The long and short of it: timescales for cultural change and transmission in the Vinca complex of SE Europe

Summary

The Times of Their Lives project has produced modelled date estimates for the major phases of the Vinca complex in SE Europe, spanning the later sixth to mid-fifth millennium cal BC. That is a considerable advance in our understanding of the broad rate of cultural change. But site-specific date estimates within the complex also allow detailed comparisons of the timing of the introduction of novel material forms, especially in pottery, down to a much more precise scale. Examples from the beginning especially of the Vinca complex (Vinca A) will be discussed, drawing on our work at among other sites, over an area with a radius of some 100 km, Vinca-Belo Brdo, Serbia; Uivar, western Romania; and Szederkeny and Versend, south-west Hungary. Other possibilities for examining the further development and the end of the Vinca complex will also be briefly discussed, providing further reflection on how best to combine varying timescales.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• The short and the long of it: combining timescales

Keywords

Spatial Coverage