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Transition
from Mesolithic to Neolithic is immediate, without a break, but
also without continuity in material and spiritual culture of the
two periods. Traces of human occupation from layers, about one meter
thick, which directly overlay Mesolithic strata, belong to the Early
Neolithic. The only culture known from that period in the Eastern
Adriatic is Impresso culture. The term “Neolithic revolution”
implies fundamental changes, such as radical changes in life ways
and economy. At the end of the seventh millennium BC, these changes
affected a much wider region, which also included the Middle Adriatic.
Changes are manifest in Vela cave, just like in other similar archaeological
sites. Mobile life ways based on hunting and gathering of wild foods
(particularly marine mollusks) are abandoned. Adopted novelties
include herding, production of the earliest pottery, neolithisation
of lithic industry and other important changes in economic structure.
It is interesting to note that faunal data (Table 3) show that the
process of animal domestication fully corresponds with the beginning
of the Neolithic.
Little can be said about ethnic affiliation of the population that
was responsible for those changes. Due to major and comprehensive
changes in material culture, we assume that, with the onset of Neolithic,
the existing Mesolithic population was displaced, expelled or maybe
assimilated, and that expansion of Neolithic culture is to be understood
as a gradual migration of its carriers in an east to west direction.
It has been mentioned already that the Mesolithic lithics assemblage
is relatively modest, consisting of only several hundred artifacts,
mostly flakes and chunks, while actual tools are rare. The Early
Neolithic assemblage is somewhat larger, but tools are still relatively
rare. The two assemblages are similar in the sense that, in both
cases, lithic tools are simply made and relatively few in number.
Long blades with triangular or trapezoidal sections, unknown in
earlier contexts, dominate the Neolithic levels. They represent
the most common Neolithic tool type, and cannot be related to the
earlier blade types. Raclettes on large flakes are common, and small
polished stone axes begin to appear. Types that were characteristic
for Mesolithic and earlier periods (all types of end scrapers, blades,
backed bladelets…) are completely absent. Comparison between
the Mesolithic and the Early Neolithic material brings us to conclude
that the two assemblages have practically nothing in common - technologies
are different, as well as tool types.
Aside from bone and stone artifacts, potsherds make up the majority
of recovered finds. Almost all known Early Neolithic vessel shapes
of various sizes and quality are present. Numerous decorative motifs
and ornamental systems had been applied to the vessels. A general
characteristic of the earliest Neolithic pottery is its uniformity.
Most of the vessels have strictly functional shapes and coarse surfaces,
which are decorated by primitive techniques that were first to be
adopted. Characteristics of the Early Neolithic culture from Vela
Cave almost completely correspond to the situation that is already
known and has been explored at similar contemporaneous sites in
the Adriatic and the Mediterranean. The term “Impresso culture”
has been long since accepted in archaeology for this well known,
extensively investigated and widely distributed circum-Mediterranean
phenomenon.
Clear and intact cultural layers allowed recognition of three developmental
stages of the Early Neolithic. First stage is characterized by the
appearance of the oldest pottery, a thick-walled ware with carefully
smoothed surface, decorated with dense, deep impressions and, less
frequently, pinching and short incisions. Dense decoration always
covers the entire surface of potsherds. There is a clear tendency
to organize decoration of some of the vessels in horizontal, parallel
bands. Second stage is marked by continuous development of the existing
tradition, and also by introduction of new decorative elements.
Dominant decorative techniques are impression, as well as short
and linear incision. An impressed zigzag motif begins to be applied.
Vessels have thinner walls, and finer wares appear occasionally.
The main characteristic of the third stage, or the end of Impresso
culture, is frequent decoration of potsherds by zigzag impression
and use of all earlier decorative techniques. Use of new decorative
elements is noted, as well as new vessel shapes, high quality clay,
careful treatment and light color of vessel surface, combination
of several different decorative techniques, etc.
Vessel shapes remain very simple throughout the Early Neolithic.
Most significant among them are deep hemispherical or oval jars
with flat bases, and open conical or hemispherical bowls. All other
vessels are in fact numerous variants of these basic shapes.
Geographical position of Korcula and Vela Luka bay indicates that
Vela Cave is located on a terrestrial-maritime route, most of which
has been reconstructed, and which extended from Lipari, across the
southern Apennine Mountains, Gargano, Tremiti, Palagruža, Sušac,
Kor?ula and Pelješac, through the valley of Neretva, the Sarajevo-Zenica
basin and the valley of Bosna river towards the Pannonian Plain.
Vela Cave is an important station on that route. It is the beginning
point of its maritime section or, in the opposite direction, the
first stop of the overland journey. Quite naturally, Vela Cave was
the place of exchange of material objects and human experiences,
a meeting point of disunited parts of the wide circum-Mediterranean
civilization.
Identical techniques, shapes and motifs speak of parallel development
of one and the same culture on both Adriatic coasts. The very beginning
of the Neolithic way of life is still not very well understood,
but later stages exhibit a high degree of concordance when one compares
the finds from Vela Cave with analogous finds from either eastern
or western Adriatic coast.
Life of the Impresso culture in Vela Cave was interrupted abruptly,
at the very peak of impressed decoration development. This is evident
in cultural strata where new monochrome burnished and painted pottery
directly overlays the Impresso levels.
Radiocarbon analysis of charcoal from Layer VI, section g x 19-21,
some 60 cm above Mesolithic burials 1 - 3, provides a calibrated
date of 6230-6000 (6150) BC. That date clearly indicates a time
which postdates Mesolithic as recorded e.g. in Kopacina Cave on
the island of Brac, where it was dated to 6680 BC (Müller 1994:
351.). It corresponds to the date from Mesolithic Layer 8 (Stratum
I B) of the Odmut Cave and, what is particularly important, to the
earliest pottery phase from Gudnja Cave on Pelješac peninsula
(Chapman 1988: 7-10). There is no doubt that Layer VI (from section
g x 19-21) is the oldest pottery level in Vela Cave. Pottery from
that layer compares well, in general, with the first developmental
stage of Impresso pottery. Position from which the charcoal sample
was recovered leaves little chance for an even earlier date for
the beginning of Impresso pottery. Charcoal from Layer V, section
g x 19-21, which was associated with finds typical of middle Impresso
stage, provided a date of 5855 BC.
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Hrvatski
