Projects / Programmes
Archaeologies of hunter-gatherers, farmers and metallurgists: Cultures, populations, palaeoeconomies and climate
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.02.00 |
Humanities |
Archaeology |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| H341 |
Humanities |
Prehistory |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 6.01 |
Humanities |
History and Archaeology |
archaeology, prehistoric cultures and populations, palaeoeconomy, palaeoclimate
Researchers (10)
Organisations (2)
Abstract
The project consists of three interrelated research topics. In the first part we continue to excavate the Mala Triglavca rock shelter, located in the Dinaric Karst. Sediments, archaeological deposits, structures and their stratification will be studied. The correlation with rapid climate changes during the Holocene, between 7th and 4th millennium BC will be established. In the second part we focus on the Neolithic and Eneolithic materialialities and subsistences. Comparative analyses of pottery assemblages and cultural practices in different ecological zones will be carried out. In the third part we will put into the context the results of the pilot archaeogenetic studies of prehistoric population dynamics in the region.
The rock shelter of Mala Triglavca is one of the few archaeological sites where the entire Holocene settlement sequence is recorded, and where the materialities of Mesolithic hunters, Neolithic farmers and Eneolithic metallurgists are well preserved. Modern micromorphological analyses help us to detect, and to explain natural processes and anthropogenic activities, which formed and transformed the deposits. Archaeological layers, sediments and events associated with human activities in will be AMS 14C dated. The Mala Triglavca and the Jazbina v Rovnjah AMS 14C sequences will be correlated. In the latter, the series of Holocene climatic anomalies are registered in the speleothem (stalagmite) palaeoclimatic archive. The palaeoclimate project runs in cooperation with the universities of Oxford, Southampton and Hull. We enter into the recent discussion on rapid climate changes in global prehistory at this point.
In the second part we focus on the transformation of economical and cultural practices. We follow the introduction of first domesticates and changes in dietary practices. In addition to meat economy, associated with hunting and primary use of domestic animals, dairy production was established at this stage. It was based on cattle and/or sheep and goat selective breeding and milk processing. Parallel to this the pottery production was introduced, and associated with food gathering and processing, and storing practices. More or less standardised forms of vessels and their technological characteristics can be associated with specific types of food processing. Along with descriptive typological and technological analyses of pottery assemblages in individual settlement phases and cultural contexts, structural analyses of carbonised organic residuals on vessel surfaces, and animal (lipids) and vegetable fats integrated in ceramics will be introduced. Analyses of stable carbon (?13C) and nitrogen (?15N) isotope values and ratios, deposited in human bone collagen that mark long term food consumption patterns in humans will run parallel. Both samples will be AMS 14C dated. Comparative analyses will be applied on contemporaneous pottery and human bone assemblages from various cultural contexts and natural environments in Dinaric Karst, Ljubljansko barje, Posavje, Dravsko polje and Slovenske gorice regions. The results will help us to reconstruct the long-term dietary habits in humans in different cultural and environmental contexts. We enter into the recent discussion on occurrence, development and expansion of dairy economies in Europe in early prehistory at this point.
The third part focuses on the analyses of ancient mitochondrial and Y-chromosome DNA markers and associate haplogroups, preserved in bone collagen in human skeletons and bones discovered in Mala Triglavca, Pejca v Lašci, Jama na Doleh and Tominčeva jama in Dinaric Karst, in Ajdovska jama in Posavje, and in Ljubljansko barje region. The sampling and the biomolecular archaeogenetic analyses will be performed by the Palaeogenetics Group at Mainz Universiry. We enter into the European discussion on prehistoric human population dynamics at this point.
Significance for science
The project raises new research questions and develops new research approaches and analytical techniques. We established institutional interdisciplinary cooperation, which places the Slovene prehistoric archaeology into modern European scientific networks. We are establishing interdisciplinary databases and an interpretative framework, which link the development of early European civilization with the agency of small societies that developed new techniques of pottery production and food processing that was associated with significant changes in dietary practices. We study them in the contexts of long-term settling and settlement patterns changes and population trajectories in Neolithic. We bring together humanities and natural sciences to establish a research synergy of leading national institutions: University of Ljubljana and Jožef Stefan Institute.
Significance for the country
Integration of modern interdisciplinary scientific approaches in archaeological studies certainly contributes to a modern understanding and interpretation of cultural heritage in Slovenia. PhD students were involved in the project in the fields of archaeology and biochemistry. We introduced an interdisciplinary approach to create research synergies between the humanities and natural sciences, and between the main scientific and education institutions in the country.
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2011,
2012,
2013,
final report,
complete report on dLib.si
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2011,
2012,
2013,
final report,
complete report on dLib.si
