Anthropological importance of the finds in North-eastern Serbia and in Lepenski vir

Petar, Vlahović

Glasnik Antropološkog društva Jugoslavije

37

27

38

0351-1480

http://scindeks.ceon.rs/article.aspx?query=ISSID%26and%263557&page=0&sor...

2002-2021/11/05/08:54:12

The studies of Dr. Sci. Zlata Dolinar-Osole from Ljubljana, Slovenia including those from Central Serbia, have multiple importance in anthropological science. For this reason, and on the occasion of her jubilee (eighty years of life and work), we should particularly pay attention to some findings in North-Eastern Serbia, including Lepenski Vir. Numerous localities, discovered in North-Eastern Serbia, testify about the migrations of prehistoric populations in these territories. This is confirmed by the discoveries in the Đerdap (Iron Gate) part of the Danube lands, at the localities of Lepenski Vir, Hajdučka Vodenica, Padina, and, for instance Vlasac, where along with the artifacts were found some pieces of human skeletons, very interesting for wider and deeper anthropological studies. The locality Lepenski Vir was discovered in the 1960s and 70s. Osteological material there dates from 7th millenium BC and from more recent millenniums. Along with this material were discovered monuments of an ancient, until then unknown in Europe, prehistoric culture. The discovered items of material culture span a very long period of time, and show that important changes took place in the life of these populations. Apparently, these changes were reflected in their anthropological appearance (gracilization brahicephalization, dinarization and other). This is why the osteological remains of approximately 280 generations, according to Nemeshkery, are a precious basis for the reconstruction of biological processes and also of circumstances under which the early human populations lived and anthropologically formed in the near-Danube lands and in other Balkan lands. Material found in Lepenski Vir and in nearby localities in Đerdap part of near-Danube lands shows gradual changes in economic activity, material culture, and in the social organization which became more developed during that time. According to Nemeshkery, the human populations of Lepenski Vir belong, by their bio-physical characteristics, to a special, autochthonous bio-physical variety. This is why they can be classified as a distinct bio-physical type, best named as Homo lepenensis