Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-v2bm5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-19T00:30:40.989Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Chronological and Dietary Aspects of the Human Burials from Ajdovska Cave, Slovenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

C Bonsall ,
M Horvat ,
K McSweeney ,
M Masson ,
T F G Higham ,
C Pickard  and
G T Cook
C Bonsall*
Affiliation:
Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, Infirmary Street, Edinburgh EH1 1LT, United Kingdom
M Horvat
Affiliation:
Archaeology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
K McSweeney
Affiliation:
Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, Infirmary Street, Edinburgh EH1 1LT, United Kingdom
M Masson
Affiliation:
Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, Infirmary Street, Edinburgh EH1 1LT, United Kingdom
T F G Higham
Affiliation:
Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Oxford University, Dyson Perrins Building, Oxford 0X1 3QY, United Kingdom
C Pickard
Affiliation:
Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, Infirmary Street, Edinburgh EH1 1LT, United Kingdom
G T Cook
Affiliation:
SUERC, Scottish Enterprise Technology Park, East Kilbride G75 0QF, United Kingdom
*
Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Ajdovska Jama (The Pagan's Cave) in southeast Slovenia lies within the catchment of the River Sava, a major tributary of the Danube. The site is well known for its Neolithic burials and has been excavated to a high standard on various occasions since 1884. The human remains at the site occurred as distinct clusters of mainly disarticulated bones belonging to at least 31 individuals. Hitherto, dating of the burials has been based on the associated archaeological finds, including a few low-precision radiometric radiocarbon measurements on charred plant material. In the present study, bones from 15 individuals were subsampled for accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and stable isotope analyses. These comprised adults and children from 3 of the clusters. The results of the study indicate that the burials all belong to a relatively short time interval, while the stable isotope data indicate a mixed diet based on C3 plant and animal food sources. These interpretations differ somewhat from those of previous researchers. The AMS 14C and stable isotope analyses form part of a wider investigation of dietary and demographic change from the Mesolithic to the Iron Age in the Danube Basin.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , 2007 , pp. 727 - 740
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Bartosiewicz, L, Bonsall, C, Boroneant, V, Stallibrass, S. 2001. New data on the prehistoric fauna of the Iron Gates: a case study from Schela Cladovei, Romania. In Kertés, R, Makkay, J, editors. From the Mesolithic to the Neolithic. Budapest: Archaeolingua (Main Series). p 15–21.Google Scholar
Bonsall, C, Lennon, R, McSweeney, K, Stewart, C, Harkness, D, Boroneant, V, Payton, R, Bartosiewicz, L, Chapman, JC. 1997. Mesolithic and Early Neolithic in the Iron Gates: a palaeodietary perspective. Journal of European Archaeology 5(1):50–92.Google Scholar
Bonsall, C, Cook, G, Lennon, R, Harkness, D, Scott, M, Bartosiewicz, L, McSweeney, K. 2000. Stable isotopes, radiocarbon and the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the Iron Gates. Documenta Praehistorica 27:119–32.Google Scholar
Bonsall, C, Cook, GT, Hedges, REM, Higham, TFG, Pickard, C, Radovanović, I. 2004. Radiocarbon and stable isotope evidence of dietary change from the Mesolithic to the Middle Ages in the Iron Gates: new results from Lepenski Vir. Radiocarbon 46(1):293–300.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 1995. Radiocarbon calibration and analysis of stratigraphy: the OxCal program. Radiocarbon 37(2):425–30.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2001. Development of the radiocarbon calibration program. Radiocarbon 43(2A):355–63.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2006. OxCal program v 4.0 [software and documentation]. URL: http://c14.arch.ox.ac.uk/oxcal/hlp_contents.html.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C, Hedges, REM. 1997. Hybrid ion sources: radiocarbon measurements from microgram to milligram. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 123(1–4):539–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C, Pettitt, PB, Hedges, REM, Hodgins, GWL, Owen, DC. 2000. Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS system: Archaeometry Datelist 30. Archaeometry 42:459–79.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C, Higham, TFG, Bowles, A, Hedges, REM. 2004. Improvements to the pretreatment of bone at Oxford. Radiocarbon 46(1):155–63.Google Scholar
Cook, GT, Bonsall, C, Hedges, REM, McSweeney, K, Boroneant, V, Pettitt, PB. 2001. A freshwater diet-derived 14C reservoir effect at the Stone Age sites in the Iron Gates Gorge. Radiocarbon 43(2A):453–60.Google Scholar
Cook, GT, Bonsall, C, Hedges, REM, McSweeney, K, Boroneant, V, Bartosiewicz, L, Pettitt, PB. 2002. Problems of dating human bones from the Iron Gates. Antiquity 76(291):77–85.Google Scholar
Corrain, C, Capitanio, M. 1991. La necropli di Adjovska jama (Slovenia). Poročilo o raziskovanju paleolita, neolita in eneolita v Sloveniji 29:207–47. In Italian.Google Scholar
Drucker, D, Bocherens, H. 2004. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes as tracers of change in diet breadth during Middle and Upper Palaeolithic Europe. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 14(3–4):162–77.Google Scholar
Higham, T, Bronk Ramsey, C, Karavanić, I, Smith, FH, Trinkaus, E. 2006. Revised direct radiocarbon dating of the Vindija G1 Upper Paleolithic Neandertals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 103(3):553–7.Google Scholar
Horvat, M. 1989. Ajdovska jama pri Nemški vasi. Ljubljana: Znanstveni inštitut Filozofske fakultete. In Slovene.Google Scholar
Larsen, CS. 1997. Bioarchaeology: Interpreting Behaviour from the Human Skeleton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 474 p.Google Scholar
Macko, SA, Lubec, G, Teschler-Nicola, M, Andrusevich, V, Engel, MH. 1999. The Ice Man's diet as reflected by the stable nitrogen and carbon isotopic composition of his hair. The FASEB Journal 13:559–62.Google Scholar
Murray, M, Schoeninger, M. 1988. Diet, status and complex social structure in Iron Age Central Europe: some contributions of bone chemistry. In: Gibson, DB, Geselowitz, MN, editors. Tribe and Polity in Late Prehistoric Europe: Demography, Production and Exchange in the Evolution of Complex Social Systems. New York: Plenum. p 155–76.Google Scholar
Obelić, B, Horvatinčić;, N, Srdoč, D, Krajcar Bronić, I, Sliepčević, A, Grgić, S. 1994. Rudjer Bošković Institute radiocarbon measurements XIII. Radiocarbon 36(2):303–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ogrinc, N. 1999. Stable isotope evidence of the diet of the Neolithic population in Slovenia—a case study: Ajdovska jama. Documenta Praehistorica 26:193–200.Google Scholar
Ogrinc, N, Budja, M. 2005. Paleodietary reconstruction of a Neolithic population in Slovenia: a stable isotope approach. Chemical Geology 218(1–2):103–16.Google Scholar
Paul, AA, Southgate, DAT. 1978. McCance and Widdowson's the Composition of Foods. 4th edition. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Phillips, DL, Koch, PL. 2002. Incorporating concentration dependence in stable isotope mixing models. Oecologia 130(1):114–25.Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Baillie, MGL, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Bertrand, CJH, Blackwell, PG, Buck, CE, Burr, GS, Cutler, KB, Damon, PE, Edwards, RL, Fairbanks, RG, Friedrich, M, Guilderson, TP, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kromer, B, McCormac, G, Manning, S, Bronk Ramsey, C, Reimer, RW, Remmele, S, Southon, JR, Stuiver, M, Talamo, S, Taylor, FW, van der Plicht, J, Weyhenmeyer, CE. 2004. IntCal04 terrestrial radiocarbon age calibration, 0–26 cal kyr BP. Radiocarbon 46(3):1029–58.Google Scholar
Srdoč, D, Obelić, B, Horvatinčić, N, Krajcar, I, Sliepčević, A. 1984. Rudjer Bošković Institute radiocarbon measurements VIII. Radiocarbon 26(3):449–60.Google Scholar
Srdoč, D, Horvatinčić, N, Obelić, B, Krajcar Bronić, I, Sliepčević, A. 1987. Rudjer Bošković Institute radiocarbon measurements IX. Radiocarbon 29(1):115–34.Google Scholar
Srdoč, D, Obelić, B, Horvatinčić, N, Krajcar Bronić, I, Sliepèević, A. 1989. Rudjer Bošković Institute radiocarbon measurements XI. Radiocarbon 31(1):85–98.Google Scholar
Srdoč, D, Horvatinčić, N, Krajcar Bronić, I, Obelić, B, Sliepèević, A. 1992. Rudjer Bošković Institute radiocarbon measurements XII. Radiocarbon 34(1):155–75.Google Scholar
Whittle, A, Bartosiewicz, L, Boric, D, Pettitt, P, Richards, M. 2002. In the beginning: new radiocarbon dates for the Early Neolithic in northern Serbia and southeast Hungary. Antaeus 25:64–117.Google Scholar
Zohary, D, Hopf, M. 1994. Domestication of Plants in the Old World: the Origin and Spread of Cultivated Plants in West Asia, Europe, and the Nile Valley. 2nd edition. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 264 p.Google Scholar