Original scientific paper

Traces of the earliest use of grapevine in the wider Nin region? Vitis Vinifera – analysis of bioarchaeological samples from the site of Mala glavica – Matakov brig (Ražanac)

Martina Dubolnić Glavan orcid.org/0000-0003-1202-896X ; Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti, Zavod za povijesne znanosti u Zadru, Zadar, Hrvatska
Renata Šoštarić ; Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Prirodoslovno-matematički fakultet, Biološki odsjek – Botanički zavod s botaničkim vrtom, Zagreb, Hrvatska

Abstract

Use of grapevine in the wider Nin region (western part of Ravni kotari) from the Early Bronze Age has been assumed in the con­text of funerary rituals in the professional literature. This inter­pretation was based on the results of the archaeological excava­tions at the site of Mala glavica – Matakov brig near Podvršje in the Ražanac Municipality conducted in 1986-1987 led by Šime Batović and Sineva Kukoč. These are primarily samples of grape­vine seeds (Vitis vinifera), recovered from (seemingly) intact layer of the mound so it was concluded that they originated from the archaeological context of the Early Bronze Age burial mound. Archaeobotanical and radiocarbon analyses of the samples were carried out in 2017-2018 in order to confirm the assumed age and determine the kind of seeds within the study of economic past of the wider Nin region. Radiocarbon analysis dated the seed samples to the 1960s, most likely 1966-1968 (Beta – 489417, 95.4 % 1966-1967 cal AD). In accordance with such dating logi­cal conclusion is that the samples do not belong to the original context of the burial mound. Therefore, their finding should not be interpreted in the context of funerary rituals of the Bronze Age as previously suggested in the scholarly literature. Such (re)inter­pretation is put into wider context of previous insights and evi­dence of the earliest use of grapevine in the wider area of Ravni kotari in the hinterland of Nin and Zadar.

Keywords

Nin; Ražanac; Bronze Age tumulus; Vitis vinifera seeds; archaeobotanical samples; archaeobotanical analysis; ra­diocarbon analysis; grapevine cultivation

Hrčak ID:

237149

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/237149

Publication date:

21.4.2020.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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