Fishing at the Copper Age tell near Pietrele, Romania: investigating the role of specialization andintensification in developing social inequality during the 5th millennium BC

• Applicant: Kenneth Ritchie, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: from 2013 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 235232928

New excavations conducted by the DAI at the 5th millennium BC tell site of Magura Gorgana near Pietrele, Romania create an unparalleled opportunity to examine the onset of social stratification in Europe. Because of the unprecedented detection and excavation of settlement areas adjacent to the tell, Magura Gorgana offers a unique chance to examine interhousehold variability at a Copper Age settlement. Equally important, the tell is well stratified, allowing examination of diachronic changes during the approximately 300 year long occupation period. Multidisciplinary investigations of the site and the enormous quantity of artifacts recovered from it are already changing our understanding of the Copper Age. Unfortunately, the subsistence economy remains poorly understood due to incomplete study of the faunal remains. Specifically, fish and bird bones have not been analyzed, despite the fact that their abundance and the site location adjacent to the rich Danube floodplain both indicate that they were of major importance. Using information on the species and sizes of fish and birds present, combined with oxygen isotope analyses of otoliths to provide information about when the fish were caught, this project will investigate the roles that economic specialization and intensification played in the creation of institutionalized social inequality. In addition to its archaeological significance, the project will provide palaeo-ecological information about archaic animal populations and environmental conditions in the lower Danube River Valley.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants