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The Danube Gorges represent a unique between the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic in Europe. The sites of Icoana, Padina, Schela Cladovei, Vlasac but especially Lepenski Vir display an unusual role taken by indigenous hunter-gatherers/foragers in the ‘Neolithicisation’ process of the region of the Danube Gorges and its associated areas. Unfortunately due to the ambiguity of data (especially C14 dates) and the nature of the evidence at these various sites there is much disagreement about to what extent the indigenous people of the Danube Gorges contributed to their own ‘Neolithicisation’. By analysing, comparing and evaluating the various arguments put forward for the transition and interactions between Epipaleolithic/ Mesolithic and the Early Neolithic Danube Gorges I aim to understand how large their contribution was.
Any person interpreting the Epipaleolithic/ Mesolithic transition to the Early Neolithic in the Danube Gorges and drawing conclusions from the evidence they have looked at will soon discover that these interpretations can vary with the age of the site. There is a problem with the current study of the Danube Gorges because two different chronologies have been developed based on the two sites of Padina and Lepenski Vir by their respective excavators Jovanovich and Srejovic (Tringham 2000). Lepenski Vir is the best-preserved and most spectacular site in the Gorges and the interpretation of chronological data here is vital to what role we believed the hunter-gatherers/foragers played in the ‘Neolithicisation’ of the Danube Gorges. ... Lepenski Vir displays three clear phases of occupation with many sub phases with phase I-II being Mesolithic and phase III being clearly related to the Starcevo Culture of Early Neolithic farmers (Tringham 2000). ... It is there for important to note that Srejovic believes the Mesolithic layers predate the Starcevo Culture in the region as a whole and Jovanovich believes they occur approximately at the same time (Tringham 2000).
The first interpretation I will give is that of Srejovic in which he argues that there was a transition to the Neolithic in the central Balkans region that started firstly in the Danube Gorges (Tringham 2000). His interpretation is that hunter-gatherers/foragers in the early Mesolithic period at settlements such as Vlasac experimented to domesticate local animals (especially dogs, cattle and pig) and plants (such as wild millet and wild einkorn), and by the late Mesolithic (at places like Lepenski Vir Phase I-II) they had developed into a flourishing proto Neolithic society. Therefore his interpretation of the sites chronology is important because he places Lepenski Vir Phase I-II as being contemporary with the strongly Mesolithic site of Vlasac and before Starcevo Culture, which makes his ideas more likely because this chronology means that Lepenski Vir Phase I-II predates the first communities of agriculturalists nearby (Tringham 2000). He calls this ‘Proto-Neolithic’ society of the Danube Gorges, ‘Lepenski Vir Culture’. ... Because Lepenski Vir is incomparable to any of the other Danube Gorges sites in size, assemblage and complexity and as a result Srejovic has interpreted the site as (in period I-II) as having acted as a central settlement or ceremonial place, whose occupants specialised in obtaining and maintaining the sacred secrets of the knowledge about experiments in domesticating plants and animals and who monopolized the rituals and ceremonies associated with such knowledge. ... Srejovic is dispelling the myth that the Balkans are simple a bridge which ideas can only travel across and in his theory on the development of a ‘Proto- Neolithic’ in the Danube Gorges Lepenski Vir Culture he is in fact including this part of the Balkans as an extension of the Middle East.
Srejovic’s hypothesis for the ‘Neolithicisation’ of the Danube Gorges does not limit the development of these new ideas to the Danube Gorges suggesting that the expansive nature of food production meant that the new food producers were quickly forced to expand beyond the constricting boundaries of the Danube Gorges into the valleys (but not flood plains) of the Morava, Tisza and Maros rivers. The complexity of the Gorges and ultimately Starcevo, Körös and Cris cultures are the ultimate result of this expansion. Meanwhile the Danube Gorges became occupied less permanently, as seen at the Lepenski Vir IIIa-b phase, eventually becoming abandoned (Tringham 2000).
Approximate Word count = 3517
Approximate Pages = 14.1
(250 words per page double spaced)
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