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Tracing the early spread of domestic cat in Central Europe: Human-mediated dispersal or natural introgression?
Get PDFDespite significant progress in paleogenomics and the increasing amount of new data on
animal domestication, we still know little about the history of cats. Until now, it was
known that only one subspecies, the Near Eastern wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica), was
domesticated. The domestication area was assumed to be the Near East during the
Neolithic period, with a prominent role in ancient Egypt. From this region, the cats spread
through the Mediterranean and beyond. It has been accepted that the primary role in the
expansion of cats through northern Europe was that of the Roman legions. However, we
found that cats that carried mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotypes of wildcats from the
Near East were present in Central Europe already in the Neolithic, much before Roman
times. This indicates that the cats' route from the domestication centers to Central
Europe might have been more complex than previously thought and could have been
related to the Neolithic expansion. Our new results reveal the presence of the mtDNA
haplotypes of the Near Eastern wildcats in Poland even in the pre-Neolithic period. This
may suggest that the Near Eastern wildcats could spread across Europe independently of
the expansion of farming, and, in consequence, the natural range of the Near Eastern
wildcat could have been much broader than previously assumed. To understand how and
when domestic cats appeared in Central Europe, we perform a target enrichment of ca.
57,000 genomic SNPs. We believe that it will allow us to finally determine whether the
appearance of the Near Eastern wildcat mtDNA in Central Europe was a natural admixture
between two subspecies or was human-mediated dispersal of tamed/domesticated cats.
The study is supported by the National Science Centre, Poland, grant no.
2019/35/B/HS3/02923
Flesh and bone: Unraveling the story of animal exploitation in the territory of present-day Serbia during Late Antiquity – an archaeozoological overview
Get PDFPrevious archaeozoological research indicates that in the area of present-day Serbia during Late Antiquity (4th to the beginning of the 7th century AD), animal exploitation strategies and nutritional practices were primarily focused on the breeding of domestic animals, with hunting and fishing playing a secondary role. Alongside a few remains of species that were kept as pets, the predominant economically significant species – cattle, caprines, and pigs – are frequently found at archaeological sites. Biometric data reveals changes in the size of animals through time, indicating that animal husbandry experienced transformations. The degeneration of animal breeds can be attributed to general poverty and frequent conflicts in the region between “barbarian forces” and Eastern Roman Empire during the period in question. Other factors influencing the development of animal husbandry include population density, settlement size and duration, which dictated the demand for meat and the need for working animals based on agricultural practices. Unlike domestic animals, remains of the game are rare and primarily consist of frequently hunted species. While fishing was practiced by the inhabitants of the Late Antique settlements, fish remains are scarce, likely due to the manual collection of archaeofaunal remains. Despite the limited extent of archaeozoological research on the Late Antique settlements, the findings offer valuable insights into the methods of animal exploitation and indicate the presence of regional variations, particularly between Vojvodina and the territory south of the Sava and Danube rivers. This paper aims to provide insight into animal exploitation strategies in different settlement types by bringing together archaeozoological data. The comparisons of the relative distributions of their remains, their body part profiles, age and sex data, pathological changes, butchery marks between different archaeological sites, and site types will be used to explore plausible diachronic and contextual differences in animal exploitation strategies
Neolitska koštana industrija sa lokaliteta Klenak – Adžine Njive: preliminarni rezultati
Get PDFTokom 2021. i 2022. godine, Arheološki institut iz Beograda i Zavičajni muzej iz Rume istraživali su lokalitet Klenak – Adžine Njive, u okviru zaštitnih istraživanja na autoputu Ruma – Šabac. Otkriveni su izuzetno bogati arheološki nalazi iz različitih perioda, iz neolita, latena i drugih praistorijskih perioda, kao i iz srednjeg veka.
Neolitski slojevi pružili su, pored brojnih arhitekonskih celina, i veliku količinu pokretnih arheoloških nalaza, uključujući i srazmerno bogatu zbirku artefakata od koštanih sirovina. U ovom radu biće prikazani preliminarni rezultati analize. Najčešće korišćena sirovina jesu različite kosti domaćih životinja – duge kosti i rebra ovce, koze i govečeta, a u manjoj meri su korišćene ostale kosti i rogovi cervida. Najučestaliji su različiti zašiljeni predmeti – igle, šila i probojci, a još se sreću i različite alatke za glačanje i za udaranje – spatule, strugači, manji udarači. Ovi su predmeti uglavnom korišćeni za različite svakodnevne potrebe, kao što su obrada organskih materijala (kože, biljnih vlakana, priprema hrane i slično), dok je oprema za lov i ribolov malobrojna. U pogledu morfoloških i tehnoloških odlika, koštana industrija sa lokaliteta Klenak ima dosta sličnosti sa drugim koštanim industrijama sa vinčanskih lokaliteta. Kao glavna razlika, međutim, može se uočiti gotovo potpuno odsustvo udica izrađivanih od roga, koje su dosta brojne na obližnjem lokalitetu Gomolava
Prehistory of the Rudnik mountain and its surroundings: field survey (campaign 2021)
Get PDFThe area of the Rudnik (rudnik=mine) in central Serbia is the second major volcanic area in central Serbia, exploited today for variety of raw materials, which were also exploited by numerous past communities. Historical and archaeological record showed intensive activities especially during medieval and pre-modern times, regarding exploitation of various ores, such as silver and lead.
The riches of the Rudnik mountain were exploited in prehistory as well. On the slopes of the Prljuša mountain, a copper mine was discovered in 1980’s. It was briefly excavated in 1980’s, and systematic researches were initiated in 2011 by Institute of Archaeology and are still ongoing. Excavations revealed abundant evidence for malachite ore exploitation during the Bronze Age, and yielded numerous portable finds (in particular, stone hammer-axes), as well as the information that enabled the reconstruction of the ore extraction process. However, very little information is available regarding communities that exploited this mine, and also there is limited evidence for exploitation of other mineral resources in the area. This is why the Institute of Archaeology in Belgrade initiated systematic field reconnaissance with the main scope to search for sources of raw materials exploited in prehistory and associated settlements.
Here will be presented the preliminary results of the 2021 field survey campaign, which included the areas of the municipalities of Kragujevac and Knić. Particularly interesting are results regarding three modern quarries and their adjacent areas – Ramaća, Rogojevac and Vučkovica. In the vicinity of Rogojevac and Vučkovica, traces of prehistoric inhabitation were found, while Ramaća, although noted previously in archaeological literature, did not yield any archaeological traces during this field survey campaign, and future plans include its revisiting
Praistorija „Dunavskog koridora“ u Đerdapu. Istraživanje u 2020. godini
Get PDFProjekat U pokretu: praistorijska mobilnost i širenje poljoprivrede u Evroaziji ima za cilj da između ostalih proučavanih regija šireg prostora jugoistočne Evrope i istočnog i centralnog Mediterana, vrati istraživački fokus na Đerdapsku klisuru i teritoriju severoistočne Srbije. On jednim delom predstavlja nastavak projekta Praistorija severoistočne Srbije u okviru koga su od 2004. do 2009. godine rađena arheološka istraživanja ranije nepoznatih praistorijskih nalazišta (Pećina iznad Trajanove table, Pešćera Mare, Dubočka pećina, Aria Babi, a po prvi put nakon 1971. godine kada je puštena u rad Hidroelektrana Đerdap I, otkriveni su i sistematski istraženi sačuvani mezolitski i ranoneolitski slojevi na Vlascu, na samoj dunavskoj obali
A Step into the Past: Approaches to Identity, Communications and Material Culture in South-Eastern European Archaeology; Papers dedicated to Petar Popović for his 78th birthday
Get PDFPapers dedicated to Petar Popović for his 78th birthda
140 years of the Serbian Archaeological Society
Get PDFOsnivanje Srpskog arheološkog društva ima svoju dugu predistoriju koja je pisana
među Srbima sa obe strane Save i Dunava. Buđenje svesti o potrebi proučavanja
ostataka kulturne baštine teklo je paralelno među Srbima u Srbiji i Austrougarskoj.
Prva polovina 19. veka je vreme naglog uspona srpske države u svim sferama pa i u
kulturi. Nakon dugih godina borbe za oslobođenje i dobijanje samostalnosti, u fokus
je došao razvoj društva, u kome je pored malobrojnih obrazovanih ljudi većinu činilo nepismeno i jedva pismeno stanovništvo, te je ubrzanim koracima trebalo krenuti putem uključivanja u zajednicu razvijenih evropskih država. Budući da je razvoj kulture bio jedan od primarnih zadataka, u to vreme se osnivaju nacionalne institucije kulture (Narodni muzej 1844. godine, Narodno pozorište 1868. i druge), ali i razna stručna društva radi podizanja svesti o značaju kulturnog i naučnog razvoja zemlje (Društvo srpske slovesnosti 1841. godine, Srpsko učeno društvo 1864, Družina za arheologiju i etnografiju na balkanskom tropolju 1867. i drugi). U takvoj klimi razvoj arheologije kao struke, a samim tim i osnivanje jednog udruženja koje će se baviti pitanjem kulturne baštine, bio je neminovnost. Srpsko arheološko društvo je osnovano 1883. godine i do danas je aktivno, s malim prekidima usled ratova
Settlement size, site history, and mortality at Roman Viminacium: Testing the urban graveyard hypothesis
Get PDFIt is a widely held view that ancient cities were unhealthy environments. Some scholars have gone so far as to suggest that larger pre-Industrial cities were so lethal as to be unable to sustain their population levels without constant immigration from rural hinterlands. The present study therefore examines mortality at the ancient city of Viminacium on the Danube frontier in an attempt to test the Urban Graveyard Hypothesis using skeletal remains from a provincial Late Roman context. Given the known trajectory of urban development at Viminacium, which began as a small military outpost on the Roman Limes during the 1st Century and evolved into a large, regionally
important political and economic center persisting into the 5th century, it was possible to study changes in health as settlement size and density increased through examination of skeletons from the graveyards surrounding the city. The results suggest that local, historically-specific conditions – namely the Third Century Crisis known from ancient documentary sources – were far more influential upon general public health than increasing population size at Viminacium
Откупљени предмети од керамике из околине Голупца: нови прилог проучавању бронзаног доба у Браничеву
Get PDFНародни музеј Србије је током осамдесетих година прошлог века откупио за Праисторијску збирку деветнаест керамичких посуда које, према општем стилу украшавања и типолошким карактеристикама, припадају хоризонту инкрустоване керамике типа Дубовац – Жуто брдо – Грла Маре. Посуде су на
девастираним археолошким налазиштима случајно пронашли физички радници
приликом земљаних радова на дунавској обалоутврди, код места Пожежено, и
реконструкције месног пута на потесу између места Винци и Усје, надомак епонимног бронзанодобног налазишта Жуто брдо. Сврха рада је музеолошка обрада
и публиковање откупљених праисторијских налаза
Caričin Grad (Justiniana Prima) as a market: Searching for an Early Byzantine model of pottery production and consumption
No full textIn order to reconstruct everyday life in the Byzantine city, archaeology gradually has shifted its focus from the analyses of objects and their spatial distribution to the wider study of political and socio- economic patterns. The past decades showed in particular significant advances in Late Roman archaeology, which thus became a sort of testing ground for various theoretical models addressing the organisation of different activities and the nature of socio-economic developments. The study of pottery production, distribution, and functional analyses has proved to be of huge importance for these models. In this respect, pottery consumption should be seen as resulting from the choices driven by many factors, including tradition, fashion, market demands, and social and cultural identities.
Previous contextual analyses underlined the important role of production and distribution for the study of pottery consumption, and its theoretical and disciplinary developments drew from the research of urban centres, as was the case at Sagalassos in south-western Turkey. A number of major surveys conducted in other regions of the Mediterranean yielded material that persuasively testified to the processes of renewal during Early Byzantine times, i.e. the 6th and the early 7th centuries, including ceramic production trends and consumption pattern