Balkans in the Neolithic Period and Bronze Age

Home | Category: Early Settlements and Signs of Civilization in Europe / Bronze Age Europe

Areas in the Balkans studied by the Austrian Archaeological Institute (OAW)

Most definitions of the Balkans countries comprise Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, European Turkey, most of Serbia and large parts of Croatia. The borders of the Balkans are not clearly defined and disputed. There exists no universal agreement on the region's component These days many people prefer to use the term of Southeastern Europe, which includes all the countries named above plus Cyprus, Moldova, Romania and all of Serbia and Croatia. [Source: Wikipedia]

The Mesolithic period (13,000 – 5,000 years ago) began at the end of the Pleistocene epoch and ended with the Neolithic introduction of farming, the date of which varied in each geographical region. The Mesolithic was a transitional period between the hunter-gathering existence and the development of farming and pottery production. According to Douglass W. Bailey: The Balkan upper Palaeolithic was a long period containing little significant internal change. The Mesolithic may not have existed in the Balkans for the same reasons that cave art and mobiliary art never appeared: the changes in climate and flora and fauna were gradual and not drastic...One of the reasons that we do not distinguish separate industries in the Balkans as Mesolithic is because the lithic industries of the early Holocene were very firmly of a gradually developing late Palaeolithic tradition

Southeastern Europe was the site of major Neolithic cultures, including Butmir, Vinča, Varna, Karanovo, Hamangia and Sesklo. The Vinča culture was an early culture of Southeastern Europe (between the 6th and the 3rd millennium B.C.), stretching around the course of the Danube in Serbia, Croatia, northern parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, Romania, Bulgaria, and the Republic of North Macedonia. Traces of it can also be found all around the Southeastern Europe, parts of Central Europe and in Asia Minor. The Varna Necropolis near the city of Varna in Bulgaria is considered a major archaeological site in world prehistory. The oldest gold treasure in the world, dating from 4,600 B.C. to 4,200 B.C., was discovered there.

The Bronze Age (3,500 – 1,100 B.C.) in the Balkans is divided into three periods: A) Early Bronze Age (20th to 16th centuries B.C.); B) Middle Bronze Age (16th to 14th centuries B.C.) And C) Late Bronze Age (14th to 13th centuries B.C.) The "East Balkan Complex" (Karanovo VII, Ezero culture) covers all of Thrace (modern Bulgaria). The Bronze Age cultures of the central and western Southeastern Europe are less clearly delineated and stretch to Pannonia, the Carpathians and into Hungary. The period includes the A) the Minoan civilization, based on the Greek island of Crete, which many regard as Europe's first actual civilization; and B) Mycenaean Greece (1600-1100 B.C.), the source of Troy and the first written evidence of the Greek language

Lepenski Vir, Serbia — Where Early European Farmers and Hunter-Gatherers Met 9,000 Years Ago

Lepenski Vir

Andrew Curry wrote in National Geographic:“ “Over millennia, migrating humans have used the Danube River as a highway from the Fertile Crescent into the heart of Europe. In the 1960s Serbian archaeologists uncovered a Mesolithic fishing village nestled in steep cliffs on a bend of the Danube, near one of the river’s narrowest points. Called Lepenski Vir, the site was an elaborate settlement that had housed as many as a hundred people, starting roughly 9,000 years ago. Some dwellings were furnished with carved sculptures that were half human, half fish. Bones found at Lepenski Vir indicated that the people there depended heavily on fish from the river. Today what remains of the village is preserved under a canopy overlooking the Danube; sculptures of goggle-eyed river gods still watch over ancient hearths. “Seventy percent of their diet was fish,” says Vladimir Nojkovic, the site’s director. “They lived here almost 2,000 years, until farmers pushed them out.”[Source: Andrew Curry, National Geographic, August 2019]

Lepenski Vir has puzzled archaeologists ever since it was excavated Eric A. Powell wrote in Archaeology Magazine: The community seemed to combine traits of local hunter-gatherer cultures of the Mesolithic period with traits of Neolithic farmers originating in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) and Greece. Some discoveries made in the village, such as trapezoidal houses and fish-head figurines, were utterly unique to Lepenski Vir. Previous isotope analysis of skeletons uncovered at the site appeared to provide evidence that women from farming settlements to the south married into an established foraging community. This suggested that Lepenski Vir was a Mesolithic village whose inhabitants transitioned to an agricultural way of life. [Source: Eric A. Powell, Archaeology Magazine, January/February 2023

However, new research by a team including archaeologist Maxime Brami of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz raises the possibility that the village was settled by Neolithic farmers who accepted foragers and some of their practices into their community. Recent DNA analysis of 34 skeletons uncovered at the site shows that men, women, and children with genetic profiles similar to those of Neolithic farmers from Anatolia were buried beneath homes at the site, while a few people whose DNA matches that of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from Europe were buried on the periphery of the settlement. New analysis of isotope data previously gathered from the remains shows that those with Neolithic heritage ate fish along with cultivated foods, while the foragers at the site seem to have remained on a Mesolithic diet consisting mainly of fish. “What we think we see at Lepenski Vir is a settlement founded by farmers, who later adopted some foraging practices,” says Brami. “But foragers there did not become farmers.”

Europe's Oldest Stilt Village — 8,000 Years Old — in Lake Ohrid Albania

In August 2023, archaeologists announced that they had found Europe's oldest stilt village — radiocarbon dated to be between 6000 and 5800 B.C. — at the bottom of Lake Ohrid, the "Pearl of the Balkans" in Albania. The village, which was protected by walls of defensive spikes. is also regarded as one of Europe's earliest sedentary communities. "It is several hundred years older than previously known lake-dwelling sites in the Mediterranean and Alpine regions," said Albert Hafner, a professor of archaeology from Switzerland's University of Bern. "To our knowledge, it is the oldest in Europe," he told AFP. The most ancient other such villages were discovered in the Italian Alps and date to around 5000 B.C., said the expert in European Neolithic lake dwellings.[Source: Briseida MEMA, AFP, August 11, 2023]

Traditional Messolongi stilt house

AFP reported: Hafner and his team of Swiss and Albanian archaeologists began carrying out excavations in 2019 at Lin on the Albanian side of Lake Ohrid, which straddles the mountainous border of North Macedonia and Albania. The settlement is believed to have been home to between 200 and 500, with houses built on stilts above the lake's surface or in areas regularly flooded by rising waters.

And it is slowly revealing some astonishing secrets. During a recent dive, archaeologists uncovered evidence suggesting the settlement was fortified with thousands of spiked planks used as defensive barricades. "To protect themselves in this way, they had to cut down a forest," said Hafner. But why did the villagers need to build such extensive fortifications to defend themselves? Archaeologists are still searching for an answer to the elusive question. Researchers estimate that roughly 100,000 spikes were driven into the bottom of the lake off Lin, with Hafner calling the discovery "a real treasure trove for research".

Lake Ohrid is one of the oldest lakes in the world and has been around for more than a million years. Assisted by professional divers, archaeologists have been picking through the bottom of the lake often uncovering fossilised fragments of wood and prized pieces of oak. Analysis of the tree rings helps the team reconstruct the daily life of the area's inhabitants -- providing "valuable insights into the climatic and environmental conditions" from the period, said Albanian archaeologist Adrian Anastasi. "Oak is like a Swiss watch, very precise, like a calendar," said Hafner. "In order to understand the structure of this prehistoric site without damaging it, we are conducting very meticulous research, moving very slowly and very carefully," added Anastasi, who heads the team of Albanian researchers. The lush vegetation at the site makes the work painstaking slow at times.

For the time being, scientists say it is possible to assume that the village relied on agriculture and domesticated livestock for food."Building their village on stilts was a complex task, very complicated, very difficult, and it's important to understand why these people made this choice," said Anastasi. "We found various seeds, plants and the bones of wild and domesticated animals," said Ilir Gjepali, an Albanian archaeology professor working at the site.

But it will take another two decades for site to be fully explored and studied and for final conclusions to be drawn. According to Anastasi, each excavation trip yields valuable information, enabling the team to piece together a picture of life along Lake Ohrid's shores thousands of years ago -- from the architecture of the dwellings to the structure of their community. "These are key prehistoric sites that are of interest not only to the region but to the whole of southwest Europe," said Hafner.

7,000-Year-Old Road Found on the Seafloor off Croatian Coast

Research released by the University of Zadar in May 2023 said researchers working at an archaeological excavation in the waters off the coast of Korčula Island found the remains of an road, created by carefully stacked stone plates about 12 feet across 6,000 years ago. The road, found about five meters (16 feet underwater, connected the mainland to the now sunken prehistoric settlement on the island named Hvar. [Source: Irene Wright, Miami Herald, May 9, 2023]

Irene Wright wrote in the Miami Herald: The researchers used radiocarbon dating to analyze preserved wood found along the road, which dated the road and the settlement to about 4,900 B.C. Along with the stonework, researchers also found other neolithic artifacts, including blades and axes, also dated to be 7,000 years old.

Neolithic people in the region extensively utilized the sea. These included the Hvar people., after which the island settlement is named, according to the government of Croatia. They occupied the region during the beginnings of permanent settlements and the creation of earthenware.

Cache of 6,500-Year-Old Gold Hair Rings of 'Extremely Rich' Woman Found in Romania

hair rings from Romania

In August 2022, archaeologists announced that they had discovered a trove of Copper Age gold rings, beads, and a bracelet in a grave in Romania, Romanian outlet Agerpres reported. Gabriel Moisa Cache of the Ţării Crişurilor Museum, in Oradea, Romania. said that the jewelry was laid to rest alongside a burial of an "extremely rich" woman. The trove in a Copper Age grave includes 169 gold rings, 800 bone beads, and an ornate spiraled copper bracelet discovered by a team from the Ţării Crişurilor museum in Oradea, Romania. [Source: Bethany Dawson, Business Insider August 28, 2022]

The 169 ultra-rare gold rings were designed to be worn in a women's hair, archaeologists said According to Business Insider: Archaeologists identified the remains as belonging to a woman based on the size of the skeleton and the fact that it was buried with no weapons. The skeleton also indicated she was tall and well-fed, and the good condition of her teeth provided more evidence she enjoyed elite status. The finds date back 6,500 years to the Copper Age. Călin Ghemi , the lead archaeologist on the project, described the finds as a "phenomenal discovery," saying "such a treasure no longer exists in central and eastern Europe," per artnet news.

The museum wants to learn more about the woman with whom the treasures were buried. The bones have been sent to laboratories in Marosvásárhely and Holland for carbon dating and DNA testing. "We want to find out what kind of culture the person belonged to, and also whether the rings were made of gold from the Transylvanian Archipelago," Moisa said. The team's excavations took place from March to June 2022. As well as the incredible discovery of the Copper Age burial, other excavations along the route of a new highway under construction in Romania have found remains from the Neolithic period, Bronze Age, the Roman Empire, and Medieval epoch, according to a post on the museum's Facebook.

6,000-Year-Old Bulgaria — the Land of Gold

According to archaeologists, day Bulgaria first attracted human settlement as early as the Neolithic Age, about 5000 B.C. The first known civilization in the region was that of the Thracians, whose culture reached a peak in the sixth century B.C. Because of disunity, in the ensuing centuries Thracian territory was occupied successively by the Greeks, Persians, Macedonians, and Romans. Pottery from Bulgaria has been dated to 5500 B.C. [Source: Library of Congress]

In the Valley of the Roses archeologists have excavated houses, dating back to 6000 B.C., made of plastered mud that have ovens for baking bread and making pottery. Their most advanced tool was an antler sickle impeded with blades made from pieces of chipped flint. [Source: Colin Renfrew, National Geographic, July 1980 ==]

Describing the ancient inhabitants of Bulgaria, Heredotus wrote in the 5th century B.C., "The Thracians are the most numerous nation in the world after the Indians, and if they were ruled by one man, or if they could agree among themselves, they would be invincible and by far the most powerful of all people...But they are unable to unite and it is impossible that they ever could.” ==

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons except gold rings from Ţării Crişurilor Museum

Text Sources: National Geographic, Wikipedia, Live Science, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Nature, Scientific American. Discover magazine, Discovery News, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, BBC, The Guardian, Reuters, AP, AFP and various books and other publications.

Last updated May 2024