Specialized and systematic underwater fieldwork at the prehistoric site of Ploča Mičov Grad at Gradište (North Macedonia) on the eastern shore of Lake Ohrid was undertaken in 2018 and 2019. It has substantiated the archeological site's outstanding preservation condition, and furthermore proven the numerous construction timbers' suitability for dendrochronological analysis. Dendrochronological analysis on archaeological timbers was applied, combined with radiocarbon dating. Bayesian radiocarbon modeling allowed to 'wiggle match' the dendrochronological mean curves, i.e. allowed the precise chronological anchoring of 'floating' tree-ring sequences. Furthermore, radiocarbon dates of plant remains from the site's main archaeological layer are statistically evaluated. Based on the new findings, the strikingly high density of wooden piles at the site can be attributed to several construction phases of Neolithic (middle of 5th millennium BC) and Bronze Age (2nd millennium BC: 1800, 1400 and 1300 BCE) settlements. Intense settlement activity is furthermore evidenced by a cultural layer of mainly organic material under the lakebed up to 1.7 m in thickness, which accumulated during the Neolithic occupation of the bay in the middle of the 5th millennium BC. The presented research enables precise absolute dating of a series of settlement phases at Ploča Mičov Grad from the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, and hence provides important reference points for an absolute chronological framework for the prehistory of the southwestern Balkans. The investigations underline the potential of future research on waterlogged prehistoric settlements in the region.
Abstract Detailed knowledge about the interactions between vegetation, climate and land use during the Mesolithic and Neolithic, at the transition from foraging to farming, is still scarce in the Balkans. Here we present a palaeoecological study combining pollen, spores and charcoal found in sedimentary cores from Lake Ohrid, Ploča Mičov Grad, North Macedonia, with a particular focus on the vegetation dynamics during the Late Glacial-Holocene and the Mesolithic-Neolithic transitions. Our record begins at ca. 13,500 cal bp (11,550 cal bc ) when partially open vegetation, consisting mainly of Pinus , Abies and deciduous Quercus tree stands grew on the hilly flanks of the bay of Ploča. From 12,650 cal bp (cal 10,700 bc ), herbs dominated the record until the onset of the Holocene (ca. 11,700 cal bp ; 9750 cal bc ), when increasing temperatures led to the establishment of pine-deciduous oak forests including Alnus , Fraxinus ornus , Tilia , Ulmus and Abies . These forests persisted until 7,500 cal bp (cal 5550 bc ), when deforestation started due to Neolithic land use. This first phase of Neolithic activities in the Ploča Mičov Grad area precedes the earliest archaeological structures so far recorded by almost 1,000 years. Our data suggest two phases of human land use between 7,500 and 6,300 cal bp (5550–4350 cal bc ), when high values of Cerealia type pollen and other cultural indicators indicate intense arable and pastoral farming activities. Once human activities decreased, forests were able to re-establish quickly (within 100–250 years), although the composition changed with disturbance-adapted Ostrya type (mostly Ostrya carpinifolia ) and Fagus becoming more important. We conclude that forests were resilient to early human disturbance, despite intensive land use and logging activities gradually leading to forest composition changes. Many of these composition changes can still be seen today, suggesting the legacy of Neolithic farmers is still present in today’s landscape.
The site of Ploca-Micov Grad near Gradiste on Lake Ohrid represents one of the best explored pile-dwellings in the Balkan region, providing a more thorough insight into its character and about the communities that established and
dwelled in this settlement. Besides the contribution of the previous research at this site, a significant role has the ongoing international project named as EXPLO (Exploring the dynamics and causes of prehistoric land use change in the cradle of European farming), that is supported by the European Research Council. This project is a collaboration between the University of Bern, the University of Oxford and the University of Thessaloniki, while Macedonian partners are the Center for Prehistoric Research and the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments and Museum - Ohrid regarding the excavation of the Ploca-Micov Grad site. As a result of this collaboration, this year's research has included more multidisciplinary areas such as dendrochronology, archeobotany, paleoecology, the study of material culture etc. The 2019 research was related to the excavations and dendrochronology
performed previous year, but in the context of a new more broader project and involving a much larger team of experts and students who are engaged in various segments of the work on the Ploca-Micov Grad site.
The central Alpine area (cantons of St Gallen, Grisons and Ticino/Switzerland, Tyrol/Austria, South Tyrol and Trentino/Italy) has proven to have served as a transalpine traffic route since prehistoric times, with a significant increase from the MBA on. The finds and even people point to an increasingly structured and established network of contacts and exchange favored by the topographical bottleneck situation. Meanwhile, the degree of organization behind the mobility of people, objects and ideas is unknown, yet, an adequate infrastructure and knowledge must be expected.
Interestingly enough, within this active exchange network, the LBA and EIA settlement topography does display a strikingly decentralized, barely hierarchical quality, lacking of so-called ‘central places’, unlike for instance the adjacent areas north and south of the Alps. Indeed, in the Alps, an increased organization of space is occurring at the transition from the LBA to the IEA, especially expressed in the emergence of sanctuaries and a significant interaction network density. However, ‘central places’ featuring prominent terrain situations, impressive defensive fortifications, luxury products, imported goods from the Mediterranean, workshops and active crafting activity, as well as accompanying rich graves are suspiciously absent in the area of interest. This puts a question mark behind the assumed presence of ruling settlements, ‘elites’ or other territory controlling instances, and their degree of power and influence as well as their identity.
This paper discusses the particular case of the Central Alps as an economic space and settlement landscape in regards to its role as long distance exchange channel within a wider contact network. Multilevel approaches are taken into consideration to question the dimensions of ‘centrality’, or ‘decentrality’ in this very specific topography.
In many regions of Europe and beyond fortifications belong to the most impressive of archaeological remains. Their study has a long tradition and today a multitude of aspects about architecture, function or symbolism has been explored. However, fortifications are generally examined in a temporally, regionally or culturally limited context. Going a step further, this volume aims to bring into focus concepts of fortifications, which can be socially, symbolically or functionally, but also chronologically and supra-regionally aligned. An important question is to determine which fortification elements are culture-specific, and which can be regarded as convergence or even universal phenomena. Adopting a comparative view, the central aim of the volume is to highlight the diversity and the structural similarities of ancient fortifications. The chronological framework goes from the Neolithic to the Late Iron Age, and the geographical scope from the Ural steppes to the Iberian Peninsula.
The archaeological site of Sovjan is situated on the edge of the Korçë Basin, southeastern Albania. Its remarkably long and well investigated stratigraphic sequence, spanning from the Neolithic till the Iron Age, makes it an important type- and reference-site for the whole region. At different periods of prehistory it was located on the shores of the former Lake Maliq that once filled the Korçë Basin, but was definitely drained in the 1940′s. These permanent wetland conditions on the site allowed for a high degree of preservation of organic material, especially wood. Based on the current knowledge, level 8 of Sovjan contains the best-preserved wooden material of all the Early Bronze Age sites in the Balkans. Through the combination of dendrochronology and Bayesian modelling, i.e. wiggle-matching, a floating 269-years long tree-ring chronology was constructed, with an absolute end-date range falling between 2158 and 2142 cal BC (2σ). It was possible to establish that the dwellings and the trackway associated with the last occupation phase of level 8 are contemporaneous. Additionally, with the help of the new dendrochronological data and based on previously published charcoal dates, the absolute chronology of the subsequent level 7 is being narrowed-down to a range from the mid-22nd to mid-20th c. cal BC (2σ). The Early Bronze Age layers of the archaeological site of Sovjan, which are particularly pertinent for the 3rd millennium chronology of the southwestern Balkans, can now be dated with high precision for the first time and hence offer a major chronological reference point in the region.
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