Absolute Dating of Copper and Early Bronze Age Levels at the Eponymous Archaeological Site Bubanj (Southeastern Serbia)

Abstract

This paper reports the first radiocarbon (14C) dates obtained for the Eneolithic/Bronze Age site of Bubanj, Serbia. Despite featuring prominently in the existing typo-chronological schemes for southeastern Europe, the history of research and recent large-scale destruction of the site had prevented so far the acquisition of samples from secure archaeological contexts. We fill this documentary gap by presenting 10 new14C dates, covering the late 5th, 4th, and 3rd millennia cal BC. These dates are compared to the existing documentation from the literature, in order to assess the placement of Bubanj within its wider archaeological context.

Radiocarbon Dating the 3rd Millennium Bc in the Central Balkans: A Re-Examination of the Early Bronze Age Sequence

“…The earliest available date of this group comes from Velika Humska Čuka (MAMS-31477). This date is about two to three centuries older than the ones previously published for this group (Bulatović and Vander Linden 2017), and the other dates obtained with this study. Although we cannot totally exclude the risk of residuality for this particular sample, it is noticeable that this date, which originates from an archaeological context yielding stylistically and typologically homogeneous pottery, presents a large overlap with the second older date.…”

“…This situation is particularly noticeable given the shortage of absolute chronological information (e.g. Krstić et al 1986;Nikolova 1999: 404;Bogdanović 1986;Gogâltan 1999;Bulatović and Stankovski 2012), until the recent publication of some 14 C dates for the site of Bubanj (Bulatović and Vander Linden 2017).…”

“…In particular, we discuss the absolute chronology for Coţofeni-Kostolac, Belotić-Bela Crkva, Armenochori, and Bubanj Hum III groups, which represent the main cultural units of the central Balkans sequence for the 3rd millennium cal BC. last excavation campaigns numerous structures were uncovered, belonging to the Neolithic, Copper and Bronze Ages (Bulatović and Vander Linden 2017). One sample (MAMS-31462) was taken from below floor 82A, which possibly belongs to a pre-Coţofeni-Kostolac horizon.…”

New data on the provenance of copper finds from the Early-Middle Copper Age of the Great Hungarian Plain

“…The reconstruction of the interregional chronological system is difficult, because a very small amount of AMS data is available from the territory of the KSB complex (cf. Bulatović and Vander Linden 2017). Fig.…”

Food Economy During and After the Neolithic-Eneolithic Transition in the Central Balkans: Contextualising Crops and Domestic Animals from Eneolithic Bubanj, Southern Serbia

“…On the other hand, there is information for only one location where the occupation seems to have started immediately following the end of the Vinča culture in Serbia. This is the Early Eneolithic site of Bodnjik in western Serbia (Borić 2009;Bulatović, Vander Linden 2017), but the faunal assemblage from it is exceedingly small, with NISP 1 as low as 37 (Bulatović 2018: 344, D1.4). Similar problem exists with the datasets from later phases of the Eneolithic, such as from the sites of Nad Klepečkom and Rit in eastern Serbia (Vuković and Marković 2019), Novačka Ćuprija in central Serbia (Greenfield 1986) and two sites in northern Serbia, in the Srem region, Zlatara-Ruma and Pirovac-Ruma (Блажић 1995).…”