Vinca

Large tell just outside Belgrade, Serbia, spanning c 5000-3500 BC. Its lowest level consisted of Starcevo material; the next of Middle and Late Neolithic are Vinca-Tordos and Vinca-Plocnik. The pottery is typically dark burnished with fluting, channeling, and simple incised decoration. It was a settled farming community that was also important in trade. Many anthropomorphous figurines are found on Vinca sites as well as copper artifacts and evidence of copper mining. It is one of a group of cultures important in development of copper metallurgy.

The eponymous tell site of a Middle and Late Neolithic culture distributed in east Yugoslavia, southern Hungary and western Rumania and dated ¿4500-3300 be. Excavated by M.M. Vasic, the tell has a 10.5-metre stratigraphy, comprising I a thin StarCevo occupation; II nine occupation levels of the Vinca culture with radiocarbon dates of ¿4240 and 3900 be; III a late Baden occupation; IV a short-lived earlier Bronze Age occupation; V a large La TEne fortified site; and VI a medieval cemetery. The Vinca levels are distinguished by the early occurrence of copper and the wide range of anthropomorphic figurines, numbering over 2000.