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Mesolithic
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The
end of Pleistocene was marked by major climatic changes. By the
beginning of Holocene temperatures rose, precipitation increased,
polar ice caps were reduced and the Adriatic Sea rose several dozen
meters, reaching a level which was about 20 meters lower than today.
Consequently, the distance from shore to Vela Cave decreased from
15 kilometers to only a few hundred meters.
Layers that were most closely examined in Trench f - g x 5' - 7'
(depths 579-428 cm) belong to the Mesolithic phase of Vela cave's
material culture development. They exhibit characteristics for which
there are no close analogies in any of the neighboring sites. Two
stages have been recognized: an older, relatively poor stage 7/1,
and a younger stage 7/2 that yielded more material, primarily food
remains.
Flaked stone industry is represented by a small number of flakes
and very simply retouched tools. A modest number of 211 flaked stone
artifacts were recovered from the aforementioned excavation trench.
Most of them are flakes, chunks and chips, that were recovered from
the upper part of the Mesolithic layer. Only nine of them are tools
(six end scrapers, two blades and a single battered piece), which
is all but negligible when compared to 1069 tools from the Paleolithic
phase.
Bone tools are much better represented. A total number of 29 were
recovered in Trench f - g x 5' - 7', which makes them three times
more common then flaked stone tools, and also more numerous than
the total number of bone tools from the Paleolithic phase, which
was remarkably rich in flaked stone artifacts. Several dozen bone
tools of similar kind were recovered from Mesolithic levels in other
excavation trenches. Bone tools from Mesolithic levels differ considerably
in shape and size from all other prehistoric bone artifacts. The
most common tools are simple and usually short examples of thin
needles shaped by careful scraping, often along the whole length
of long bones. Massive tools are very rare. A perforator from the
layer directly underlying the Neolithic strata is an exception.
Sometimes, distal ends of short needles were shaped by scraping,
until a blunt, rounded point was created, resembling miniature spatula.
Some of the short, thick needles were worked at both ends. We assume,
based on analogies, that these may have been used as fishing hooks.
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MOLLUSKS
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8/5 |
8/6 |
7/1 |
7/2 |
7/3 |
7/4 |
6/1 |
6/2 |
6/3 |
Ukup. |
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Helix
sp.
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1 |
0 |
112 |
728 |
1987 |
438 |
30 |
75 |
19 |
3390 |
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Monodonta
turbinata
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2 |
9 |
69 |
172 |
913 |
1005 |
109 |
15 |
44 |
2338 |
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Patella
coer.
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2 |
9 |
59 |
341 |
2175 |
2710 |
212 |
19 |
70 |
5597 |
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Spondilus
gae.
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0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
27 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
33 |
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Ostrea
edulis
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0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
40 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
46 |
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Murex
tr.
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0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
11 |
22 |
5 |
3 |
0 |
42 |
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Cerith.
V.
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0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
65 |
201 |
19 |
8 |
2 |
298 |
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Mitylus
gallo.
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0 |
0 |
8 |
52 |
53 |
31 |
0 |
2 |
12 |
158 |
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Arca
noae
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0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
9 |
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Pinna
nobilis
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0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
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Special
shell
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11 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
12 |
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Fish
bones
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- |
- |
- |
+ |
+++ |
+++ |
+ |
+ |
+ |
/ |
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Percent
(%)
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0.14 |
0.16 |
2.08 |
10.88 |
43.69 |
37.36 |
3.16 |
1.02 |
1.27 |
100% |
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TOTAL:
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16 |
19 |
248 |
1303 |
5234 |
4457 |
377 |
122 |
152 |
11928 |
| Table
4 - mollusks by levels, from the end of Early Neolithic until
the end of Upper Paleolithic |
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A
large number of very simple bone needles were used for eating seashells
and snails. These mollusks were one of the main sources of food
during early Holocene (see Table 4. Large herds of red deer, wild
horses and wild cattle disappeared due to radical climatic and environmental
changes, and were necessarily substituted by marine food resources.
Fish, seashells and snails are well represented, while animals such
as wild pig, fallow deer, hare, and only exceptionally red deer,
were taken sporadically. Remains of martens and foxes, animals that
were hunted for their furs, are very common. Domesticated animals
are still absent.
Tens of thousands of shells, most of them Monodonta turbinata and
Patella coer., were recovered from this phase, especially in its
earlier stage. About twenty miniature, decorative marine snails
(Columbella rustica) have been carefully perforated near their tips.
They may have been used as pendants, or as necklace beads. Use of
shells as pendants is attested by several Cypraea shells, which
were also carefully pierced near their tips.
Aside from having been used for habitation and repose between hunting
expeditions and collection of marine resources (most likely, seasonal),
the cave also served as burial ground. In the deepest part of the
cave, in a trench that exposed an area of only 20 m², three
child burials were discovered between 1986 and 1998 excavation seasons.
These simple burials are very similar to each other. The children,
age 2 or 3, were buried in contracted posture. They were surrounded
by traces of grave architecture. The burials belong to the younger
Mesolithic stage. With regard to their chronological position, we
may mention that the charcoal, which was recovered from 80 or more
centimeters directly above the burials, from the base of the Early
Neolithic accumulation, was dated to 6150 BC, which corresponds
very well to the very beginning of the Early Neolithic. Major physical
differences between Mesolithic and Neolithic strata, as well as
the character of the associated finds, rule out any possible dilemmas
and clearly endorse Mesolithic attribution of these burials.
In the younger stage, frequent finds of large fish bones (such as
tuna and swordfish) indicate developed fishing - more specifically,
deep-sea fishing. This implies proficient open sea navigation, maybe
aimed at exploitation of rich sources of flint that are located
at the opposite shore of the Adriatic. An igneous rock cobble from
Burial #2 (1986), which must have been brought from distant islets
of Brusnik or Palagruža, represents direct evidence of open
sea navigation before mid-seventh millennium BC.
A charcoal sample recovered from approximate depth of 505 cm (7/2)
yielded a calibrated date indicating an age of 7380-7080 B.C. (87.0%
probability) and 7460-7390 B.C. (8.4% probability). Another sample
from the lower part of the stratigraphic unit 7/3, recovered from
approximate depth of 490 cm, was dated to 7330-7080 B.C. (95.4%
probability). Finally, a sample recovered from a depth between 449
cm and 428 cm (7/4) yielded calibrated dates of 6100-5990 B.C. (82.5%
probability) and 6170-6130 B.C. (12.9% probability).
Among several Eastern Adriatic sites that contained contemporary
sediments, only Crvena Stijena, Odmut and several sites in Istria
have been extensively excavated. None of those sites are located
at the very coast. Their natural environments are different, which
explains their closer bonds with earlier phases, which is something
that we did not detect in Vela Cave.
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Izrada
web stranica: design-ERS (c) Centar za kulturu
Vela Luka 2002
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