The Lost World of Old Europe: The Danube Valley, 5000-3500 BC

247 Pages·2009·36.21 MB·English

by  David W. Anthony

The Lost World of Old Europe
,(cid:9)
Danube Va ley, 5000-3500
BC
Published by the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW)
at New York University and Princeton University Press
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World
15 E. 84th Street
New York, New York 10028
nyu.edu/isaw
Princeton University Press
41 William Street
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
press.princeton.edu
The exhibition The Lost World of Old Europe: The Danube Valley,
5000-3500 Bc (November 11, 2009—April 25, 2010) has been organized by
the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University
in collaboration with the National History Museum of Romania,
Bucharest, and with the participation of the Varna Regional Museum
of History, Bulgaria, and the National Museum of Archaeology and
History of Moldova, Chisinau.
The exhibition and its accompanying catalogue were made possible
through the generous support of the Leon Levy Foundation.
Managing Editor: Julienne Kim
Copy Editor: Mary Cason
Designer: Cope. New York Inc., Jenny 8 Del Corte Hirschfeld,
Mischa Leiner, Franck Doussot, Raul Bortolotti
Color Separations and Production: Colorfast, New York, NY
Printer: L.E.G.O., EuroGrafica, SpA, Vicenza, Italy
Copyright © 2010 by the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World
at New York University and Princeton University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form
or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage
and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the Institute for
the Study of the Ancient World and Princeton University Press, except by
a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2009933358
ISBN: 978-0-691-14388-0
The book was typeset in Sabon MT Pro and Helvetica Neue LT W1G
and printed on Condat Silk 150gsm.
Printed and bound in Vicenza, Italy
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
6 Letter from Roger S. Bagnall 90 4. Copper Age Traditions North
Director, Institute for the Study of the Ancient of the Danube River
World, New York University Dragomir Nicolae Popovici
8 Letter from Crian Mu§eteanu 112 5. The Figurines of Old Europe
Director, The National History Museum Douglass W. Bailey
of Romania, Bucharest
128 6. Cucuteni Ceramics: Technology, Typology,
10 Letter from Gheorghe Dumitroaia Evolution, and Aesthetics
Director, Near% County Museum Complex, Cornelia-Magda Lazarovici
Piatra Near%
162 7. The Invention of Copper Metallurgy and
12 Letter from Lacramioara Stratulat the Copper Age of Old Europe
Director, Moldova National Museum Complex, Iasi Ernst Pernicka and David W. Anthony
14 Letter from Valentin Pletnyov 178 8. Spondylus and Long-Distance Trade
Director, Varna Regional Museum of History, Varna in Prehistoric Europe
Michel Louis Seferiades
16 Letter from Eugen Sava
National Museum of Archaeology and History 192 9. The Varna Eneolithic Cemetery in
of Moldova, Chi§inau the Context of the Late Copper Age
in the East Balkans
18 Foreword, Jennifer Y. Chi
Vladimir Slavchev
Associate Director for Exhibitions and Public
Programs, Institute for the Study of the Ancient 211 10. The Copper Age Cemetery of Giurgiule0
World, New York University Veaceslav Bicbaev
22 Acknowledgments
226 Museum Abbreviations
26 Map of the Region and Selected Sites 228 Exhibition Checklist
240 Bibliography
28 1. The Rise and Fall of Old Europe
254 Photography and Drawing Credits
David W. Anthony
2. A History of Archaeology and
Museography in Romania
loan Opri§ and Caralin Bern
-4 3. Houses, Households, Villages, and
Proto-Cities in Southeastern Europe
John Chapman
Letter fro
T
Roge(- S. Bagnal
Director, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University
It is an honor to introduce the second international loan exhibition at the Institute for
the Study of the Ancient World, at New York University, a center for advanced research
and doctoral education in all disciplines concerned with the antiquity of the entire Old
World. It has its roots in the passion that Shelby White and Leon Levy had for the art
and history of the ancient world, which led them to envision an institute that would offer
a panoptic view of antiquity across vast stretches of time and place. The Institute for
the Study of the Ancient World aims to encourage particularly the study of economic,
religious, political, and cultural connections between ancient civilizations. It presents
the results of the research carried out by its faculty, visiting researchers, and students,
not only through scholarly publications and lectures but also through public exhibitions
in the galleries in its home at 15 East 84th Street in New York City. It is our intention
that these exhibitions should reflect the Institute's commitment to studying cross-cultural
connections and significant areas of the ancient world often neglected in research,
teaching, and public presentations.
The Lost World of Old Europe takes us in a direction that I could not have envisioned
when the Institute began in 2007 but which is profoundly true to our mission. As a
student I was taught about the Greek Neolithic, but with no sense of its connections to
a larger cultural canvas to the north. And when the transition to metal working in
Anatolia and the Near East was taught, Europe was never mentioned; we had no sense
of how advanced metallurgy was in that region, nor how rich the Chalcolithic societies
were. That is a great and exciting revelation, as I believe it will be for most whose back-
ground is Classical or Near Eastern. But equally remarkable is the sense that emerges
from these finds of the connectedness of Old Europe to Asia and to the Aegean, as well
as to points further north.
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The Institute is profoundly grateful to Professor David Anthony of Hartwick College,
who functioned as our guest curator for this exhibition, and ensured the timely com-
pletion of a scholarly_catalogue that reflects the high standards of research conducted at
15 East 84th Street. His multidisciplinary approach to the prehistoric steppe region,
particularly that in modern Russia and Ukraine, has much furthered our understanding
of the spread of Indo-European languages and the archaeological data that support
his argument. Old Europe may retain its enigmatic place within the large dialogue of
prehistoric Europe, but we hope that this catalogue will provide scholars, students,
and interested persons with a publication that presents the many and varied questions
surrounding this discipline.
7
Letter fro m
CrOn V L4eIeanL
Director, National History Museum of Romania, Bucharest
Situated in the southeastern part of Europe, Romania is a country with a remarkable
cultural diversity as well as an outstanding and varied natural landscape. The major
geographic landmarks are represented by the Carpathians, in effect the vertebral spine
of the Romanian territory and at the same time an area rich with natural resources;
the Danube, which forms the greater part of Romania's southern border; and the Black
Sea, situated to the southeast. From early times these features determined a densely
populated human habitation, resulting in the archaeological vestiges found on Romania's
territory and dating to the Paleolithic. Almost without a doubt, from the historical and
archaeological points of view, the most representative epochs are the prehistoric—the
Neo-Eneolithic and the Bronze and Iron Ages—as well as that of Greek and Roman
classical antiquity.
It is well-known to scholars and the broad public interested in ancient history that a large
part of what is now Romania, the kingdom of Dacia, was part of the Roman Empire
as early as the second century AD. Less widely known, however, is a more distant epoch
of the history of this land, namely, the Neo-Eneolithic period. Thus, the National
History Museum of Romania is honored to present, in partnership with other Romanian
museums and research institutes, the exhibition The Lost World of Old Europe, which
had its origins in a very ambitious initiative launched by the Institute for the Study of
the Ancient World at New York University in 2008. The first exhibition devoted to the
archaeological history of Romania that has been organized as an American-Romanian
partnership, it presents objects of exceptional value drawn from the national cultural
heritage of Romania.
The cultural artifacts selected to be part of this exhibition offer the public the possibil-
ity to reflect upon the amazing, avant la lettre modernity of the prehistoric civilizations
that existed in the Carpatho-Danubian area more than seven millennia ago. Among
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