Making spaces into places : the north Aegean, the Balkans and western Anatolia in the Neolithic

"During three millennia of the Neolithic in southeastern Europe important changes in the social organisation, everyday practices and beliefs formed a diverse and rich cultural landscape expressed in settlement patterns, architecture and numerous aspects of material culture. A growing body of data uncovered over the last few decades shows striking variety in settlement organisation, from single-layered, short-lived sites to long-lived tell settlements located in different geographical settings. In addition, small sites (e.g. 0.5 ha) and extended settlements also appear in most sub-regions. This volume brings together new data on the Neolithic of southeastern Europe, emphasising the organisation and use of space within the regions of Northern Greece, the Balkan hinterland and north-western Turkey. To this end, individual chapters focus either on the intra-site organisation of recently excavated settlements or provide an up-to-date synthesis on the regional level, combining old and new data."--Publisher's web site Cover page Title page Copyright Of related interest Contents Introduction 1. Narratives of Space and Contemporary Archaeological Theory Kostas Kotsakis Introduction Cultural history and processualism Postprocessualism Phenomenology and meta-postprocessualism Theory in practice Epilogue 2. Timelines in the Neolithic of Southwestern Anatolia, the Circum-Aegean, the Balkans and the Middle Danube Area Agathe Reingruber Introduction General remarks regarding the quality of the dates Timeline 1: 6600–6400 calBC Case A: Mediterranean and southwestern Anatolia Case B: The circum-Aegean Case C: The northeastern Aegan and the Marmara region Timeline 2: 6200–6000 calBC Case A: The northwestern and the northeastern Aegean Case B: The central and eastern Balkans Timeline 3: 5500–5300 calBC Case A: The middle and lower Danube river Conclusions 3. By the Rivers They Settled: Settlement Patterns and the Neolithic Landscape in Albania Gazmend Elezi 4. Transformations of Settlement Space at Neolithic Avgi, NW Greece Georgia Stratouli & Dimitris Kloukinas Introduction The Neolithic settlement of Avgi Settlement space through time: A short overview Avgi I (ca. 5700–5200/5100 calBC) Avgi II (ca. 5200/5100–4900 calBC) Avgi III (ca. 4900–4500/4300 calBC) Approaching spatial transformation Discussion 5. Outside the Residential Place at the Neolithic Settlement of Toumba Kremastis Koiladas, Northern Greece Areti Chondroyianni-Metoki Introduction The site The finds The pits The ditches Burials Cremations Inhumations Scattered human bones Conclusions 6. Identifying Ritual at Late Neolithic Toumba Kremastis Koiladas: Ceramic Assemblages of Representative Contexts Teresa Silva, Marianna Lymperaki, Areti Chondroyianni-Metoki & Dushka Urem-Kotsou Introduction Ritual The settlement of Toumba Kremastis Koiladas Selected contexts Cremation 7 Pit 4 Pit 314 Pits 175, 176, and 177 Conclusions 7. Settling Neolithic Central Macedonia, Northern Greece Dushka Urem-Kotsou & Stavros Kotsos Introduction Settlements and landscape Settlement types The architecture Burials Neolithic food and spatial organisation of the settlements Networking in central Macedonia Concluding remarks 8. Settlements and Landscape in the Neolithic of the Southern and Central Balkans Stavros Kotsos Introduction Geographical distribution of settlements in the Axios and Morava regions Settlement location and the wider landscape Settlements and their local environmental setting Intra-site organisation and architecture of Early and Middle Neolithic settlements Intra-site organisation and architecture of Late Neolithic settlements Discussion Concluding remarks 9. Pelagonian Tells and Pile Dwellings of Lake Ohrid Goce Naumov Introduction Tells of Pelagonia Pile dwellings of Lake Ohrid Continuity and networks: In conclusion 10. The Neolithic and Post-Neolithic Settlement Mounds of Western Serbia Boban Tripković The Mačva district of Western Serbia: An overview of geography and prehistory The small settlement mounds of Western Serbia: Previous research The current project Conclusions 11. Vinča-Belo Brdo Settlement Size Kristina Penezić Introduction Vinča-Belo brdo settlement size In place of a conclusion 12. Use of Space in a Late Neolithic/Early Eneolithic Building at the Site of Vinča-Belo Brdo in the Central Balkans Ksenija Borojević* (corresponding author), Dragana Antonović, Jasna Vuković, Vesna Dimitrijević, Dragana Filipović, Miroslav Marić, Kristina Penezić, Boban Tripković, Vera Bogosavljević Petrović & Nenad Tasić Introduction Late Neolithic buildings at Vinča-Belo brdo Building 01/06 Contents of Room 1 (north room) Contents of Room 2 (central room) Contents of Room 3 (south room) Absolute dating of Building 01/06 The use of space in Building 01/06 Room 1 Room 2 Room 3 Rooms 2 and 3 Houses of the late Vinča culture Conclusion 13. The Neolithic Settlement at Drenovac, Serbia: Settlement History and Spatial Organisation Slaviša Perić, Olga Bajčev, Ivana Stojanović & Đurđa Obradović Introduction The site Form of the site and formation processes Site size Early Neolithic settlement Late Neolithic settlement Early Vinča phase Late Vinča phase Settlement size and layout Internal organisation of the settlement Late Vinča houses Conclusion 14. Neolithic Settlements in the Central Balkans between 6200 and 5300 calBC: Issues of Duration and Continuity of Occupation Sofija Stefanović, Marko Porčić, Tamara Blagojević & Jelena Jovanović Introduction Jaričiste Topole-Bač Dynamics of the Early Neolithic settlements in the central Balkans Conclusions 15. Off-settlement Ritual Practices in the Neolithic: Pit-Digging and Structured Deposition at Sarnevo in Bulgarian Thrace Krum Bacvarov & John Gorczyk Introduction The archaeological site of Sarnevo in Upper Thrace Relative and absolute chronology Feature types Deposits Composition of deposits Deliberate fragmentation, selectivity and diversity in the combination of items Clay plastering/sealing Firing/burning Sealing with burnt house debris Structured deposition at Sarnevo Conclusion: The Late Neolithic ‘ritual package’ 16. Contextualising the Neolithic House: A View from Aşağı Pınar in Eastern Thrace Eylem Özdoğan & Heiner Schwarzberg Introduction Aşağı Pınar Architectural features of the site Discussion Houses Settlement layout 17. Living in an Enclosed Settlement: Settlement Pattern and Social Organisation at Aktopraklık Necmi Karul Introduction The site Central houses and inner court Graveyard Discussion Houses and ditch Houses and open spaces The consistency of the settlement and the houses Back Cover During three millennia of the Neolithic in southeastern Europe important changes in the social organisation, everyday practices and beliefs formed a diverse and rich cultural landscape expressed in settlement patterns, architecture and numerous aspects of material culture. A growing body of data uncovered over the last few decades shows striking variety in settlement organisation, from single-layered, short-lived sites to long-lived tell settlements located in different geographical settings. In addition, small sites (e.g. 0.5 ha) and extended settlements also appear in most sub-regions. The aim of the volume is to bring together and present new data on the Neolithic of southeastern Europe, emphasising the organisation and use of space within the regions of Northern Greece, the Balkan hinterland and north-western Turkey. To this end, the individual chapters focus either on the intra-site organisation of recently excavated settlements or provide an up-to-date synthesis on the regional level, combining old and new data