COMPARATIVE ANALYSE OF THE FAUNAL REMAINS FROM SITES DATED IN STARCEVO-CRIŞ IB-IIA FROM TRANSILVANIA AND BANAT
dr. Georgeta El Susi
The communication focuses upon 15,000 animal remains collected from different sites, placed in varied biotopes: lower regions of the Banat as the Banat Plain (Dudeştii Vechi, Foeni) and the Danube Valley (Gornea-Locurile Lungi, Pojejena-Nucet), or the higher regions of Transilvania (Cauce, Gura Baciului, Miercurea Sibiului-Pietriş, Şeuşa-La cărarea morii. Taking into account the precedent information, we put them into a common framework and we tried to synthesize some common traits of the animals exploited in sites belonging to Starčevo-Criş Culture (IB-IIA) in our regions. The comparative analyze of samples originating in these sites (just the remains collected from levels dated in Starčevo-Criş IB-IIA revealed the following features:
The earliest Starčevo-Criş communities from the Banat Plain exploited in different ways the natural resources (fish, mollusks, birds, reptiles, wild mammals), emphasizing a seasonality of the economic activities. A specialized hunting would have existed, together with the small ruminants breeding. The cattle exploitation focused upon by-products chiefly than meat, in the II B level at Dudeştii Vechi. The pig exploitation is lesser in all the sites. An economy sustained by caprovines and aquatic resources was outlined at Foeni-Gaz. The hunting of mammals was practices on a small scale. The Transylvanian sites are characterized by two types of animal exploitation: some sites with the prevalence of caprovines as Cauce, Şeuşa and Gura Baciului; the hunting was of lesser importance at Cauce, Şeuşa versus Gura Baciului characterized by an intensive exploitation of the wilds. Miercurea Sibiului differentiates by an economy based on cattle breeding (over 50 %), the caprovines quota decreasing up to 29 %. The hunting of lesser importance was correlated with a reduced surface of the forested area.
Closing, the cattle, small ruminants, pig and dog were introduced as domesticated form, in our local fauna by the communities’ movements from the south Balkan Peninsula. Although, for cattle, pig and dog their wild correspondents in the autochthonous fauna existed, at that chronological moment we can’t talk about domestication preoccupations; even if crossbreds (accidentally or not) took place, these were in negligible number, and little influenced the animals. Over time these “experiences” amplified, according some data towards the end of the Neolithic a “domestication fever” occurred temporizing the withers height reducing process, mostly in case of bovines Analyses of the faunal remains from many sites are still ongoing and results are therefore preliminary.
