Late Bronze Age Eponymic Site on the Danube: Insights from the Faunal Remains and Archaeological Features at Žuto Brdo Site

Abstract

Archaeological site Žuto brdo is located around the confluence of the Tumanska river with the Danube, in eastern Serbia, just before the Iron Gates. The first archaeological excavations of Žuto brdo site took place at the very beginning of the 20th century, and later the site was excavated several times. During 2022, due to the construction of the motor road Požarevac - Veliko Gradište - Golubac, protective archaeological investigations were conducted by the Institute of Archaeology in Belgrade. During these excavations, a larger number of archaeological finds from the period of Late Bronze Age (Žuto brdo group) were discovered, as well as several finds from the period of Roman domination. The distribution and degree of fragmentation of the faunal and ceramic material indicated that the investigated area of the Žuto brdo archaeological site served as a garbage dump just beside a potential settlement. The results of the archaeozoological analysis indicated that the most represented were remains of domestic animals, that is, the remains of domestic cattle, caprines, domestic pigs and dogs. Wild mammals were represented with red deer, roe deer, wild boar, European hare and auroch. Other archaeological material provided lot of fragmented pots ornamented with typical rich decoration with white incrustation. Several anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines was found, as well as LBA amulets. Specific finds were presented by mold for typical lunular LBA pendants and, so far unique find of paleontological shell of the Potamides Bidentatus which could be first confirmation of fossil use, because shell tip is obviously used and numbed.