“Holding back the Tide? The Neolithic Transition in the Danube’s Iron Gates”

Vendredi 21 décembre, 10 h – 12 h

MAE, salle 2, rez-de-jardin

In the 1960s, Romanian and Serbian archaeologists established an impressive sequence of Mesolithic sites in the Iron Gates section of the Danube Valley dating from 12,000 to 6000 cal BC. From this work emerged a compelling picture of a society that was initially reliant on nomadic hunting, but over millennia became sedentary and more socially and technologically sophisticated. The findings suggested that the Mesolithic inhabitants had developed an advanced culture based on riverine resources, which survived long after agriculture was established in the surrounding areas.

The past 15 years have witnessed a quantum leap in our understanding of the early post-glacial settlement of the Iron Gates. New excavations at Schela Cladovei (Romania) and Vlasac (Serbia), together with scientific analyses of finds from the 1960s have provided evidence that challenges previous interpretations.

This lecture will review the advances in our knowledge of Mesolithic settlement in the Iron Gates region, which have provided a clearer insight into what appears to have been a stable cultural tradition lasting more than five millennia, followed by a period of rapid cultural change between 6300 and 6000 BC, the causes of which are still hotly debated.

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