Use of space in a Late Neolithic/Early Eneolithic building at the site of Vinča–Belo Brdo in the Central Balkans

Abstract

The Late Neolithic/Early Eneolithic Building 01/06 at the site of Vinča-Belo Brdo on the Danube burned suddenly. The daub sealed the interior of the three-room structure and preserved its contents as they stood in the 46th century BC. The building was preserved so well that the details of its interior can be reconstructed. On the floor, under thick layers of destruction, ovens, querns, and deposits of artefacts and ecofacts were discovered, capturing a moment in time. The systematic retrieval of remarkably well-preserved plant macro-remains and other materials, and subsequent analyses, offer new information about practices such as food processing and storage and the use of space towards the end of the occupation of the site. In this article, we present a detailed examination of the interior architecture, and of finds of ceramics, stone, plant and animal remains within each of the three rooms of Building 01/06. Our detailed contextual analysis of the building’s internal configuration and of its contents, coupled with the precise dating of organic material, provides new data for the interpretation of a Vinča-style building and its use.