Vinča culture

The Vinča culture was the Neolithic culture of Southeast Europe, which spread primarily on the territory of today's Serbia.

Vinča culture was the most technologically advanced prehistoric culture in the world. The earliest copper metallurgy in Europe originates from the Vinkovci locality of Belovode in eastern Serbia.

Many say that what Troy is for Asia Minor, Crete and Mycenae for the Aegean, El Obeid and Tel el a Marna for the ancient East, is Vinca for the Balkans and for the whole of Central Europe. And not only that - the Vinča culture is proof that significant technological achievements, such as metal processing, were not brought to Europe from Mesopotamia, because the old Vinča people had already mastered the skill of smelting ore.

Etymologically speaking, the Vinča culture is named after the locality of Vinča - Belo brdo, which is located on the right bank of the Danube, in the village of Vinča, 11 km downstream from Belgrade, where excavations began in 1908 by Belgrade University professor Dr. Miloje Vasić. 400 m².

Vinca is important, among other things, because "it is the only city that still exists today, and in which life has not been interrupted at any time, from the Neolithic onwards," explains Dragan Janković, curator of the Vinča Archaeological Site. He adds: "There are very few modern settlements in the world that have such a continuity of uninterrupted life. (houses of 30 to 60 square meters, and there are those of about 100 square meters). All the houses had two to five rooms, one family lived in each and they had not only fireplaces, but also stoves.

There was no mud on the floor, but wooden hewn beams over which they applied a mixture of mud and chaff and in that way they got - a warm floor! And when that material dried, they ironed and polished the floor using gravel from the river.

So they got a polished pathos that was easy to maintain, clean. Vinca was a big surprise also because it was first learned that people in the Neolithic had such a high housing culture. The next surprise was that all the houses were built in very regular rows - communications and streets can be recognized between the houses. All houses have the same orientation: northeast-southwest. All houses are next to each other, without backyards.

That means it was a city district! In this part of Europe - this is the first European city! And since before Vinca there is no settlement in the whole of Europe that we can call a city, Vinca is one of the first European cities! It is a populated place, where the majority of the population does not live from agriculture. This settlement lived in the Neolithic, mainly from trade and crafts, "curator Janković vividly evokes.

And why did the great Neolithic city originate right here, and not in some other area? Is it possible that Vinca was the cultural and commercial center of Europe at that time? The solution lies under our noses: they are - rivers. Because there is no trade without roads. And at that time the roads followed the river valleys. "It was the most perfect signpost in nature, following the river, you can get anywhere you want. There is a part of Serbia that is called "Belgrade confluence" in science.

Almost all the waters of the Black Sea basin flow here - Sava, Danube, Tisa, Tamis, Velika Morava, Drina with its tributaries. If someone at that time was to move from the Middle East or the shores of the Black Sea or the Aegean to the north and west of Europe - he had to pass this way. This was the crossroads of all important roads ", shows the curator of the Vinča site, Dragan Janković, on the map.

Vinča's anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines, as well as prosopomorphic lids and altars represent exceptional artistic achievements of this culture. The most important among them are Lady of Vinča, Hyde Vase and Vidovdanka. In addition to objects of cult purpose, the degree of development is also indicated by the engraved signs known as the "Vinca script". Assumptions about their function are numerous: that they are property marks, bail, pictograms or pictorial letter, phonetic letter, etc.