Starčevo culture luxury : cult objects and personal ornaments made of stone

Abstract

Starčevo culture, the first Neolithic culture in the central Danubian region in the South-eastern Europe, occupied the wide territory of today’s Eastern Slavonia and whole Serbia. Several centuries of its existence (c. 6200 – 5400 BC) resulted with the creation of economic and technological basis for the development of progressive and highly developed Late Neolithic cultures of southern Pannonia and the central Balkans – the Vinča culture and the Sopot culture. Many aspects of the Starčevo culture have remained poorly studied so far. One of them are decorative and cult objects made of stone. Decorative and cult objects in general are rare in the Starčevo culture, which is certainly associated with a small number of graves discovered so far. Personal ornaments were made mainly from osseous raw materials (bone, antlers, teeth, marine shells) and cult objects mostly from clay. It can be assumed that other less permanent materials (wood, leather, etc.) were also in use. Stone was used in production of small personal ornaments like beads, pendants and rings. Small-sized stone tools like miniature chisels of nephrite and calcite, as well as grooved little pebbles (also considered as fishing weights) most likely were amulets. Amulets in the shape of a bovid head, which are characteristic exclusively for the Starčevo culture, were mainly made of clay and rare stone specimens were usually made of marble and white limestone. According to the selection of raw materials it is possible to assume that the standard in the production of stone cult and decorative objects did not exist in the Starčevo culture craftsmanship. However, the more frequent use of marble and calcite, the basic raw material for making stone decorative and cult objects in Late Neolithic Vinča and Sopot cultures, shows that the advantages of these stone raw materials (light processing, high gloss after polishing) were already recognizedby Starčevo culture craftsmen.