Original scientific paper
New Radiocarbon Dates for the Early Starčevo Culture in Croatia
Kornelija Minichreiter
Ines Krajcar Bronić
Abstract
New radiocarbon dates for the Early Starčevo Culture confirm that the process of Neolithization in continental Croatia began already around the year 6000 BC. Evidence of this includes discovery of settlements in Zadubravlje and Slavonski Brod that belong to the initial phases of Starčevo Culture development – Linear A phase. The long duration of the Starčevo Culture is demonstrated by over one hundred recorded settlements from all phases of its development, from Linear A to the closing Spiraloid B phase. This confirms that the territory of continental Croatia was an integral component of the central Starčevo Culture zone and one of the key such zones in its emergence and existence. Typological and stylistic analyses of archaeological material from the settlement at Galovo in Slavonski Brod established that it belongs to the Linear A phase, which lasted for a considerable period of time. The first radiocarbon dating of a Starčevo Culture settlement in Croatia have determined a more precise chronological status of Slavonski Brod and Zadubravlje within the chronological scale of Early Neolithic settlements of the Starčevo Culture complex. Archaeological methods applied resulted in the discovery of two construction phases (vertical stratigraphy), while the third phase (horizontal stratigraphy) could only be determined using the 14C dating method. The dating of residential pit-house 37 and burial pit 15 in the most recent structures in this part of the settlement allowed, for the first time, a scientifi cally-founded portrayal of the horizontal stratigraphy of one of the oldest Early Neolithic settlements in continental Croatia.
Keywords
radiocarbon dating; Early Neolithic; Linear A phase; Starčevo Culture; Zadubravlje; Slavonski Brod; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
12003
URI
Publication date:
5.4.2007.
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