HEAS Deputy Head Publishes New Book on The Svinjarička Čuka Archaeological Site in Southern Serbia

The Svinjarička Čuka archaeological site, situated on a flat river terrace in southern Serbia, has been under investigation by an international research team since 2018 as part of an interdisciplinary Austrian-Serbian collaborative project. The prehistoric settlement history of the terrace dates back to the early Neolithic period and extends through the Copper and Bronze Ages to the Iron Age. The most important scientific findings on the Neolithic process in Serbia and a representative selection of the most significant finds from the first excavation campaigns are presented for the first time in this bilingual (English and Serbian) companion volume to the permanent exhibition at the National Museum of Leskovac. Evidence of permanent, fixed architecture of the Neolithic Starčevo culture from around 6000 BC and the rich array of finds provide insights into the material culture of the first agricultural, sedentary societies in a region that, along major river corridors, connects the cultures of the Mediterranean with those of the Danube region. The individual chapters not only provide an overview of the excavation results and finds, but also of the Leskovac plain and the discovery of the site using systematic surveys and geophysical prospection methods. Furthermore, they offer insights into the diverse application of multidisciplinary methods in the analysis of the finds (such as microarchaeology, wear and tear and residue analysis, and radiocarbon dating) and into the extensive sampling program of archaeological, geological, anthropological, archaeozoological, and archaeobotanical material using state-of-the-art scientific laboratory methods.

Barbra Horejs

More information (in German)