Multiscalar Approach to the Study of Vegetation and Plant Use during the Neolithic Period in the Central Balkans: A Case Study from the Vinca Settlement

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，Borojevic博士将与一个多学科国际团队合作，研究植物遗骸，以揭示与温卡遗址建筑环境相关的植物使用和植被开发。温卡遗址是东南欧塞尔维亚新石器时代文化的一个类型遗址。该遗址为研究公元前五千年巴尔干中部的经济生产和建筑实践提供了绝佳的机会，巴尔干中部是史前定居农业社区扩展到喀尔巴阡盆地的核心地区。这项研究将提供有关过去7000年欧洲东南部中部植被和环境可能变化的初步数据，以及空间利用情况。该项目将有助于精确确定建筑物的功能，它们的生活史，场地的整体功能以及植物的使用和新石器时代晚期自然植被的开发。这项研究很重要，因为它将有助于建立识别微小植物遗骸的新技术和方法，这种方法可以扩展并应用于世界范围内的植物物质研究，而不考虑沉积的时期和类型。Borojevic博士将开发样品收集/制备程序，该程序将作为一个测试案例，通过将来自类似产地的植物遗骸的微形态数据（薄切片）与大量浮选数据相结合，评估准确、背景良好的信息。目的是揭示用于燃料、建筑、饲料和垫层的植物类型，以及它们的用途在空间上的变化（约公元前4500年）。与直接放射性碳定年法一起，薄切片的植物遗骸可以提供高分辨率的、环境控制的关于植物物质和人类活动的人为沉积和沉积后历史的观点。从分析中获得的综合信息将有助于重建古植被和遗址周围的生态条件，以便更好地了解人们在开发自然植被时采用的策略，以及他们在使用不同植物材料建造不同特征、不同类型的燃料或饲料时所做的选择。该项目将促进学者之间的合作和交叉培训，并将新技术传播给美国和塞尔维亚的研究生和本科生。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Borojevic in collaboration with a multidisciplinary international team will study plant remains to reveal plant use and vegetation exploitation related to the built-environments at the Vinca site, a type site of the Neolithic culture in Serbia in Southeast Europe. The site provides an exceptional opportunity for the study of economic production and building practices in the fifth millennia BC in the central Balkans, a core area from which settled agricultural communities expanded into the Carpathian Basin in the prehistory. The study will provide the initial data on past vegetation and possible changes in the environment of central Southeast Europe and use of space in the past 7000 years. The project will contribute to the precise determination of the functions of the buildings, their life histories, the overall function of the site and the use of plants and the exploitation of natural vegetation during the late Neolithic. This research is important because it will help to establish novel techniques and methodology of identifying minute plant remains, an approach which can then be expanded and applied to the study of vegetal matter world-wide, regardless of the period and type of deposit.Dr Borojevic will develop sample collection/preparation procedures which will serve as a test case for assessing accurate, well-contextualized information produced by combining micromorphological data (thin-sections) with those of bulk flotation of plant remains from similar proveniences. The purpose is to reveal the types of plants used for fuel, construction, fodder, and bedding, and how their use changed spatially (ca. 4500 BC). Together with direct radiocarbon dating, plant remains in thin sections can provide high resolution, contextually controlled views of anthropogenic deposits and post-depositional histories regarding vegetal matter and human activities. The combined information gained from the analyses will enable reconstruction of the ancient vegetation and the ecological conditions around the site in order to understand better the strategies people employ in exploiting the natural vegetation and the choices they make when using diverse plant materials for construction of different features, types of fuel, or fodder.The project will promote collaboration and cross training amongst scholars and dissemination of the new technique to the graduate and undergraduate students in the USA and Serbia.