Regional Absolute Chronologies of the Late Neolithic in Serbia

INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE · M E T H O D O L O G Y & A R C H A E O M E T R Y 1 09 TH 08 INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE M e t h od olo g y & A r c h a e o m e t ry Z a g r e b , 3 rd ‒ 4 th D e c e m b e r 2 0 2 0 TH 09 INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE M e t h od olo g y & A r c h a e o m e t ry Zagreb, 2 nd ‒ 3 rd December 2021 Book of abstracts https:// metarh.ffzg.unizg.hr/ IMPRESSUM TH 09 INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE M e t h od olo g y & A r c h a e o m e t ry Zagreb, 2 nd ‒ 3 rd December 2021 PUBLISHER Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Zagreb Ivana Lučića 3, HR-10000 Zagreb Croatian Archaeological Society Tomašićeva 6/4, HR-10000 Zagreb FOR THE PUBLISHER Miljenko Jurković Jacqueline Balen EDITOR Ina Miloglav CONFERENCE ORGANISED BY Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Zagreb and the Croatian Archaeological Society DESIGN & DTP Srećko Škrinjarić ISBN Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Zagreb 978-953-175-963-2 Croatian Archaeological Society 978-953-6335-21-3 Book of abstracts FINANCIAL SUPPORT This year’s Conference has been financially supported by the Croatian Archaeological Society, the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Zagreb and the City of Zagreb. https:// metarh.ffzg.unizg.hr/ CONTENT Conference Methodology and Archaeometry 7 List of participants 9 Programme 21 Abstracts 29 Publications 53 INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE · M E T H O D O L O G Y & A R C H A E O M E T R Y 09 7 CONFERENCE METHODOLOGY & ARCHAEOMETRY T he scientific conference Methodology and Archaeometry is being organised by the Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences since 2013. The goal of the conference is to entice interdisciplinarity, critical thinking, new insights and approaches as well as new theoretical frameworks in contemporary archaeological science. Coverage of a wide spectrum of themes and scientific disciplines has resulted in papers and discussions that promote scientific issues in the fields of methodology, documentation and interpretation of archaeological data. The interdisciplinary character of the conference brings together archaeologists and researchers from other scientific disciplines with whom archaeologists collaborate closely; and who – through their work, projects and ideas – promote new insights about Interpretation of the human life in the past. Section Methodology Obtaining and collecting data is an essential part of the archaeological research process. How we collect and interpret data defines the validity of our interpretation. We use different techniques, approaches and tools which help us to reconstruct the past processes and to give more objective and comprehensive picture of the past. Contemporary interpretation tools alleviate and speed the data collection and also provide us with countless possibilities of interpretation, protection and presentation of archaeological sites and the landscapes encompassing them. Section Archaeometry Having in mind limited information we obtain from archaeological excavations and the classification of archaeological material, cooperation with other scientific disciplines becomes unnecessary, to obtain as much information as possible on the conditions and the way in which the humans lived in the past. Contemporary archaeology is a very heterogeneous discipline encompassing interest groups focussed on various periods, regions, theoretical frameworks and methodological techniques. Aside from the description of mechanical and physical features of a specific artefact or material, various arhaeometrical analyses help us to direct our scientific focus to questions regarding the ways and features included in the social and cultural life of people who made, used, exchanged and discarded those objects. Cooperation with the natural sciences provides answers to many questions, but it also demands an additional level of caution when selecting adequate scientific analysis for a specific archaeological problem. It also demands a continuous cooperation of a specific expert and an archaeologist from sample collection to the final interpretation. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s conference will be held on online platform for virtual events: https://hopin.com/events/metarh-2021 42 METHODOLOGY & ARCHAEOMETRY 0 9 · INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE Aleksandra Cetwińska1, Grzegorz Koczan2, Maciej Sadło3 & Dariusz Manasterski3 Antiquity of Southeastern Europe Research Centre University of Warsaw, Poland 2 Institute of Wood Sciences and Furniture, Warsaw, Poland 3 Faculty of Archaeology University of Warsaw, Poland 1 Potential of using reed arrow shafts hidden in their spine-force value G rooved stones are a common find in the archaeological record. These are small stone or clay artefacts varying in shape, quality, and decoration, with transverse grooves. These items are associated with at least sixty cultures ranging from the Mesolithic/Proto-Neolithic to the Bronze Age and occur over a vast territory which includes the Near East, northeastern and southern African coast, steppe, forest-steppe, and semi-desert regions of Eurasia from northeastern Europe and Moldavia to Mongolia. It is believed that they were used to straighten reed arrows. While the occurrence of such arrow shafts is confirmed in the literature, no studies have ever been conducted to verify the potential for their use. We present our experimental conclusions based on the preliminary measurement of reed spin values. Ines Krajcar Bronić1, Ivor Karavanić2, Andreja Sironić1, Nikola Vukosavljević2, Marko Banda2 & Fred Smith3, 4 Ruđer Bošković Institute, Zagreb, Croatia Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia 3 Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Illinois State University, Normal, USA 4 Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA 1 2 INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE · M E T H O D O L O G Y & A R C H A E O M E T R Y Institute for Balkan Studies, Serbian Academy of Science and Arts, Belgrade, Serbia Laboratory for Bioarchaeology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Serbia 3 Institute of Archaeology, Belgrade, Serbia 1 2 Regional Absolute Chronologies of the Late Neolithic in Serbia I n 2020, despite the ongoing Covid19 epidemic, a project "Regional Absolute Chronologies of the Late Neolithic in Serbia" started, aimed at detailed radiocarbon dating of the Late Neolithic phenomenon known as the "Vinča culture" in the traditional archaeological sense of the term. The project, combining radiocarbon dating technology and statistical seriation of ceramic assemblages from individual sites is an attempt to further narrow the chronological margins of the 800-1000 year long development that occupies large parts of the central Balkans and south edge of the Carpathian basin between the 54th and 45th century BC. Using archival collections from regional museums across Serbia, the project established new chronological "beacons" that can be used to relate chronological information for surrounding sites to be excavated in future. A year into the project, here we present the first results from several sites in north and central Serbia and rate the current state of knowledge in the field and the region. Andreja Sironić1, Žana Matulić Bilač2, Barbara Španjol-Pandelo3 & Ines Krajcar Bronić1 Ruđer Bošković Institute, Zagreb, Croatia Croatian Conservation Institute, Zagreb, Croatia 3 Faculty of Art and Sciences, University of Rijeka, Croatia 1 2 Dating wooden artefacts treated with resins T T A total of 16 bone samples from two caves, Vindija (Donja Voća, NW Croatia) and Mujina Pećina cave (Plano, near Kaštela, Dalmatia), were selected for radiocarbon AMS dating at the Ruđer Bošković Institute (RBI) laboratory. Collagen extraction yielded >1% of collagen for 10 samples. From six samples the collagen yield was lower than 0.5 % and those bones could have not been dated since the low yield (<1%) may produce an underestimated radiocarbon age. For comparison, 12 bone samples were sent to Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU) for radiocarbon dating with an additional step of ultrafiltration (UF) to select collagen fraction having molecules larger than 30 kDa. Four of them could not have been dated due to low collagen yield (<1 ‰), five were dated in spite of low yield, and only three of them were successfully dated. The results of ฀13C values of bone samples showed the same range in both RBI and ORAU laboratories, between -18.3 ‰ and -21.8 ‰, which are typical values for bone collagen. Radiocarbon conventional ages of these limited number of bone samples were comparable. Much more radiocarbon dating results of the old bones are necessary to obtain more reliable results. The preliminary results presented here point to the possible obstacles in radiocarbon dating of late Middle Paleolithic samples: bones are not well preserved, yield of collagen is often low, and the age is close to the limit of the radiocarbon method. 43 Miroslav Marić1, Jelena Bulatović2 & Nemanja Marković3 Radiocarbon dating of the Middle Paleolithic animal bones from two caves, Croatia he aim of the project „Last Neandertals at the Crossroads of Central Europe and the Mediterranean – NECEM“ (financed by Croatian Science Foundation, HRZZ-IP-2019-04-6649) is to gain new data on the adaptations of late Neandertals in today’s Croatia by interdisciplinary methods. Radiocarbon dating method gives a chronological framework providing the samples are not older than about 50000 years. 09 he wooden Romanesque Crucifix from Collection of Sacral Art in Poreč has been restored 1994-1999 in Conservation department of Split when the multidisciplinary research detected that original Christus triumphans has been transformed into Cristus dolorens in the early 18th century. Project Ars lignea: the Woodcarving Art Heritage of the North Adriatic from 1300 until 1600 (the University of Rijeka) involved the new possibility of radiocarbon dating of original wood (poplar). A sample was taken from the Christ's corpus. The procedure of radiocarbon dating of wood, performed at the Zagreb Radiocarbon Laboratory, usually involves the so-called A-B-A or acid-base-acid chemical preclearing. The sample was inspected by microscope in order to remove larger foreign material, washed with ultrapure water and then subsequently treated by HCl, NaOH solution and again by HCl. This procedure removes carbonates and large organic molecules present in soil: fulvic and humic acids. However, it does not remove organic varnishes or other synthetic materials that might have been applied to the artefact. Since these coatings contain organic molecules, dating may lead to erroneous dates. When the coating is obvious, or there are indications that the artefact had been treated with synthetic coatings, a series of organic solvents is used for washing the sample before A-B-A procedure. The washing starts with a non-polar solvent, followed by a solvent with higher polarity and eventually ends with the most polar solvent, i.e. water. Here we present a case of a wood sample taken from the Christus dolorens that did not seem to have been treated with coatings. However, its 14C activity and δ13C value proved it was treated with resins of fossil origin. In repeated measurements, it was proved that the procedure of solvent cleaning we use is efficient in removing the coating contaminates. Book of abstracts ISBN FFZG 978-953-175-963-2 CAS 978-953-6335-21-3 https:// metarh.ffzg.unizg.hr/