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The paper provides a detailed overview of new radiocarbon dates, stable isotopes, and anthropological information obtained on prehistoric human remains (mostly Neolithic) from the Balkans and southwestern Carpathian Basin. It covers a large chronological sequence from the Mesolithic to the Bronze Age (9746���2628 cal BC), which encompasses different archaeological cultures. In total 76 radiocarbon dates deriving from 27 sites were obtained, coupled with new isotopic (n=34) and anthropological (n=33) data. The results filled the gaps in some of the older interpretations, but also produced new insights regarding chronology, health, and diet, leaving a strong baseline for all future research into Neolithic lifestyles., All supplementary materials are available here https://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/DocumentaPraehistorica/article/view/10113

With the exception of the well known Mesolithic sites in the Danube Gorges (or the Iron Gates), the wider areas of the Central Balkans and southern fringes of the Great Pannonian Plain still represent a terra incognita when it comes to the presence of Mesolithic communities. The absence of Mesolithic sites in the region was associated with environmental changes in the Early Holocene, presumed low human population densities, limited possibilities of detection, or the lack of adequate research. However, valuable insights into the obscure regional Mesolithic can be gained not only by new archaeological excavations, but also by revisiting and reanalysing of existing archaeological collections. Particularly informative in this respect are the Early Neolithic sites, indicative of the extensive spread of farming communities from c. 6200 cal BC. Within the ERC Project BIRTH, a large sample of human and animal remains from these sites was dated, falling in the (expected) range between c. 6200‒5300 cal BC. However, one human and several animal bone samples from the sites of Magareći mlin, Gospođinci-Nove zemlje and Grabovac-Đurića vinogradi were dated to the 8th millennium cal BC, providing the first radiocarbon evidence of Early Holocene sequences in the territory of Serbia other than the Danube Gorges. In this paper, we present the new radiocarbon dates, discuss the contextual provenance of dated bones, and explore the implications of these results for a better understanding of the problem of the “missing” and “invisible” Mesolithic in the region.

The new set of radiocarbon dates was used to explore the timing and tempo of the Neolithic expansion across the Central Balkans. Our results suggest that the first farmers arrived in this region around or few decades before 6200cal BC. The observed spatio-temporal pattern based on the radiocarbon data suggests that the general direction of the expansion was along the south-north axis. The regression analysis (arrival time vs. distance from the origin of expansion in northern Greece) was used to estimate the Neolithic front speed. The results of this analysis suggest that there is a moderate fit of the linear model. Most of the front speed estimates based on the Central Balkan data are between 1 and 2.5km/year (depending on the data subset and the statistical technique) which is mostly above the expected range (around 1km/year) for the standard wave of advance model and the empirically determined continental averages. We conclude that the spatio-temporal pattern of the Neolithic expansion in the Central Balkans is broadly consistent with the predictions of the wave of advance model, with the possibility of sporadic leapfrog migration events. The speed of the expansion seems to have been faster in the Central Balkans compared to the continental average.

In this study, we reconstruct population dynamics in the Early Neolithic of the Eastern Balkans and the Great Hungarian Plain using frequency of radiocarbon dates as a population proxy. The method of summed calibrated radiocarbon probability distributions is applied to a set of dates recently published in Bulgaria and Hungary. The aim is to test the hypothesis of the Neolithic demo­graphic transition (NDT) in these regions and to compare the patterns between these two and neighbouring regions. The results show that episodes of population growth occurred in both regions, which is in partial agreement with the predictions of the NDT theory. Population growth is detected, but it is followed by a bust, rather than stabilisation as predicted for the second phase of the NDT.

Around 8000 years ago, throughout the Neolithic world a new type of artefact appeared, small spoons masterly made from cattle bone, usually interpreted as tools, due to their intensive traces of use. Contrary to those interpretations, the small dimensions of spoons and presence of intensive traces of use led us to the assumption that they were used for feeding babies. In order to test that assumption we compared 2230 marks on three spoons from the Neolithic site of Grad-Starčevo in Serbia (5800−5450 cal BC) with 3151 primary teeth marks produced experimentally. This study has shown that some of the marks on spoons were made by primary teeth, which indicate their usage in feeding babies. The production of a new type of artefact to feed babies is probably related to the appearance of a new type of weaning food, and the abundance of spoons indicates that new baby gruels became an important innovation in prehistoric baby-care.

The catalogue of the exhibition "Science for the museums: the prehistory of Sombor and its surroundings in the light of new bioarchaeological research", held in Town Museum of Sombor during 12.11.-14.12.2019. The exhibition was authored bythe researchers of the BioSense Institute, University of Novi Sad; Town Museum of Sombor, Sombor;Museum Unit in Odžaci, Odžaci; Laboratory for Bioarchaeology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade; and it presented the results of the ERC Project BIRTH:Births, mothers and babies: prehistoric fertility in the Balkans between 10000 and 5000 cal BC. DESCRIPTION:Museums often serve as resources of (bio)archaeological material for various kinds of specialist analyses, however the results seldom find their way to museum exhibitions and the general public. Within the project, the new results of macroscopic, microscopic and physical-chemical analyses of human and animal skeletal remains and artefacts from the Neolithic sites of Magareći mlin, Topole-Bač and Donja Branjevina are presented, in order to familiarize the audience with the lives of humans and animals in prehistory, as well as to introduce them to innovative methods used in archaeological research. The visitors and the workshop participants have the opportunity to learn when did the first inhabitants of Bačka live, what were the lifeways and the environment of the hunter-gatherer communities like, when did the first farmers settle in the area, what did they look like and what was their health status, what did they eat and which animals they kept, how did they feed their babies and bury the deceased memebers of the community. They also learned more about the process of anthropological and archaeozoological analysis, radiocarbon dating, stable isotope analysis of human and animal bones, the analysis of organic residues from pottery vessels, and remote sensing in order to determine the location and landscape settings of archaeological sites. Given that the (bio)archaeological material used in the analyses originated from the Town Museum in Sombor and the Museum Unit in Odžaci, the wider aim of the project was to raise the communication between scientists, the museums and the public to a higher level, and to promote science among schoolchildren.

In this paper, we test the hypothesis of the Neolithic Demographic Transition in the Central Balkan Early Neolithic (6250–5300 BC) by applying the method of summed calibrated probability distributions to the set of more than 200 new radiocarbon dates from Serbia. The results suggest that there was an increase in population size after the first farmers arrived to the study area around 6250 BC. This increase lasted for approximately 250 years and was followed by a decrease in the population size proxy after 6000 BC, reaching its minimum around 5800 BC. This was followed by another episode of growth until 5600 BC when population size proxy rapidly declined, reaching the minimum again around 5500 BC. The reconstructed intrinsic growth rate value indicates that the first episode of growth might have been fuelled both by high fertility and migrations, potentially related to the effects of the 8.2 ky event. The second episode of population growth after 5800 BC was probably owing to the high fertility alone. It remains unclear what caused the episodes of population decrease. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Cross-disciplinary approaches to prehistoric demography'.