Forager-Farmer Encounters in the Balkans: Spatial Distribution of the Lepenski Vir Culture

2004年秋天，在国家科学基金会的支持下，一个由考古学家、地质学家和洞穴学家组成的国际小组在杜桑·博里奇博士的监督下，将在巴尔干中北部的多瑙河峡谷地区(即今天的塞尔维亚)进行研究。该项目考察了东南欧向农业过渡过程中文化接触和交流的性质，这仍然是欧洲史前史的中心问题之一。将在该地区进行的探索性研究主要集中在沿多瑙河岸边发现的中石器时代觅食群体和巴尔干周边地区更内陆的早期新石器时代农业聚落之间的未勘探区域。1965年在铁门/多瑙河峡谷地区多瑙河沿岸发现了非常丰富的中石器时代聚落考古序列，随后在20世纪60年代末和70年代初进行了抢救性挖掘，之后该地区没有进行过实地考察工作。根据在多瑙河上广泛挖掘的中石器时代/觅食遗址发现的物质文化，有证据表明早期新石器时代的陶器和其他便携物品的大量传播，这些物品是早期新石器时代/农业社区的特征，起始日期约为公元前6300年。这些数据说明了两个不同文化群体之间的接触和交流。然而，由于远离多瑙河岸边的多瑙河腹地地区和峡谷悬崖之外的地区在考古上仍未被探索，人们对这种采集者和农民之间的这种接触的性质知之甚少。因此，目前的项目寻求进行一项考古调查，并探索觅食和耕作定居点之间的地区。调查区域包括塞尔维亚米罗克山高原的喀斯特地貌，其特点是大量的洞穴和避石场所，这是主要目标。研究战略设计为三个阶段：1)调查现有的洞穴和避石场所，以便在现有遗址中提供最有希望的考古勘探地点；2)6个洞穴/避石场所的岩心沉积物，以确定它们的地层和其中的沉积性质；以及3)在两个洞穴中挖掘试验坑，这两个洞穴提供了中石器-新石器时代最有希望的地层。该项目有可能提供重要的新数据，这些数据将对目前关于东南欧向农业转型的讨论产生重大影响。在理论层面上，该项目将有可能研究考古学和人类学理论中的一些核心问题，即文化认同、不同人口和文化现象之间的联系和交流问题。在更广泛的层面上，该研究项目将汇聚东道国(塞尔维亚)的教授和学生以及国际研究人员，并为塞尔维亚大学生提供机会，向在美国和英国大学接受培训的考古学家学习和培训。

In the Fall of 2004, with the support provided by the National Science Foundation, an international team of archaeologists, geologists and speleologists under the supervision of Dr. Dusan Boric will conduct research in the Danube Gorges region of the north-central Balkans, in present-day Serbia. The project examines the nature of culture contact and exchange in the transition to agriculture in south-eastern Europe, which remains one of the central questions of European Prehistory. The exploratory research to be conducted in this region focuses on an unexplored area between Mesolithic foraging groups found along the Danube banks and more inland Early Neolithic farming settlements in the surrounding regions of the Balkans.After the initial discovery of a very rich archaeological sequence of Mesolithic settlements along the Danube banks in the Iron Gates/Danube Gorges region in 1965 and their subsequent rescue excavations in the late 1960s and early 1970s, no field-work has been conducted in this area. On the basis of the material culture found at extensively excavated Mesolithic/foraging sites on the Danube, there is evidence of significant diffusion of Early Neolithic pottery and other portable items characterizing the Early Neolithic/farming communities with the staring date of around 6300 BC. These data speak to the contact and exchange between two different culture groups. However, very little is known about the nature of this contact between foragers and farmers since the area of the Danube Gorges hinterlands, away from the Danube banks and the region beyond the cliffs of the gorges, remains archaeologically unexplored. Consequently, the current project seeks to conduct an archaeological survey and explore the area between foraging and farming settlements. The survey area encompasses the karstic landscape of the Miroc Mountain Plateau in Serbia that is characterized by numerous caves and rockshelters, which are the primary targets.Research strategy is designed to proceed in three phases: 1) to survey the existing caves and rockshelters in order to provide a 'short-list' of the most promising among the existing sites for an archaeological exploration; 2) to core sediments of six caves/rockshelters in order to determine their stratigraphies and the nature of sedimentation in them; and 3) to excavate test pits in two caves that provide the most promising stratigraphies of Mesolithic-Neolithic periods.The project has the potential to provide vital new data that would make a significant impact on the current discussion with regard to the transition to farming in southeastern Europe. On the theoretical level the project will provide the possibility to examine some of the central questions of archaeological and anthropological theory, namely the questions of culture identity, contact and exchange between different populations and cultural phenomena.On a broader level this research project will bring together professors and students from the host country (Serbia) and international researchers, and provide the Serbian university students with the opportunity to learn and train with archaeologists who were trained at USA and UK universities.