° [—ii..../////sss ceramic products into the Bosnian val- | 3 meee beetle leys. Some agricultural products were ‘elvan’ omaa See is probably imported from more fertile symbol of maritime regions in the east and salt from as far communication as southern Poland. throughout Old Europe. Grabak Cave, Lesina Island of the Dalmatian coast, Yugoslavia. 5th mill. B.C. Settlements The Danilo people lived in open villages which were surrounded by one or two ditches, 2-3 m wide and approximately 1.5 m deep. These were located in valleys at a water source, some kilome- ters inland from the sea—conveniently located near adjoining fertile land. Large caves on the islands and along the coast were also occupied, some of which pro- duced quantities of very fine painted pottery from the later period of this FIGURE 3-4 Sea ce —— srs culture. I suspect these were used as | FIGURE 3-4 Incised and sanctuaries painted vases (in red, ice — ellow, and black) fro At Smiléié, near Zadar on the Adriatic sails a — a coast, early Neolithic Impresso layers delvietic cone A true are succeeded by the sophisticated departure from the painted pottery of the Danilo culture,’ Neolithic Impresso ware. named for the eponymous site near c. 5000 to early 5th Sibenik in Dalmatia.‘ A soil layer devoid mill. B.C. of habitation materials separates the Impresso deposits from the Danilo levels (a total of thirteen habitation horizons). Pottery A magnificent variety of shapes and makes of Danilo pottery are present, marking a departure from the Impresso Pottery stage, revealing marked stylistic ne developments in pottery and chipped “ww NM, or stone technology. The fine Danilo ware, by \ irish Lue lier parillela worcas oie eG | —\ G8 Adriatic in Italy (Ripoli}, has almost N\ G XS Y ye A no temper and was white slipped and Lien \ qa ‘Be painted with black and red patterns Zz Y \ Wy before firing, then burnished. The Yyy Danilo type culture may have been ; TLDS LALO Li introduced by an incoming population Z sas from the south via the Albanian coast. Unfortunately, the isolation of Albania for half a century created a visible gap in I SR archeological research; the information : Gy y “ available is insufficient. | Another type of Danilo pottery was (\ lished and incised with spirals, chev V) VY, polished and incised with spirals, - AW, AWD rons, striated triangles and lozenges, — il) MID Za zigzags, nets, herringbone motifs, a.o. — _ (FIGURE 3-4) Rhytons with a massive S6/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS ring handle are also characteristic. (FIGURE 3-5) These have bear legs and are usually solidly decorated with the same patterns as other ceramic vases— striations, meanders, and spirals. They must have been produced locally, although the origin of this particular shape is in Greece, where ring-handled vessels are known from the Sesklo culture of the early 6th millennium BC. (dated at Achilleion IV from c. 6000-5800 B.C.). Apparently used in certain ritual ceremonies, they (or the idea of the shape) spread widely from Thessaly and central Greece to the west, then along the Adriatic coast as far as Bosnia. ! Chronology Finds from the island of Hvar character- ize the final stage of the Danilo culture known as Hvar.> There are no radio- carbon dates for the Danilo sequence and the final Hvar stage. However, _ Italian parallels and typological compari- sons with the well-dated Late Staréevo and Butmir materials from Obre permit us to place the Danilo culture within the time-span of 5500-4000 BC. The Butmir Culture in Bosnia ecause of its early discovery, the Butmir culture is considerably better known than the Danilo- Hvar culture group. The Butmir settle- ment in the suburb of modern Sarajevo was excavated by Radimsky and Fiala in 1893-96, and the results were published in 1895 and 1898 in two luxurious, outsized volumes with many colored plates. Butmir vases decorated with running spirals in painting and in relief greatly impressed the scholarly world of the early 20th century. (FIGURES 3-6, 3-7, 3-8; PLATE 7} For decades, Butmir was considered to be “the cradle of the spiral art” of Europe. It seemed almost unreal to discover such highly attractive and advanced ceramics in the valley of the River Bosna, an area culturally remote and modest in our time. FIGURE 3-5 ea he aan at TAY: } s i i ‘ a" bY AY IF Na i} i Nt ys HA 4) vith i i tN a " iy * ' ' 7 ' \ 2 ‘ 4 iow \ Oe ent “ a ie mi e d me “7 (Rf Ay, /, Is Xi See rere . € Av -- "LY¥s 4 Ae RS Bae ~~ ° Oe ws FINNS 2 FESS SRA ae FIGURE 3-S Bear-legged, ring-handled offering vessels, Danilo culture. (1-3) Smildi¢. (4) Bribir near Zadar, Adriatic coast. Scale 1:2. 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION § /57 FIGURE 3-6 FIGURE 3-6 Butmir vase decorated with running spiral motif in relief. Butmir at Sarajevo, Bosnia. c. 4900-4800 B.C, H..20,.5-cm. FIGURE 3-7 LE iris « ~ d FIGURE 3-7 Spiral- decorated Butmir vases. (1,2) Butmir. (3) Nebo, Bosnia. 49th-48th cents. B.C. Scale 1:2. Vy 58/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 3-8 a FIGURE 3-8 Butmir pot- tery typology, based on chronology and stratig- raphy from Obre, north- west of Sarajevo, Bosnia, Yugoslavia. |, 5100- 4900 Bc. Il, 4900-4700 B.C. Ill, 4700-4400 Bc. yyw VW) 7 €@ cD wo\ Lior Trade Seven thousand years ago, however, the lush valleys of the Bosna and Neretva rivers and their tributaries became a highway between the Adriatic and Italy in the west and the Middle Danube basin in the east. The people of this area developed wide-reaching trade relation- ships which stimulated the rise of the Butmir culture. This is indicated by obsidian, spondylus shells, and painted pottery imports. The obsidian trade which initiated contacts with the west started around 5500 B.C., before the formation of the Butmir culture. Early Danilo influences on the Late Staréevo culture in Bosnia are traced by the appearance of ring- handled religious vessels. Imports of painted pottery from southern Italy emerged in Bosnia in the early part of the 6th millennium BC. and communi- cation with the west continued to increase throughout the end of the same millennium. Chronology The key site for chronology is Obre I, 65 km northwest of Sarajevo, which was excavated in 1967-68 by Alojz Benac and the author.’ This site yielded an ideal, uninterrupted four-meter stratigraphy and a series of radiocarbon dates which places the three periods of the Butmir culture (Butmir I, I, Ml} between 5300 B.C. and the later centuries of the 5th millennium BC. {TABLE 7) Butmir I is dated c. 5300-4900 BC.; Butmir II, 4900-4700 BC. The last period at Obre, Butmir I, was not radiocarbon dated, but typologically nuns parallel to Hvar on the Adriatic coast. Its three phases should be placed in the period from c. 4700 to 4300-4200 BC. The continuity of culture through three periods can be observed in a very neat sequence of pottery shapes and ornamentation. (FIGURE 3-8} Painted ware banded with red above the black background, with plastic or incised spirals (FIGURE 3-9} is characteristic of Butmir only. The potters’ use of the run- ning spiral motif, as well as a series of other geometric motifs—chevrons, lozenges, striated triangles, zigzags, FIGURE 3-9 ‘Yaa ae ee: / GH bal By Fe eeu a ae ee oe / bat i Er SL Pt mz ltd / 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION FIGURE 3-9 Butmir | 4900 B.C. a vo Naa Pm = laa LX hs eee OTT a ee eee ee WAZ VUGYV) Lo oe Ora Ue KK AN {59 vases from Obre II, 5100- 60/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 3-10 PS =a FIGURE 3-10 Butmir house of two rooms with a bread oven in the smaller room from Obre li settlement in Bosnia. Walls are of vertically placed twigs in horizon- tal lines between timber posts coated with clay 5-8 cm thick on each side. Vases filled with wheat stood on a wood platform in front of the oven, Flint- and bone- working area left of the oven, loom weights (weaving area) is right of the oven. Groups of large storage vessels in both rooms. Butmir Il, 4900-4700 Bc. FIGURE 3-11 Di FIGURE 3-11 Frame of an oven built of twigs fastened with bast cord, foundation of flat Stones. The frame was preserved in charred form or impression in clay. Obre, Bosnia. Butmir Il, c. 4900- 4800 BC. re a EES eS FIGURE 3-12 (1) Recon- Struction of a vertical loom and (2) loom weights. Jasa Tepe, Plovdiv, C Bulgaria, c, 5000 Bc. Similar looms were found in all culture groups described in this chapter. x Sr. om Tet Set? xt PE Pe SPER PSG == ae ° e be oy ~ Ry tres oe sF eye . ~ 4 stylized snake heads—began as an influence from the Danilo culture. These were applied in a peculiar Butmir style on large pear-shaped vases or bulbous vases with long or short cylin- drical necks. FIGURE 3-12 Settlement Sites The Butmir people occupied valley bot- toms of fertile soil, settling on the widest terraces of rivers and streams. Their settlements occasionally extended over an area of 500 meters along the river bank,® but most of the excavated sites are compact villages delineated by the natural contours of the terrace : and river bend. Obre Il extended over a i ; surface of 20,000 square meters. Life continued without disruption at this location for nearly a millennium, a pattern we shall see repeated in the Vinéa and Tisza territories. Obre II was a village of some sixty dwellings arranged in lines separated by streets from 3 m to 5 m wide between the rows. 2 HAH GH HT | : ne ; Hi 1 li ‘3 AT UAC AF aE RARE Pe (Th My | i Hi ily a Wi ! Pere Sa et | k EMMA NY Architecture At Obre II, a number of houses of vari- ous habitation levels were exceptionally well preserved. (FIGURE 3-10). The Butmir I village at Obre yielded houses of thin wood construction, stone wall foundations, supporting vertical posts, and compact clay coating on the walls with straw and wood roofs. This building tradition continued from Neolithic Obre I (Staréevo) times. Butmir II houses had thicker vertical posts, and the wood construction of the walls was done in one of three ways: 1) with horizontally arranged twigs bound with bast in several vertical rows between timber uprights; 2) with vertically set twigs bound with bast in horizontal rows; or 3) with vertical, solidly placed split logs. The thickness of the walls depends on the depth of reinforcement. Walls of twig wattle had a clay coating 5 to 8 cm thick on either side, while walls of split- log rows were more heavily coated with clay, 10 to 12 cm thick on either side. Above the timber posts lay thick horizontal beams that carried the roof construction. Floors were coated with clay or were of wooden planks in rooms 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /61 containing the oven. Wall plaster was slipped and decorated with ornaments in relief, such as snake coils. In addition to the regular Obre houses with wattle-and- daub walls supported by wooden posts, there were light structures built only of wood, considered to have been auxiliary farm sheds, among which was one with an apsidal end.° House Furnishings Within the house, one room always con- tained a bread oven built of branches, covered by a beehive-shaped roof of clay. (FIGURE 3-11) Its clay floor lay over a foundation of flat stones, forming a platform in front of the oven. In one example, groups of loom weights suggest the presence of a vertical loom standing beside the oven. (FIGURE 3-12) Grinding, spinning, and other tasks were probably also performed in this room since quern stones, spindle whorls, and bone and flint tools were found in concentration at the site of the oven. Opposite, along the wall, was an area covered with wooden boards. Storage jars, groups of vases, and braziers with horizontally pierced holes stood on the floor in this as well as in the adjacent room. Beside every oven was an ash pit in which ash of the best quality was collected. In Benac’s opinion, this may have been used as a detergent in washing linen. An unusual find at Obre houses were large hollow cylindrical ceramic objects found in the walls, which could have served for ventilation.'° Houses had deep storage pits for food, some of which were ’ two meters deep and about 85 centi- meters in diameter. These must have been the refrigerators of their times. 62/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 3-13 es —gurines FIGURE 3-13 Heads of The excavators of the Butmir site appar- Butmir clay figurines = ently found one or several temples since with neatly combed hair. hundreds of terracotta figurines were On (1-3) contours of aaah ca ch our unearthed. Some of the preserved heads BEG Af + 2 RS ‘i AR oan) } We | ais) ise I. ay hilt If! "i mA hy F (4) is one of the most of female figurines from Butmir have os 2. NG See eh naturalistically rendered | masterfully modeled human heads and ‘ \ SN Weel heads of the period. hairdos. The majority, however, have ey 4 ee Butmir at Sarajevo. Early outlines of masks with long noses or oth mill. BC. Scale 1:1. beaks and no human mouth. (FIGURE 3-13) In my opinion, they were produced for the worship of the protective and life- and wealth-giving Bird Goddess, the main deity of household and temple. The Vinca Culture in the Central Balkans n the central Balkans, the conti- nuity of the Neolithic Staréevo complex is traced throughout the middle of the 6th millennium B.C., but around 5400-5300 B.C. innovations occurred that are most clearly reflected in the ceramics, resulting in a cultural configuration called the Vinéa complex. Major Site ff FR The Vinéa sequence is best documented f Lahey ail a, oe ie Wh. tian y at an eponymous (name-giving) site, 14 Ee ng a mC aR km east of Belgrade, excavated by Miloje wie y) Vasié between 1908 and 1934, which 7 yielded seven meters of stratified Vinéa deposits overlying the Staréevo levels." No other site as rich or as well stratified has yet been discovered, and despite the antiquity of the excavation in terms of modern field methodology, this site has remained the backbone for the typology of Vinéa assemblages. Other more exten- sively and recently excavated settlement sites with published results are Anza IV in Macedonia,'? Banjica northeast of Belgrade,!3 Crnokalaéka Bara near Ni§,"4 GradeSnica, Rast,!® Valaé,'” Selevac,}® Divostin,’? and Gomolava.” The Vinéa complex occupied the cen- tral Balkans northward as far as Banat, westward to northeast Bosnia, and east- ward to western Bulgaria and south- western Romania. (FIGURE 3-14) This distribution covers the territory of the Staréevo culture, except for the periph- eral areas where other local variants formed. 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /63 FIGURE 3-14 Oborin e Ciéarovce & Berettyo-Ujfalu e Polgar-Czészhalom Danube a TISZA “ Herpaly @ Budapest oar 6ros K ® Vest6 & Oscéd Tiuzkodvés K6kénydomb Tartarla © Turdas Gorzsa Battonya Coka ees Belgrade le Ye Vinéa ve 3 @ e G. Tuzla Rudna Glava Selevace) & Grivac @ / Maieninials Divostin Drenovac BUTMIR Sarajevo @ VINCA Ni§ Ploénik e Fafos PriStina Valaté@ @ ® Dubrovnik Predionica ®@ Adriatic Sea Rast 8 7 Crnokalaéka Bara ‘\ \ ® GradeSnica rd SE FIGURE 3-14 The distri- bution of Vinca and Tisza cultures, c. 5300-— 4300 B.C. The location of more Important sites is indicated. Dashed line shows eastern limit of Early Vingéa. 64/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS A total of nearly 650 Vinéa sites, mostly settlements, are known from excavations and surface collections (listed and placed on the map in a mono- graph on the Vinéa culture by John Chapman, 1981). Vinéa settlements, which are consis- tently larger than those of the Staréevo, are found unenclosed along rivers. The larger ones occupy a territory of 25-30 hectares and even up to 80 (Selevac) and 100 hectares (Potporanj at VrSac}. In areas of high arable potential, villages developed in one location over several generations, in some cases over 500-600 years, forming tells. In Vinéa itself, ten habitation horizons were distinguished. These tell settlements are restricted in size and occupy from 2 to 6 hectares, but even they are larger than the Near East Early Dynastic towns.” The varying potential for farming of regional environments became the basis for settlement concentration. Cherno- zems (black earth), brown forest soils, smonicas, and alluvial (flood deposited) soils were especially sought. The largest concentrations of sites are in the fertile regions of the Morava and Middle Danube basins. Settlements are located either on flat river terraces or on the gently sloping foothills, frequently near streams, brooks, or thermal waters considered holy to this day. The size of villages and towns varied: small settle- ments held up to 200 persons, medium ones up to 500, while the largest had from 1,000 to 2,500 inhabitants. The research exploring their interrelation- ship has not yet been done. Architecture Vinéa villages were carefully planned. The ground was leveled before building began, slopes were terraced, several rows of posts were implanted. Houses stood aligned approximately parallel to one another, and in some villages house rows were separated by streets 2.5 to 3.5m wide. The Late Vinéa settlement at Divostin in central Serbia had four groups of houses arranged in threes or twos within the excavated area.*4 The space between houses ranged from 26 m to 60 m and their courts were bordered with stones. Early Vinéa houses consisted of one large room with an antechamber or of two rooms about 8 m long and 3 to 4m wide. House size increased greatly dur- ing the mid-Vinéa period.” Houses of three, four, or even five rooms were unearthed along with two-room houses in a number of settlements. (FIGURE 3-15) The largest houses were up to 20 m long. Houses were built of timber posts or split-plank frame plaited with twigs then plastered with a thick layer of clay or mud. The use of split planks, about 15 cm wide and 2.5 cm thick, was recorded at the Early Vinéa site of Anza in central Macedonia, dated to c. 5200 B.C.” Floors were finished with smooth lime plaster and had a subfloor of either squared logs or beams, or stones mixed with sherds, or square stone slabs. During the excava- tion of Anza IV in 1969-70, my own crew members were impressed with the solid architecture and refinement of these houses. In contrast, they lived in little comfort in cow-dung sheds in the nearby village of Anzabegovo. Anza is an excellent example of the high level of Old European civilization seven thou- sand years ago and the degradation of culture in modern times as a result of incessant wars by patriarchal societies. The architecture of regular houses and of temples was closely related, as it was also during the Early Neolithic. This fact seems to have obscured the recogni- tion of temples in Vinéa settlements, and yet there are multiroomed houses that clearly stand out from the rest. These have painted walls, inside and out, with symbolic designs such as chevrons and meanders painted in red, blue, and white. In at least four Vinéa settlements (Vinéa, Parta, Jela, and Kormadin), bucrania were discovered attached to clay columns or walls in the temples. The bucrania consisted of ox skulls coated with a layer of clay, with muzzles painted in blue and a red tri- angle on their foreheads. (FIGURE 3-16] At Parta, southwest of Timisoara, several temples, one above the other, were dis- covered in the 1980s. These yielded altars fenced within clay walls, offering tables, mobile offering hearths, monumental statues, and columns with bucrania attached. Among the most striking discoveries was a double statue of goddesses with two heads and shoul- ders. A bucranium, with fragments of a bull skull, was found at the statue. The final excavation report on these very important temples has not yet appeared; the information comes from preliminary reports.’ Trade and Copper Mining Vinéa culture grew fast economically, not only due to farming and cattle rais- ing, but also due to rising trade activities and mining. Obsidian was obtained for sickles and other precision tools from the Upper Tisza region. Alabaster and marble used for sculptures and spondy- lus shell for ornaments must have come from the coasts of the Adriatic and the Aegean Seas. Cinabarite for coloring was mined at Suplja Stena in central Yugo- slavia. Copper mining which started no later than 5000 B.C. was one of the greatest achievements. The earliest cop- per mine has been discovered at Rudna Glava, 140 kilometers east of Belgrade (see discussion below on metallurgy, trade and crafts). Chronology When Professor Vasi¢ first reported the results of his excavation of the Vinéa mound in the I//ustrated London News in 1930, he described the site as “a centre of Aegean civilization in the second millennium B.C.” He believed that this settlement had been continu- ously occupied from the beginning of the Aegean Middle Bronze Age until the area was conquered by the Romans. Vasi¢ was quite firm in this belief, and a final statement issued just before his death asserts that Vinéa was a Greek colony. Credence in this interpretation still persists in some modern histories of the Balkans where it is cited on his authority. Archeological evidence, how- ever, shows otherwise: Vinéa culture formed during the last centuries of the 6th millennium B.C. and continued for a thousand years. Vinéa sites demonstrate convincingly that the development of material culture, arts, and religion was integral and uninterrupted. The archeo- 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /65 FIGURE 3-15 PS | FIGURE 3-15 Two- and three-room houses from Late Vinca settlement at Divostin, C Yugoslavia. (1) Two-room house (House 17) and hypothe- sized reconstruction of walls and roof; (2) plan of a three-room house (House 14), probably a temple. Northern room was 25.3 m2, middle 37.5 m2, southern, 25.5 m?. postholes (EX SAPP QE SEBS ISS ) CSS ae ea te Ss ae 2 =. SHEE > ey a << <q) <j <J SS = (AS an S/ , XT ° () Nip ws 4 4 ay 2 rT) \ f O ©) ‘ ie) i ‘ V \ ® f' ( V A i "i e) Xx ca i — (@) % @ wii) Soca \v toollipe: Nie a 4 bank of packed O K, — : earth enclosed - ’ by massive A a his clay wall : @ domed oven a 1 A y \ a : X Lee a a a9 ss Mien, \ eee En a Commtic a] P BSS p< OR = {= koo ee Oe pe op < ae “y iOS 4 anthropomorphic figurines @ 3-legged container fourteen vases @ biconical bowls aa | P aN twenty ritual vases four vases ©) loom weights c 66/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 3-16 > logical consensus today is that Vinéa was an indigenous culture, its eventual efflorescence a result of gradual socio- economic change which became more rapid with the emergence of metallurgy and attendant population increase. The size of settlements virtually doubled over the millennium, while the physical type—the gracile Mediterranean—was continuous from Staréevo times.”8 Radiocarbon dates place the Vinéa cul- ture, on the basis of dendrochronological calibration, between 5400-5300 and 4300-4100 B.C. (TABLE 8). The general classification of this culture is suggested as follows: Early Vinéa, c. 5400-4900 B.C. and Late or Classical Vinéa, c. 4900- 4300 BC. (only in one case is the date later than 4300 B.C.).”? Both periods have subphases, although there is generally one gradual development for more than 1,000 years. Pottery The emergence of a new ceramic style around 5400-5300 B.C., dominated by a black burnished pottery, produced specu- lations that a new wave of immigrants must have come from western or central Anatolia bringing their tradition of dark- faced pottery. This new style was actu- ally due to influences from the Karanovo culture in Bulgaria where the fashion- able black pottery started a few centuries earlier and spread over a large area. By the end of the 6th millennium BC., dark wares appeared not only in Yugoslavia but also in Thessaly and even in south- ern Greece. The transition from Staréevo to Vinéa ceramic style can be observed at Anza, Macedonia, which was excavated by the author in 1969-70.*° The earliest Vinéa materials were found above the late Starcevo layer and are radiocarbon dated to c. 5300-5000 B.C. The Vinéa horizon is typified by a large percentage of well- made black-burnished wares—gray-black burnished or black slipped and hard fired—and by a much greater variety of shapes and handles than during the previous period. These gradually replaced the orange wares of the Staréevo culture. A variety of biconical vessels, carinated and flat dishes, zoomorphic (animal shaped) and ornithomorphic (bird shaped) vases, and high-footed vases are now the leading forms in the fine ware category. (FIGURE 3-17) The finest piece is black-burnished to a mirrorlike finish inside and out. The majority of vases wete decorated by channeling, produced by burnishing in the pattern. (FIGURE 3-18, 1) This decorative tech- nique as well as biconical shapes (FIGURE 3-18, 2) and a variety of handles and lugs continued throughout the Vinéa sequence. Black-topped ware was also introduced during the Early Vinéa period. Vessels of this style were slipped with brown, buff, or red and then bur- nished. The black color of the upper part was intentional and probably produced by inverting the pot and depressing the rim into ashes during firing while the rest of the pot was oxidizing.*! Sculptural Art The art of Vinéa developed its own unique identity,?2 which can be easily distinguished from other cultural groups since thousands of miniature and larger clay sculptures have been preserved. In the name-giving site alone, nearly 2,000 figurines and anthropomorphic vases have been unearthed, representing vari- ous phases of the culture. Six hundred and thirty were published by Vasié in Vin¢éa (vol. 3), and are housed in the Belgrade University and National Museums. Considerable numbers of figurines were found in almost every Vinéa settlement. The most remarkable sculptures are from southern Yugoslavia, particularly from the region of Pristina in Kosovo Metohije (PLATES 8 and 9}, one of the most impoverished regions of our times, inhabited by Albanians. Vinéa figurines, particularly those representing the Bird Goddess, show pre- cious details: a characteristic mask with a large nose or beak with no mouth (FIGURES 3-19 and 3-20); attire such as shoulder straps (FIGURE 3-20}, hip belts, or narrow skirt (see figs. 7-87, 7-89 through 7-94); and the incised or painted symbols of the divinity—V’s, chevrons, meanders, parallel lines, tri- lines, and bi-lines (see fig. 7-14). Not infrequently, her image appears as a vase with a face shown on the neck (see fig. 7-17), or as a mask attached to the vase's FIGURE 3-16 A bucra- nium (an ox skull plas- tered with a layer of clay) from late Vinca temple (Vinéa, at the depth of 2.89 m). Stylized eyes are shown as engraved spirals with lines extend- ing to the muzzle painted in blue. Above the eyes was a red painted triangle, now faded. Horns broken. H 44 cm. FIGURE 3-17 Early Vinca black burnished pottery: biconical vases deco- rated by channeling, dishes, handled vases, a footed vessel, and a large vase with Bird Goddess’s face on the neck. c. 5200-5000 B.c. Anza IV, Macedonia, SE Yugoslavia. FIGURE 3-18 (1) A typical Vinéa black burnished vase decorated by chan- neling and by burnishing in the snake coil pattern. Early Classical Vinca, beginning of the Sth mill, B.C. H 14.5 cm, (2) Black polished jug from Crnokolacka Bara near Nis, S Yugoslavia. Early Vinca settlement, c. 5000 B.C. H 37 cm. 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /67 FIGURE 3-17 é 2 on, e \ $4 hoa % - = %. S075 a , ee | YAK ee ib SAK SR RO gee :. \ Se a : . *< o? * Se, or oe 4 Lt S s Ly N 3S FIGURE 3-18 me! 68/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 3-19 FIGURE 3-19 The Bird Goddess from Vinéa wearing a beaked mask. (1) Early 5th mill. B.c. (2,3) Mid-5th mill. B.c. SSS) FIGURE 3-20 Characteris- tic Vingéa figurine with a large pentagonal mask with semicircular eyes marked with horizontal tri-lines and groups of striations under the lines. Black straps bor- dered with white color over the shoulders. VitoSevac-Luki¢ski Breg near Nis, SE Yugoslavia. 5000-4500 B.c. H 13 cm. neck. {FIGURE 3-19, 2) Bird vases with human masks are true masterpieces of this art. The portrayal of masks is universal on all articulately produced sculptures in which divine images are expressed. The Bird Goddess and other divinities of the Classical Vinéa period wear pentagonal masks with molded semicircular eyes. (FIGURES 3-19, 3-20} Later Vinéa sculptures wear masks with almond-shaped eyes. (FIGURE 3-21) The flat surface of the mask was used for engraving symbols. Monumental life- sized masks have been discovered in southern Yugoslavia. (PLATE 11] From the predominance of its image, we gather that the primary divinity worshiped in temples of the Vinéa site was the Bird Goddess. There are, how- ever, other deities represented, such as Snake Goddesses, Madonnas (mother figures with a bear or bird mask holding a baby (see figs. 7-5 and 7-6). Zoomor- phic figurines such as snakes, frogs, hedgehogs, dogs, and fish, and anthropo- morphic male figures wearing ram or he- goat masks constitute about 20 percent of the figurines. Of great interest are the centaurs found in southern Yugoslavia, in which a masked human head is grafted onto the body of a bull. (PLATE 22) Typical of earlier Vinéa art are owl- faced lids of large biconical vases, most likely used for religious rites as liquid containers. (PLATE 10) Some zoomorphic and anthropomorphic sculptures were carved out of marble, alabaster, and opa- lite, of which the heads of dogs carved from light green opalite and white marble are particularly fine examples. Offering tables and containers and oil lamps that are frequently found with figurines had anthropomorphic or zoomorphic legs incised with symbols or painted in bright colors. (PLATE 13} Realistic masterpieces and schema- tized versions of larger sculptures were present in each phase of Vinéa culture as they were one thousand years earlier in the Sesklo culture. The majority of schematized or miniature figurines marked with symbols and inscribed with signs appear in great numbers during the Early Vinéa period. Most of these inscribed figurines were probably ex votos. 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /69 FIGURE 3-20 tifss 2 WG rliip Koo; : so 7S & s qf, a i Ut ay, Win, TSS i ’ Staal } If wy f Yt | \" Syn, eC 1 PN | 4 Ith f, WA hy =<“ ~~ <= . CROSS hy ra \ SY a i | uf wy = ne ay % a INRZ i, Ay aD EAS cs | AAer ie 70/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 3-21 Ay 4 0 ', 4, ” 1h, % ae sa “hy \ H a MH ‘wy, ESS FIGURE 3-21 (a) Vinéa Bird Goddess in the shape of a vase with a pentagonal mask shown in relief. Fine light-brown fabric with channelled surface (burnished with pebbles). (b) Three views. Chevron design was executed in front and back in channelling technique. Classical Vinéa, early 5th mill. B.c. H 32.5 cm. I would like to mention here an exam- ple from my own excavation of an Early Vinéa township at Anza, Macedonia. Alongside the regular small-sized figu- rines, one of the houses, apparently a destroyed temple, yielded a huge vase, 92 cm tall, decorated with a red triangle and chevrons, with a Bird Goddess face incised on the neck (see fig. 7-17}. Another vase of a waterbird was 60 cm long (fig. 7-18) and a life-sized sculpture of a pig was unearthed nearby.* The size and detailing of sculptures naturally depended upon the purpose for which they were produced. The range of aesthetic accomplish- ment expressed by Vinéa ceramics and sculpture inspire a new appreciation of the artistic traditions of Old Europe. Here is an art which is not only infused with mythical values, but is grounded in a technical facility which allowed abstracted, schematized expression as well as finely crafted realism. Certain Vinéa torsos, for example, compete with those of Ancient Greece in their perfect rendition of the female body. (FIGURE 3-22) The Tisza Culture of the River Tisza Basin he name of this culture derives from the River Tisza which rises in the Carpathian Mountains and flows through eastern Hungary and northern Yugoslavia into the Danube. (see fig. 3-14, above). Settlements on alluvial mounds above the flood plain abound along the Tisza, Maros, and K6rés rivers. These are clustered in three groups bearing three appelations: the Gorzsa group near Szolnok in southern Hungary, the Herpaly near Debrecen in eastern Hungary, and the Csészhalom near the town of Nyiregyaza in northern Hungary. Like the Vinéa, the Tisza culture descended from the Staréevo (Kérés} culture which is shown by the predomi- nance of the gracile Mediterranean (Staréevo) physical type. Its divergence from the Vinéa culture is due to specific ecological conditions in the River Tisza 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION § /71 FIGURE 3-22 basin, and its emergence as a separate FIGURE 3-22 Seated = die unit is correlated with the appearance female terracotta figure. | of tell settlements and tell-based Classical Vinca from economies. Carsija, C Yugoslavia. Approx. 4700-4500 B.C. Discovery and Major Sites The discovery of the Tisza culture started with the excavation at Coka (Csoka}, now in northern Yugoslavia, by E Mora from 1907 to 1913.%* Large scale excavations by J. Banner at the enor- mously rich tell of Kokénydomb near Hédmez6vasarhely in southeastern Hungary from 1928 to 1944 provided a truly scientific basis and impetus for the investigation of this culture.** Sub- sequently, the excavations of Szegvar- Tuzkéves at Szentes by J. Czalog between 1955 and 1964, continued in the 1970s by J. Korek, placed the Tisza culture on the map due to the discovery of very impressive ceramic sculptures and anthropomorphic vases. (PLATE 12} Both Kékénydomb and Szegvar-Tiizkéves produced outstanding and unique pieces of sculptural art. These included enthroned goddesses in the shape of anthropomorphic vases, richly decorated with symbolic geometric designs in panels (FIGURE 3-23}, and male gods, of which the so-called Sickle God from Szegvar-Tiizkéves (a male figure holding a sickle-shaped object over his shoulder} is the most famous.* FIGURE 3-23 Enthroned goddesses in the shape of anthropomorphic vases decorated in panels bearing chevrons, Zigzags, striated trian- gles, bands of lozenges and X's, and script signs. Bracelets and arm rings are indicated (right, sec- ond band). K6kénydomb, SE Hungary. Classical Tisza, early 5th mill. B.C. (1)H 33 cm; (2) H 24cm; (3) H 23 cm. FIGURE 3-23 a, ‘h KG Cc ! M 72 THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS ie) { FIGURE 3-24 Groundolan and recorstruction Ci 2 house comprex. The Outer and inner walls of the room with the side entrance end the largest even (upper, nght) were cecoreted with Inased and red-nainted mean- Ger bends. Gorzsa, S Hundary. Classical Trsza; c. £500 3.c [ FIGURE 3-25 Reconstruc- TON OF a two-story house (temole?). Herpaly, level & house 17.5 Hungary, 48th-—46th centunes 3.C (See radio- carbon dates, table 4.) Three rooms on the first floor were packed wath vases. Truncated pyramid sheoed ovens were in Dao rooms on the noni, woth a round basin in the left room. Two large basins were on the uoper ‘floor with vases ncentrated on the if ¢ a) ©) ~~ lam 1% - “eo Te) Chronological Subdivision The 1970s and 1980s saw further exca- vations of tell settlements rich with cultural debris from Early and Classical Tisza. Among these sites are Veszto,> Battonya,* Herpaly,” and Gorzsa.* About sixty radiocarbon dates from various tells place this culture between 5400 and 3700 BC. (TABLE 9 This sequence includes the Early Tisza period called Szaka4lhat, 3400-3000 B.C.; the Classical Tisza, 3000-4400 B.C., sub- divided into three subphases, Tisza I, I, I; and the Tiszapolgar period, 4400- 3700 BC., mainly known from ceme- teries, not tells. An excellent survey of very intensive recent excavations has been published in English as the collec- tive work, The Late Neolithic of the Tisza Region (1987} edited by Pal Raczky. Tell Settlement The precondition for the emergence oi tell settlements was an architecture based on the combination of mud and wood. Settlements range from 1.5 hec- tares {KOkénydomb) to 11 hectares Szegvar-Tuzkéves|. The largest northern- most tell is Csdészhalom with five suc- cessive occupation levels.) All tells lie on elevations rising above flood plains in areas suitable for grain cultivation. Settlements are classified into three main forms: those which are 3-4 m high, which were densely settled; 1-2 m high, which were less densely settled villages which covered a larger horizon- tal area; and single-layer settlements with loosely scattered houses. These three distinct forms often occur side by side forming one complex of settle- ments.** Houses were closely spaced and formed smaller clusters of four to six or larger clusters of ten to thirteen, usually surrounded by an open area. Architecture Tisza architecture is outstanding al its multiroomed and two-story buildin FIGURES 3-24, 3-25). The el houses were up to 18 m long i2s at Gorzsa’ with tripartite divisions, and were timber framed with pisé taut walls. Timber uprights reinforced the a and supporiec the pitched r oof. Vattling between posts was of inter- bara twigs, branches, anc reeds subse- quently daubed with clzy on both the inside and the outside. Floors were of plestered clay, often covering a raised wooden substructure which preservea the imprints oi reed or rushwork mat- ting. The Tisza people decorated the walls with painted or incised designs, and gable omaments in the form of ani- mal heeds modelled trom clay heve been preserved in a number of settlements KOkénydomb, Gorzsa, Herpaly’. Each room contained an open, domed. or truncated pyramid-shapec clay oven. A characteristic feature ot Tiszz houses is the large rectenguler or rounded clay bins for grain storage. These were either plestered onto the oor o r stancing on legs. Occasionally, wooden chests end baskets were preserved tet Hetpaly. 3 THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION 73 74/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 3-26 FIGURE 3-26 Tentative reconstruction of the building with ceremonial assemblage: clay table, rectangular containers, a bird headed lid (see fig. 3-27), vases, kernos (right) with horns and small offering containers attached to the rim, and a sculpture in the shape of an enthroned god- dess (in hypothetical reconstruction). Vészto- Magor, E Hungary. c. 5000 B.c. or earliest centuries of the 5th mill. B.C. FIGURE 3-27 ) - rey : :° cS 4 1”. i ed fr “aS Cath Pa er . ai, Of) SOETT oe eee E BACAR) sad A. al eet , ‘ r.* eA rater. Aye. Es > pe ares eat nee oe eV eTE ty get pes A te ered a 2a. 04 me ae Ome FIGURE 3-27 Bird-headed terracotta lid found on the clay table in the shrine (see fig, 3-26), decorated in panels of incised nets, Zigzags and lozenges. Double- notched handles on both sides, Vészt6- Magor, E Hungary. H 19.7 cm. 5000- 4800 B.c. Clusters of clay loom weights witness the existence of vertical looms near the ovens. Among the internal furnishings of richly equipped rooms, as at Veszt6 of the Classical Tisza period, were portable table-like altars, basinlike bowls set on a quadrangular base, a bird-headed lid of a large vase, ornamental bull heads applied onto the walls, offering pits, and kernoi (ceremonial footed dishes consisting of many small containers for various offer- ings}.“3 (FIGURES 3-26, 3-27) These finds speak of ritual activities, and if these rooms were not communal village tem- ples, they were at least domestic shrines. Temples and Ritual Vases As elsewhere in southeastern Europe, the temples of the Tisza culture were in the shape of regular houses. The illus- trated two-story house from Herpaly (fig. 3-25) was very likely a temple with workshops on the ground floor and a ceremonial room above. One of the rooms of a multi-roomed complex at Gorzsa (see fig. 3-24, room top, right} had decorated walls and a separate entrance, in addition to rich internal fur- nishings, a large pyramidal oven, and a number of vases. This, too, may have served as a shrine. Tisza houses suggest that worship was intertwined with everyday activities. Quantities of pedestalled bowls, amphora-shaped biconical vessels, dishes, jars, and rectangular vessels have been found in Tisza houses. They are often decorated with meanders, which are the most frequent image appearing in a multiplicity of variations, as well as chevrons and other motifs. These are elements of a symbolic language associ- ated with the sphere of the Life-giving Goddess. Typically, these motifs incised on vases are framed into aesthetic com- partments. (FIGURES 3-28, 3-29, 3-30) Outstanding among the ritual ceramics are small containers or lamps with ram head protomes. (PLATE 13) FIGURE 3-28 FIGURE 3-29 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /75 De ee ed i COTA Reed a | FIGURE 3-28 Pedestalled bowl decorated with panels of meanders and dotted lines over the bowl, chevrons and dots over the pedestal. In its Interior is a fourfold sign painted in white, Classical Tisza culture. Szegvar-TlizkOves, SE Hungary, c, 48-47th cents. B.C. H 29.7 cm, == FIGURE 3-29 Footed vase typically decorated with incised meanders in pan- els. The front panel has smatier meanders and six dots above and below. Szegvar-Tuzk6ves, SE Hungary. Classical Tisza, c. 48-—47th cents. BC. 76/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS tg Sel atl FIGURE 3-30 Two anthro- pomorphic footed vases from Classical Tisza. The Goddess’s visage Is flanked with chevrons (1) and tri-lines (2). Panels of meander and zigzag designs cover the body. The decoration Is engraved and encrusted with white. Szeqvar- Tuzkoves, SE Hungary. c. 48-47th cents. B.C. 2 & FIGURE 3-31 A coffin burial of the Tisza cul- ture. Vészto-Magor, E Hungary. Early 5th mill. B.C. FIGURE 3-31 In pottery technology, chaff was no longer used for tempering, as during the Neolithic, so differences between coarse and fine wares practically disappeared. A new type of ware appeared, typical of the Classical Tisza period, in which vessels were coated with bitumen into which straw or chaff was embedded, cut into small pieces and arranged into pat- terns.“* Another widespread ornamental motif is black painting with wide bands. Graves Within the Tisza territory almost four hundred graves have been excavated, both within and outside the settlements. During the Classical Tisza period, wooden coffins were used for burial. The Veszt6 site yielded coffins built of wooden planks with protrusions in the upper corners for carrying (FIGURE 3-31), which are the first of their kind found in Europe. Eighteen coffin burials deposited in four layers were found within the limits of habitation. The Last Phase The Tiszapolgar complex in eastern Hungary, eastern Slovakia, and adjacent Transylvania marks the end of the Tisza culture and the extension of its eastern and northern limit up to southern Poland. Radiocarbon dates place this stage between the 44th and 39th centu- ries B.C. (TABLE 9) Its last stage, Lazn’any, is known only from cemeteries of inhu- mation and cremation graves in eastern Slovakia and represents a dying, isolated culture with diminished copper and obsidian industries and a diminished ceramic style.** The most likely explana- tion of the cause of its demise is the consequence of the First Kurgan Wave described in chapter 10. 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /77 The Lengyel Culture of the Middle Danube Basin and Northern Central Europe | he Linearbandkeramik culture | of central Europe in the Middle Danube basin was supplanted by the Lengyel culture, a complex with quite different architectural, technologi- cal, and artistic traditions. Lengyel set- tlements, surrounded by wide V-shaped ditches and containing the typical painted piriform vases and fruitstands, have analogies with the Danilo and Butmir complexes. Its formation from a Starcevo core in Slavonia, Syrmia, and Pannonia was due to intensified relations with the west, Bosnia, and the Adriatic coast, a process parallel to the formation of the Butmir group.“ Obsidian and spondylus shell trade continued, probably in exchange for salt and agricultural products. From the early 5th millennium BC. the popula- tion west and north of the Middle Danube became a clearly distinct cul- tural group with its own artistic style. The name-giving Lengyel site and the large settlements of Zengdvarkony and Aszéd are located in western Hungary. Other Lengyel sites are distributed over a large, low-lying territory of fertile loess plains which include northwestern Yugoslavia, eastern Austria, Moravia, western Slovakia, and southern Poland.*’ (FIGURE 3-32} These sites did not form tells, but were extensive horizontal settlements of wattle-and-daub houses. 78/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 3-32 FIGURE 3-32 Distribution of the Lengyel culture. vp aad : ey “im. Y NRX CUCUTENI &, Ys Lye — GUMELNITA , iN 2, BUTMIR ; Y. VINCA Danube Adriatic Sea KEY Uy Core area, c. 5000-4500 B.C. | | | | | Diffusion north and west after the | middle of the 5th mill. Bc. . SS Tisza culture and its spread to SY S Poland during the Tiszapolgar period, end of the 5th mill. BC. Major Lengyel sites: 1. Zengévarkony 2. Lengyel 3. Stielice 4. Svodin 5. Luzianky 6. Aszéd 7. Brzesé Kujawski Chronology Radiocarbon dates from Lengyel sites place the beginning of this culture group around 5000 BC. (TABLE 10) Stratigraphy and ceramic typology denote five phases, Lengyel I-V.*® The early Lengyel culture within the first half of the 5th millen- nium B.C. is characterized by richly painted pottery. As in the Butmir and Danilo groups, spirals, meanders, and other motifs were first incised, then painted in red, yellow, and black. The bright brick-red color of hematite pig- ments predominates. Warts and buttons on four sides of the belly of biconical vases and fruitstands became charac- teristic elements of the Lengyel style. (FIGURE 3-33A) Pottery of the next stage, in the middle of the 5th millen- nium B.C., was mainly white painted and during the end phases of this culture was unpainted. The general typology of Lengyel ceramics is given in figure 3-33B. FIGURE 3-33A 1 Py HiT Yes) tntfy cies y Gj t fi An mk x | ntl: by: fi ‘ 1 am é | ‘ 7 | [ sae ) : ; SS | = te ‘ Ss i} THN \ i re ! SS Sa w mL f fh Ay) 4] ff ig at mit eh # 19238, eS wee \S ; Ps AN ef m/ 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /79 Pers d FIGURE 3-33A Classical Lengyel painted pottery of c. 4900-4600 Bc:: lids, rounded or biconi- cal pots, pedestalled bowls (‘‘fruitstands’’), and a vase with a long cylindrical neck. Painted in bright brick-red (the pigment ts hematite) on gray background. All vessels are from graves excavated near houses of the settlement at Zengdévarkony, county of Barabya, district of Pécs, W Hungary. ¥ f th (4 i i D ft) Ha 1 7 4 riff: ain ’ 5 ARS _< ~ a | . TRON 80/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 3-33B ———— FIGURE 3-33B Lengyel pottery typology. |, Early: including painted pot- tery (red, yellow, black designs), 49th—46th cents. B.C. Il, Middle: less colorful, designs painted in white, middle of the 5th mill. B.c. lil, Late: unpainted pottery, c. 43rd—39th cents. B.C. Lengyel finds do not occur 1n western Hungary or in western Slovakia after the Lengyel V phase, for this culture is replaced by a Balaton complex from the south. Lengyel V ceramics emerge, however, within the milieu of the west European Cortaillod and Michelsberg, as well as on the Upper Danube, Elbe, and Oder rivers. In Bavaria, central Germany, and western Poland,*? the Lengyel expan- sion to northern central Europe was synchronous with the Kurgan I infiltra- tion into the Lower Danube basin. This northward movement may have been caused by a chain reaction to events in east-central Europe which started the disintegration of the Karanovo and Vinéa cultures and caused the exodus of their people to the west and north. Settlements and Architecture A series of systematically excavated set- tlement sites with published results in Hungary and Czechoslovakia serve as backbone information for the classical Lengyel culture. Among these are: Zeng6évarkony in western Hungary,*° Aszéd settlement and cemetery north of Budapest,*! Luzianky graves and set- tlement,*? and Svodin (the largest settle- ment with over 1,000 houses),** both in western Slovakia. Settlements are found on naturally protected, large terraces near a water source. The Aszdd settle- ment occupied 20 to 25 hectares, and its minimum population is guessed to have been 300. How large the villages were at a single time cannot be calculated with accuracy, however, since only small areas have been unearthed. In Aszdd, for instance, only five houses were fully excavated, and a final report on Svodin is not yet available.54 Houses were of timber uprights daubed with clay, about 8 m by 5m, or 6m by 4.5 m with pitched roofs. Architectural details can be seen on miniature models of clay. In one example, the wide entrance with a ram or bull head on the gable suggests that it may be a replica of a temple. (FIGURE 3-34} Systematic investigations of Polish lowlands have shown that the subsis- tence and settlement patterns of the Lengyel culture differed markedly from those of the LBK. In this area, the Lengyel culture began permanent, year- round village farming. Large settlements are found on patches of rich black earth along lakeshores and meandering streams in Kuyavia, western Poland. The most characteristic aspect of these settlements is their trapezoidal long- houses. At Brzes¢é Kujawski, more than fifty houses have been identified, and many have been excavated over the course of the last fifty years by Polish and American archeologists. (FIGURE 3-35) A number of other sites, such as Krusza Zamkowa, have fewer houses but are similar permanent villages. There is FIGURE 3-34 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /81 wee a Se FIGURE 3-34 Clay model of a Lengyel house or temple which infers an actual house; walls were timber uprights inter- spersed with wattle covered with clay daub An animal head decorates the gable of the pitched roof sup- ported by five massive central and side beams. Stfelice near Znojmo, Moravia. Animal figu- rines from the same site. Early 5th mill. 8c. vy 82/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 3-35 a | FIGURE 3-38 (1) Brzes¢ Kujawski settlement in W Poland with trapezoi- a 1afO-/ t Sean dal long-houses. Excava- tions of the 1930s ey pred Area destroyed by gravel digging by K. Jazdzewski and by P. |. Bogucki and CY- Neolithic house plans R. Grygiel in the 1970s. (2) Hypothesized recon- struction by K. Jazdzew- ski. (3) Plan with traces of post holes and ditches at northern end. Con- tours of pits along the walls. The right side of the house was de- stroyed. From the Lengyel village at Nowa Huta near Cracow, S Poland, c. 4300- 4100 BC. a ote-- (————— = en pe —_—-—— ai ONS — SS yt aupilie yike nee en ac TTT LS ll ert ae ON Tpit ain i rant he my HE victntyge CysePMATTL Heh salty A Se ; wltsqnat *5 — Ait F phyfyy aePs % eS BSE PT yi, ll As seleetlle_y ———— " == ER, a py, qatie i Pl Hs =: <= ; —— 2 = ie FOOL rg A = a = SSeS ous : aK ae an a ‘i = a Z = = : = — Vv, = : = Zs SR BL | . = i = : % % Mie pe 2 Se a Y oa Me . eee : “ ae Se * —— 7, ns a As Yui Uj Yyy , YY y, TO peace abundant evidence of grain cultivation and a reliance upon larger numbers of pigs, sheep, goats, and cervids. The exploitation of birds, fish, molluscs, and turtles is also greater than previously found.** Lengyel settlements are central- ized around multiple long-houses in which trapezoidal buildings 15 to 40 m long (most more than 20) were built using the bedding trench method of con- struction. Smaller sites occurred within an approximate 5 km radius. Three dis- tinct types of settlements have been distinguished: large, with multiple long-houses, single long-house sites, and temporary sites with no traces of perma- nent architecture.*’ As in the Tisza area, there was clearly a hierarchy of site S1ZeS. Art It was the art, the painted pottery and highly individualistic rendering of female figures, that attracted the atten- tion of interested laymen to this culture in the early decades of the 20th century. One of the early excavators and art lov- ers was Fr. Vildomec of Znojmo in Moravia who amassed a great amount of classical Lengyel material, mostly from his excavation at Stfelice and other sites around Znojmo. Most of it remained in his private collection in a nearby village, and is still there. Other impressive collections of Lengyel art are in the archeological museums of Brno, Prague, Budapest, Vienna, Pecs, and others. Lengyel sculptural art differs from that of all neighboring groups. As elsewhere, the majority of figurines are schema- tized, having biconical heads, arm stumps, and large buttocks. Rarely are faces or masks indicated, although some show eyes, eyebrows, pointed noses, and even hairdos and necklaces. The usual type is a standing figurine with weight concentrated in the lower part of the body, while the upper part is reduced, with breasts hardly indicated. (FIGURES 3-36, 3-37) A number of female figures are shown seated on a stool. In addition to the regular type of figurines produced in quantities, there are exceptional pieces of art remarkable for their inven- tive shapes. Among these are vases bs 2 | FIGURE 3-36 Typical Lengyel figurines: (1) Fig- urine with a biconical amorphous head, arm- stumps, small breasts, and a massive lower body. (2-4) Heads with hair, eyes, and nose indi- cated. Early Lengyel, 49th-47th cents. B.C. Strelice at Boskovstejn near Znojmo, Moravia, c Czechoslovakia. [ FIGURE 3-37 Bird God- _ dess of Lengyel type: pinched nose for beak, arm stumps for wings, small breasts, massive buttocks. Two views. Strelice, district of Znojmo, Moravia, Early Lengyel, 49th—47th cents, B.C. 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION {83 84/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 3-38 FIGURE 3-40 FIGURE 3-38 Tripartite offering vessel ona human foot. Baked clay. Early Lengyel, c. 49th— 47th cents. B.C. Hluboké Mastrvky at Znojmo, Brno area, Moravia. FIGURE 3-39 A temple model with a bird head : elevated on a massive 3 human leg found at Aszdd north of Budapest placed in a grave of a young girl (Grave No. 205). 49th—47th cents. B.c.H25 cm. a ae — | FIGURE 3-40 A particu- : larly beautiful example of the Lengyel figurine art is the “Lady of $é” whose head has unfor- tunately not been recovered. Early Lengyel (Sé near Vas, $zom- bately, W Hungary), c. 49th-47th cents. B.C. H 24 cm. FIGURE 3-39 standing on a human leg (FIGURE 3-38} and even a temple model with a bird head on top which is also standing on a single leg. (FIGURE 3-39) The latter was discovered in the grave of a young girl in the cemetery at Aszéd. Extraordinary vases came to light in the early Lengyel site at Sé, in the district of Szombately, western Hungary. Among these are a vase in the shape of a woman holding a 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /85 vase above her head, and the sculpture of a goddess called Lady of Sé with an elon- gated torso and well-developed breasts. (FIGURE 3-40) Other exquisite Lengyel creations are religious vases in the shape of a bear from the site of Abraham in western Slovakia (FIGURE 3-41), lamps with double-horned animal heads, and wide-open vases with globular or horned protuberances. FIGURE 3-41 Y - ne aM ~ FRM YAY Ire ate ot Dh) BN, eee 2 I ca MME SLE f as Ree. fy As A. ~~ ok Ay, Rates. onde ae as. <5 ie, 5 ~ ‘ Nae e pe es ate ae. Sie os s Sage x < ae ne PO EE ENO ES DSLR RED SPLEEN I Se NOOR ELLE LES SEA LAR AE a AOE LEILA Meg RARE AR ES SSE AEE LEI as GOMES, sac BED OBESE E FIGURE 3-41 Vase in the shape of a bear with a cylindrical neck deco- rated in painted red bands. Abraham near Piest’any, W Slovakia. Early Sth mill. B.c. 86/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 3-42 0 10 km | KEY | , | + | | + + | + i Talomita | Giulesti Cernavoda - Boian 4 Bucharest mae Cemmica | _ @Vidra Tangiru @ @ Radovanu | Danube | | Distribution of Hamangia group Boian sites + © ® LBK settlements Major cemeteries and settlements FIGURE 3-42 Distribution of the Hamangia group (shaded area). Early 5th mill B.c. FIGURE 3-43 Excavated clay floors of Boian houses from tell at Radovanu near the Danube, S Romania. First habitation horizon. Bolan lil (Vidra). Houses are arranged in rows. The second habitation horizon yielded two rows of houses; c. 47th—46 cents. B.C. The Boian Culture in the Lower Danube Region IN fter the middle of the 6th mil- lennium B.C., the Staréevo (Cris) culture, which continued in the lower Danube basin, entered the Early Vinéa stage. Around 5000 BC. the LBK farmers appeared from north of the Carpathian Mountains and settled in Moldavia, Muntenia (the area of Bucharest), and in Transylvania. A sym- biosis developed between the Early Vinéa and LBK which resulted in the formation of a new culture, called Boian. In Dobruja, on the Black Sea coast, a Hamangia culture emerged with its own art style, which was absorbed by the Boian after 4700 BC. (FIGURE 3-42) The Boian culture in its second stage exercised a strong influence on Tran- sylvania and Moldavia through shifts of population, stimulating the formation of the great cultures of Petresti and Cucuteni, described at the end of this chapter. The name Boian comes from an island site in Lake Boian in southeastern Romania, excavated in 1924.°° Tell Settlements On the whole, about a hundred Boian sites are known, mostly tells, north and south of the Danube down to the Balkan Mountains. However, very few large- scale excavations have been carried out. These cluster north of the Lower Danube, south of Bucharest, and were located on well-chosen elevations, on promontories, higher banks of rivers, and lake shores. Many tells were strati- fied, indicating a permanent occupation for as many as five hundred years or more. The tell of Tangiru, for instance, yielded twenty-one habitation horizons, twelve of which belong to the Boian culture nd the rest to the successive Gumelnita.? On stratigraphical and typological grounds, four Boian phases were distinguished: I, Bolintineanu, II, Giulesti; MI, Vidra; and IV, Spantov.© FIGURE 3-43 KEY . Clay platforms 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION {87 88/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS No long-houses of LBK type are found in Boian settlements. Dwellings were semisubterranean in Boian I; they were above ground in Boian II. Boian M-IV had rectangular timber houses with clay- stamped floors, 7 m by 3.5 m in size, as revealed by an excavation at Radovanu near the Danube in Romania.*! (FIGURE 3-43) Pottery Boian pottery is in a class by itself, characterized by excised and white- encrusted decoration. Most frequently, spiral and rectilinear meander patterns were incised, and rows of small tri- angles and checkerboard patterns were excised, using a wood carver’s technique. After firing, the ornamented surfaces were colored with white or red paint. (FIGURE 3-44) Peg-footed vessels are typical (FIGURE 3-45) as well as biconi- cal bowls and rectangular block vases. The fine ware was of a clean clay, thin walled, often ash-gray or black. Gyvaves Three hundred and sixty-two graves were unearthed in the cemetery of Cernica at Bucharest, from the Boian I (Bolin- tineanu) phase.® This is the earliest and largest cemetery known in the area so far. The dead were in pits, in an extended position, oriented from west to east. The skeletons were of a general Mediter- ranean type, of gracile bones, small or medium statured, but the skulls were not homogeneous. In addition to dolichocephalic, there were also meso- cephalic and brachycephalic, even hyper- brachycephalic (Alpine) skulls, and the facial index also varied which suggests that an intermarrying took place with the previous local populations. Vases, stone axes and chisels, bone needles, and awls were laid in the graves. Among the ornaments found were diadems of spon- dyius shell, bracelets of pectunculus shell (FIGURE 3-46}, ring pendants and rings of bone, cylindrical, annular, and profiled beads of shell, greenstone, and copper, as well as perforated elk’s teeth. A schematic bone figurine of the Stiff Nude category was also found in one grave. FIGURE 3-44 FIGURE 3-45 FIGURE 3-44 Boian Il vase (Giulesti phase) decorated with excised and white paste encrusted lozenges and checkerboards. 49th-— A8th cents. BC. H11.8¢cm. CS eee FIGURE 3-45 A peg- footed vase with excised and white-encrusted decoration. Boian cul- ture, phase Ii! (Vidra) c. 48th—46th cents. B.C. H 27.9 cm. 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /89 apn a6 a ——— FIGURE 3-46 Skeletons from the cemetery of Cernica at Bucharest showing the position of (Bl ance settlements and arm rings of pectunculus cemeteries are concentrated shell and a diadem of along the Black Sea coast perforated spondylus (see fig. 3-42), a point of trade where a eae Endof6th = snondylus and dentalium shell and a marble were obtained from the south and diffused to the inland areas. D. Berciu, the excavator of the major Hamangian cemeteries between 1952 and 1960,° believed, because of the findings of extraordinary sculptures, marble, and spondylus shells, that the Hamangians immigrated from the eastern Mediterranean. It is much more likely that this culture is of local roots, as suggested by the earliest Hamangian pottery which is related to Staréevo (Cris) forms, and a microlithic flint industry known in the same area from earlier times. An analysis of human skeletal material shows a population of a Mediterranean (of several variants) and proto-Europid of gracilized type. In addition, elements considered to be descendant from Upper Paleolithic Ptedmost type were present. The latter persisted in the Black Sea littoral also in post-Hamangian times. The Hamangia Culture on the Black Sea Coast Sites and Chronology Semisubterranean dwellings are found on low terraces of lake shores, as at Golovita near Baia Hamangia. Five phases of cultural development have been determined on typological grounds which parallel Boian and Karanovo III-IV, between 5500 and 4700 BC. There is only one radiocarbon date for Haman- gia III, which is 5880 BP (from the Groningen laboratory), calibrated within the 49-48th centuries B.C. The graveyard of Cernavoda located on an elevation near the Danube included no fewer than 600 inhumation graves; 400 were excavated. A vase or two, a polished stone tool, and one or two clay A or marble figurines of the Hamangian Stiff Nude type were laid in both female and male graves, but not in all (most finds are from the upper part of the certt etery held to be of a later phase}. Pebbles or marbles of a round, semicircular, or eS LASS Ss ~— 90/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 3-47 lozenge shape were frequently found at the head of the dead. In many cases later interments were superimposed on earlier ones or earlier bones were removed and reburied together with the new arrival. Most interesting were ritu- alistic burials of skulls found in several locations west and north of the main graveyard with remains of feasting. At the graves were deer, pig, cattle, and goat skulls and jaws, very likely as symbols of regeneration. The burial of skulls alone may mean a secondary burial of the dead (other bones were probably considered not as essential as skulls). The first reports of large-scale excava- tions at Dourankulak near the Black Sea coast in Bulgaria by H. Todorova and T. Dimov came out as this book was already being finished.® As yet, the exca- vation which commenced in 1978 is not finished. Nevertheless, the discovery of Hamangian semisubterranean pit- dwellings and 846 graves of several phases, as well as a settlement from the succeeding Varna period is of consider- able importance. This excavation demonstrates a cultural continuity throughout three-quarters of the 5th millennium B.C. The Hamangia and Varna cultures, which have been consid- ered as separate units, may be shown to be genetically related. The enormously rich cemetery of Varna is treated in this chapter in the section on trade. Art The Hamangians developed their own art style expressed as black-burnished pottery decorated with white-encrusted stroked zigzags, meanders, and triangles (FIGURE 3-47), and highly individualis- tic types of terracotta and marble figu- rines. Sculptures of the White Goddess of Death have been found on their flat backs in graves. Some figurines are corpulent standing or seated females with columnar heads with no facial features, while others are reduced ver- sions of the same type. (FIGURE 3-48} One grave from the Cernavoda cemetery yielded a pair of terracotta deities, female and male, both nude, masked, and in seated posture. They are about 12, cm high, of well-burnished grayish- brown clay. The male is seated on a stool holding his chin with both hands, while the female sits comfortably with both hands on her right knee (see fig. 7-42). The male, baptized The Thinker after Rodin’s sculpture, became one of the most celebrated pieces of art from the European Eneolithic. In addition to the Stiff Nude type of sculpture promi- nent in cemeteries, a pregnant type is found within the villages. In the settle- ment of Golovita, in addition to pit houses, one above-ground house of 6 m by 5 m was unearthed which seemed to have been used for worship. Four terra- cotta female figures were found on the floor, all of a pregnant type, with hands on the belly. The Karanovo-Gumelnita Culture in Thrace and Eastern Macedonia Continuity and Expansion to the North Aegean Area and the Lower Danube Valley There is a well-documented cultural continuity in Bulgaria and southern Romania throughout the 5th millennium up to 4300-4200 BC. (TABLE 11) Many Neolithic tells, such as Kara- novo, Azmak, and Kazanlak in central Bulgaria, were occupied for a thousand years without interruption from the middle of the 6th millennium BC. Neo- lithic Karanovo I and II were followed by Eneolithic Karanovo II-VI. During the Karanovo III-IV periods, 5500-5000 BC., this culture influenced cultural change throughout the central Balkans and northeastern Greece. Around 5500 BC., elements of the Karanovo III assemblage were carried, by ethnic expansion, south- ward beyond the Rhodope Mountains to the Plains of Drama and Thrace. Out- side their homeland in the Marica valley, Karanovo sites yielding phase III materi- als are found on virgin soil or bedrock. Such are the tells of Sitagroi® and Dikili Tash® in the Drama Plain north of the Aegean. ee iGUuRE 3-48 FIGURE 3-47 Black vases with white encrusted zigzags and triangles from the cemetery of Cernavoda, Hamangia culture. 49th-48th cents. B.C. Heights: (1) 17 err! (2): 15 en (3) 13 Gn. FIGURE 3-48 Hamangian Stiff Nude found in graves, Terracotta (1), marble (2). Cernavoda cemetery, at the Black Sea, Romania; c. 49th—48th cents B.C. H (1) 15.7 cm. (2) 9 cm. 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /91 Vy 92/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 3-49 A A \ Danube yo 4 Gumelnita Bucharest Ml e" Cascioarele yi e Durankulak e Radingrad Hotnica e Poljanica Ld Ovéiarovo—*., A ANA A N A Sofia i 4 = eB N A Rhodope AN A Sitagroi e Dikwi tash e ~ /\ Balkan Mts. ms A Vi i Sie mica Golj. Deléevo e Karanovo Azmak e ly. Mts. A Aegean Sea Me, os PS | FIGURE 3-49 The Kara- novo-Gumelnita and the Black Sea littoral culture. Mid-5th mill. 8.c. Black dots indicate sites men- tioned in text. el FIGURE 3-50 A square plan of a compact Karanovo village pro- tected by palisades with entrances on all four sides. Only narrow paths and two main streets between houses. Poljanica, NE Bulgaria, Karanovo V, 48th-46th cents. B.C. 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /93 Toward the middle of the 5th millen- FIGURE 3_50 nium BC., there must have been an influx of population from central to northeastern Bulgaria and across the Lower Danube to southern Romania. Karanovo-type tells began to appear in a much larger area than before. Excava- tions in the 1970s of Poljanica, Ovéarovo, Goljamo Deléevo, and Vinica in the Turgoviste district (by H. Todorova) and Radingrad near Razgrad (by T. Ivanov} revealed a great deal of new information on this culture.** Ancient Thrace and Dacia became culturally united during this period (FIGURE 3-49), except for the population of the Black Sea littoral which differed in racial type and archi- tectural tradition.© The Karanovo- Gumelnita population was gracile Mediterranean mixed with gracilized proto-Europid type. Villages and Houses The Karanovo villages continued a house to house plan, with paths or very narrow passages in between. (FIGURE 3-50} The Vinica and Ovéarovo tells have accumulations of more than twenty habitation levels in which most of the houses remained in their original places.”° Excavations at Poljanica have shown that the early village had three sae ‘Teshoin 0 15m parallel palisades, perhaps as protection from wild animals, which are not tobe === Palisades confused with hill-fort fortifications of 6) ovens the Indo-European type. There was an absence of stone work. Houses were Pits built of timber uprights with wicker- work in between, daubed with clay on both sides. Floors were of split logs cov- ered with a layer of clay. (FIGURE 3-51} At Ovéarovo, some houses were plas- tered as many as forty-seven times, which suggests that they could have lasted fifty years or more, if not burnt down earlier. , 94/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS Two-story Temples In every settlement there was a central building adjoined to the other houses (see fig. 3-50, bottom row, right) which was often two storied. At Radingrad, it was shown that such two-story buildings were temples with a workshop on the first floor under the worship area. Ceramic models of such temples are replicas of actual buildings. (FIGURE 3-52) Some models have round windows on the ground floor and show traces of painted designs in red, yellow, and white. The largest model, having a very large stereobate with four temples on top, was discovered in the burned temple of Cascioarele on a Danube island in southern Romania (see fig. 7-57). As it is now known from actual temples and their models, the two-story buildings were not houses of chieftains or village elders, as was presumed by excavators, but communal temples and centers of. arts and crafts. Open models, such as one from the Ovéarovo tell (FIGURE 3-53}, show interior arrangements in the lower level. A large rectangular oven with a pitched roof in imitation of a real house occupied a central position in the middle of the wall to the right of the entrance, while a clay bench and an area fenced with a clay wall was at the rear. Poljanica, Ovéarovo, and other totally excavated settlement tells are excellent examples of well-organized small towns. According to the excavator H. Todorova, people must have lived there in tightly knit egalitarian communities, their lives revolving around temple activities. FIGURE 3-51 FIGURE 3-51 Reconstruc- tion of a house from tell Azmak, C Bulgaria. Karanovo VI culture, mid-5th mill. B.c. FIGURE 3-52 ee aay FIGURE 3-52 Reconstruc- tion of a model of a two- story building from Ruse, N Bulgaria. The pre- served fragments indi- cate a stereobate with round windows. The upper story was built of horizontal beams tnter- spersed with vertical. Karanovo VI (Gumelnita) culture, mid-5th mill. B.c. Farming Farming was done around the villages and cattle were fed on what the pastures provided. In all excavated tells, the most significant source of food was cattle, both of meat and milk, while sheep, goats, pigs, and grain were also impor- tant.”! Estimates based on the capacity of the storage pits at Goljamo Deléevo have indicated that the annual requisite of cereals would have been approxi- mately 20,000 to 24,000 kilograms obtained from 16 hectares of cultivated land. Calculations have shown that the workload necessary for the cultivation of this amount of land, divided among twenty families of the village, would have left sufficient labor free for the building of houses, lumbering, cattle breeding, hunting, fishing, gathering, trading, and home and temple crafts.” Exquisite ceramics and tools produced in these villages testify to a sufficient amount of leisure time for the refine- ment of arts and crafts. FIGURE 3-53 Town and Village Interrelationship Much larger tells found in central Bulgaria which may have had up to five thousand inhabitants have not been fully excavated, so it is too early to speak of their inner organization. These must have been towns central to a district. Since the total number of tells in Bul- garia and Romania from the middle of the 5th millennium BC. is no less than one thousand (in Bulgaria nearly six hundred and in Romania no fewer than five hundred}, the time is not far away when the use of the magnetometer, air photography, and other devices will reveal a new understanding of town and village interrelationships. Cemeteries have not yet been discovered in central Bulgaria near the large mounds, but a considerable number of graves have been unearthed at the northern Bulgarian tells at Vinica, Goljamo Deléevo, Poljanica, and Ovéarovo. These have provided a view of social relationships which are discussed in chapter 9. At this time, changes in social structure occur on the Black Sea coast. 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION = /95 FIGURE 3-53 An open temple model of clay with a house-shaped oven, clay bench (an altar), and a bank enclosed by a massive clay wall. Painted chevrons, tri-lines, and other signs on the exterior wall. Ovéarovo |, NE Bulgaria, Karanovo VI period, mid-5th mill. B.c. 96/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 3-54 aa FIGURE 3-54 Shapes and decoration of vases including graphite- painted (black design) ware from Karanovo IV, V, and VI periods, c. 5000-4500 B.c., based on finds from the tell of AZmak at Stara Zagora, C Bulgaria. a a = FIGURE 3-55 Gold- painted dish: detail, Varna cemetery, Grave No. 1. | | ~ Ty Wii i. 8 - S —_———- = = Se = ‘ —SS—— —— a —————eo - if [i p Pottery The production of magnificent ceramics was an essential occupation of the Karanovians, both in larger towns and in villages. The continual aesthetic and technological development of this art demonstrates an enormous investment in time and creative effort. Even if pot- tery was mainly manufactured for the temple, the sophisticated vases that surrounded families in their everyday life express a cultural enrichment that pervaded all aspects of society. Vases with gray backgrounds en- livened by white encrustation are characteristic of Karanovo art in the early centuries of the 5th millennium BC. Tall, hollow pedestalled, tulip- shaped vases of early Karanovo were no longer produced, and the fashion of channelling of the surfaces of vases was, by this time, on the way out. Vases with cylindrical necks, dishes, bowls, and barrel-shaped forms were the leading shapes in the middle 5th millennium B.C. (FIGURE 3-54} Symbolism express- ing the familiar ideology of the goddess religion continued to develop, reaching a true sophistication in the masterful integration of symbol and aesthetic expression. Particularly characteristic of the Karanovo VI period are graphite- painted dishes with four-corner designs on the inner side formed of spirals, crescents, and eggs, which are power- fully dynamic. (FIGURE 3-54, top) Other frequent motifs are chevrons, rows of triangles, checkerboards, parallel lines, and rows of delicate shell impressions. The graphite- and gold-painted pottery produced by the Karanovo civilization during the early and mid-5th millen- nium BC. was a truly extraordinary technological development. Gold- painted pottery found at the cemetery of Varna (FIGURE 3-55} is eloquent witness of this sophistication. It is presumed that powdered gold was used in post- firing application. Graphite painting began during the Karanovo V phase and became the dominant mode of decora- tion during Karanovo VI. Black- or dark- brown-burnished pottery was decorated with it in a drawing manner, sometimes in combination with white, buff, or yellow color. Motifs include spirals, 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /97 meanders, whirls, oblique lines, trian- gles, circles, and eggs. Before firing, vessels to be treated with graphite were first slipped, burnished when leather- hard, then drawn with graphite when thoroughly dry. A prolonged period of firing in a reduced atmosphere of 850- 1000 degrees C in some kind of a kiln was necessary to prevent the graphite from oxidizing. Graphite is present in the metamorphic rocks of the Rhodope and Balkan mountains, and quantities of graphite cones have been found in the mounds around Stara Zagora. It must have been exported from Bulgaria to Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, since graphite-decorated pottery also occurs in the Vinéa and LBK cultures. FIGURE 3-55 oes as + 98/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS Sculptural Art There are a few outstanding examples of Karanovian sculptural art that achieved an excellence equivalent to their fine pottery. As with other cultural groups, however, many of the images were schematic figurines serving as everyday prayer media. Masterpieces were most likely produced for the temple or for important festivities, since their artistic value is more refined. Several pieces of Karanovo-Gumelnita art have been repeatedly reproduced in art books for more than half a century. Among these is the “Lady of Pazardzik” seated on a throne on her pear-shaped posterior decorated with lozenges. Her vulva 1s marked with a double spiral, she has a large masked head, and her arms are closed in front.”3 Another celebrity, published more than fifty years ago, is the center piece of the Bucharest City Museum. This is an anthropomorphic goddess vase from Vidra at Bucharest, 42cm high, decorated with concentric circles and lozenges, holding hands on its belly.”4 From Gumelnita in southern Romania come remarkable sculptures of women wearing death masks carrying vases above their heads as part of a reli- gious ceremony. (FIGURE 3-56} There are also beautifully rendered offering con- tainers, lids, vases, and lamps in the shape of deer, dogs, bulls, hedgehogs, and birds. (FIGURE 3-57) The tiny clay human figurines, on the other hand, are predominantly schematic, reduced to a sort of sculptural shorthand. Very little effort was focused on molding details of the human body since realism was not their purpose. The emphasis was on marking the figures with symbols. These figurines are solidly incised, encrusted with white or red. From more than 200 anthropomorphic figurines discovered during the excavation at Sitagroi, the majority are of the schematic type.” Only about 10 percent are somewhat naturalistically rendered, and even those, except for belly and buttocks, do not show details. Not one can be iden- tified as male. Heads are masked or have a pinched beaked nose and occasionally a coif. (FIGURES 3-58, 3-59) In each site, zoomorphic figurines emerged, either representing whole animals—bulls, FIGURE 3-56 FIGURE 3-57 ltt meen | FIGURE 3-56 Figure hold- ing a vase above the head, facing front and back. Huge ears have perforations for earrings. Dress is painted in ochre- red bands bordered with white The figure repre- sents a participant in a religious ritual (possibly connected with death and regeneration rites). Gumelnita, S Romania, mid-Sth mill. B.C. H 22.5 cm: FIGURE 3-57 Deer head (part of a large vase). The eyes and brows are modelled in relief. Ant- lers broken. Vidra near Bucharest. Mid-5th mill. BC. H9cm. FIGURE 3-58 —— ae arg FIGURE 3-58 Schematic figurines marked with symbols: V's, chevrons, Zigzags, and three lines between the breasts. Karanovo culture. Sitagroi, Drama Plain, NE Greece. (1) Sitagrol Il. (2,3) Sitagroi Ill, 48th- 46th centuries B.C. Scale 1:2. FIGURE 3-59 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /99 Cee meee FIGURE 3-59 Beaked heads of tiny figurines and a masked head of a larger sculpture marked with two lines and an egg over the cheeks, and with two lines down the chin. Sitagroi Ill, Kara- novo culture, mid-5th mill. B.C. Scale 1:1; head at bottom 1:3. 100/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 3-60 ar FIGURE 3-60 Distribution of the Petresti group and its more important sites. 5th mill. B.c.. A A x 7. A A A QA an A /\ , A /\ \ A \ MA CUCUTENT N A /\ nh A /\ A N A A A A A A A /\ A /\ es An * %, ES h A A en > > . 7 A A nN A Olt 5 mae = \ @ Bucharest WS \, ) \ Belgrade KEY . Pianul de Jos Turdas . Tartaria Lumea-Nova . Petresti Casolt . Pauca . Seica Mica rams, pigs, hedgehogs, frogs—or just the heads as protomes of vessels. A distinc- tive class of Karanovo figurines are Stiff Nude images of flat bone plate or marble which are found in graves and represent images of death (see chapter 7). These have huge pubic triangles and masks with perforations for the attachment of earrings. The masks have the round eyes of a snake and a long mouth with dots underneath it for teeth (see fig. 7-29). The Petresti Culture in Transylvania he Petresti sites, with their characteristic trichrome painted pottery, are found in the fertile Mures basin of Transylvania. (FIGURE 3-60} They are located on wide terraces on the elevated banks of rivers, reminis- cent of the Cucuteni villages described below. This culture was first identified when Petresti, near Sebes, was excavated in 1943-47 by D. and I. Berciu.’* Since then, seven other sites have been exca- vated, and a total of fifty-two are known from surface collections.”” As yet no larger synthesis on this culture was published. Origin The stratigraphy of a number of Petresti sites has shown that ceramic finds at the base are of the Boian type which appear in association with Early Vinéa materi- als. At Lumea Noua, Early Vinéa depos- its are superseded by layers of Petresti culture. The genesis of this group appears to be connected with the coloni- zation of Transylvania by people who moved in from the south along the Olt River. Vinéa elements persist in the earliest Petresti sites. In later phases, however, an independent Petresti life- style appears. The population is a gracile, small-statured Mediterranean people with dolichocephalic head and narrow face.’8 Chronology The Petresti culture material is clas- sified into phases A, AB, and B, which correspond to the Karanovo VI and Cucuteni A and AB-B. By this correspon- dence, the Petresti culture is dated to the middle and second half of the 5th and early part of the 4th millennium B.C. Architecture Tuliu Paul, in his study of the Petresti group of Transylvania, has reconstructed a stilt house from the settlement of Pauca at Sebes, district of Hunedoara.’? According to Paul, the baked clay floor rests on heavy posts up to 50 cm in diameter, upon which is raised a frame of logs covered with twigs and leaves. The walls are constructed of timber uprights with wattle-and-daub between. The entrance is slipped and decorated with designs painted and in relief. This “pile house” has close parallels with temple models, such as a Cucuteni (Tripolye) clay model of a two-story building standing on legs, probably a temple, discovered in the area of Kiev (now in the City Museum of Kiev, see fig. 7-58). In broad terms, the Petresti goup or culture is a cousin of the Cucuteni culture described below. The Cucuteni Culture in Moldavia and the Western Ukraine ucuteni is one of the best ex- plored and richest cultures of Old Europe, a true civilization in the best meaning of the word. A well- deserved celebration took place in 1984 in Iasi, northeastern Romania, to ac- knowledge the results achieved by inten- sive spade work over the hundred years since Cucuteni was first discovered. It is necessary to clarify the usage of two names for this culture: Cucuteni in Romania and Tripolye in the Soviet Union. One part of this culture lies in Romania, the other in the Ukrainian SSR. The Tripolye site on the middle Dnieper, 35 km south of Kiev, was exca- vated at the end of the 19th century by V. V. Khvojko and became famous in 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /101 Russia where its name took root.®° The Cucuteni site on the Prut River near Iasi in Moldavia, after which the western branch of this culture was named, was discovered in 1884 and excavated in 1901-10 by Hubert Schmidt, and again in 1961-65 by M. Petrescu-Dimbovita. The site yielded five cultural strata. The fact is, however, that Cucuteni and Tripolye are a homogeneous culture. Since the formation of the culture can be traced to Moldavia, and the Cucuteni site with its superb stratigraphy is one of the most representative and important localities, Cucuteni should serve as the sole desig- nation of this culture. The two names and the differing chronological classi- fication associated with each have created an unnecessary complexity. In the following comparison of terminol- ogy, the Romanian Cucuteni and the Russian-Ukrainian Tripolye chronologi- cal classifications are compared. Comparison of Romanian Cucuteni and Russian Tripolye Classification 3500 B.c. Cucuteni B 3 Cucuteni B 2 Cucuteni B 1 Tripolye C | Tripalye C | Tripolye C | 3750 B.C. Cucutent AB 1&2 Cucuteni A 3 Cucuteni A 2 Cucuteni A 1 Tripolye B Ic Tripolye B Ic Tripolye B Ib Tripolye B la 4500 B.c. Pre-Cucuteni III Pre-Cucutent | Pre-Cucuteni | Tripolye Ab Tripolye Aa 5000 B.C. 102/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 3-61 —— FIGURE 3-61 Distribution of the Cucuteni (Tri- C/ polye) culture. Dashed line, area of the forma- tive Early Cucuteni stage; solid line, maximum extension. Sites men-. tioned in text. 5th and early 4th mill. B.C. Tripolyes Kolomiyshchina Maydanets‘ke e ,* Tallyanky Bilcze-Zlote . Luka Vrublevetskaya Dobrovody © | aa ipintsi e Vladimirovka 1 Sipintsi @ f/f ; \ | ian, Draguseni ® Petreni rary XS 7 NN / p Varvarovka ANNAN e Trusesti / % AN AN A e Cucuteni / > \ Tirxpe ' e* Habasesfi “ee, A saa ® J €. : A Izvgare EY a” | A /\ /\ Trasan e| — /\ A AX °A\G A A A ANS > e Petresti @ Pianul de Jos A AANA pre? A\ @ Bucharest Black Sea Origin The colonization of Moldavia from the Lower Danube region by the Boian peo- ple modified the Neolithic LBK culture. The resulting amalgam created the beginnings of the Cucuteni culture which spread north of the Carpathian arc in the river valleys of the Siret, Prut, Upper and Middle Dniester, and the Southern Bug which drain into the Black Sea and the Danube. (FIGURE 3-61) The earliest sites appear between the Olt and Siret rivers. During the next phases, the territory was considerably enlarged, extending into the Prut, Dniester, and Southern Bug valleys, reaching the Middle Dnieper around 4000 BC. The Moldavian-West Ukrainian black soil region was gradually occupied. The earliest Cucuteni sites are contemporary or stratigraphically above the LBK settlements.®! Chronology This culture is subdivided into three main periods: Early, Classical, and Late. Early Cucuteni is still being called “Pre-Cucuteni” because it was discovered after Cucuteni A. Classical Cucuteni is Cucuteni A, divided into three sub- phases, followed by Cucuteni AB, again subdivided into two phases. Late Cucuteni, or Cucuteni B, is again divided into three subphases. In Russian classification, Tripolye A corresponds to Early Cucuteni, Tripolye B to Classical Cucuteni, and Tripolye C to Late Cucuteni. Early Cucuteni belongs to the 48th-47th centuries BC., Classical Cucuteni is firmly placed in the second half of the 5th millennium B.C., while Late Cucuteni belongs to the first half of the 4th millennium BC. (See TABLE 12, chronological classification on the basis of radiocarbon dating, stratigraphy, and typology.] The Growth of Settlements The Cucuteni culture lasted for more than a millennium, from c. 4800 to c. 3500 B.C. During that time, the size of settlements and population density grew rapidly, reaching overwhelming proportions. Whereas the average Early Cucuteni village had twenty dwellings, FIGURE 3-62 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /103 a eran a wits le FIGURE 3-62 Classical Cucuteni settlement situ- ated on a wide terrace with houses placed in groups. Habasest! in Moldavia, NE Romania. (a) plan; (b) reconstruc- tion, c. 4300 B.C. 0 VEU EE TE ‘ MTT ditches LJ houses l ries tN he an eye ae ae Sy yO mn “hans i " tek eth > 4 ui t Pa een WS ae Alay = Sih ‘4 GS | Te oy Va 1 Oey Som aie i HU ws, Oke Whe 1 4 bg w ea git bg RAAT an TAGS Ne Sip fs Riad ac mo .! te, ane ‘ Cait ‘ase Hp 4 te ole, Ata sina ays nites, ”, be oe Ch i Ay. ' " +h Wye 77 a iis st 4 ny , Pesusut : hh, Nog Wiese, ~ » a Dy i o& iy re : - : : REXTN ; z, f Ya ‘A Ay Sige ft : Yh ass 1m Ht afc “a iN fa Vy eal ' l Nowe it yer ° + a vA 4 PARA a mit wie tage Munaay. ersten Uh Ma hie, Gabe ey ta, spate ane ee tp flit ». i We Mittiie lt 4 ‘ Fe | A TAL v, fi t A A ¢ 4 hy Savile, by é yap asta " ) Wm ao Sau ator At AN ale wil Wa tik ag eee iy Cave * sa a ae S/O RL . WAVY Vasa Huss LARA NS mV nani \ 104/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 3-63 Y—— FIGURE 3-63 A Late Cucuteni town at May- dan, district of Uman, W . Ukraine. Houses, c. 30m vias a Ss long in twelve concentric SOY, —_—_—_, ee ~~ NX rings, were identified by mY magnetometer and remains of burned clay house floors. The area of the settlement covers more than 300 hectares. Early 4th mill. Bc. SSS FIGURE 3-64 The town of Petreni, located between Upper Prut and Upper Dniester, of some 500 houses and c. 4,000 inhabitants arranged in ten concentric rings. Houses measured 8 x 5 sts ~~ Houses el m; on the outskirts was a row of larger houses. The settlement was not protected by ditches and ramparts. Late Classical Cucuteni, c. 4000 B.c. Cf wt 93 ay! 2 v att sog® "ae gt — ge * ILE A 43 600? 4 ee mere Saoyyy and 2 Sregnes 8 Cay tniet irae e! . vs % 9, r) Extension of the site FIGURE 3-64 eS FIGURE 3-65 Cucuteni settlements of various sizes in the Uman region, W Ukraine, based on aerial photography. The largest towns are about equal distances from one another. 4 ° ° @ @ e J iJ this number swelled to one hundred during the Classical period (see the com- pletely excavated village of Habasesti, FIGURE 3-62 and Trusesti, fig. 9-3). The excavated village of Trusesti consists of ninety-eight dwellings arranged in groups of three or more, as in Vinéa settlements, rather than following a preconceived plan. Classical Cucuteni villages were protected inland by funnel- shaped trenches,®? whereas sites of the late Classical phase are in lower, more open spaces, usually wide terraces, encircled by a deep, wide ditch. The threat of incursions from the steppes may explain their move to more natu- rally protected areas.* The densification process culminated during the Late Cucuteni period when large towns emerged which are docu- mented in the western Ukraine. By means of magnetometer and aerial photography, Ukrainian archeologists have identified the boundaries of Late Cucuteni sites in the district of Uman, communities planned in ten to twelve concentric ellipses more than two kilometers in length.*4 The largest of these settlements contained as many as 2,000 houses within 300-400 hectares. (FIGURE 3-63} In the western Ukraine, a large num- ber of these densely populated Late Cucuteni sites have been surveyed by air photography and surface collections. It was observed that large villages are of two types: those occupying 30-70 hectares, and very large towns covering 250-400 hectares. Settlements of both groups were examined in detail. Eight houses of the 498 structures of Petreni, a large village in the Prut-Dniester inter- fluve, were excavated by von Stern in 1907. In the 1970s, the site was surveyed from the air by K. Siskin whose work revealed ten concentric rings of houses. Most dwellings measured eight by five meters, although a row of larger build- ings were found on the outskirts. An oval platform remained in the center with two large buildings close by. There were no protective ditches or ramparts. (FIGURE 3-64) In 1981, V. Markevic calculated the population of Petreni to have been about four thousand.*° 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /105 Of the group of large towns so far identified, only three have attracted attention and limited excavation. They are: Maydanets’ke, Dobrovody, and Tall- yanky. (FIGURE 3-65) Maydanets‘ke is located on a wide plateau which rises over a river valley and covers approxi- mately 2.70 hectares. It is estimated to have consisted of about 1,700 buildings arranged in ten to twelve concentric ellipses. Dobrovody covers 250 hectares and was also arranged in concentric rings. Tallyanky was the largest of all, covering 400 hectares. This settlement was oval in plan and measures 3.5 by 1.5 km. Ten thousand people could have resided there.*¢ The map of the Uman region of the western Ukraine (FIGURE 3-65}, based on aerial photography, indicates the loca- tion of the largest Cucuteni towns in relation to those of medium size which occupied 30-70 hectares. Not all of the FIGURE 3-65 KEY @® Settlements of 250-400 inhabitants e Settlements of 25-75 inhabitants 6. Suskivka 1 7. Krasnostavka 1. Maydanets‘ke 2. Dobrovody 3. Tallyanky 8. Cyéyrkozivka e Well-documented settlements A Nehelivles 9. Pyanizkove ¢« Poorly documented settlements 5. Glyboéok 10. Kosenivka FIGURE 3-66 Cucuteni (Tripolye) houses (recon- struction by T. Passek THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 3-66 106/ _ -o = QE&qget Ss Sats oo .w GC .c 8 ss, Say vo 3 Paw O SC ft = =o 2 2 Oo. O a =| +TazeG. Fa —- o@U wo } _ ww \ \* A LY AN! ss at aed - ly \ NN \ \ be ty 4 (io \ - = — = — aa ° - \ \ Sane Y, : Ween ae 2 gt iWasen le. AS as 4 Nie via I dots marking locations of yet smaller settlements represent the same time frame, although the majority of large towns probably do belong to the same _ period. It is significant to see that the largest towns are approximately fifteen kilometers from one other. The density of settlement sites is surprising: 253 sites were recorded in an area of 9000 square kilometers. _ Houses and Temples The normal type of house was a rec- tangular two- or three-room structure, 8-20 m long and 5-6 m wide, with walls of split planks or clay daub on a frame- work of upright wooden posts. A row of heavy timbers down the center of the interior supported the gabled roof. (FIGURE 3-66) The largest houses reached a length of 30 m and had three to four rooms. Two-story buildings of the Late Cucu- teni period have been discovered in at least six settlements. (FIGURE 3-67}, while clay models of two-story buildings are also known from the same area. Markevié, who excavated two-story houses at Varvarovka in Moldavia, gives the details of their construction as fol- lows: The walls, plastered with clay and chaff admixture, were about 30 cm thick. Split beams, placed curved side up, Were positioned crosswise on the longitudinal walls over which was spread a 5-12. cm layer of clay with chaff. A second 1-2 cm layer of clay was used as facing. The shorter walls of the second story were then constructed.®’ On smaller sites of fewer than 200 build- ings, only one or two of two stories occur, whereas on larger sites such as Petreni, a row of large two-story struc- tures was found. Excavators believe that these were ceramic workshops. Large ovens and a mass of fine vases were found in three of their ground floor rooms, and it is presumed that pottery was dried on the second stories. In my view, however, these large buildings had a greater sig- nificance than being merely workplaces. They were part of a most important tem- ple activity—the preparation of vases and other items of religious significance. The finest ceramic products were pro- duced in these workshops, created by the best artists in the community, while the upper story of each was very likely a place of worship, as can be deduced from the temple models of both the Cucuteni and Karanovo cultures. As early as 1907, von Stern, the exca- vator of Petreni, believed that these large three-room ceramic workshops served some religious significance since he failed to find any hearths, food prepara- tion materials, or workday tools and utensils. What he did find was that these structures were so filled with ceramics that one literally could not move around freely.88 Vases were packed and stored, and in some cases aS Many as seven bowls were found one inside the other. They may have been waiting to be used for certain rituals. FIGURE 3-67 ua off ¢ f y oy Bt 14 ; fe ; aC MEA ARS Hil : A AAMT AGE UO ELS WAG a ree a ~“~ we sacs a Oe 2 - . i “* = . ee cS . eae ~ a = f " ech . - Fess: 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /107 PRs omens seen! FIGURE 3-67 Tentative reconstruction of a two- story building. Rakovets settlement, W Ukraine. Late Cucuteni (Tripolye), early 4th mill. B.c. 5 ce cated =a = & a4 o= ,» 108/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS Cimrmipr > £0 =e ri 1c 2-U0o FIGURE 3-68 Classical Cucuteni vases, 4400-— 4200 Bc. Polychrome (white, red, and dark brown) with free-flowing S spirals covering the whole exterior surface. The antithetic spiral or snake heads is the domi- nant Classical Cucuteni design motif. Note con- centric arcs surrounding the spiral heads which seem to symbolize the energy field where two spiral heads meet. (1) Frumusica; (2) lzvoare near Peatra Neamt, NE Romania. H (1) 13.5 cm; (2) c. 40 cm. Cieziiprc® ca — i al 7 ciclipec 20077 ak ah i a ah J » { ro ‘ k FIGURE 3-69 Ceremonial anthropomorphic Cucu- ——— teni vase. Bands of V's 2 . 5, r. eas on the upper register, ee el columns of chevrons in Se ae the middle, and snake coils at the base. Painted red on white. Cucuteni A, Draguseni, district Peatra Neamt, NE Roma- nia, 4300-4100 Bc. cr —— FIGURE 3-70 A charac- teristic classical Cucuteni binocular vase, painted red on white. Draguseni, Cucuteni A, 4300- 4100 Bc. Pottery The quality of the Cucuteni ceramic production surpassed all contemporary _ creations of Old Europe. Classical | Cucuteni pottery is bichrome and trichrome painted. In trichrome ware white, red, and black mineral-based paints predominate. Free-flowing S-spirals usually cover most of the exterior surface of elegant footed vases _ or vase supports. (FIGURE 3-68} Other motifs include meanders, chevrons, eggs, splitting eggs, and four-corner designs. _(FIGURE 3-69} Typical of Cucuteni are hollow binocular vases which could not have any practical purpose beyond ritual. (FIGURE 3-70) Around 4000 BC. (Cucu- _teni AB}, changes appeared in vase deco- tation characterized by the division of space into horizontal panels or friezes. Each was given its own symbolic design, with white on dark brown paint dominating. In Late Cucuteni, friezes with pictorial design, including zoo- morphic and anthropomorphic motifs, were typical. Red vases were painted _monochrome black. (FIGURE 3-71) | The pictorial Late Cucuteni vase paint- ing is a magnificent source for the recon- struction of mythical imagery (which I have profusely used in my previous _ books on Old European religion). The study of Cucuteni ceramic technology*® has shown that Early and Early Classical pottery production was also made at the household level. In the Late Classical and Late Cucuteni peri- ods, there is evidence of the invention and use of a rotational device. (We shall examine this innovation and the use of kilns in the crafts section, beginning on page 122). Cucuteni art—in particular the exqui- site bichrome and trichrome ceramic vases (some of which are as tall as one meter), anthropomorphic vase supports, large binocular vases, altar screens, ladles, zoomorphic and anthropomor- phic figurines—has been appreciated by art historians for some decades. (PLATES 14-16) An extensive treatment of Cucuteni art is to be found in the book Arta Culturii Cucuteni by Vladimir Dumitrescu (Bucharest: Editura Meridi- ane, 1979). 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /109 FIGURE 3-71 Pictorial design representing mythical themes appears On Late Cucuteni vases. A primary theme Is the dog In assoctation with the crescent and full moons. Painted black on red. (1) Trusesti, 3800- 3600 B.C. (2) Ghelaesti- Nedeia, 3900-3700 Bc NE Romania. (3) Bilcze Zlote, SE Poland. H (1) 54.2 cm, (2) 36cm. 110/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS > z i to bw: BDA SIRE | oe re FIGURE 3-72 Classical Cucuteni figurines, most likely Bird Goddess Images, All-over design of incised chevrons and parallel lines originally encrusted with white paste. (1) Featureless head, wing-stump arms. N Moldavia, Romania, (2) Frumusica at Peatra Neamt, NE Romania. H 8.5m. Both Cucuten A2, 45th-44th centuries B.C. H 7 cm (head broken). 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /111 Figurines FIGURE 3-73 SS The sculptural art of the Cucutenians is FIGURE 3-73 Late Cucu- highly schematized. Early Cucuteni 2 teni figurine, a slim nude with a round, flat head, pinched nose, orifices for eyes, and stump arms. Vykhvatintsi ceme- figurines are distinguished by huge but- _tocks, slender trunk, incised lines show- ing the pubic triangle, with legs usually joined. By the Classical Cucuteni period, e * a tery, 5 Moldavia (Grave the figurines are slenderer and deeply y r No. 29). Mid-4th mill. incised with symbols, often with a chev- § ——- B.C. H approx. 15 cm. oy. ron design and a lozenge area at the midline. (FIGURE 3-72) Late Cucuteni figurines are even more schematic, typi- cally having a round, disk-shaped head with orifices or holes on either side and a beaklike nose. The arms are rounded stumps resembling wings (FIGURE 3-73} often with holes, which could have held feathers or other ornamentation. The types of divinities represented in sculptural art can only be distinguished by a careful study of incised or painted symbols, postures, the shapes of masks + —% = ® Sa. ‘ 3 pe PE i or heads, and their provenance. The a4 primary images are those of the Bird and ye. Snake Goddesses and the Pregnant ae Goddess (see chapter 7). Images of Stiff oe a Nudes with round masks appeared in graves, sometimes in groups of three. Male figurines are rare, but several types are clearly present: a seated man in a sorrowful posture with head supported by his hands, a bearded man, and a slen- der, youthful male. The latter can be deduced from finds as the attendant of the Pregnant Goddess, accompanying her in her rituals. As elsewhere, Cucu- teni imagery produced significant numbers of zoomorphic figurines and vases (30 percent or more of all images} representing bears, deer, dogs, pigs, bulls frogs, and birds. The majority of animal sculptures are, however, extremely schematized. } 112/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 3-74 ——— FIGURE 3-74 Distribution of the Dnieper-Donets culture. NEMUNAS sem jo1sO DNIEPER-DO C one xs CUCUTENI w Dt i (OU f. Al! Sea of Azov Black Sva KEY 1. Dereivka 2. Nikolskoe 3. Vovnigi 4. Yasinovatka 5. Vilnyanka 6. Sobachki 7. Mariupol The Dnieper-Donets Culture in the Ukraine ur present knowledge of this culture is based on finds from about 200 localities including cemeteries, some of which contained more than 100 graves. Settlement sites have been found on low river terraces, although cemeteries are usu- ally located considerably higher up on loess terraces.” North-South Movement of Massive Broadfaced Population The bearers of the Neolithic culture in the Dnieper basin were massive broad- faced people descended from the Paleolithic Cro-Magnon population. Their direct forerunners lived in the Upper and Middle Dnieper basins.*! Around 5500 B.., these people began mov’ *¢ southward into the area of the Lower Dnieper where they dislodged the local inhabitants of the Dnieper rapids region. In the south, they reached the Crimea and the Lower Don where they came in contact with the local Mesoneo- lithic population, called Surska group (fishermen’s culture with pottery]. Dnieper-Donets sites are concentrated in the Dnieper rapids area, a region of huge fish resources. (FIGURE 3-74) Subsistence Economy Forest hunting was prevalent, indicated by the bones of deer, boar, fox, hare, and roe deer found in the settlement mate- rial. During the initial Neolithic phase, subsistence was largely based upon hunting, fishing, and the collection of fresh-water shellfish. The ratio of domes- ticated animals rose steadily, reaching 87 percent in the second stage of the culture, c. 5000-4500 B.c. By then, all the domesticated animals, cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs, were present. Not much is known about the architecture or village arrangement. These people must have lived in light- weight, above-ground constructions which have not survived. FIGURE 3-75 FIGURE 3-75 Large pointed based pots from the middle period of the Dnieper-Donets culture ¢. 5000 B.C. Habitation site of Grini, located on the bank of River Teterev, Pripyat basin. Wb LOE MATILDA AE OM Sgucatupe tistel dis tectiiibigs pl tlt Lee 4 ie =. P7s y Cer igena wtp UseTlare eo, five ATAU AAI TN LAY EEL UTE bp CIRM LL IIU TIAL Att | SY TTDEL I DEROBY PLIST ISESRLS I IES I INU RELNTIL ASSISTS LER Ging LM OLELU A ALILELDNELS PTTL \ CL EPLIISLTLILL VIE LUTE A vot elds Se | SSS SE SE TES Cn Se een We f 5 ss &. Y Pa NN 2% Pe Mass) 5 a Sr \S 28 ts ie oy - 3 ps pag Be . se. . + er. OR RAN Se * RS SS 7 -. = She: . SANS: Koy Re i ; Sf or pS iy Srila: Z. “ at Y iSSrex ¢ 1 N x aN. 5 xv Aves Ped ass eh , oni x Se" = Ss sy Shak we NY oa Cn tae =k iy PVvodo0oO 0890083 7H 4 eae CUGUDTHON MEDC TERUUNON Sythe age derre has eR ity want MOSHE CEH HUOUL Pee HUD Re Tee a4 ae 4 ale Lee ee F ¢ avtil (0.010 as eta! ee na tails CE OEPRE RETEST EITHER ESSERE ELS Fed ps se 2025 \ the Cok ~ wage weg teens ie So ieee fa ‘. set Woe ag Py | aly ee ee Mis : a al ee e rho i adh) oat Stee Noe : ee &; Neer Nera A Hedy fig te) - " (y vet i - Tt aed OMY. gees a's cry rn Sa URE yebee Hite GE A Ree Le 3%, M a ope! PNR interes hes ana: Se ane aad hi +i) Pa x q “ ! NSS GAH iii re <— Ory - Ny sesaini : _— ae “y Set sat _ net rot ie ‘ ae LON feo 00, 0% Fetag (Od ste lim ein le fens ISLAY PY vg YI YN :; 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /113 Pottery and Other Finds Around 5000 Bc. throughout the north- ern distribution area of this culture, large pointed-base pots with vegetable temper appeared which were stamped or incised with horizontal or vertical lines. (FIGURE 3-75) Later pottery comprised flat-base bulbous vessels with broad rims, decorated by stamping, incision, and wound-cord impressions. (FIGURE 3-76) Flint was commonly used for axes, arrowheads, knives, borers, and scrapers. Hoes were made of antler while har- poons and fishhooks were of bone. Peculiar plano-convex (loaf-shaped} oval objects with a deep notch in the center appeared in a number of settlements. (FIGURE 3-77) Their symbolic signifi- cance is indicated by incised chevrons, parallel lines, pits, and script signs. These suggest the use of the same symbol system seen in the Vinéa, Tisza, Cucuteni, and other Old European cul- ture groups. 114/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 3-76 @ Ye, 2 PORE A wt ge TOA FS Sate NS 30 SR Mearteee cine s SERS ey weet at ueag gr cree ate ea AR aING } etre Pea phraete wee ‘A a \var oun vepuere? vepeuens ne Ceney : = a ee CK qe : eag tat USeees tas Boe ales y t te a+ ee eee Oe peorwiee Ce | Vite stata ey PUTUUEPE TEC r CU Ge CE ENU Ua COPA CE Pye ¥ 2 ats ney riegl CLARE Tinted ede yt eteweares at ett Viete creed tes esegseeeens “= eee aretyrate OV ON is { Ay hee Woe atl atl Ny ay Ne : ae Wa Fate at al ght tht fy th Dr astn if ‘ os ae Vee ele ; wth 4,4," ae Me werk, WAS mt! ei NS TE Ye ad Sta ny ew Fe wy wa b 4 , i7%,' * hs he * 4 é i Ly! s v hy ¥e 14%, Ve ON he ee wi ENTE UND DEL UIN Sic MN i Vet ge OME Gen agmrecens ee am nal ‘ A oak *4O ne a A Norn Ny s x yeees - Cuetec ag? NST LL EL ee RRR Sie Ck i gut Pa Trewin aoe: re \ ae ~~ A } vee EG COUN CEEOL ERs cag grass i ‘ Net Oes atiuzere * ba a ue ALR Mant eel hy 0°47 F444 Pa . - 22 2 ORME S, ee iB t ¢ ? f Jon ee, aot a ae ee A eK Aj ¢ t f I ys ’ fd 2 vitae ; ? /, 9 F ELT | Fit Lodi, . ‘ : : Ces? : oN Ao CPi LOPE IE OSS hein At CATE TELUS SD. tee ETI R CT?) CoP beet ta de fp pe Pte fe OLR CELINA YS t f e es er Ma ‘ “si é 2" @ e ro) ; . Xa 4 e rhs — " 4 3 Xen 'e eZ, t¢ oa ° pre Cees An > Oey SP the ee ~~ Zs = = - cae ae oo LS FIGURE 3-76 Grave finds from a late Dnieper- Donets cemetery at Dereivka. (1,2) flint arrowheads; (3) flint scraper; (4, 6) laminae of boar's tusk used for decoration of garments; (5, 9) bone beads; (7) harpoon of bone; (8) netting needle of bone; (10) fish teeth; (11-15) perforated elk teeth used for necklaces; (16-17) pots. 5000- 4500 Bc. Scale: c. 1:2. FIGURE 3-77 SS FIGURE 3-77 Plano- convex clay objects inscribed with symbols and with a notch on the outer side from Dnieper- Donets settlements. 5000-4500 B.C. Scale 1:10. 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /115 FIGURE 3—78 Collective Burial, Chronology, and Demise aN A distinctive feature of the Dnieper- Donets culture is the practice of collective burial in oval or subrec- tangular pits. (FIGURES 3-78, 3-79} Altogether, more than 800 graves are known from fourteen cemeteries, and based upon these finds the culture is subdivided into three periods: A, B, and C. Period A is characterized by ceme- teries of pit hollows and row trenches Py that contained one to ten or eleven | ochre colored skeletons. The dead lay in yp an extended position on their backs and were covered with powdered red ochre. The legs were pressed together and the arms extended along the body, suggest- ing that they had been bound in skins or textiles. Microlithic flint tools and beads of elk and fish teeth were usual grave gifts, with a distinct absence of pottery vessels. Annular beads of shell and agate appeared in the A2 subphase which is dated 5500-5000 BC. Md, S = — —_ 2@ Se 33 “= —_ = oa QF a Pad 7 { \ => ~~ —_- ery FIGURE 3-79 oa . SEE FIGURE 3-78 Collective burials in a large subrec- tangular pit. Dnieper- Donets culture. Yasino- vatka cemetery near the Dnieper rapids, situated on a high bank of the river. First half of the Sth mill. B.C. FIGURE 3-79 Plan and cross section of a row of collective graves. Part of the cemetery of Vilnyanka, Dnieper- Donets culture. Mid 5th mill. B.C. er @ Earliest burials ® Middle burials © Latest burials V1 116/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS Period B is characterized by large col- lective rectangular pits filled up with skeletons, often in several layers, covered with powdered ochre. Since grave pits were used repeatedly, skeletons of the previously buried dead were usually destroyed. The skulls were moved into a distant corner of the pit or were reburied in a separate pit. Fish and deer teeth were not as frequent as in Period A graves, whereas a number of graves con- tained hundreds of rectangular laminae made of boar tusk enamel, perforated at the ends or center or grooved at the ends. These were presumed to have been sewn on garments in which the dead were buried. (FIGURE 3-80} Bull figurines carved of boar tusk or of bone plate were found in graves (FIGURE 3-80, 3) Unio and pectunculus shells, copper and gold rings, and pieces of rock crystal and pot- tery vases were also found. Radiocarbon dates from cemeteries in the Dnieper rapids region locate this phase within 5000-4500 BC. (TABLE 13} The Lower Dnieper branch of this culture engaged in trade to the west. Spectral analysis of the copper in the rings and pendants shows that it is the same type as that of the Karbuna hoard in Moldavia (see fig. 3-86). This copper very likely came from the Ai-bunar mines in Bulgaria by way of the Cucuteni culture. Period C, dated approximately 4500- 4000 B.C., revealed the disintegration and evident decline of this culture. Collec- tive burials in grave pits vanished and an alien burial practice was introduced. Steppe people of a different physical type (less broad faced) came into this area and the Dnieper-Donets people were either pushed northward or assimilated by the invaders. The Dnieper-Donets people must have been in close contact with their neigh- bors in the forest steppe of the Volga basin not later than Period B, 5000- 4500 B.C., as the similarity of certain artifacts in both areas indicate (particu- larly the boar tusk laminae used for dress decoration). This is the Khvalynsk phase of the south Russian Eneolithic culture (see chapter 10). There must have been a gradual infiltration from the Volga basin into the Don and Dnieper FIGURE 3-80 i) len Ven Hah Rally FIGURE 3-80 One of the burials from the Mari- upol pit-trench cemetery north of the sea of Azov. Boar tusk laminae (1) were used for decoration of garments and for the diadem. Annular beads of bone were used for necklaces and belts. A mace-head with four breasts was placed at the right shoulder (2). A bull figurine carved out of boar’s tusk (3) is from another grave of the same cemetery; c. 4500 B.C. COLOR PLATES PLATE 1 _ —_ PLATE 1 Goddess mask of terracotta ona cylindrical neck, found at Soufli Magula near Larisa, Thessaly. Hc. 7 cm. Sesklo cul- ture, early 6th mill. BC. . PLATE 3 PLATE 4 PLATE 5 PLATE 6 PLATE 2 The Sesklo people were excellent carvers of marble, ala- baster, porphyry, and greenstone, This Is a seal or a gaming board with nine grooves ending in round depressions and outlets. L5.5 cm, Achilleion lv, Thessaly; 5900-5800 B.C. PLATE 3 Earliest painted vase (red on white- slipped background) from Early Sesklo (’Protosesklo’’) culture, c, 6300 BC. Otzaki, Thessaly, PLATE 4 Sesklo cup painted red on white slip. The design may be a stylized rendering of ram horns or intercon- nected bull heads. The handle Is decorated with opposed triangles. Narrow triangles or beaks are above the handle and on the intertor. Tsani, Thessaly; c. 5900-5800 Bc. PLATE 5 Goddess masks commonly appear on the necks of ritual vases as this large one from the Sesklo culture; Achilleion |v, 5900- 5800 B.c. PLATE 6 Anthropomor- phic Goddess vase from the mid-6th mill. B.c., painted with multiple chevrons, meanders, zigzags, tri-lines, and an M sign. Opposed meanders meet on the forehead, while triple chevrons turn into an M below the beak. Two small meanders mark her breasts and red tri- angles, as special signs of the Goddess, are at the lower neck. Staréevo culture; Gradesnica, NW of Sofia, Bulgaria. PLATE 7 PLATE 8 PLATE 7 Spherical vase decorated with rows of Interconnected S spirals rendered in relief. Nebo, Butmir culture, Bosnia, W Yugoslavia; early Sth mill. B.C. PLATE 8 A Bird Goddess In terracotta seated ona stool with a round me- dallion suspended from a V-shaped collar or necklace. Her mask has almond-shaped eyes, an enormous nose repre- senting a’ bird’s beak, and no mouth. Special symbols of the Bird Goddess are indicated by triple lines across the shoulders, a meander over the abdomen, and four lines above it connected by a dash. H. t8.5 cm. Vinéa culture, c. 4500 Bc. Predionica near Pristina, Kosovo Metohije, S Yugoslavia, PLATE 9 PLATE 10 PLATE 11 Life-sized Vinca clay mask with large almond-shaped eyes. H 17.5.cm. Predionica near Pristina, Kosovo Metohije, S Yugoslavia, c. 4500 BC. PLATE 12 Enthroned Goddess, with head and legs broken, decorated front and back with incised panels of zigzag patterns. H 21.7 cm. Tisza culture, Szegvar- Tuzkéves at Szentes, SE Hungary; early 5th mill. B.C. PLATE 11 PLATE 12 PLATE 9 Footed offering vessel of triangular shape painted with a checkerboard motif in red, black, and white. H 15.3 cm. Fafos 1 near Kosovska Mitrovica, $ Yugoslavia. Vinca culture, c. 4500 BC. or earlier. PLATE 10 Owl-faced lid with ears as han- dles, decorated with vertical bands of white- encrusted lattice pattern on a fine black fabric. H 16.5 cm. Vinéa culture. Fafos Il at Kosovska Mitrovica, Kosovo Metohilje, S Yugoslavia, 5000-4500 B.c. PLATE 13 _ PLATE 13 Offering con- , tainer or lamp on four legs with ram head pro- tomes at each corner decorated with spirals, chevrons, and meanders. H 12cm,L 11.8 cm. Szeged, Tisza culture; early 5th mill. Bc. PLATE 14 PLATE 15 PLATE 14 Lidded pear- shaped vase painted with panels of symbolic designs. In front are vulvar forms flanked by floating S spirals which are repeated on the lid. The top band bears chevrons and triangles filled with checkerboard design. Draguseni, Mol- davia, NE Romania. Late Classical Cucuteni cul- ture; c. 4300-4200 Bc. PLATE 15 ‘Binocular’ vase painted black on red with a galloping dog as a central symbol. Late Cucuteni (Cucuteni B), c. 3800-3600 Bc. Bilcze Zlote, Galicia, SE Poland. He. 15cm. PLATE 22 PLATE 23 PLATE 22 Centaur with a head (mask) of a human and the body of a bull, painted with symbols of regeneration: the eqg- shaped forelegs are painted in black with bladder shapes; on top of the mask is an M sign, and across the chest are three lines, Terracotta, H 19.5 cm. Vala¢ near Kosovska Mitrovica, S Yugoslavia. Vinéa culture, c. 4500 B.C PLATE 23 The Goddess of Lepenski Vir (N Yugo- Slavia) who comprises features of fish (note the fish mouth), woman (breasts and vulva), and bird of prey (bird's feet instead of human hands). This stone sculp- ture was found standing at the end of the altar in Temple No. 44, together with another egg- shaped Fish Goddess, H 51cm. c, 6000 BC. PLATE 24 Egg-shaped sandstone sculpture representing the vulva before parturition, Lepenski Vir, Temple 51, found at the end of the altar. The sculpture was solidly painted in red ochre color, Size: 18 x 13.8 cm. PLATE 24 region much before the Kurgan I pres- _ sure began west of the Black Sea after ee the middle of the 5th millennium B.C. By then, the Dnieper-Donets people were gone from the steppe zone. The last phase of this culture is known only from the territories of the Pripet and Upper Dnieper basins. METALLURGY, TRADE, AND CRAFTS Copper and Gold Metallurgy he earliest copper artifacts in IE east-central Europe occurred soon after 5500 B.C. Square- sectioned copper awls, beads, and other trinkets shaped by heating and ham- mering have been found in a series of settlements. The number of copper artifacts increased early in the 5th millennium B.C. Awls, axes, chisels, beads, spirals, coiled wire bracelets, and amulets in the shape of figurines appeared in the Hamangia, Boian, Cucuteni, and Karanovo cultures. In the early 5th millennium B.C., the exploitation of copper mines became systematic and increased markedly around the middle of the 5th millen- nium B.C. This period also saw the use of FIGURE 3-81 1 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION gold, the development of smelting, and the appearance of large copper tools. Shaft-hole axes and axe-adzes were cast in open molds. (FIGURE 3-81) The smelted copper was pure except for insignificant amounts of tin or arsenic occurring as impurities in the original ore. Deliberate alloying of copper with arsenic or tin was not practiced. Copper ore sources are abundant in the Carpathian, Transylvanian, and Rhodope mountains. One of the earliest copper mines so far discovered, from no later than 5000 B.C., is located at Rudna Glava, 140 km east of Belgrade. Nearly thirty shafts were excavated there between 1968 and 1979 by B. Jovanovié.” The technology of copper mining was much the same as that of flint mining which was practiced long before the age | of metals. Miners got the ore out by dig- ging a horizontal access platform into a slope where a vein reached the surface, then excavating narrow vertical shafts into the vein, in some places to a depth of fifteen to twenty meters. Most of the ore they quarried was malachite and azurite, green and blue carbonates of copper. The basic excavation tool was a stone maul made of a large pebble of gab- bro (a granular igneous rock) grooved so that it could be tied with a strap or rope and swung. These mauls were usually 10 to 25 cm long, weighing between 1 and 4 kg (up to 8 or 9 pounds}. Antlers found 1117 FIGURE 3-81 Shaft-hole mill. B.C. (1) Tibava, group; (2) Plocnik, 5 copper axes of the mid- dle and end of the Sth W Slovakia, Tiszapolgar S Yugoslavia, Late Vinca; (3) Gabarevo, C Bulgaria, Karangvo IV, (4) and (5) Bodrogkeresztur com- plex, Hungary. Scale 1:3. 118/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS in shafts presumably served as picks. A technique of alternate heating and cool- ing was used to break up the ore, as evidenced by traces of fire and jugs for carrying water. When the heated rock cracked after being splashed with water, miners widened the cracks with antler tools or wooden wedges, then pried out the loose lumps of ore. The ore was then transported to the nearest village or township in the Morava River basin or farther west. A chronology of the Rudna Glava mines is based on Vinéa pottery found in three different accumulations. Cache No. 3 included black-burnished vases with channeled spiral designs and a lamp standing on four legs with the stylized head of a ram. The lamp is decorated with a triple chevron on its neck and meanders around its body, typical symbols associated with the Bird Goddess. This may suggest that the Copper Age Goddess was the patroness of metallurgical crafts and mining which was one of the many attributes of the Greek Athene. These wares are typical of the end of the Early Vinéa and into the middle period. Caches No. 1 and No. 2, yielded pottery of somewhat later type, placed at the start of Late Vina. A new insight into the dimensions of copper mining is offered by the discovery of the mines at Ai-bunar, eight kilome- ters south of Stara Zagora in central Bulgaria, in 1971 and excavated by E. N. Chernykh in 1972.% Eleven shafts with a total length of 500 m were uncovered. Some were up to 110 m long and 20 m deep. Such a mine could have produced many tons of copper ore. The Ai-bunar mines are dated to the mid-5th millen- nium B.C. (Karanovo VI period}. Copper tools, including such special mining implements as an axe-adze and a pick- axe, were found in the shafts. An analy- sis of the copper from Ai-bunar as well as copper found in a number of work- shops, graves, and deposits has shown that this site served the entire east Balkan region, Moldavia, the western Ukraine, and southern Russia in the east, and Slovakia and northeastern Hungary in the west. The discovery of the cemetery at Varna, with hundreds of gold items deposited in graves, has stimulated interest in gold sources.™ A study by A. Hartmann of 137 gold objects has shown that about one-half contain plati- num, others contain none, and twelve have a high content of copper, suggesting that they originated from different sources.°> The question of where this gold was mined is still open to specula- tion, although Jovanovié suggests that the gold of this period was from native sources.®* The simultaneous efflores- cence of both copper and gold metallur- gies speaks in favor of this hypothesis. It is important to note that copper and gold metallurgy was used for the manu- facture of tools, ornaments, jewelry, and ritual equipment, not for weapons of war. Trade during the period between 5500 and 4500 B.C. Sea and river routes con- tinued to play a vital role. We do not know what was exchanged for these highly valued items, but there must have been some vitally needed com- modities such as salt and agricultural products. Salt was mined in southern Poland by the Lengyel people.® Varieties of flint and minerals were also widely sought and exchanged with the source areas within a radius of hundreds of kilometers. Sites along the Adriatic coast and the Black Sea littoral abound in shells, mar- ble, and copper. Hamangian graves along the Black Sea included necklaces of den- talium and spondylus beads, bracelets of spondylus and marble, and marble figurines and dishes. Copper beads and arm rings were also found. From their ports, the shells and marble traveled along the Danube to central Europe. Marble bracelets are found in LBK (Stroked Pottery) graves in Bohemia and central Germany. A new phase in trade history began with the emergence of copper mining rade in shells, marble, obsidian, and copper steadily increased and gold metallurgy. The unprecedented wealth of copper, gold, Aegean spondylus and dentalium shells, and marble, as well as gold- and graphite-decorated vases recovered from the cemetery of Varna, are witness to the success of Varna as an important harbor and trading center during the mid-5th millennium B.C. Around 3,000 gold objects and more than fifty copper tools—hammer-axes, flat axes, chisels, awls, and needles—were uncovered from the graves. Also found were quantities of beads, bracelets, rings, convex round plates with perforations, figurines of bulls, solid gold axes with shafts of gold tubing, diadems, and various religious symbols. (FIGURES 3-82, 3-83, 3-84, 3-85} Outside of Varna, gold bracelets and ring pendants are found distributed in the Lower Danube region, while several gold pendants produced from hammered-sheet gold traveled as far south as the southern Peloponnese.” Varna may have functioned as a center where different cultures came to exchange goods from their respective regions in a form of free market. The more than 20,000 spondylus and dentalium shells found in Varna graves had been imported from the Aegean region, probably in exchange for metal tools required by the inhabitants of the Cycladic Islands and Aegean coast. Several hoards were found in the Aegean area containing copper tools with close parallels in the Karanovo culture. Simi- larly, the marble found at Varna, in the form of beautifully carved conical bowls and rhytons, had probably been traded northward from the Cyclades, whereas transparent, razor sharp obsidian blades had come from the Tokay source in northeastern Hungary. A transparent obsidian blade of outstanding workman- ship was also found in a Karanovo VI settlement, thirty kilometers south of Nova Zagora, together with copper beads (Nova Zagora museum}. This suggests that central Bulgaria was a link in the obsidian and copper exchange between the Carpathian basin and the Black Sea. Furthermore, central Bulgarian graphite used for painting of pottery was a highly valued commodity and was traded between the Middle Danube region and 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /119 CiICLIDE 2a? = FIGURE 3-82 Gold beads, earrings, bracelet, and plate with perforations in corners, from the cemetery of Varna, E Bul- garia. Grave No, 4. c, 45th—44th cents. BC. CIGIIRE 2R2 FIGURE 3-83 Round and convex gold pendants “with eyes.” Cemetery of Varna, E Bulgaria Scale: 1:2. | 120/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS a a FIGURE 3-84 (a) Gold from one grave (No. 36, a kenotaph with no skeleton) of the Varna cemetery. Most of It Is clearly of ritual signifi- cance: bull figurines, bull horns, gold astragalus of a ram, convex plates and rings, pendants with “eyes, a V-shaped object, earrings, beads, gold axe, and a hook. (b) Detail: Solid gold axe with a shaft of gold tubes and bull figurines. ce08 30% rs wot a * é° 5 ssiinte Pee =| FIGURE 3-85 FIGURE 3-85 A mass of _— dentalium shells, car- F nelian and stone beads, convex plates of gold, and gold beads. Part of treasure deposited in Grave No. 4 at Varna, Bulgaria. c. 4500—- 4400 Bc the Black Sea. A graphite cone for the decoration of pottery, deposited in one of the graves of Varna, must have come from the source area, Stara Zagora in central Bulgaria. A hoard of graphite cones was found there in the settlement of Azmak, some perforated and ready for export. Spectral analysis of copper artifacts indicated trade contacts between the Karanovo and the Cucuteni cultures, and FIGURE 3-86 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /121 FIGURE 3-86 Karbuna hoard: copper chisel, armrings, an axe, and pendants of copper plate discovered in a large piriform vase. Vase and lid in which items were stored are shown at the bottom. Moldavia. Approx. 46th-45th cents. B.C. Scale: pen- as far east as the Lower Dnieper and dant, 1:1; other, 1:3. Lower Volga basins. A Cucuteni vase filled with more than 400 copper artifacts and more than 400 items of shell and marble, was discovered at Karbuna in Soviet Moldavia, indicating the wide diffusion and quantities of copper used in the Cucuteni territory.” Among the copper finds of Karbuna were an axe, a chisel, and spiral bracelets typi- cal of central and eastern Bulgaria, as well as hundreds of flat copper pendant amulets which are seemingly abstract versions of schematic bone figurines. (FIGURE 3-86). In the Ukraine (from the Chapli and Mariupol cemeteries, north of the Black and Azov seas} and in south- ern Russia (Khvalynsk on the Volga), axes, beads, rings, spiral arm rings, and round-plate pendants have been found which are related to Cucuteni and Karanovo VI forms of copper artifacts. The diffusion of copper over an area of several thousand kilometers must be credited to the horse-riding Kurgan I people of the Lower Dnieper and Lower Volga steppe. Since accumulations of gold and cop- per objects are found stored in temples or in vases, we surmise that the distribu- tion of metal artifacts, most of which had a ritual significance, was handled by temple representatives, and that they were very likely owned communally by the temples’ participants. This situation, however, was changing in the area of the i x ty Black Sea littoral after the middle of the GK 5th millennium BC. The cemetery of EN atl Sad Ty, Varna yielded extraordinarily rich indi- vidual graves for both males and females (see chapter 9). As the geographical loca- tion indicates, this change could have been stimulated by contact with the Kurgan people tor whom private owner- ship was the norm. 122/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS Crafts “orkshops and hoards of metal, stone, or shell objects suggest a gradual rise in craft specialization. Smiths’ workshops hold- ing copper slag, crucibles, and unfin- ished copper tools or ornaments are known from a number of Karanovo sites (Sitagroi, Hirsova, Vidra, Ruse, and Karanovo}). The mining of flint, minerals, and copper probably also developed into separate professions. The massive amounts of gold objects in Varna graves are surely products of a special class of craftsmen, perhaps artisans from temple workshops, who created true treasures in gold. In the temple of Hotnica in north- ern Bulgaria, numerous bracelets of similar design and abstract images of the Goddess were found. These were in the form of round plates with eyes and a hole in the middle.!° Workshops for. spondylus and bone ornaments and figurines are known from the Hirsova tell in Dobruja.!° The two-story temple at Radingrad, near Razgrad, eastern Bulgaria, built in the early centuries of the 5th millen- nium BC., contained a ceramic work- shop on the first floor and a temple with an altar on the second. The workshop included a large oven, while on the other side of the room stood finished and unfinished vases, unused clay, and a collection of tools for pottery decoration: polishers of deer bone, flint blades, bird bones, picklike tools, awls, and flat stones for crushing ocher. The Radingrad workshop with the temple on the second floor is a key to understanding the function of other two-story ceramic workshops of the Cucuteni, Karanovo, and Tisza cultures. One of the best FIGURE 3-87 Reconstruc- tion of pottery workshop from Varvarovka VIII, Moldavia. This is possibly a temple workshop with temple proper on the second floor. Approx. 4000 Bc. FIGURE 3-88 Variants for reconstructing rotational device for pottery build- ing based on findings at Varvarovka, Moldavia. Approx. 4000 Bc. FIGURE 3-89 Attempted reconstruction of a kiln. Habasesti, Classical Cucuteni, 44th-43rd cents. B.C. examples is the Cucuteni workshop = from Varvarovka. (FIGURE 3-87) These C were workshops for the temples where the most beautiful vases and other ritual WOME RY SUS LE ie Mh equipment were produced. The possibil- ity is not excluded that household pots needed by individual families could also have been produced in these communal workshops, although only exquisite fine ware has been found. Female members of the family may have supervised this craft, and it is fairly certain that embellishment was also their province. Actual evidence that pot- tery burnishing and decoration was done by women comes from the cemetery of Basatanya (Bodrogkeresztur phase} in eastern Hungary, where a tool kit for pottery burnishing, painting, and engrav- ing, consisting of a pebble, a fish bone, a bone polisher, a pyxis, and a dipper, was found in a number of female graves. ! Of course, we need many more exam- ples to prove that pottery embellishment was in the hands of women. Men could also have participated in pottery pro- duction. However, judging from the temple models, only women are shown producing pottery in temple workshops. Pottery was hand built using the coil method throughout the Neolithic, but around 4000 B.C. in the Cucuteni cul- ture, a rotational device, in combination with the coil, came into use. Direct evi- dence of the use of rotary motion was produced by the excavation of the Var- varovka site in Soviet Moldavia.'™ Inside the workshop, a wooden post was found wedged into the ground to a depth of 50-55 cm. It was 36-38 cm in diameter and was packed with clay mixed with chaff. A ring of clay with a rim sur- rounded the post above the ground. Markevié, the excavator of the workshop, offered several reconstructions of possi- ble methods of rotation, reproduced here in figure 3-88. Pottery kilns came into use before or around the middle of the 6th millen- nium B.C. The earliest simple kilns, clay structures in the shape of a truncated cone, are known from the Staréevo cul- ture. By the 5th millennium BC., kilns were widely used in all culture groups of east-central Europe. In the Cucuteni area alone, they were found in seventeen set- tlements.! The Cucutenians used a complex type of kiln which is cylindri- cal or rectangular in plan, consisting of two vertically arranged parts: a lower section where the combustion of fuel takes place and an upper section in which the pottery is fired. Both sections are separated by a horizontal grate perfo- rated with holes to allow the hot air from below to rise into the upper cham- ber. An attempted reconstruction of such a kiln from the village of Habasesti of the Classical Cucuteni is given in figure 3-89. The use of kilns in pottery firing allows greater control over reduction and oxidation conditions. Analysis by X-ray diffraction of the black slips on Cucu- teni pottery dating from c. 4000 BC. have shown that these early potters were able to attain, and probably exceed, firing temperatures of 1,000 degrees C.1°° The variety of crafts produced at this time—of metal, ceramic, stone, bone, and shell—are evidence of an impressive array of material goods used for personal, ritual and commercial purposes which were distributed locally and traded throughout larger regions. FIGURE 3-89 /\._ ff SIVIMWIirtUvIvuNY 1) . \\ 3/THE CLIMAX OF EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION /123 The Neolithic Cultures of Northern Europe LE ee RRS SSI OL he yy eae AAA AL td tA yy WW iste Cty Mt wit! qh aes we 7 oa ORRAROARA AAT } a gree SNS 0eo¢ FA #4 ‘Sah, Cd CAME NST ada TT fe YS EES ARI Lipa oa BUEN FN EAT RAST S WLL ERED ar on 126/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS The northern Europeans continued a food-gathering economy for millennia, and were nourished by the bounty of nature. Mixed forests and a network of glacial lakes offered plenty of game animals, water birds, berries, mush- rooms, edible roots, nuts, wild plant seeds, and large fish. A food gathering economy continued from Boreal (warm and dry) times, during the 8th and 7th millennia B.C., while fishing was the basic occupation throughout the moister Atlantic period of the 6th and Sth millennia B.C. The central Euro- pean agriculturalists, however, gradually moved north, entering the territories of the Mesolithic Ellerbeck- Ertebglle food gatherers of northwestern Europe during the last centuries of the Sth millennium B.C. In the East Baltic area, a gradual evolution took place from the Late Paleolithic to the Mesolithic. People continued to fish and hunt and to produce tools of flint, bone, and antler even into the 4th millennium B.C. when the settled villages of fishermen mark the beginning of the Neolithic period. Northern central Europe between Holland and Poland was transformed to a food-producing culture through the constant influence and colonization by central European agriculturalists—the late LBK and Lengyel people—during the second half of the Sth millennium B.C. In this region, a fully agricultural society, called Funnel-necked Beaker or TRB, emerged and soon entered into the territory of the Ertebglle culture of southern Scandinavia and the Ellerbek of northwestern Germany. In the later stage of its development, the TRB also expanded to the northeast, colonizing the lower Vistula region of northern Poland and the Nemunas basin up to western Belorussia. In this chapter we shall first consider the Funnel-necked Beaker agricultural- ists and then the local survivals of the Baltic Mesolithic cultures, the Nemunas and Narva. Ss FIGURE 4-1 Distribution of the Funnel-necked Beaker or TRB (from the German Trichterbecher) culture and its regional groups. 4th mill. B.C. TRB, The Funnel-necked Beaker Culture of Northern Europe he abbreviation TRB comes from the Danish Tragtbaegerkultur and the German Trichterbecher- Kultur, which in English means the Funnel-necked Beaker culture. These first farmers of northern Europe occupied the Elbe, Oder, and Vistula basins, then spread north to Denmark and southern Sweden. On the west was the Michelsberg culture of the Middle and Upper Rhine basin which was closely related and of intermediate facies between TRB and the western European cultures. On the east was the Cucuteni culture. Formation TRB formed at the end of the 5th millennium B.C. and continued through- out the whole of the 4th millennium B.C., lasting to the middle of the 3rd millennium B.C. in its northern fringes. Its beginning coincides in time with the first infiltration of the Kurgan people from the eastern steppes into the Danubian basin. As mentioned in chapter 3, the expansion of the Lengyel people into northern Europe at about 4300 B.C. was most likely the result of a chain reaction of cultural change in the Lower and Middle Danube region. The Lengyel’s appearance in central Germany and western Poland was a decisive influence in the formation of the TRB. Another component of the TRB is the Late Linearbandkermik culture which spread in central Europe before the entrance of the Lengyel population. As agriculturalists moved north into northern Germany and southern Scan- dinavia, they encountered the local Late Mesolithic populations—the Ellerbeck in northern Germany and Ertebglle in Denmark and southern Sweden—who lived in these regions throughout the 5th millennium B.C. Scholars in the past thought that the TRB culture developed from the Ertebelle culture, but it is now clear that there are no genetic relation- ships between the two, except for the fusing that must have taken place 4/THE NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF NORTHERN EUROPE {127 FIGURE 4-1 KEY 1. Western 2. Northern 3. Eastern 4. Southeastern 5. Southern 6. Michelsberg 128/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS between the TRB and the local Meso- lithic populations. Chronologically, the TRB succeeds the Ertebglle and their site locations markedly differ. While the Ertebglle people occupied the coastal regions of the sea, the TRB population preferred inland areas with light, sandy, clayey soils that could be easily cleared.! In conclusion, the formation of the TRB culture seems to have been the result of the fusion of multiple factors: influences of the Mesolithic Ellerbeck- Ertebglle substratum, continuity of the central European Réssen and Stroked Pottery cultures, and the influx of a Middle Danubian element represented by the Lengyel population. Natural conditions in the vast forested area that spawned the TRB were varied, and from the beginning, it was a differ- entiated phenomenon in economic adaptation, settlement strategies, and even in the production of flint tools. On the basis of internal differences, this culture is subdivided into the following regional groups: western (Holland and Hanover), eastern (Oder and Vistula area of Poland}, southeastern (southeast Poland and Volhynia), southern or Baalberge (Upper Elbe basin of central Germany, Silesia, Bohemia, and Mora- via), and northern (Mecklenburg and southern Scandinavia}. (FIGURE 4-1) There are, however, many unifying phenomena: pottery typology, the spread of earthen long-barrows in most of the regional groups and, toward the end of the culture, the diffusion of dolmens and passage graves from the west into the northern territory of the TRB culture. Chronology The number of radiocarbon dates is sufficient for an insight into the suc- cession of developmental phases in all regions. (TABLE 14) We shall generalize the chronology using numbers from 1 to 5 for the phases extending from approxi- mately 4200 B.C. to the middle of the 3rd millennium B.C. in calendar years. In addition to radiocarbon dates, this chro- nology is supported by stratigraphies and pottery typologies. Pottery forms range from simple low-necked beakers and amphorae from Phases | and 2, which were usually undecorated or decorated just around the rim (FIGURES 4-2A, 4-2B), to richly decorated funnel-necked beakers, amphorae, and bowls during Phase 3 (FIGURES 4-2C, 4-3). One of the characteristic vessel types of this culture is the collared flask that ap- peared in Phase 2. (FIGURES 4-2B,2; 4-2C,2) The pottery forms and decora- tion of Phase 4, in Poland and in the whole of the southern half of the culture, exhibit some stagnation and influences from the south and east (Baden and North Pontic). In the north, ceramic art continued to flourish during the period of the building of megalithic graves, in which vases were decorated with deep incisions and encrustations with white paste. Hence the name Tiefstich for the pottery of the mega- liths. (FIGURE 4-3} FIGURE 4-2A Vletials Mi Les. - = =—S FIGURE 4-2A Pottery types of the TRB culture. Phase 1 (or Group A) based on finds from Sigersted, central . Zealand, Denmark. c. 4000 B.C. | FIGURE 4-2B Pottery type of the TRB culture. Phase 2 (or Group B) from western Poland. (1, 4, 5) Pikutkowo, distr. of Wloclawek; (2) Splawie, distr. of Leszczyn; (3) Obalki, distr. of Konin; (6) Malankowo, distr. of Torun. Early Ath mill. B.c. | eer FIGURE 4-2C Pottery types of the TRB culture, Phase 3 (’Widrek’”’ group in Poland). (1) Chelmza, distr. of Torun; (2) Lutynia, distr. of Kalisz; (3) Niedziejewo, distr. of Poznan; (4) Modliborzyce, distr. of Bydgoszcz; (5, 6) Szlach- cin, distr. of Poznan; (7) Radziej6w Kujawski, distr. Whocfawek. Mid-4th mill. B.c. 4/THE NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF NORTHERN EUROPE /129 FIGURE 4—-2B UU ULL CS COG y SMTTSIEYIIT DMPA EO ULFSUE Lee Leer LEELA EE PE BAD IPRA EL EATA IAEA ICA? FIGURE 4~—2C Ovni ee Sis OOo ty natu YYYVNONANZY ANNAN Ad ee eee) ASSIS L LPP RG OE DAG te i‘ ‘ witiriin Tanrink y SS NZS TNE Hw siraninyab vari en / ag SN oe LLL el ae we Willie we eT ni fin Hy me 4 iy TM LMM RAN IMUM PLEO TEUELLESER RAD EL IOP Ee en ie mu i " it tit it 199 SUCLTE VEE inti el Sage ‘fe se ORKAARPRARARAAADN ay UOMO al ( iy } it WWW 130/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS a ae a hee A > ~ OT ww ii~- 4 wwe SHE Re, - FIGURE 4-3 Examples of the flourishing ceramic art during the megalith grave building period in Denmark. Vases are decorated with deep incisions (‘‘Tiefstich’’) and were incrusted with white color. (1) Habjerg hegn, Kelsinge sogn, Holbo herred; (2) Ebbel- naes; (3) Odder, Hads herred, Arhus; (4) Hage- brogard, Haderup sogn, Grinding herred. End Ath mill. 8.c. Scale: 1, 1:2; 2-4, 3:4. FIGURES 4-4, 4-5 Stone and antler mining tools from the mines of Krzemionki Opatowce, S Poland. FIGURE 4-4 Economy The first agriculturalists of northern Europe inherited the knowledge of domestic plants and animals from cen- tral Europe, and the whole range of grains was known: wheat, barley, rye, oats, peas, flax.2 The dominant species was wheat, (primarily Triticum dicoc- cum, as well as monococcum, vulgare, compactum, and spelta), followed by barley. Oats and rye are weakly repre- sented, and millet is reported only from the eastern group (used for porridge). The main agricultural tools were antler hoes and sickles with flint teeth or knifelike blades set in bone or wooden handles. The use of the plow is also pre- sumed since traces of parallel ploughing marks were noticed at the Sarnowo site . in western Poland under a long-barrow.? A series of settlements revealed an intensive use of wild fmits and berries: apples, plums, cherries, raspberries, nuts, and others. Cattle was predominant among the domesticates (up to 66 per- cent and more of all the domesticated animals}, followed by pigs (in some settlements pigs occupies the second place, up to 40 percent}, then by sheep and goats (settlements yielded from 7 to 14 percent of sheep and goat bones}, and dog (from 2 to 9 percent of all the bones). The percentage of wild animal bones in settlements is low but varies consider- 4/THE NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF NORTHERN EUROPE /131 ably from site to site (from 2.3 percent to 22, percent of all animal bones}.‘ Flint, which was highly selected from a variety of sources, was the major material for the production of tools, along with wood and bone. In eastern and southern Poland alone at least nine sources of flint were exploited.5 Chocolate-colored flint was cherished in the early phase of the culture at Sarnowo and was imported from the Upper Tisza region as well as from the source at Radom in central Poland. A gray variety with white dots was also highly valued. In the later phases, starting with Phase 3, other flint sources were intensively exploited, particularly the excellent gray varieties at Swieciechéw in southern Poland and from the River Bug basin in Volhynia. Banded flint was obtained from the mines at Krzemionki near Opatéw in the upper Vistula region in southern Poland. These mines extend in an arc for four kilometers, and the tun- nels discovered there go down from four to ten meters. Chambers from which large quantities of flint were obtained were twelve to eighteen meters in size. In these were found antler, stone, and flint hammers and wedges for mining. (FIGURES 4-4, 4-5) Large nuclei ob- tained from these and other mines resulted in the macrolithic type of tools typical of this culture. (FIGURE 4-6} 132/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 4-6 | SS FIGURE 4-7 FIGURE 4-6 Typical flint tools of the TRB culture from the habitation sites of southern Poland: (1) knife; (3,5) screws; (2,4,6,7) scrapers; (8,9) sickles; (10—11) axes: (12) nucleus, (1-5,7,10,12) Cmielow; (6) Zawichost; (8,9) Grddek Nadbuzny. FIGURE 4-7 Ram heads appear as handles on ceremonial vases and ram figurines serve as offering vases. Examples are from southern Poland and Silesia. (1) Cmieléw, H 33.9 cm.: (2) Nosocice; (3) Krze- kotéwek; (4) Clay sculp- ture from Jordandw. Mid-4th mill. Bc. H 13.5 CM, Settlement Sites TRB settlements are found in loess and light soil regions, not only in river val- leys but also on high elevations. Villages ranged from 100 m to 500 m in length, with the largest villages covering about 10 hectares, with ten to fifteen houses in the southern group (southern Poland). In the north (southern Sweden}, only very small villages are known, consist- ing of a few houses with only some ten inhabitants. There was no single house type, although pit dwellings were fre- quent, particularly during the earlier phases, and above-ground timber houses with thick clay daub and wickerwork walls were usual during the later phases. The Cmieléw village in southern Poland consisted of pit dwellings and some above-ground houses, dating from the middle of the 4th millennium B.C. It occupied an area about 500 m long and 200 m wide which included fifteen houses arranged in three groups. A huge pit house was found in the central part of this village in which large vases were stored filled with grain (wheat, peas, and flax). The rich ceramic finds discovered there included beautiful jugs with han- dles in the shape of ram heads. (FIGURE 4-7) This building, being different in size and centrally located, could have been a temple with a storage area in which grain and fruit were kept for seasonal feasts. Flint and ceramic work- shops were located on the outskirts of the village.’ Above-ground houses of three or four rooms are known in the preceding cen- tral European cultures. Such a house, so far unique for the TRB, was excavated in 1977 at Flégeln, district of Cuxhaven, on the Eekholtjen peninsula at the edge of a TRB settlement.* The house was 12.75 m long, 4.80 m wide, and its out- line was reconstructed by the discovery of a foundation trench with no post- holes. Pairs of timber uprights in the _ middle axis of the long-house functioned as the holding element. There were a few posts outside the long walls on both sides and the house was subdivided into four rooms by partition walls. (FIGURE 4-8) Radiocarbon dates were obtained from. wooden posts and from trenches, suggesting that the date of this house is 4/THE NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF NORTHERN EUROPE /133 FIGURE 4-8 | ene ne FIGURE 4-8 Plan anda reconstructed frame of a TRB house from c. 35th- 34th cents. B.C. Flégeln, & Ortjen, distr. Cuxhaven, r) NW Germany. 134/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 4-9 [Saal FIGURE 4-9 Distribution of earthen long-barrows in northern Europe. Below: a rectangular long-barrow ("‘Hinen- bett’’) from Schleswig- Holstein, NW Germany, SSS | FIGURE 4-10 TRB ceme- tery of nine triangular long-barrows from Sarnowo, Kujavia, W Poland. Mid-4th mill. B.c. North Sea oo ae2eoo? a 956 d ile <r} oe “hate a e . ? a ia . ‘Se ch ‘3 © Barrows of general trapezoid shape KEY “ — Triangular barrows of Kujavia aH Rectangular barrows wee Ri 5 a 5, ne ie ay Petar Me teria Nye pany kita oo aa z iN 2 | heat Ni a a i we: He nH a6 Rs ay vy 2 y F gi 1 Ss 2 ' : AY; i . : wil! YAS BOA, Cbs |: y) ney nie on™ “awh th Si a a ai No eu Me reich a Ve Hn, \' agp “ ; fs , ' / | the second half of the 4th millennium BC. (see table 14, Flégeln dates). Earthen Long-Barrows _ Earthen long-barrows are a northern _ European phenomenon associated with _ the TRB population, except for their _ extension into Brittany and England in _ the west. (FIGURE 4-9) Long-barrows are _ found on sandy or clayey morainic soils _ consistent with the economic exploita- _ tion of the mixed forest environment of “eo the TRB people. Considerable numbers of earthen long-barrows have been reported from Denmark, northern Germany (Mecklenburg and Lower Saxony}, western and southern Poland. Only a few are known from Bohemia and Moravia. The largest concentration is in the area of Kujavia in western Poland. Detailed information on long-barrows of the TRB culture has been compiled by Magdalena S. Midgley in 1985.9 Earthen long-barrows are often found in groups of twos or threes, or occasion- ally in large clusters, as represented by a cemetery of nine barrows at Sarnowo in western Poland. (FIGURE 4-10) Their dimensions are truly impressive. Al- though most barrows commonly range from 25 to 45 m in length, about 40 per- cent of the known barrows are between 60 and 80 m long. The longest ones in Kujavia reach 170 m and are long and narrow. (FIGURE 4-1], 1) Their common width is from 3 m to 11 m, with the wide end considered as the head and the narrow as the tail. Entrance openings have been identified in the middle of the wide end. The principal orientation in about 70 percent of all the barrows inves- tigated is east to west or northeast to southwest, with their entrances opening towards the rising sun. Earthen barrows were retained by stone and occasionally by timber frame enclosures. Stones were abundantly available in these regions in the form of glacially deposited erratic - boulders. The builders selected those which had smooth and flat surfaces and used these for the outer sides of each enclosure. Stones were placed according to their size, with larger boulders used for the wider end and smaller for the narrower end, which suggests a good deal of planning. FIGURE 4-10 4/THE NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF NORTHERN EUROPE 1135 136/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS isha a FIGURE 4-11 Plans of Kujavian long-barrows. (1) Wietrzychowice at Kolsko; (2) Karsko, W Poland. 1 Ry: Bo SCPE. xs “geo tp ese: ay 4 4 ms ¢ ° e e - wt we Mares, ejee F Se 8%: el? Se NA WP wate Pasoie a. 4 * oa * N POD IK ee ee oat Cty z 2S Sore Nos XA Wisk 2 eae oy Pige:: WY. 2 iB Gath, by Paleo a De | | tie $B vy /) begs Ct ong AID $e TOY = CP Ot 75 & (y YOR RTSIC I) g WY Oa CL AI aC AOS sa y a PLA A | | 0 OG K9 ONS i 1 .) FIGURE 4-12 | FIGURE 4-12 Plan of a long-barrow with timber post framing (black dots are post holes). Nied- zwiedz, S Poland. | ses — ® @e ee @ eseseqee 60 i= 8 Timber-built enclosures are known from Denmark, Bohemia, and southern Poland in which timber posts were set vertically in a continuous foundation trench. (FIGURE 4-12} Some had solid walls made from split tree trunks. There are also structures surrounded by both stone and timber walls, such as one at Stengade, Denmark." In several cases definite traces of solid timber facades were found.!! These were rectangular structures built on a frame of small posts of split tree trunks which were packed with stones. The interior of these long-barrows was subdivided into com- partments by transverse stone walls or walls built of stone combined with tim- ber. In Danish long-barrows, such as at Barkaer, Djursland, partitioning was done by wooden fences. The two at Barkaer, about 85 m long and 6.5 to 7.5 m wide (earlier regarded to be houses) were subdivided into 26 rooms, each about 3 m long.” In addition to such spacial segmentation, there were also timber buildings which represent a typical architectural and ritual element as identified in Kujavia and in Jutland. Rectangular structures were built in the wider end of the Kujavian barrows, which measured approximately 4 m by 4 m, or 3 or 4 m by 5 m. These timber uprights, set in corners, provided a framework for the construction of walls. The roof was probably tentlike. In Den- mark, at Bygholm Norremark, an oval building, 12 by 6 m, was built of timber uprights and four central roof-bearing posts!% with the grave in the center. In Kujavian barrows, however, as at Sarnowo, the structure was above the grave (see fig. 9-13}. Charcoal and ashes in the area of these ritual structures speak for deliberate burning, perhaps for purification purposes. The most common structure within the barrow was a boxlike rectangular chamber built of stone and timber within which single graves in coffins were found. Due to unfavorable soil con- ditions, however, burial evidence has been obtained in only 20.4 percent of all known barrows, and in only 16 percent of the barrows have skeletal remains been preserved. Graves were in pits or above the ground. All except those in the Baalberge group of central Germany were extended inhumations and some were Clearly buried in wooden coffins. The dead were very modestly equipped, except for some ritual objects, such as decorated vases, boar tusks, and occa- sional flint tools. The only beads found were amber, worn as necklaces. (FIGURE 4-13) In cases where skeletons were clearly missing bones, it is presumed that after the burial, the chambers remained open for excarnation until the body was reduced to a skeletal state." Speaking of the long earthen barrows, several points of interest must be stressed. First, their form is mainly triangular or trapezoidal, symbolically inseparable from the regenerative female (or Goddess's} triangle. Triangular stones, about one meter or more high, as sym- - bols of the regenerative triangle of the Goddess herself, were placed at the entrances. Second, the barrows are located in areas of earlier TRB settle- ment, possibly directly upon the settlement sites themselves, indicating 4/THE NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF NORTHERN EUROPE /137 ae ee FIGURE 4-13 Amber necklaces made up of several or more strands of cylindrical beads, sometimes interspersed with axe-shaped spacer beads. TRB culture. Laesten, Viborg, Den- mark, c. 3000 B.C. FIGURE 4-13 ak 138/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS the link with the ancestral land and the ancestors. The triangular-trapezoidal shape recalls the trapezoidal Lengyel houses in western Poland (the Brzesé Kujawski type; see fig. 3-35) which preceded the TRB. The lack of better preserved skeletal materials prohibits us from speaking with certainty about who was buried in these large mounds except in a few clear cases. One example is at Sarnowo Barrow No. 9, where a single woman about 70 years old was buried alone in a coffin with a wooden superstructure above the grave (see fig. 9-13}. Other burials were of considerably younger individuals. The physical type appears to be pre- dominantly dolichocephalic, most commonly of the Atlantic type, with an occasional admixture of Cro-Magnon forms.!5 The latter is considered to be continuous from the Late Mesolithic local population.'® The Appearance of Megalithic Tombs and Causewayed Enclosures After the middle of the 4th millennium B.C., dolmens appeared in Holland, Germany, and southern Scandinavia, followed by passage graves around 3200 B.C.” Their appearance marks the begin- ning of a change in burial practices. From this point on, the building of megalithic structures and burial cus- toms in northwestern Europe became closely linked with western Europe. The practice of secondary burial after excar- nation and the deposition of the disartic- ulated bones of many individuals in megaliths, which served as ossuaries, do not differ from the customs in Brittany, Iberia, England, and the Orkney Islands. This tradition must have come from the west, perhaps from Brittany via the coast. It is unlikely that the new cus- toms of dolmens and passage graves were brought by immigrants from the west, however, since other traditions remained intact: there was a continuous pottery and tool making tradition in all regional groups of the TRB culture. Long earthen barrows continued in areas, par- ticularly in Poland, where megaliths are not found. In addition, early dolmens have revealed evidence for the transition from the burial of the dead singly in an extended position to the practice of deposition of disarticulated bones. Let us mention one example from the dolmen at Klokkehoj at Bojden, Fiinen, Denmark.'* The dead buried in the pri- mary layer of this dolmen, dating from about the 34th century B.C., were found in an extended position with pottery ves- sels placed at their feet. The secondary layer contained disarticulated bones of at least 22 individuals, 13 adults and 9 children. The date of this layer is around 3000 B.C. In all the areas in which megalithic tombs are found, similar construction and burial rituals are recorded: use of large boulders, segmentation of the inner space into compartments (as many as 17 in the passage grave at Rossberga in Vastergotland, Sweden},'° stacking of skulls against chamber walls (FIGURE 4-14), and the practice of scorching the bones with fire. In both dolmens and passage graves, the treatment of burnt and unburnt bones is evident, and in the dolmens of southern Sweden many con- centrations of burnt bones have been found. In the Bronsyxan dolmen at Hindby Mosse, 71 concentrations of burnt bones were discovered under the cairn; most were skulls, representing about 10 individuals.” In the Trollaster dolmen, concentrations of burnt bones were discovered outside the tomb itself, while at the Gillhog passage grave, such concentrations were found outside the entrance of the tomb.”! In the Bohuslan region of southern Sweden, passage graves included burnt bones in the chamber and in the passage. Another common tradition in western Europe is the appearance of so-called causewayed camps (areas enclosed with concentric ditches and banks) in Den- mark and southern Sweden during the passage grave period, c. 3200-3000 B.C. (known from Voldbaek, Sarup, and Toftum in Denmark and from Stavie in Scania).”* The ditches of these camps held potsherds, bovine bones, and in one case (at Sarup) human mandibles. Causewayed enclosures were centrally located in areas where megalithic tombs were concentrated and must have served a ritual function for groups larger than one village population. Their activ- ities included the cremation of human bodies and the deposition of pottery vessels and other religious objects. Religious structures were associated with dolmens and passage graves. At Tustrup, Norager district, Djursland, Denmark, three megaliths stood in an arc, and in the middle was a horseshoe shaped ceremonial building, 6 m by 4 to 5 m (FIGURE 4-15) with an opening to the northeast. The building was con- structed of stone walls, 1 to 2 m thick, surrounded by a wooden palisade of split tree trunks. In the center was an oval pit filled with sand, and on both sides of it 30 vessels were found including 10 fruit- stands of fine workmanship and 8 disc- shaped spoons, each laid in a fruitstand type vase. (FIGURE 4-16} Several other pits were in the north and northeast part of the building.25 We shall return to other religious buildings of this culture in chapter 7, particularly to Alvastra, a pile building of wood surrounded by mire from c. 3000 B.C. FIGURE 4-14 4/THE NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF NORTHERN EUROPE SSS i FIGURE 4-14 (1) Dolmen and (2) passage grave with partition walls. Location of skulls and other human bones are indicated. Liepen, district of Rostock, N Germany. End of 4th mill. B.c. ee | FIGURE 4-15 Plan and cross-section of a cult building at Tustrup, Denmark. Thirty beauti- ful vases (see fig. 4-16) were found around the offering pit at the en- trance. End 4th mill. B.c. FIGURE 4-15 /139 140/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 4—16 a FIGURE 4-16 Vases and disc-shaped offering spoons (found inside the vases) from the cere- monial building at Tustrup (see fig. 4-15). End 4th mill. Bc. Disintegration: The Appearance of Patriarchal Pastoralists The disintegration of the TRB culture began with the spread of the patriarchal Globular Amphora pastoralists into northern central Europe and the move- ment of the related Baden culture into the southern regions of the TRB. A series of TRB settlements of the south- eastern group dating from the end of the 4th millennium BC. were destroyed by fire, interpreted by archeologists as the result of a violent action. A dramatic decrease in population is recorded. In the north, the TRB culture continued to the early 3rd millennium B.C. when it was gradually replaced by the Corded Ware Single Grave culture. All of these—the Globular Amphora, Baden, and Corded Ware cultures—represent _ pastoral, seminomadic, and patriarchal societies (see chapter 10). The Nemunas Culture he Nemunas culture, distributed between the Lower Vistula in northeastern Poland and south- em Lithuania (FIGURE 4-17) had its beginnings in the Epipalaeolithic (Episwiderian) and Mesolithic culture of the same region.”” The Upper Nemunas basin in southern Lithuania is a very rich source of flint. It is not surprising that Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic sites are abundant here and continued to be so during the Neolithic. The name Nemunas is most appropriately applied to the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods of this culture. In earlier literature, the culture of the Neolithic stage was known as Zedmar in German and Serowo in Polish based on excavations at Zedmar (Serowo} in the district of Oziersk, northeastern Poland (formerly East Prussia).”8 4/THE NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF NORTHERN EUROPE /141 FIGURE 4-17 Baltic Sea KEY A i, Nemunas +s, Kunda (Mesolithic) followed by Narva (Neolithic} FIGURE 4-17 Distribution of the Mesolithic and Neolithic cultures in the East Baltic area. 142/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 4-18 WLS A ar Sean soe? a AS Verdni¢ ar Airy | Ua Ng 4 & "AL 2a SOMES: , pg, sate Habitation Sites A considerable number of sites have been encountered on light soils in the region of end moraines in the Masurian Lake district and on sandy soils of south- | ern Lithuania. These are located on low terraces in the bays or confluences of small rivers or on lake shores. During the period of maximal transgression of the Litorina Sea, sites were located on higher terraces. Only exceptional traces of houses are preserved.”? From the little that is known, people lived in small agglomerations in light-structured above- ground houses built of timber posts interspersed with wickerworks of branches with a row of posts in the mid- dle supporting the roof. Hearths are found in the central part of the houses.*° In the majority of cases, these sites , yielded only flint artifacts*! and occa- sionally bone and antler tools including hoes and axes. (FIGURES 4-18, 1, 6} Fish- hooks, harpoons, and conical arrowheads were made of bone. (FIGURE 4-18, 2-4} The flint inventory includes the charac- teristic Episwiderian type arrowheads, lancette-shaped arrowheads, and trape- zoids. (FIGURE 4-19A, Mesolithic; 4-19B, Neolithic) Axes were also made of flint. (FIGURE 4-19B, bottom right} Pottery Early pots were large with pointed bases, decorated with stick impressions of pits or triangles around the mouth. (FIGURE 4-20, 1, 2) In the late phase, pots became flat based and were more richly deco- rated with parallel rows of pits, net pat- terns, and beaded motifs. (FIGURE 4-20, 3, 4). Clay was tempered with vegetal matter and occasionally with crushed shells and in the final phase with ground quartz. The shape, temper, and decora- tion of the early Nemunas pottery is much related to the pottery of the Dnieper-Donets culture in the Upper Dnieper basin. FIGURE 4-18 Antler and bone tools from the Nemunas culture in southern Lithuania. (1) Antler hoe (Kasétos). (2) Fishhook (DaukSai). (3) Arrowhead (Alks- nénal). (4) Harpoon (Vilkaviskis). (5) Antler axe (Kasétos). (6) Antler hoe (Pasventupys). Early 4th mill. B.c. Scale 1:1. FIGURE 4-19A Typical episwiderian flint arti- facts from the Mesolithic sites of the Nemunas culture. (1,2) arrow- heads; (3-6) “‘lancettes”’ (arrowheads), (7-12) trapezoids, also used as arrowheads. S$ Lithuania. Scale: (1,2) 1:2; (3-12) eo, FIGURE 4-19B Neolithic flint artifacts; shapes largely continue as Mesolithic-type arrow- heads, scrapers, and trapezes. Flint axes (bot- tom row, right) appear in Neolithic settlements. Dubiciai and Versminis, S Lithuania. Scale: 1:2 FIGURE 4-20 Pottery types from the Nemunas culture settlements. (1, 2) pointed based and decorated only around the mouth from the early phase (Dubiciai, S Lithuania); (3,4) pointed based and flat based and more richly decorated from the later period (Margiai, S Lithu- ania). 1, 2, end 5th; 3, 4, early 4th mill. B.c. H c. 30-40 cm. FIGURE 4—19B FIGURE 4-19A FIGURE 4-20 it een I up vaeteeed ee af) ie oe 0 ois) oh - A sey euewna bat mise ASSETS aN . vey Cd ® A id ee sina 4/THE NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF NORTHERN EUROPE 1143 144/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS Graves The dead were buried in an extended position in simple pit graves and were sprinkled with ochre. Among the most frequent grave goods are necklaces of elk, deer, and auroch or bison teeth. Antler hoes also appeared in graves.*! At Perkunowo, district of Gizycko in north- east Poland, the double grave of a young woman and a three-year-old child was found.*? Burials of skulls in habitation sites were also practiced as at Serowo where seventeen skulls were found.*? There is not enough information avail- able for a clear definition of the physical type of the Nemunas population since the Serowo skulls were too damaged for a fruitful examination. However, brachy- cephalic skulls of large proportions are known from other locations.” Chronology The four radiocarbon dates from Serowo (Zedmar} indicate the period between the 43rd and 36th centuries B.C. (TABLE 15) Three out of the four dates suggest that the most likely period for this habi- tation site was the 37th century B.C. One hopes that a more complete chronology of the Nemunas culture will be solved by future research. Before or around the middle of the 4th millennium B.C. most of the area occupied by the Nemunas population was infiltrated by the TRB and subse- quently by the Globular Amphora peo- ple resulting in the hybridization of - several traditions and in the final disap- pearance of the individual features of the Nemunas culture. The Narva Culture in the East Baltic Area he East Baltic Narva culture spread between the southern coasts of the Baltic Sea and the Bay of Finland (see fig. 4-17). The name derives from a site in northern Estonia, and radiocarbon dates place this culture in the 5th, 4th, and early part of the 3rd millennia B.C. (TABLE 16) This was a fisherman's paradise whose culture eventually included the use of pottery. (FIGURE 4-21) The dog was known from the Mesolithic, and there was a gradual selective adoption of culti- vated grains and domesticated animals into an essentially Mesolithic way of life. Physical Type of the Population The Narva population was a predomi- nantly long-headed, narrow-faced type, Europids as their Mesolithic predeces- sors of the Kunda culture, although in the northern area a tendency toward mesocran (medium length) skulls and facial flatness is found (presumed to be a mongoloid influence}. Graves The largest Narva cemetery is found at Zvejnieki in northern Latvia, excavated by F. Zagorskis in the 1960s and early 70s.36 This site is located over a small hill on the bank of Lake Burtnieki, some 200 meters from the Narva settlement. Three hundred and seventeen Mesolithic and Neolithic graves were unearthed, ranging from the 7th to the 3rd millen- nium BC., making this the largest cemetery of its period to be found in all of northern Europe. Solid information was gleaned from this site concerning cultural continuity from the Mesolithic and Neolithic up to the Corded Pottery period of the 3rd millennium B.C. when a totally alien burial appeared with bodies in a contracted posture. Earlier skeletons lay in an extended position, wrapped in animal furs and sprinkled with ochre. Occasionally, the dead were found in collective tombs of two to six together, one above the other, similar to Dnieper-Donets burials. The most com- mon funerary articles were elk, deer, and boar teeth pendants and necklaces. In later phases dog, wolf, fox, marten, and badger teeth pendants were also found, along with amber pendants and beads and female elk and bird figurines carved of bone. Bird bones found in the graves suggest that fowl were sacrificed with the dead. Burials were also found under the floors of houses, as at Narva where in location No. 1 an adult and a child were buried under the house floor. Skulls were found deposited alone at Sventoji, site 23, near the Baltic Sea in Lithuania. Here, among the crumbled bones of one skull, an amber pendant was discovered.’ Peat-bog Settlement Sites A number of peat-bog settlement sites excavated in the last decades, such as Sventoji in western Lithuania near the Baltic Sea, Sarnate in western Latvia,** and a series of settlements around Lake Lubana in eastern Latvia and Lake Kretuonas in eastern Lithuania have provided rich evidence for the recon- struction of the life style of these fishermen.” It is fortunate that the waterlogged condition of these areas has preserved many perishable objects such as those made of wood—fishing tools, mallets for crushing nuts, hoes, a variety of household utensils, troughs, and sculptures. Nets, floats, creels, harpoons, spears, forks, dugout canoes, paddles and shove-off stakes, as well as fish bones (mostly of large pike and sturgeon) present splendid information on Narva fishing habits. (FIGURES 4-22 to 4-24} Fishing was done with nets, creels, and bag-shaped baskets, and many fragments show that nets were plaited of linden bast and tied in immobile knots. (FIGURE 4-25} 4/THE NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF NORTHERN EUROPE /145 I INIUUREE SARTRE CoCr pared novnereseoresogenseoeds soso, en ° "2 . e ° te o 4% Fog She aseeser Qe. eee &@%e@o@ @ ef oe? . Pea onraneceteear*” _ af S Miocneas Cyne FIGURE 4-21 Narva ce- ramics; large pots with pointed bases decorated around the mouth (1-4) and boat-shaped lamps; (5) pots were tempered with crushed shells. Sventoji site 1, B, W Lithuania. Late 4th mill. B.c. H. 30-40 cm. FIGURE 4-22 (1) Wooden model of a boat, 96 cm long from Sventoji, site 2 B. The broken tip of the prow was decorated, perhaps with a zoomor- phic head (not pre- served). (2) Lifting up a dugout canoe at Sar- nate, W Latvia, end 4th mill. B.C. 146/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 4-23 Ge gr cc | FIGURE 4-23 (1-3) Wooden oars and (4) fishing-net weights wrapped in birch bark and fastened with string. Sarnate peat bog settlement, end 4th mill. B.C. eee FIGURE 4-24 Bag-shaped fishing net fastened with a wooden frame (recon- struction). Sventoji, W Lithuania, end 4th mill. B.C, rerun Sra 4 FIGURE 4-25 Remains of fishing nets made of linden bast. Sventoji, end of 4th mill. Bc. FIGURE 4-24 FIGURE 4-25 = ogee. eae pean! wee Bee eins ee ae = Pe a LA == nf Se. rd eee a a CZ ee LEE F ae a Lt TT 4/THE NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF NORTHERN EUROPE /147 In later Narva settlements, agriculture was practiced, as witnessed by wood, antler, and stone hoes (FIGURE 4-26, 1-3) and the pollen of millet, wheat, and hemp. The latter was used extensively for strings and ropes found in well- preserved quantities. (FIGURE 4-26, 4} FIGURE 4-26 a y, FIGURE 4-26 Wooden hoes and long wooden handle with a stone axe set in a spool-shaped mount with string. (1-3) Sarnate. (4) Sventoji. Narva culture, end 4th mill. B.C, 2 LZ Wy a Up aise CAIN LSS er, 148/ THE CiVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 4-27 eC FIGURE 4-27 (1) Wooden distaff; L 43 cm. (2) Small wooden trough. Sventoji, end 4th mill. BC: L 75cm. FIGURE 4-28 j ih i \ =e Uesaies TY Mail | harhdtterkerndtheier s Dol Sl Me ed bel lel Tel 3 ATECCASME BEI ISSN IBRY ISS j W4 TVD Well tol Wel Vel Vell Arhieiarhe “cethctine * ZOuGres@nene =o = Carte yr hat : ale md} tat =! SOLSRU ISA) [SQUIER SS Petetetetetsts oases Pees ah a) PRLS SCY peete®. t = & Pts AFI ri soa . ri He \ : “a igs Kad Sern Pa a Pherae r? ad SE Or ae 2 FA RP SOE v, y= \ Lot iy Nait: PSST) I, ae Cri OX. ae IT Vondl Sell Voll New one au x E { ij 4 f, 1 iy st j PTAA PACE: “al Y y s 7 AF WC r Nie, i ( @: ¢ ( (NAS a AK Xs , KR \ \ \ 2B FIGURE 4-28 (1-3) Weav- ing and plaiting schemes as reconstructed from fragments of textiles; a plaiting instrument. (4) Sventoji. W Lithuania, end 4th mill. B.c. 4/THE NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF NORTHERN EUROPE /149 Wooden distafts (FIGURE 4-27, 1) and higher than 2.5 m, with a row of posts in clay spindle whorls speak of spinning, the middle supporting the roof. These and cloth was plaited or woven of very houses varied from 5 to 11 m in length, thin twisted thread made of linden bast. with a width of 4 to 5 m. (FIGURE 4-29] (FIGURE 4-28} Their roofs and floors were covered with Settlement sites are located on the flat _ spruce and pine bark. Oval, semisubter- shores of lakes and occupied approxi- ranean houses of timber uprights, about mately 1,000 square meters. Villages 6 m across, dug over one meter into the consisted of four to ten rectangular ground, were reported from the 1986 houses built of timber uprights, not excavations at Kretuonas.%? IGURE 4-29 FIGURE 4-29 Traces of houses (above) and Pa KS 4 | reconstruction. Sarnate, | W Latvia, end 4th mill. e B.C, Zz / Z / re Z “Z / 7 \ ~ / . | $2 %Y \ Z \ 4, Z 4 Up, ZY WY a Me Y @® post holes S/// charcoal pa E d Pn hi ° 150/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 4-30 ee ena Ds Ss we 3 dis . =e es = awe ee eww oe — oo x<— Cs = bd - —~ 2 7 eae er ee a eo «wor * “eee eee — Nh oe Z an Can Sra: ow 4 Q" ween FOU at = SSS oe —Am 6. Smee - Aer < ore SEE a ~ - - > . Oe ee ee — £. - = “ . . xO — < ~ — * ~~ _—_ . - <—™. +e 8S =: eae F “=75 ww z= e* S| FIGURE 4-31 FIGURE 4-30 (1) Wooden sculpture, about 2 m high, probably portray- ing an Owl Goddess. (Compare with West European Owl Goddess as stone stelae, fig. 7-27.) Sventoji. W Lithu- ania. (1a) detail. (2) unfinished idol, 1.68 m high. Sarnate, W Latvia, end 4th mill. Bc. - dl » s ey a! rat . wo a 608 SNS - =,se* 2 ce e = a FIGURE 4-31 Water-bird pendants carved of amber and bone. (1,2) amber pendants from Lake Lubana plain (Nainiekste and Zvid- zienas Krogs) E Latvia; (3,4) bone pendants from Tamula, Estonia. Late Narva culture. Scale 1:1. ey bed . 7a? ‘e FIGURE 4-32 FIGURE 4-32 VWWooden ladle handles in the shape of a swan or goose and hen-harrier. (1) Sarnate; (2) Sventoji: (3) Sarnate. c. 3500- 3000 B.C. Scale: (1,2) 131; Gy 12. ers - = SS . << EBERRON - a ~~ ~~— NOE esd o., Pir a - Ps Oe — eros Se CLE =. ae > = : — —— —S > o SS Se en, uel at DE YS cares TOOTTOTGO | OE ie tee us _ Lis 4/THE NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF NORTHERN EUROPE /151 Religious Symbols Insight into religious and symbolic activities is provided by large wooden poles topped by a carved human head having the features of an owl, possibly an Owl Goddess (FIGURE 4-30), bone pendants in the shape of water birds (FIGURE 4-31), wooden ladles in the shape of a duck, goose, crane, or another water bird (FIGURE 4-32}, snakes, and magnificently carved antler staves with the head of a she-elk at one end (see fig. 7-3). \ 152/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS Amber Manufacture and Trade Amber was extensively gathered and manufactured, and a number of amber workshops have been found along the Baltic coast as well as several hundred kilometers inland. Cylindrical beads, round buttons with a V-perforation, anthropomorphic pendants (FIGURE 4-33), and sculptures of water birds, elk, and bears were produced. Amber pen- dants and buttons were exchanged with people in northwestern Russia for tools and ornaments made of green schist,” while some amber products reached Finland and Sweden. Consequently, influences from northwestern Russia increased, signaled by the appearance of comb-and-pit-marked pottery sites in Estonia and eastern and northern Latvia. Amber was also a catalyst for the development of relationships with the Globular Amphora people in Poland who imported cylindrical beads, buttons, and a variety of pendants, and raw material from the Baltic Coast.*! The Appearance of Globular Amphora Patriarchal Pastoralists and the Demise of the Narva Population Around or before 3000 B.C., Globular Amphora patriarchal pastoralists entered the Narva territory. Their typical ceramics now appeared in the Nemunas culture in the East Prussia area and Belorussia, and also within the Narva settlements.* It seems that sheep and goats, horses, and perhaps millet, wheat, and plow agriculture spread into the Narva villages with the first Globular Amphora immigrants from the south, since these appear only in later Narva sites. Three wooden. hand plows were excavated at Sventoji, site No. 6. (FIGURE 4-34} The plows could not have been objects of trade, but must have been obtained through personal contacts with the people from the south since the same settlement also yielded Globular Amphora pottery.* FIGURE 4-33 ik e 2 ete ia < weit Paks Se CA a Pies ve Eon cal Bay FIGURE 4-33 Schema- tized anthropomorphic figurines of amber. Narva culture, Lithuania. (1-4) Juodkranté, (5) Sventoji. End 4th mill. B.C. Scale: 1:1. B= RY es. * a, ef ia ¢ 4 Pe aoe) oe és ~ FEL BS SY Pa de = ‘ ° ocr gere & > 5 FIGURE 4—34 FIGURE 4-34 Wooden plows from Sventoji site no. 6, Late Narva, c. 3000 B.c. L of (2) 61 cm. 4 Vp ey, ' 2 Y) » Me Ohh ne WA WA A asiwh yy Li, , 2 1% 4/THE NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF NORTHERN EUROPE /153 The transformation of the Narva culture and a gradual fusion with the Central Europeans continued through- out the first half of the 3rd millennium B.C. Narva traditions such as the build- ing of above-ground timber houses and religious symbols continued. The impor- tance of snakes, water birds, frogs, elks, and other elements of religious symbo- lism did not diminish. The persistence of Old European goddesses in Baltic mythology to this day is due to the sur- vival of the local population, evidenced by the continued presence of a specific physical anthropological type.*4 es YL FP CH IA TARTU EE I! PR TOE IES LE EES PO IP BO, RS cl 186/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS The early inhabitants of the coasts and islands of the Adriatic subsisted on small game hunting until sometime before 7000 B.C. when a transition took place to a shellfish gathering economy.’ As their navigational skills improved, intercommunication increased between the Adriatic islands and the coastal regions of southeastern Italy, western Greece, Albania, and Yugoslavia. Three open settlements found at Sidari on the northwestern tip of the island of Corfu, west of Greece, are excellent examples of influences from various areas. Each settlement, found in stratigraphic sequence, belonged to “mariners” of different origins.? The earliest Mesolithic layer, radiocarbon dated to the early 7th millennium B.C., is characterized by a thick deposition of cardium edule shells and microlithic flint tools made of a flint foreign to the island. The closest parallels are found in a series of coastal sites in southern Italy and Sicily, the coastal strip of the Adriatic in Yugoslavia, and in the northwestern Peloponnese. The next layer, described as Aegean Early Pottery Neolithic, indicates a break with the past in which the manu- facture of microliths ceased and pottery and domesticated sheep and goats appeared. The radical contrast between these two cultures suggests the arrival of a different group of people, probably from southern Greece before 6500 B.C. This site was soon abandoned, followed by a period of alluviation. Around the 64th-63rd centuries B.C., the area was occupied by people making Impresso (1.e., cardial shell impressed) pottery which was much better fired than that of the preceding occupation. The pinkish clay was tem- pered with grit and crushed flint, while the outer surfaces of these ceramics were smoothed and decorated with fingernail impressions or were stamped with a blunt instrument. Perforated lugs appeared and bases were made round or flat. The shapes, technology, and decora- tion of this pottery compare closely with those of the early Impresso Ware from western Yugoslavia. Along its entire length, the east Adriatic coast of Yugoslavia is strung with a series of Impresso sites, found also on coastal islands, which are dated within the time sequence of 6500-5500 B.C. (TABLE 17) Rock shelters on the Adri- atic coast of Yugoslavia have yielded cultural deposits ranging from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic, the latter included pottery impressed by shells, toothed stamps, or fingernails.° A second stage of development ts documented by advanced Impresso layers at Smilcié near Zadar in Dalma- tia.*? Smilcié was an open settlement of above-ground houses of wattle-and- daub construction showing evidence of domesticated sheep, goats, and cattle. Grinding stones found there may indt- cate the cultivation of plants. Large amounts of bone, antler, and chipped- stone tools were also found, as well as cardium, spondylus, and other shells. The pottery was decorated with cardium shell impressions, organized in banded panels or rocker-stamp pat- terns. Vessels are semiglobular and oval, while dishes are conical, all with flat or ring bases. They were generously tempered with sand and decorated before firing. 5/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF THE ADRIATIC AND CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN /157 pottery and sheep from across the Adri- Southern Italy (Tavoliere, atic. This area contains the highest Materano, and Sicily) concentration of Neolithic sites in Italy = iccsliadickaas (FIGURES 5-1, 5-2) which are found in e te lere of Apulia is a low caves, on lake shores, along coastal areas, plain, hemmed in by the eanene and on slight rises of the plain.5 There > and Murge PIGUET, TASES, are hundreds of open-air sites which erie to the Adriatic ah ara consisted of houses located beside com- ocation near the town o Manfredonia. pounds surrounded by C-shaped ditches. The first farmers are believed to have (FIGURES 5-3, 5-4) Larger sites, which . . / arrived here transporting Impresso FIGURE 5~1 ———<<aoe nd FIGURE 5-1 Distribution f H\( of Neolithic sites in Italy. ax Rives Po a, ' a LIGURIA Fiorano \ \\ : b ) YY \ 9 ee S~O9 Adriatic Sea SS a wee, 9 Ze ee Uy, Gargano Peninsula es CORSICA ~~ 4 : Roe KEY Sy by eS ITALY o 1. Arene Candide Sassari 2. Arnesano 5 > Ozieri 3. Diana S Q 4. Guadone 5. Molfetta ; SARDINIA Taranto 2 6. Passo di Corvo Monte Areci 7. Rendina 8. Scaloria Tyrhennian Sea 9. Serra d’Alto 9 10, Stentinello Cagliari ania & ° Pa fr Anghelu Ruju o * 5%; ¥ 2. Bonu Ighinu & er 3, Cuccuru S’/Arriu 4, Filiestru 0° * 5. Monte d’Accoddi 6. Tintirriolu 7. San Gemilianu CORSICA e% ), Araguina-Sennola 2. Basi 3. Curacchiagghiu V4 158/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 5-2 > 2 FIGURE 5-2 Distribution of Neolithic sites in Tavoliere based on aerial photography, surface = collections, test trenches, and magnetometer. Gargano (mountainous area} ~~ e & 2 @ * — Guadone ” ® e.° e @ : Grotta Scaloria é & - ; © Manfredonia ® Ge 7 @ e ° e's @ . : : e “A\ ee .* Coppa Nevigata Adiatic Ben 6 e ° ® s 2 ® . ee © 8 ° ® - ) & & ® © °° @ Passo di Corvo = * Ce @ - ° & © Ye °* Foggia e 6 x. . 8 ¢ °° cor ® e @ ® e ® . 2 Je e @ e ®@ @ © “ e@ e ® = e ® e e awe. ; La Quercia is o "ee “ot 7 ek a ©, ¢@Lagnano ®@ @ = ° @ gx? ®Rendina ey a 0 10 km ——————— KEY @® More important excavated sites e Known from aerial photos, surface collections, test trenches, and magnetometer readings 5/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF THE ADRIATIC AND CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN /159 FIGURE 5-3 FIGURE 5-4 eaummees Ditches @ Excavated areas atte eater ery FIGURE 5-3 Plan of Lag- nano | settlement with four ditches around and four C-shaped ditches within the area. Tavoliere, SE Italy. Early 6th mill B.c. SSS FIGURE 5-4 Passo di Corvo town near Foggia surrounded by a ditch. C shapes are outlines of ditches of the home- steads. The outer ditch is approximately 1 km across. (The plan Is based on aerial photography). are few, daté from the Middle Neolithic (2nd half of the 6th millennium BC.) and contain several to a hundred or more compounds. These unusual concentra- tions were first noticed in 1943 by British army officer John Bradford when the Royal Air Force flew many photo- graphic sorties. He noted the discovery of “one of the densest concentrations of prehistoric settlements yet known in Europe.” Approximately one thousand sites on the Tavoliere were identified from the air. In 1978-79, I personally witnessed this incredible density of ditched villages when I worked with a magne- tometer and a UCLA team in the area between the Cervaro and Ofanto rivers. In several weeks we identified 75 ditched settlements. The magnetometer recorded the ditches since almost all that once belonged to farmsteads— pottery, stone and bone tools, and ani- mal bones—was washed down into them. Unfortunately we cannot recon- struct the houses, temples, and their furniture, as in east-central Europe and the Balkans, since very little remained in situ. 160/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS Ditched Villages Radiocarbon dates for the early Impresso settlements established near the coast are from approximately the middle of the 7th millennium B.C.’ (TABLE 17) It is possible that these earliest communities were not practicing farming and only gradually ventured inland to explore the possibilities of agriculture. A distinctive farming culture of ditched villages was eventually developed. The Tavoliere and Materano plains near the town of Matera were occupied during the second Impresso stage. These sites are generally found near areas of crosta soil, with access to animal pasturage. The calcarious stratum called crosta® is resistant to water penetration and is usually found on slight rises or hillocks. It is light to work and relatively fertile. In contrast, alluvial soils are found in valley bottoms and in coastal areas. . The large Neolithic village of Passo. di Corvo, composed of one hundred hut compounds surrounded by triple ditches, is on the crest of a low Tavoliere ridge, overlooking the Celone valley.® This site and the one kilometer territory around it are nearly 100 percent crosta, and fur- ther territory within a five kilometer radius includes 65 percent heavy allu- vium, conducive to pastoral exploitation. Crop species identified at Impresso pottery sites, such as Rendina in the Ofanto valley, include einkorn, emmer, free threshing wheat, spelt wheat, six- row barley, broad beans, and lentils. The Middle Neolithic Passo di Corvo site yielded similar species including wild oats.'° An analysis of animal bones has shown the overwhelming majority of domestic animals in comparison to wild ones. Five domestic species have been found: sheep, goats, cattle, pigs, and dogs, with the caprovines as the domi- nant group.!! The occurrence of so many ditches around the hamlets and C-shaped ditches within the compounds remains a puzzle. Until recently, these ditches were believed to have protected dwell- ings or enclosed animals. Neither explanation seems to fit, however, since dwellings were outside the ditches and the compounds were too small to serve as corrals. Rendina, dating from the early centuries of the 6th millennium B.C. (TABLE 17, southern Italy}, revealed two dwellings next to the C-shaped ditches.'? It is possible that these ditches, which are sometimes three to four meters deep, could have served to drain and collect water in the rainy win- ter months and in May just before the summer drought. The Atlantic climate of that period was about 1° C warmer than at present, accompanied by increased precipitation. On the other hand, wells about six meters deep are found in settlements, indicating that the water table was not beyond the reach of Neolithic technology.’ It appears that a C-ditch did not enclose individual farm- steads but served other purposes. Houses can only be vaguely recon- structed. At Rendina, post holes were found around a sunken oval area having fragments of clay daub. The excavator, Cipolloni Sampo, has reconstructed two houses, one 8 m long and the other 12 m long and approximately 4 m wide. The larger house had two rooms with an entrance on the lateral side. Excavations at Passo di Corvo by Santo Tiné yielded a house with a stone foundation up to 45 cm high. This house had an apsidal end which was separated by a partition wall from the rest of the house. (FIGURE 5-5, tentative reconstruction} Since nothing was found within, the function of the end room is not clear, and we do not know if this arrangement was the norm. In the same Passo di Corvo settle- ment, circular or oval platforms of about 2 m in diameter were found which could have served as floors for small huts. At Molfetta, a settlement west of Bari, forty oval beaten-clay floors, 2-4 m in diameter, were found in an area of one- quarter hectare during excavations by Mosso in 1908-9.'* Small hut floors are reported from several other settlements, so it seems that they were floors of regular dwellings. The two-roomed houses could have served ritual purposes as in the Sesklo culture in Greece. Communities were composed of hamlets of up to ten or more dwellings. Large villages are not found before the middle of the 6th millennium B.C., after which, there was a marked increase in population. Large villages such as Passo di Corvo housed at one time about 200 inhabitants.'5 The digging of deep ditches must have involved well- organized communal labor. At Passo di Corvo, the external ditches, which served for protection against wild animals, run for 5 km and are 5 m wide and 4 m deep. Tiné has calculated that their excavation involved the removal of some 100,000 cubic meters of material. 5/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF THE ADRIATIC AND CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN FIGURE 5-5 /161 ee ee FIGURE 5-5 fwo-room Structure with an apsidal end, from Passo di Corvo settlement near Foggia. Plan with remains of cobbled stone pavement and stretches of drystone walling. Attempted reconstruction by S. Tine, 1983. c. 5500- 5300 B.c. Mis ean eps COOOAN YOY! eo Y) iS Sais ay Ze Bay ey Bhi Ve) ' Pd pay Pei # eee TOA bent - C ~~ ~ * <A, ey = "4 oe . ; _ % Z > iS So: " Pies 2 bes Kiss > “as > as “Ss a 4 s +. 2&. fin] A its 2 “Sa _. uae. Se a Dore | Weyer) Rae = eh = a RNR “ee ieee : . aba = 2 =. = . ‘ Sy tt \s eechio 5 Sr agaS > oor a a Sent ee at be ct | ham =o a = - ; eS — eae Ae- y - Z * % es cS eS. J hon $94 Ke : rf q ? co OD Te. Ee 'yig PX ap a eye Soe LE > APES ; TERY ae Nene Moet OLA, PS hae Sean QO WOW ewan bee \ 1V a cs 2° ‘ ad 162/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS = is Viva A \\; 6600800000000 90 00600000009 0 oooe IW ——— FIGURE 5-6 Pottery typol- ogy of Tavoliere, SE Italy. Four periods within 6500-5000 B.c. (1) Early Impresso, cardium shell and nail or-stick impressed; (2) Second stage of Impresso with organized design, im- pressed, incised, and white or red encrusted; (3) Incised and painted in red, dark brown, or black; (4) Great variety of shapes, red band or red edged with black painted; (1-4) from Passo di Corvo, (4a) from Scaloria cave. 5/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF THE ADRIATIC AND CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN /163 Chronology and Pottery Sequence Pottery that survives from ditched villages is our prime means for chrono- logical classification of settlements, especially if combined with radiocarbon dates. Four periods have been distin- guished between 6500 and 5000 BC. which mirror a constant development of ceramic art and technology within the Neolithic of southern Italy. The earliest examples of impressed ware from around the middle of the 7th millennium BC. are large bag-shaped vessels and spherical and semispherical jars and bowls. These were decorated before firing with the edges of shells, the ends of sticks, or by pinching with the fingertips. (FIGURE 5-6, 1) The next stage, which coincides with. the spread of ditched villages in Tavo- liere, Materano, and Sicily at the end of the 7th and early 6th millenniurn B.C., is Late Impresso, in which shapes became more varied and elements of design and symbols appeared. (FIGURE 5-6, 2) Fine ware was medium thick and brown- burnished, decorated by incision, incrustation, and rocker stamps. Motifs expressed on this fine ware include triangles, chevrons, lozenges, frogs, vulvas, vertical and horizontal zigzag’ bands, and bands formed by groups of striations. Anthropomorphic vases, handled stamps, and female anthropo- morphic and zoomorphic figurines were also created at this time. (FIGURE 5-7) A considerable enrichment of the repertoire of shapes and decoration on ceramics took place during the third phase of this development which included the introduction of painting in red and dark brown or black-on-buff. Triangles, chevrons, striated and net- patterned triangles, bands, lozenges and discs, and bands of parallel lines that appeared (FIGURE 5-6, 3} are generally related to the design patterns and sym- bols of the Sesklo and Staréevo cultures of c. 5800-5500 B.C. The fourth phase is distinguished by the introduction of red-band painting, black- and brown-burnishing of fine ware, and by the introduction of cari- nated and square-mouthed pots. These peculiar pots suggest contacts with northern Italy and France. During this phase, red bands became edged in black on a background of buff or white. (FIGURE 5-6, 4) The most numerous examples of this type are from the cave of Scaloria at Manfredonia, south of the Gargano Peninsula. Here, fragments of 1,500 vases were recovered, decorated with symbols of regeneration: triangles, butterflies, plant shoots, suns, and snakes (see fig. 7-114). Radiocarbon dates place this period in the second half of the 6th millennium B.C. (TABLE 17, bottom left) To this Scaloria period belongs the large ditched village of Passo di Corvo. Tavoliere was nearly abandoned after the Scaloria period, but life continued to flourish in Materano, Calabria, Apulia, Sicily, and north of the Gargano Penin- sula in the Abruzzi. North of Matera is the Late Neolithic village of Serra d’Alto, famous for its figulina pottery. Figulina is an unusually delicate pottery made of compact clay of an orange buff or creamy color which is smoothly pol- ished, either left plain or painted in dark brown or red. It is unlikely that its refinement could have been achieved without fine kiln firing. 164/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS ee iGURE 5-7 FIGURE 5-7 Characteris- tic finds from Late Impresso stage of the Early Neolithic in SE Italy. (1) Fragment of a sculp- ture of a seated God: dess. (2) Goddess, face on the neck of a vase. (3, 4) Impressed symbolic designs (frog, tri-lines, triangles) on bowls, and (5) handled seals. Ren- dina, near Melfi, Ofanto valley, c. 6100-5800 Bc. (Illustrated objects are from several phases of the settlement). Scale: (1) 1:45 @) 1:1: BA) . Tid (5):.273. en we FIGURE 5-8 Serra d‘Alto (figulina) cups with fan- tastic Zoomorphic han- dles. Painting dark brown on buff. Matera, § Italy. Mid-5th mill. B.C. a i FIGURE 5-9 (1) Egg- shaped rock-cut tomb with a crouched skele- ton; (2) An owl-masked figurine of calcareous rock and (3-4) rounded vases with red-slipped surface were placed in the grave. Arnesano near Lecce, Apulia. End 5th-early 4th mill. BC. had Wy 4 ven! ora galas 2 y1eetett ik pry é 4 a Es om in\ SEOOULITITET (1) TR AT yal ily “(4 . b a ¥. v ua Sy * b 24 Ba ‘wiy bah . v: Pp $ as ie ed y \4 Ries . The Serra d‘Alto figulina pottery of the middle of the 5th millennium BC. (TABLE 17, middle left) is the most attractive Neolithic pottery of Italy. Zones of triangles, meanders, zigzags, and other geometric motifs decorate the bulbous part of the vases, but the most distinctive feature is the surprisingly inventive three dimensional moulding of the handles, in which a ram, bull, or other fantastic animal head or spirals are found attached to the handle top. (FIGURE 5-8, PLATE 17) Figulina vases were exported to Liguria, the River Po valley, across the Adriatic to the Butmir culture in Bosnia, and to the south as far as Malta. These vases must have been prized for their quality and aesthetic perfection, but it is also possible that some liquid substance such as wine or oil was traded in them since the predom- inant vessel shapes are narrow necked jars.!’ Their proliferation could have been linked with the trade in obsidian from the island of Lipari north of Sicily and from Sardinia.!8 Jade axes from the north Alpine region are found in south- ern Italy and Sicily, while jade and steatite rings are found in Sardinia, testifying to the wide range of trade circulation during that time. The final Neolithic pottery of south- ern Italy, widely spread over Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily, is unpainted, red slipped, with cylindrical or trumpet- shaped handles labeled “Diana ware” after a find place on the island of Lipari. It is also called “Bellavista type” after a site northwest of Taranto. The fantastic Serra d/Alto type handles and rich geometric designs disappeared. The emphasis was focused, instead, on the roundness of the vessels and their bril- liantly shining surfaces. (PLATE 18) Shining red vases were placed in egg- shaped rock-cut tombs next to schemati- cally rendered figurines representing the Death Goddess. At Arnesano near Lecce in Apulia, a figurine of calcareous rock with an owl mask and triple chevron, with the lower body reduced to a cone, was placed in a tomb in front of a crouched skeleton. (FIGURE 5-9) The Diana period is within the end of the 5th and early part of the 4th millennium BC. (TABLE 17, 17-20} 5/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF THE ADRIATIC AND CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN FIGURE 5-8 FIGURE 5-9 /165 166/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS Sardinia and Corsica al rom prehistoric times, Sardinia and Corsica have been stepping — “~ stones between the central and western Mediterranean world. Much of the traffic between southern and northern Italy and southern France was through these islands, continually bringing elements from the mainland, preventing the culture of these islands from becoming insular. During the 5th and 4th millennia BC., their culture, par- ticularly that of Sardinia, was astonish- ingly rich and distinctive, with their own ceramic and sculptural art and truly amazing tomb architecture. As in southern and central Italy, the agricultural life on the islands began toward the end of the 7th millennium B.C. during the Impresso Pottery period. The earliest radiocarbon dated materials in stratified caves, such as Basi and oth- ers in southern Corsica,!° and Filiestru, Mara, in northern Sardinia,”° are char- acterized by the advanced Impresso pottery. Mariners who settled these islands are presumed to have come from Tuscany across the Tyrrhenian Sea, where sites with similar pottery are known. Although acquainted with emmer and einkorn wheat and domesti- cated animals, the first settlers lived in cave shelters and were more hunters, fishermen, and shell collectors than pure farmers. Their economy was largely based on shellfish, fish, hunted animals, and the raising of domestic animals. Obsidian Source in Sardinia Sardinia had flourished on its obsidian. Obsidian tools are found on both islands from the earliest Neolithic settlements and throughout all later periods. Ob- sidian was the main trade item with southern France, Liguria, the Alpine region, and even across the Adriatic with Bosnia. The source area is Monte Arci near Oristano in west-central Sardinia. This obsidian-rich mountain was researched more than thirty years ago by Puxeddu who located four quarries on the mountainside, ten collecting centers, a number of workshops, and 162 sites which yielded obsidian tools and nuclei.2! Monte Arci produces trans- lucent (type A) and opaque (type B} obsidian. The translucent type was used in the Early Neolithic of the islands, although this gradually diminished in later periods and was supplanted by the opaque variety. Chronology and Cultural Sequence An unbroken cultural sequence on these islands is subdivided into Early, Middle, and Late Neolithic. The key site for understanding this cultural succession is the stratified and radiocarbon dated Filiestru rock shelter excavated by David Trump in 1980. This site revealed six superimposed cultural layers from approximately 6000 to 3000 B.C. Another cave in the same Bonu Ighinu valley at Sa Ucca de Su Tintirriolu, also excavated by Trump, yielded stratified deposits of Middle (Bonu Ighinu) and Late (Ozieri] Neolithic.” Both the Impresso and the following Filiestru layer which contin- ued Impresso traditions are considered Early Neolithic, covering the 6th mil- lennium BC. (FIGURE 5-10; TABLE 17, Sardinia) In the middle part of the 5th millen- nium BC., during the Middle Neolithic, caves were abandoned as permanent habitations and villages were estab- lished. Increased farming activities are indicated by carbonized barley and wheat grains. Bonu Ighinu pottery was well burnished and of more varied forms than during the Early Neolithic. In addi- tion to globular shapes, vases and cups appeared with elaborated handles, some- times zoomorphic, reminiscent of the fantastic Serra d’Alto style. Impressed, dotted, and incised designs include sym- bols such as horns and vulvas, as well as mythical figures. (FIGURE 5-11) Oven or egg-shaped rock-cut tombs are distinctive of this period. In the tombs, Stiff Nude figurines of a particularly Sardinian style, have been found placed in front of the dead. Sculptures of this type, made of alabaster, soft stone, or clay, display an amazing sculptural harmony and are found in all parts of Sardinia. (FIGURE 5-12) They are usually from 10 to 20 cm in height. One sculp- ee FIGURE 5-10 Sardinian Early Neolithic vases. (1) Globular vase with shell impressed neck and han- dles with a Bird God- dess’s face on each handle. Grotta Verde de Alghero, NW Sardinia, c. 6000 B.c. H 24.5 cm. (2) Plain rounded vases with perforated lugs from the Filiestru rock Shelter (second Neolithic stratum). Scale, 1:3 | FIGURE 5-11 Middle Neolithic (Bonu Ighinu) vase and handle decora- tion. (1) Snake heads with a long mouth shown in relief on top of the handle. Filiestru cave. (2) Vase decorated with triangles and horns and with zoomorphic han- dles. The central motif in dotted technique proba- bly represents a bucra- nium or vulva and bull horns, a typical symbol of regeneration. Grotta Rifugio di Oliena. Scale, c., (22. 5/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF THE ADRIATIC AND CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN /167 FIGURE 5-10 FIGURE 5-11 gyre lentes, . ' gen i “4 * hy a* ™ ~ = 36 = reevereays® cn eo 4% “ ebhes & % ry ee ‘ ‘ so © Ogee. Se «8 . Meer OPFFOPderrer seg, e.,..16 ‘te ’ .? ‘ ewe Vg as S em ¢ , Be > He ° Te ie Ste, CPt Me eeas, Wie ese Geeks Oe Gio SS 9 « “ Pegeuaat’ i ! I / t 168/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 5-12. «FIGURE 5-13 FIGURE 5-12 The rotund Sardinian seated nude of alabaster shown with folded arms and wear- ing a hairdress. Middle Neolithic period, Bonu ighinu, Su Cungiau de Marcu (Decimoputzu), Cagliari, Sardinia; mid- Sth mill. 8c. H 18.5 cm. FIGURE 5-13 Stone sculpture with Bird God- dess mask (typically with long nose, eyebrows, and no mouth), and a zigzag band around the neck. Middle Neolithic, Bonu Ighinu culture, mid-5th mill. 6.c. Sa Mandara, Cagliari. FIGURE 5-14 Late Neolithic Ozieri vases with richly decorated exterior and interior; c. 4000 Bc. (1) Cuccuru Arrius, (2) Pauli Fenu- Riola, (3) Conca Illonis, (4) Grotta di sa Uca de Su Tintirriolu di Mara, (5) Puisteris, C Sardinia. ture of the same Bonu Ighinu style was found holding a baby (her provenance unfortunately is unknown). To the same period, but not to the graves, belong large stone sculptures with faces or masks of the Bird Goddess, identified by her large nose, eyebrows, and no mouth. (FIGURE 5-13} The late Neolithic Ozieri culture of the end of the 5th and early 4th millen- nium BC. is the burgeoning period. (TABLE 17, Ozieri} The first Ozieri sites were discovered in the 19th century (Grotta di Bartolomeo near Cagliari in 1878) and early 20th century. The famous necropolis of underground tombs at Anghelu Ruju, Alghero, was excavated in 1904-1908, and the name-giving site, Grotta di San Michele at Ozieri in the central part of northwest Sardinia, was discovered in 1914.73 The almost triple number of Ozieri sites, compared to those of the Middle Neolithic, speak of a rapid growth of population with large concentrations of settlements and tombs in the Cagliari area, the southwestern part of the island, Oristano, and Sassari. Large villages occur for the first time. At San Gemilianu di Sestu, 14 kilome- ters north of Cagliari, rescue excavations came across more than eighty lowered house floors, oval or rectangular, about 8-10 m in length, scattered on an allu- vial terrace 220 by 200 m in size.** This large village dates from the Ozieri and several later phases. The actual size of a single period village remains unknown. The Ozieri culture is characterized by an extraordinary richness of vase shapes—amphorae, jars, canisters, bowls, dishes, vase supports, tripods, tetrapods, vessels with animal protomes—deco- rated by incision and impression with a great variety of symbols—oculi, suns, ram horns, snakes, chevrons, triangles— ritual scenes (FIGURES 5-14, 5-15) The pictorial representations on Ozieri vases are a rich and eloquent source for the reconstruction of religious rituals, simi- lar in value to Late Cucuteni pictorial painting of the same period. FIGURE 5-14 5/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF THE ADRIATIC AND CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN /169 170/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 5-15 1 fiftrm tas OVATAMAT EM EOE IVD Mpa S| MAUR Lege WME SONS ALSU Dap eae tans SCAN UU EEN Gee SALT te \ahied FHL ill PU Gas fe Usa ee ecaiy gy prey thay ta bee bu C ta pi SAA SY ly ee SOC FIGURE 5-16 FIGURE 5-17 | FIGURE 5-16 Marble sculpture from Senorbi, of ry north of Cagliari, Sar- ~ dinia. An abstracted image of the Goddess of Death and Regeneration with folded arms. A V sign is engraved above sr her breasts. Her ab- stracted face Is repre- sented by the nose © © (or beak) alone. Ozieri culture. Tentative date, c, 4000 B.C. H 42.2 cm. sr FIGURE 5-17 Marble stat- ues of Porto Ferro type representing The God- dess of Death and Regeneration. Early 4th mill. B.C. found ina subterranean tomb. 1 (1) Porto Ferro. H 30 cm; (2) Monte d‘Accoddi sanctuary; Sassari, N Sardinia. H 23 cm. el FIGURE 5-15 Mythical images and ritual scenes | incised on Ozieri vases. (1) Two figures with radi- ating suns for heads and Striated squares as bodies. Serra Is Araus, | San Vero Milis. Found in a subterranean tomb. (2) A scene of a ritual dance. Five hourglass- shaped maidens holding hands incised on the interior of a dish. Monte d‘Accoddi sanctuary, Sassari. Scale, c. 1:3; c, 4000 Bc. The celebrated Ozieri marble and alabas- ter sculptures found in tombs are White Death Goddesses with the lower part reduced to a cone, while the arms are folded in the upper part forming a rec- tangle. (FIGURES 5-16, 5-17} The head is schematized showing only the nose, or is round, representing a mask. The abstract Sardinian Nudes described in earlier literature were thought to be imported from or influenced by the Cycladic art of the early or mid-3rd millennium B.C., but these Sardinian Nudes predate the Cycladic by more than a millennium and must have been a local innovation. The image of the White Death Goddess in each region has deep local roots and its own stylistic evolution. The Ozieri culture’s most remarkable creations are the subterranean tombs, locally called Domus de Janas, “witches houses,” hundreds of which can be visited in northern Sardinia. (FIGURE 5-18) The simplest are single oval (egg-shaped) rooms, while others are elaborate complexes of halls and cham- bers. (FIGURE 5-19} The roofs are sup- ported by pillars, and bull heads or horns are frequently shown in relief above the entrances (see fig. 7-109}. Red, purple, and yellow ochre were used for painting outer and inner walls and ceilings, while the interiors are decorated with symbols of regeneration: vulvas, bucrania, triple vulvas, hourglass shapes (double trian- gles), ram horns, and oculi. These elaborate underground structures are temple tombs (i.e., as sacred as temples) not just graves, rightly termed so by Atzeni in 1981.25 We shall return to these in the section on burials at the end of chapter 7. FIGURE 5-18 = . ® 2 G- + 2 ; oS 5/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF THE ADRIATIC AND CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN FIGURE 5-18 Plan of {171 Anghelu Ruju cemetery of subterranean tombs. Alghero, NW Sardinia. Ozieri period, c. 4000 B.c. 172/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 5-19 ) s\ LE: a Ze A’ LPM AT t p=: we! e ffz2 ae, Rf f’ 2 ~- a * eat b gO N oe aS NS Sas e ; Tt = ae = = ‘ BONE i Rar en ten FIGURE 5-19 Outlines and reconstruction of multichambered tombs of northern Sardinia. (1) S. Andrea Priu; Bonorva; (2) M. Petrusu- Ploaghe; (3-5) Coro- neddu, Bosa. Ozieri period, around 4000 Bc. Malta islets of Camino, Cominotto, and Filfla, lies some 80 km south of Sicily. (FIGURE he Maltese archipelago, com- posed of the larger islands of Malta and Gozo and three tiny 5-20) On a clear day, Sicily is visible from Malta, so it is obvious that the experienced navigators of the Impresso Ware culture had no difficulty discover- ing these islands. The first farmers settled in Malta in the 6th millennium B.C. during the advanced stage of the Impresso period, around the time they settled in Sicily. These were mixed farmers living in villages, rearing sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs, and cultivating wheat, barley, and lentils. The islands were not as barren 8,000 years ago as they are today and agriculture was possi- ble. These first pioneers were drawn to these islands by the abundance of work- able stone—specifically coralline and soft globigerina limestone. The use of this durable stone played an essential and decisive role in the formation of the Maltese culture, famous for its monu- mental temples built without metal tools. The stone architecture of Malta continues to astonish investigators after several centuries. Discovery There are 43 temples recorded, 9 on Gozo and 34 on Malta, all built of either coralline or globigerina limestone of unhewn blocks weighing up to 30 tons, including blocks of ashler masonry, and orthostats. Some of these remarkable monuments were noticed as early as the 17th century with no idea of what they represented. Even in the 19th century there was not much understanding of their significance. Ggantija, the first temple to be excavated in 1827, was described by C. Mazzara in Paris as a “Temple ante-Diluvien des Géants” (Ante-diluvian Temple of Giants}. When two more temples, Hagar Qim and Mnajdra, were unearthed in 1839 and 1840, they were considered to be Phoenician monuments. 5/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF THE ADRIATIC AND CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN /173 Only in 1901 were the Maltese excavations in the 1920s by Zammit and temples assessed for the first time tobe _ British archeologist Margaret Murray prehistoric monuments in the work by and others. Albert Mayr “Die vorgeschichtlichen The first general account of the pre- Denkmialer von Malta” (The Prehistoric _ historic cultures of Malta was written by Monuments of Malta}, a shorter version _J. D. Evans in 1959.6 and an extensive of which was translated into English, survey by the same author appeared in appearing in 1908. More professional 1971.?’ In the postwar period, the only work started with Themistocles Zam- major discovery was the temple and mit, Director of the Malta Museum, and _ settlement at Skorba by D. Trump.”8 under his direction the excavation of the Coincidental with this excavation was famous Hypogeum of Hal Saflieni, the radiocarbon dating of a series of sam- accidently discovered in 1902, was com- __ ples from Skorba and other sites that pleted and published in 1911. In 1914-19, provided the possibility of revising the Zammit excavated Tarxien, the largest long and nebulous chronology of these and richest temple of Malta. This was monuments. followed by a number of other significant FIGURE 5-20 PR oan a FIGURE 5-20 Map of ee Malta and Gozo. Santa Verna e e@ Ggantija COMINO > A COMINOTTO Bugibba Xemxija Tombs e @ 2 Tal Qadi .° Ta Hagrat (Mgarr] Skorba Hal Saflieni “ « Korbin Zebbug Tombs ¢ Se e Tarxien MALTA Hagar Qim Ghar Dalam e @ @ Borg-in-Nadur Mnajdra © FILFLA ISLAND in| 174/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS Chronological Chart for Malta Calibrated Dates 8.c. c. 2500 c. 3000 Tarxien | | c. 4000 Mgarr c. 4500 Skorba i Temples: Tarxien, Borg in-Nadur, Hagar Qim, Mnajdra S., Hal Saflieni Hypogeum Temples: Ggantija, Mnajdra E., Skorba W., Korbin, Bugibba, Santa Verna. Hal Saflieni Hypogeum. Xemxija and Zebbug tombs Red Skorba temple Gray Skorba site c, 5000 Ghar Dalam Ghar Dalam cave sanctuary c, 6000 Chronology At present, the Neolithic caves, tombs, and temples of Malta, from the 6th to the 3rd millennia B.C., are roughly clas- sified into seven phases. The temples of Malta belong to the 5th, 4th, and early 3rd millennia BC. This chronological sequence is given in the chart below, while radiocarbon dates are listed in Table 17, right column. _ Cave Sanctuaries The first ritual centers on Malta were its caves. By the time the first immigrants came to these islands, the Old European expression of human spirituality was in full flower, and the equation of cave to temple was already established. It is probable that the doming and vaulting of some of the natural caves (as at Ghajn Abul on western Gozo and Mixta on central Gozo) reflects this attitude. The cave at Ghar Dalam on southeast- ern Malta represents one of the earliest temples. Brown, grey, or buff round- based bowls and globular jars have been found there decorated with impressions and linear patterns: bands formed by two to four parallel lines, diagonally hatched Impressed Ware or crosshatched, and by hatched trian- gles with plain chevrons. Many pots were encrusted with white gypsum. Numerous phallic shaped stalagmites and stalactites are found there, appar- ently considered sacred as symbols of mysterious energy. Very likely, regenera- tion rites were performed in the cave. Rock-cut Tombs and Hypogea The earliest Maltese rock-cut tombs are egg- or kidney-shaped, found at Zebbug and Xemxija. The Zebbug tombs are small, about 1.9 m in diameter, whereas the Xemxija tombs are larger, averaging about 3.5 m in width. (FIGURE 5-21) These Maltese rock-cut tombs are gener- ally related to those of Sardinia and southern Italy. The presence of lobed or egg-shaped tombs in Malta has a special significance since they are considered to prefigure the temples with their lobed interiors. Among the grave goods, which included lumps of red ochre, shells, and buttons, a limestone head was found at ZebLEug with a mask engraved in low relief. (FIGURE 5-22) This is an early por- trayal of a divinity associated with the tomb, a Goddess of Death and Regenera- tion, which in a later period of Sardinia and the Cyclades, became the slim, stiff nude. Her mask bears characteristics of a bird of prey. Fragments of pottery were also found incised with anthropo- morphic stick figures having large trian- gular heads. (FIGURE 5-23) Skeletons were found in fetal positions with large amounts of red ochre on and around them. The largest accumulation of egg- shaped underground tombs is the famous hypogeum at Hal Saflieni in eastern Malta near the temple of Tarxien (see fig. 7-104) in which the dead were buried from the 4th millennium BC. until the end of the Maltese culture around 2500 B.C. (A discussion of the symbols of regeneration found in the hypogea of Malta will be discussed in the Burial section of chapter 7.) The Temples of Malta J.D. Evans was the first to recognize the relationship between tombs and tem- ples, an observation that is crucial for the understanding of their meaning and functions. The lobes of the tombs became apses in temple architecture. Several earlier temples, such as Ta Hagrat, are trefoil, while the majority are four- or five-apse temples which have an anthropomor- phic shape similar to that of the fat Maltese Goddess sculptures. This formal relationship is not accidental. Originally, however, the shape of the temple resem- bled an egg as the Goddess’s womb, while the human shape was a secondary devel- opment during the 4th millennium BC. Like the egg-shaped, rock-cut tombs {as in Xemxija}) from which they derive, the Maltese temples symbolize the Goddess’s body itself, emphasizing her regenerative buttocks. Their entrances have a primarily southeastern alignment which, given the half-degree shift per hundred years of the precession of the earth's axis, probably indicate an original north-south alignment. Forecourts formed circular or elliptical shapes, with the concave temple facade and its tril1- thon entry at the focal point. Although most of the surrounding walls have now disappeared, there is plenty of evidence 5/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF THE ADRIATIC AND CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN /175 FIGURE 5-21 = 17.0% rie Ty ~ my f) SFE , FIGURE 5-22 Limestone sculpture found in a rock-cut tomb. Zebbug, tomb 5. End 5th mill. 8.0/4 13,56: FIGURE 5-23 Stick fig- ures with large triangu- lar heads incised and white encrusted on vases deposited in rock- cut tombs. Zebbug, tomb 4. End 5th mill. B.C. FIGURE 5-23 FIGURE 5-21 Kidney- shaped rock-cut tombs. Xemxija, Malta. Plans and cross-sections. End Sth mill. B.c. Ly 176/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS that they were a regular feature, deliber- ately conceived for times of public assembly. It seems reasonable to suppose that these activities would have in- cluded offerings, religious ceremonies, and festive activities including music and dancing. Many forecourts, including those at Tarxien, Hagar Qim, and Mnajdra, have a huge perforated stone near the temple entry, interpreted as a tethering block. If such stones were used in this way, their scale implies the sacrifice of cattle. Typically, the temples occur in pairs, with one significantly larger than the other. The alignment here is significant, and we may suppose the larger temple to be the mother and the smaller the daughter of the divine family, or we may see them as a pair of sisters, perhaps like the two-headed goddesses from Catal Hitytik (c. 6500 B.C.) and the two-headed Bird Goddess from Gomolava (Vinéa, c. 4800 B.C.}. Still another possibility. is that the representation is of two differ- ent aspects of the same Goddess, symbolizing youth and maturity, or death and regeneration. Since the east symbolized the begin- ning of life and the west its end, this later interpretation is very appealing. More religious material and furniture is found in the larger, western temples, and we may suppose that most rituals having to do with death and regenera- tion took place there. These were stuc- coed or painted in red, which has long disappeared, and are built of darker brownish-red limestone. Ceremonies celebrating birth may have been divided between the smaller temples, while spring rituals of regeneration may have taken place there and in the tombs. These eastern temples tend to feel more open spatially and are built of the lighter colored limestone. The main temples of Malta are introduced below. Each temple seems to have had its own emphasis. One of the oldest, from the 5th millennium B.C., is Red Skorba, but it is too ruined to offer much architectural information. Of interest are clay and stone figurines found in this shrine wearing triangular masks with a nose indicated and a dot for a mouth. They have long necks, large breasts, the shelflike posteriors of a bird and a large pubic triangle, and wear a cinch belt and necklaces. (FIGURE 5-24) These features clearly portray the Bird Goddess, while the posture and attributes of these sculp- tures have close analogies to Early Vinéa culture. The quintessential double temple is the complex at Ggantija on central Gozo. (FIGURE 5-25} An outer wall of rough, undressed coralline limestone blocks encircles both temples, rising to a height of 6 meters. Some blocks weigh 50 tons and are among the largest used for temple building in Malta. The inter- nal walls and doorways are of dressed globigerina limestone. The larger temple was found with elaborate furniture. Some of the charac- teristic details: Apse 2, the first chamber to the right inside the shrine, contained a red-painted niche of slabs, probably important for ritual practice or storage of sacred goods. Toward the back of the room are several blocks decorated with interconnected spirals in low relief. Apse 5, the eastern arm, has in it a shallow stone basin, 1 meter in diameter, which appears to have been a ritual hearth. Against the southeast end of this apse is a pillar on which is carved a snake in low relief (see fig. 7-61}. Apse 6 served as an interior triple shrine (see fig. 5-25, 2). It contained three table altars and a trapezoidal slab set upright like a pillar. Apse 7, with tall limestone slabs, has the main altar in front decorated with pit marks. Other temples on Gozo also belong to the Ggantija phase. The amount of terri- tory available per temple was 7.4 square kilometers. FIGURE 5-24 FIGURE S-24 Terracotta figurine with large breasts, supernatural vulva, and pronounced birdlike posteriors wear- ing a triangular mask and a cinch belt. Found in the temple of Skorba, Malta, mid-5th mill. B.c. Scale, 1:1. 5/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF THE ADRIATIC AND CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN /177 FIGURE 5-25 | 5 snare FIGURE 5-25 (1) The double temple of Ggan- tija, Gozo. First half of the 4th mill. B.c. (2) The triple shrine in the interior of Apse 6. > ® Te Fs te, OS te §. SOOT og er 8 s5 nfs ee wh te" Pod ey teu? te % bP * ** 5 Soy CSoi passe "“%? 3) ses * Ger . Xe be fe ‘, is ar < “A 0 10m Fite iy we De Sep oy Oy ete a” a, Pee tie WN ise aes 5 ih “ine wes bat] a FF Oe a vege “+ a“ SE AECA 20 a gota Obs ‘ae Piet ed eote . EIN co ae ° ets . ° ee - 5 > Parr Bau Pre c \ 243 oes Fe ett . oe Moe ° ee aa: ‘ . . - . - - - * . . . * . >t ae - . = . . . 178/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS Hagar Qim is one of the most impres- sive temples of the Tarxien period, located on the southern coast of Malta. (FIGURE 5-26, PLATE 20) It has a well- preserved surrounding wall of globige- rina limestone, a facade of vertical slabs, ten apses, inner slabs with rectangular windowlike openings, and stone altars. It also has the best known Maltese stone sculptures of seated, squatting, and standing fat ladies. These show remains of ochre paint, and stand about 20 cm high. (PLATE 21) This temple is situated on a knoll overlooking the sea just above the Mnajdra temple. In its shape, Hagar Qim differs from Ggantija and Mnajdra since it may have been a complex of three double-apsed shrines. The main entrance was on the southeast, but the western and northern shrines also had their own entrances. There was a small semicircular niche of vertical slabs built into the thickness of the eastern wall of vertical slabs, also entered from the outside. This housed a triangular altar stone, a pubic triangle symbolizing regeneration. North of this holy site and north of Apse 5 is a very tall upright stone that juts out above all the other temple construction, a tower- ing menhir very likely representing the Goddess herself. On the left of the main (southern) entrance to the back, stood a sacrificial tablelike altar topped with a container and decorated in front with a tree of life growing from a pot. Its sur- face had a pitted decoration, character- istic of Maltese temples. Next to it, a FIGURE 5-26 FIGURE 5-26 Plan of Hagar Qim temple. Southern coast of Malta. End of 4th mill. B.c. standing slab with a double spiral or “oculi” design was found. Two niches in the central courtyard contained mushroom shaped limestone altars with concave tops. Two further rooms in this central area housed pitted table altars and a stone pillar. Another pillar stood at the end of the apse of room 10, the southwestern shrine. A typical double temple with semi- circular forecourt of coralline limestone of the Tarxien period is found at Mnajdra on the southern coast of Malta, 60 m below the Hagar Qim temple, close to the sea. It is oriented now to the east and southeast, but was probably origi- nally oriented southeast and south. (FIGURE 5-27) (The east trefoil temple is from the earlier Ggantija period.) Both FIGURE 5-27 5 /NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF THE ADRIATIC AND CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN = /179 temples are closer in size to each other than temples elsewhere on Malta, although the western temple is much more elaborate, with many niches and the remains of a hard torba floor in the main room. One of the most elaborate entrances flanked by triangular and phallic stones was found in this section (see fig. 7-60). Left of the entrance doorway stands a conical stone phallus, 75 cm high. In Apse 4, the second “eastern” apse, many strange clay objects and twists of clay were found which look a great deal like human embryos. Figurines in birth- giving posture suggest that some of the rituals here at Mnajdra had to do with healing and childbirth (see fig. 7-64). FIGURE 5-27 Tne double temple of Mnajdra, southern coast of Malta. End of the 4th-early 3rd mill. B.C. The small three- apse temple to the east is of the Ggantija period. \ 180/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS FIGURE 5-28. FIGURE S~-28 Tarxien temples. Early 3rd mill. B.C. FIGURE 5-29 -29 Conjectural reconstruction of the facade of Tarxien. FIGURE $ iH ; a] It EL HS i : i I in ! ye LkhaA i 2oag a 2 Sees [ai TSS Sas G The three temples at Tarxien on east- ern Malta near the hypogeum at Hal Saflieni were modified many times, making interpretation difficult. Like Ggantija, Tarxien has a large central court. (FIGURES 5-28, 5-29} Fortunately, the Tarxien temples are decorated with highly sophisticated, articulate symbolic images. Numerous spiral and plant- spiral motifs are carved in relief on stone blocks. These energy signs are associated with the rising plant and serpent forces, harkening to the principle of the cyclic regeneration of life. Pottery, animal horns, stone and clay basins, and altars are numerous. In the first western Apse 3, the remains of a very elaborate altar, the top of which shows signs of burning, testify to its use in ceremony. Along the side of the altar, a ram, a pig, and four goats move in procession. (PLATE 19} The ram is an animal sacred to the Goddess, its curled horns are seen elsewhere as snake spirals carved on pillars and slabs throughout the monument. Apse 5, the second west- ern apse, was found filled with bones and horns of cattle and sheep or goats. Room 13, between the first and second temples, contained a heap of animal bones. Along the east wall were bulls facing left and right, beneath which was a relief representing a bitch with thir- teen suckling pups (see fig. 7-62, 3}. The great number of altars and animal bones suggest that sacrifices, perhaps for divi- nation, were common at Tarxien. In a small area east of the second temple, fifty stone cups, perhaps for ritual cele- bration or libations were found, and further to the east, thirteen cups were found set upside down. Domestic animals were offered in sacrifice to a figure of the Goddess. Tarxien West, Court 2, houses what is probably the world’s earliest known monumental statue. This figure, Our Lady of Tarxien, is cut from limestone and stands on a carved plinth. Her upper half was unfortunately quarried away long ago, although her original height was around 2.5 to 3 m (see fig. 7-64). 5/NEOLITHIC CULTURES OF THE ADRIATIC AND CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN With the great temple of Tarxien, the temple building period of Malta came to an end. It is not known what happened to the temple builders, but perhaps they abandoned the islands because of defor- estation or crop failure, followed by fam- ine, plague, or other calamities. Foreign people with different traditions settled in the islands. The Tarxien cemetery of cremation graves, dated to the post- temple building period after 2500 BC., belongs to an alien culture group, but clearly Old European, having the same religion. Vases found in these graves have relatives in Sicily and as far away as western Yugoslavia. /181 | ese . ent ow wFewe tere ~, wee oe) Western Europe Neolithic of a : ; Pw . Se Sr 184/ THE CIVILIZATION OF THE GODDESS The Neolithic of Western Europe was decidedly a local development by the indigenous Epipaleolithic-Mesolithic inhabitants of Iberia (Portugal, Spain), France, and northern Italy (of the Sauveterrian-Iardenoisian and Castel- novian cultural traditions). It is not possible, however, to deny the influence of ideas circulated through navigation and local trading activities along the coastal regions of the western Mediter- ranean and Atlantic. The spirit of creativity vistble in the emergence of pottery and religious exprcssion was, to a certain extent, the result of commu- nication with the inhabitants living in these regions. Neither Iberian nor French Mesolithic culture was tsolated, and the increase of coastal communt- cation during