A wide-scale archaeometric project on the Early Neolithic ceramics of the central Balkans focused on the analyses of pottery from 18 sites in central eastern Croatia, Serbia and Romania. More than 500 ceramics (including cult objects, such as anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines, four-legged vessels or altars) and net weights, spindle whorls, and a wide variety of soil and sediment samples were analysed by polarised microscopy and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDX). These techniques allowed the author to carry out mineralogical and chemical analyses. The results show a ceramic tradition, without innovation for more than 700 years, independent of geography and geology, where all ceramics were made following the same recipe from the arrival of first farmers. As well as the same recipe for the ceramic body, potters followed the same recipes for red slipping, white paint (typically used for the early ceramics) and black pigments (used for the late phases of the Starčevo culture). Similarities and differences with the contemporaneous Karanovo culture are discussed.

[1] Paolo Biagi, Stephen Shennan, and Michela Spataro, “Rapid rivers and slow seas? new data for the radiocarbon chronology of the Balkan peninsula,” in Prehistoric Archaeology & Anthropological Theory and Education. Reports of Prehistoric Research Projects 6-7, Eds. Lolita Nikolova, John Fritz and Jude Higgins (Salt Lake City/Karlovo 2005), 43–51; Paolo Biagi and Michela Spataro “New observations on the radiocarbon chronology of the Starčevo-Criş and Körös Cultures” in Lolita Nikolova, John Fritz and Jude Higgins, eds., Prehistoric Archaeology & Anthropological Theory and Education. Reports of Prehistoric Research Projects 6-7: 35–40 (Salt Lake City/Karlovo, 2005); John Meadows “Radiocarbon dating and Bayesian chronological modelling,” in Michela Spataro, Starčevo ceramic technology: the first potters of the Middle Danube Basin (Bonn: Rudolf Habelt, 2019) [Universitätsforschungen zur prähistorischen Archäologie 341. Neolithikum und Chalkolithikum in Südosteuropa 4], 34-44.

[2] E.g. Attila Kreiter, Ákos W. Pető and Péter Pánczél, “Materialising tradition: ceramic production in Early Neolithic Hungary,” in The Early Neolithic in the Danube-Tisza interfluves, Ed. Eszter Bánffy (Oxford: Archaeolingua Central European Series 7, 2013) [BAR International Series 2584], 127–140; Attila Kreiter, Danielle J. Riebe, William A. Parkinson, Ákos W. Pető, Mária Tóth, Péter Pánczél and Ezster Bánffy, “Unique in its chaîne opératoire, unique in its symbolism: undressing a figurine from the 6th Millennium BC Körös culture, Hungary,” in Journal of Archaeological Science 44 (2014): 136–147; Beatrijs de Groot, Ceramic assemblages as evidence of social interaction in Neolithic Anatolia, the Aegean, and the Balkans (PhD diss., University College London, London 2016); Silvia Amicone, Miljana Radivojević, Patrick S. Quinn, Christoph Berthold and Thilo Rehren, “Pyrotechnological connections? Re-investigating the link between pottery firing technology and the origins of metallurgy in the Vinča Culture, Serbia,” in Journal of Archaeological Science 118 (2020): 195123, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2020.105123.

[3] See for details on the relative chronology and typological and stylistic phases of the Starčevo ceramics: Vladimir Milojčić, “Körös-Starčevo-Vinča,” in Reinecke-Festschrift, zum 75. Geburtstag von Paul Reinecke am 25. September 1947, Eds. G. Behrens and J. Werner (Mainz, 1950), 108-118; Draga Aranđelović-Garašanin, Starčevačka kultura (Ljubljana, 1954); Stojan Dimitrijević, “Starčevačka kultura u Slavonsko-Srijemskom prostoru i problem prijelaza starijeg u srednji neolit u Srpskom i Hrvatskom Podunavlju,” [Starčevo culture in the Slavonian-Syrmia area and the problem of the transition of the early to the middle Neolithic in the Serbian and Croatian Danube], in Neolit i eneolit u Slavoniji, Vukovar, Gradski Muzej u Vukovaru (1969): 9-96; Milutin V. Garašanin, “Centralnobalkanska zona”, in Praistorijajugoslavenskih zemalja II: Neolitsko doba, Akademija nauka i umjetnosti Bosne I Hercegovine [“Central Balkan area,” in Prehistory of Yugoslavia II: the Neolithic period], Ed. Aloiz Benac (Sarajevo: Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1979], 79-212; Dragoslav Srejović, Lepenski Vir – Nova praistorijska kultura u Podunavlju [Lepenski Vir – A new prehistoric culture in the Danube Valley] (Belgrade: Srpska književna zadruga/Serbian Literary Cooperative, 1969); Gheorghe Lazarovici, Neoliticul Banatului (Cluj-Napoca, 1979) [Bibliotheca Musei Napocensis 4]; Idem, “Neoliticul timpuriu in România,” in Acta Musei Porolissensis 8 (1984): 49-104.

[4] See for a recent summary Michela Spataro, Starčevo ceramic technology: the first potters of the Middle Danube Basin (Bonn: Rudolf Habelt, 2019) [Universitätsforschungen zur prähistorischen Archäologie 341. Neolithikum und Chalkolithikum in Südosteuropa 4], 30-34.

[5] Ibid., table 2.1.

[6] See Michela Spataro, “Playing with colours: understanding the chaîne opératoire of the earliest red monochrome and white-on-red painted ware of the central Balkans,” in Southeast Europe and Anatolia in prehistory: Essays in honour of Vassil Nikolov on his 65th anniversary, Eds. Krum Bacvarov and Ralf Gleser (Bonn: Rudolf Habelt, 2016) [Universitätsforschungen zur Prähistorischen Archäologie 293], 167–174, fig. 2; see also Michela Spataro, “Innovation and regionalism in the Middle/Late Neolithic of south and south-eastern Europe (ca. 5500-4500 cal. BC): a ceramic perspective,” in Matières à Penser: Raw materials acquisition and processing in Early Neolithic pottery productions, Ed. Laurence Burnez-Lanotte (Paris: Société préhistorique française, 2017) [Séances de la Société préhistorique française 11], 61-80, fig. 12.

[7] Spataro, “Innovation and regionalism,” 69, figs. 7-9; Spataro, Starčevo ceramic technology, 54-59, fig. 5.20c.

[8] Michela Spataro, “Origins of specialisation: the ceramic chaîne opératoire and technological-take-off at Vinča-Belo Brdo, Serbia,” in Oxford Journal of Archaeology 37, 3 (2018): 247-265, fig. 4; Spataro, Starčevo ceramic technology, 60.

[9] Michela Spataro, “First impressions of Early Neolithic Russian pottery technology,” in Samara Scientific Bulletin 4, 3 (2015): 142-153; Michela Spataro, Tihomila Težak-Gregl, and Marcel Burić, “The chaîne opératoire of Korenovo pottery: hybrid ceramics? Analysis of mixed Starčevo and Korenovo ceramic assemblages from Kapelica-Solarevac and Kaniška Iva (Central Croatia),” in Praehistorische Zeitschrift (in press).

[10] Michela Spataro,, Nigel Meeks, Andrew Meek, and Andrew S. Shapland “Scientific investigation of faience fragments attributed to the Town Mosaic at Knossos,” in Archaeometry 55, 5 (2013): 910-922.

[11] Corina Ionescu, V. Hoeck, O.N. Crandell, and K. Šarić, “Burnishing Versus smoothing in Ceramic Surface Finishing: A SEM Study,” in Archaeometry 57, 1 (2015): 18-26.

[12] Spataro, “Innovation and regionalism”, fig. 9; Spataro, “Origins of specialisation”, 257, fig. 8; Spataro, Starčevo ceramic technology, figs. 4.22, 5.24 and 5.31; Michela Spataro, Hans Mommsen, and Alexandra Villing, “Making pottery in the Nile Delta: ceramic provenance and technology at Naukratis, 6th–3rd centuries BC,” in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 11 (2019): 1059-1087, fig. 5.

[13] See Spataro, Starčevo ceramic technology, figs. 4.21, 4.22, 5.14.

[14] Ibid., fig. 2.2.

[15] Ibid., figs. 3.33, 5.23; Spataro et al., “Making pottery in the Nile Delta”, fig. 6.

[16] Michela Spataro, Starčevo ceramic technology, figs. 4.21 and 5.23.

[17] Ibid., fig. 2.4.

[18] See also Laurens Thissen, “Starčevo – Criş Pottery from Teleor 003, S Romania,” in Buletinul Muzeului Judeţean Teleorman. Seria Arheologie 4 (2012): 5–45.

[19] Spataro, Starčevo ceramic technology.

[20] Milenko Bogdanović, Ed., Grivac. Settlements of Proto-Starčevo and Vinča culture (Kragujevac, 2008) [Center for Scientific Research of Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and University of Kragujevac: National Museum], 123.

[21] See Julienne Vieugué, “Use-wear analysis of prehistoric pottery: methodological contributions from the study of the earliest ceramic vessels in Bulgaria (6100–5500 BC),” in Journal of Archaeological Science 41 (2014): 622–630.

[22] See Spataro, “Playing with colours”; Spataro, Starčevo ceramic technology; Michela Spataro, Georgi Katsarov, Nadezhda Todorova, Atanas Tsurev, Nikolina Nikolova, Marlena Yaneva, and Krum Bacvarov, “The chaîne opératoire of 6th millennium BC pottery making in the Maritsa Valley, Bulgaria: ceramics from Nova Nadezhda,” in Praehistorische Zeitschrift 94, 1 (2019): 1–30.

[23] See Spataro, “Playing with colours”.

[24] See the slipped pedestal pot from Vinkovci, Slavonia, in Spataro, Starčevo ceramic technology.

[25] Ibid. 171.

[26] Memhet Özdoğan, “The appearance of Early Neolithic cultures in northwestern Turkey. Some problems,” in Karanovo 3. Beiträge zum Neolithikum in Südosteuropa, Eds. Stefan Hiller and Vassil Nikolov (Wien: Phoibos, 2000), 165–170.

[27] E.g. see Lazarovici, “Neoliticul Banatului”; Idem, “Neoliticul timpuriu”.

[28] See examples from Golokut-Vizić: Spataro, Starčevo ceramic technology, fig. 5.18, samples no. GLK17 and 18.

[29] See elemental map in Spataro, Starčevo ceramic technology, Fig. 8.4.

[30] E.g. see Vinkovci in Slavonia: Spataro, Starčevo ceramic technology, fig. 5.29.

[31] Spataro, “Playing with colours”; Idem, Starčevo ceramic technology, 182.

[32] Spataro, “Playing with colours”; Idem, Starčevo ceramic technology, 270.

[33] Spataro, Starčevo ceramic technology; Michela Spataro, Miriam Cubas, Oliver E. Craig, Adina Boroneanţ, and Clive Bonsall, “Production and function of Neolithic black-painted pottery from Schela Cladovei (Iron Gates, Romania),” in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 11 (2019): 6287–6304.

[34] Spataro, Starčevo ceramic technology.

[35] Ibid.

[36] Michela Spataro et al., “Production and function”.

[37] Spataro, Starčevo ceramic technology, figs. 5.24 and 5.31.

[38] Kornelija Minichreiter, “Ukopi stanovnika u naseljima starčevačke kulture u Hrvatskoj (Burials in the Settlements of Starčevo Culture in Croatia),” in Histria Antiqua 8 (2002): 63–72; Kornelija Minichreiter, Galovo, Slavonski Brod: 10 godina arheoloških istraživanja [Slavonski Brod: Galovo. Ten years of archaeological excavations] (Zagreb: Institut za Archeologiju, 2007).

[39] Marin Nica, “Nouvelle données sur le Néolithique ancient d’Olténie,” in Dacia N.S. 21 (1977): 13–53.

[40] Meadows, “Radiocarbon dating and Bayesian chronological modelling”.

[41] Spataro, Starčevo ceramic technology; Spataro et al., “Production and function”.

[42] E.g. Kreiter et al., “Materialising tradition”.

[43] Spataro, Starčevo ceramic technology.

[44] See Michela Spataro and Martin Furholt Eds., Detecting and explaining technological innovation in prehistory (Leiden: Sidestone Press Academics, 2020).

[45] Spataro, Starčevo ceramic technology, 181.

[46] Ibid.

[47] Mehmet Özdoğan, “Polychrome early Neolithic painted pottery at Aşağı Pınar,” in Studia Praehistorica 14 (2011): 83–90.

[48] E.g. Vassil Nikolov, “Gemalte Ornamentierung auf Keramikgefäßen der frühneolithischen Siedlung Čavdar in Bulgarien,” in Near Eastern Studies. Dedicated to H. I. H. Prince Takahito Mikasa on the Occasion of His Seventy-Fifth Birthday, Eds. Masao Mori, Hideo Ogawa, and Mamoru Yoshikawa (Wiesbaden, 1991) [Bulletin of the Middle Eastern Culture Centre in Japan, 5], 247–266.

[49] de Groot, Ceramic assemblages.

[50] Tanya Dzhanfezova, Chris Doherty, and Nedko Elenski, “Shaping a future of painting: the early Neolithic pottery from Dzhulyunitsa, North Central Bulgaria,” in Bulgarian e-journal of Archaeology 4 (2014): 137–159.

[51] Spataro et al., “The chaîne opératoire of 6th millennium BC,” table 2.

[52] Tanya Dzhanfezova, Chris Doherty, and Małgorzata Grębska-Kulow, “Understanding diversity in Early Neolithic pottery production: a study case from Southwest Bulgaria,” in Documenta Praehistorica XLVII (2020): 110-125.

[53] Dzhanfezova et al. “Shaping a future of painting,” 143.

[54] E.g. Selena Vitezović, “Neolithization of technology: innovation and tradition in the Starčevo culture osseous industry,” in Documenta praehistorica 43 (2016): 123–137.

[55] See Selena Vitezović, “Bos and the bone spoon revisited: spatula-spoons in the Starčevo culture,” in Southeast Europe and Anatolia in prehistory: Essays in honour of Vassil Nikolov on his 65th anniversary, Eds. Krum Bacvarov and Ralf Gleser (Bonn: Rudolf Habelt, 2016) [Universitätsforschungen zur Prähistorischen Archäologie 293], 189-196.

[56] E.g. Michela Spataro, “Continuity and change in pottery manufacture between the Early and Middle Neolithic of Romania,” in Anthropological and Archaeological Sciences 6, 2 (2014): 165-197; Spataro, “Origins of specialisation”; Amicone et al., “Pyrotechnological connections?”.

[57] Spataro, “Origins of specialisation”.

Fig. 1. Photomicrographs of Starčevo potsherd thin sections, showing the planar elongated voids left by the burning off of the cereal chaff during firing; in a few cases, it is possible to see the burnt residues: (top left) a red-slipped pot from Foeni-Sălaş in Romanian Banat (FNS1; the slip is visible at the top); (top right) a pinch-patterned body sherd (FGZ23) from Foeni-Gaz, a site close to Foeni-Sălaş; (bottom left) an undecorated open bowl from Foeni-Gaz (FGZ24) with phytoliths in the paste, and (bottom right) a polished deep pot (SLM6) from Şeuşa-La Cărarea Morii in Transylvania [all microphotographs were taken in plane polarised light (PPL); scale in microns; photographs by M. Spataro].

Fig. 2. Photomicrographs of Starčevo potsherd thin sections, showing (top left) the well-polished surface of a pot from Vinkovci in Slavonia (VNK7; see the thin polished layer at the top of the image; image taken in plane polarised light, PPL); (top right) a red-slipped pedestalled vessel from Vinkovci (VNK3, see the red slip at the bottom of the image; image taken in cross-polarised light, XPL); (bottom left) a small red-slipped hemispherical bowl from Fratelia in Romanian Banat (FRT14; see the slip at the top of the image; image taken in PPL); (bottom right) red-slipped sherd of a possible globular vessel from Fratelia (FRT18; see slip at the bottom of the image; image taken in XPL). Photographs by M. Spataro.

Fig. 3. (Left) A body sherd of red-slipped white-on-red globular pot decorated with white dots (sample GBC14; scale in cm); (right) SEM image of the microfossils present in the white pigment used for the dotty decoration [photographs by N. Meeks (left) and M. Spataro (right)].