Abstract
The archaeological site of Lepenski Vir is widely known after its remarkable stone art sculptures that represent a unique and unprecedented case of Holocene hunter-gatherer creativity. These artworks were found largely associated with equally unique trapezoidal limestone building floors around their centrally located rectangular stone-lined hearths. A debate has raged since the discovery of the site about the chronological place of various discovered features. While over years different views from that of the excavator about the stratigraphy and chronology of the site have been put forward, some major disagreements about the chronological position of the features that make this site a key point of reference in European Prehistory persist. Despite challenges of re-analyzing the site’s stratigraphy from the original excavation records, taphonomic problems, and issues of reservoir offsets when providing radiocarbon measurements on human and dog bones, our targeted AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry) dating of various contexts from this site with the application of Bayesian statistical modelling allows us to propose with confidence a new and sound chronological framework and provide formal estimates for several key developments represented in the archaeological record of Lepenski Vir that help us in understanding the transition of last foragers to first farmers in southeast Europe as a whole.
Highlights
The region forms a specific micro zone with four gorges and three river valleys characterized by a complex geological history[3]
There were at least 94 objects that can be considered artworks, and these include sandstone boulders ornamented by geometric designs and, occasionally, depictions of human/fish hybrid faces or “X-ray” images of the fish body, mortars ornamented by geometric designs and the so-called “aniconic” boulders and mortars that were not engraved but were found in the same contexts as ornamented boulders, and can be considered to have had similar roles and were imbued with similar symbolic meanings
This is further confirmed by the fact that boulder artworks commemorated some of the directly Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS)-dated primary human burials: 7/I and 61 as well as currently undated primary burial 92 interred into burial pits dug from the level of trapezoidal building floors either during buildings’ use as dwelling features or, alternatively, these burials marked events of buildings’ formal abandonment, underlined by structured depositions of red deer skulls and antlers in buildings 21, 22, 26, 28, 57/XLIV, 45, 46 and 4810
Summary
The region forms a specific micro zone with four gorges and three river valleys characterized by a complex geological history[3]. Srejović suggested that the site was temporarily abandoned after phase II and again occupied by Neolithic groups that formed layers IIIa and IIIb on top of the Mesolithic settlement This interpretation was at first challenged by a series of radiocarbon dates made on charcoal that indicated that phase I with trapezoidal buildings overlapped the duration of known Early Neolithic settlements in the adjacent regions[12,13,14]. The construction of trapezoidal buildings predates 7,500 cal BC and no material culture was associated with these features This persistent stratigraphic and dating controversy has limited the impact of important evidence from Lepenski Vir in discussions about forager-farmer/Mesolithic-Neolithic transitions in Europe. The available excavation archive makes it possible to provide a detailed reworking of the site’s stratigraphy[10] (see Supplementary Information)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
