Terra and Silva in the Pannonian Plain: Opovo agro-gathering in the Late Neolithic

This work is a study of plant macro remains from the Late Neolithic site of Opovo. Opovo is dated from 4700 to 4500 B.C., and culturally to the late phase of the Vinca culture, which is considered one of the most prominent Neolithic cultures of the Balkans. The Opovo site is located on the southern edge of the Pannonian Plain, in the Banat region, part of the modern province of Voyvodina in Serbia. The site of Opovo was excavated (1983–1989) by an international archaeological team from the University of Novi Sad, Serbia, and from the University of California. Through analysis of plant macro remains from the Opovo site, the author provides information on such important issues as vegetation reconstruction, plant use, subsistence, husbandry, wild plant procurement, and intra-site plant distribution at this late Vinca culture site. Relevant data from the artifactual analyses are incorporated in the description of the context from which the plant remains were recovered, with special emphasis on the integration of floral and faunal data. The Opovo site served as a case study of diverse subsistence strategies practiced within the general cultural context of the Vinca culture during the late Neolithic in the Balkans. In reconstructing past subsistence strategies, the author uses ethnohistoric data throughout the book to offer possible analogies for prehistoric activities, drawing selectively on a diverse range of limited analogies, and using multiple sources. Further chapters discuss relevant models of social context and land use during the late Neolithic period in the southern Pannonian Plan and the Balkans.