Investigating the Development of Agriculture in Southern Europe: Recovering and Interpreting Economic Evidence from Neolithic Danilo in Dalmatia

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Farming and settled village life originated in Western Asia about 13,000 years ago and later spread into Europe. This new way of life made possible population growth and the development of more complex societies. Thus, farming provided the foundation for all subsequent major developments in European society. Yet the mechanisms that underlay the original dispersal of farming, the nature of this new economy, and its social implications remain unclear. With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Andrew Moore will head an international team that will address these issues through excavation of early farming sites in Dalmatia on the Adriatic coast of the Republic of Croatia. The project represents a collaboration between Rochester Institute of Technology and colleagues from the tibenik Museum in Croatia.The aims of the project are to understand the nature of the early farming economy in Dalmatia at its inception around 8,000 years ago and how it developed thereafter. This will help settle the question of how farming reached Southern Europe, and whether the initial agricultural economy was a mix of farming and foraging or a full agro-pastoral system. The project will also investigate Late Pleistocene and Holocene environmental changes that will aid in interpreting the ecological background to early farming in Dalmatia.Three seasons of excavation will be conducted in 2004-2006 at the Neolithic sites of Danilo and Pokrovnik. Danilo has been selected for investigation because it is a substantial site that previous excavations have shown was inhabited in all three phases of the Dalmatian Neolithic, or early farming, period. A ground penetrating radar survey will provide crucial information on where to excavate. The project aims for total recovery of surviving plant remains, bones, other organic material, and artifacts and will use appropriate methods to ensure this outcome. Excavations at the nearby Early Neolithic site of Pokrovnik will amplify these results and help illuminate the nature of initial village society in the region. The environmental studies will include examination of the Danilo Valley and also important geological deposits in the nearby Krka Gorge. The team consists of highly qualified personnel in relevant fields of study from universities and museums in the U.S.A., Croatia, and Britain who bring to the project particular experience of the problems to be addressed.Dalmatia is a key region for understanding the dissemination of farming because it lies between the Balkans and Italy. A suite of AMS radiocarbon dates from Danilo will establish much needed chronological precision. The environmental research will have implications for the entire Adriatic region and beyond for which the record is as yet thin. The results of the project will be widely published in specialist and more popular literature.The project will introduce new perspectives and methods to Croatian archaeology. Among the project's Croatian associates are scientists with rich knowledge of local ecology and ethnography. The project will help bring this information to a wider public. Participation by Croatian as well as American students will provide both with valuable training in modern archaeological techniques, and promote international understanding as Croatia consolidates its future as a new democracy. Broad media coverage will help ensure that the public in Croatia and the U.S.A. benefits from the research results.