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Anthropomorphic figurine from Vinca

Available archaeological material implies that the first colonists of Vinca have had good neighbourly relations both with the communities in the Pannonian basin and southern part of the Balkan Peninsula. The oldest settlement in Vinca was neither fenced nor fortressed, and the relics from the tent-like huts are associated with painstaking but serene living of peasants, whose daily life consisted of hard work, making stone tools and various ceramic dishes and naturally tending their land, animals, and catch. The population of the oldest settlement in Vinca, however, could not have enjoyed the fruit of their labour for long. The chain movements of the Neolithic population of Thracia and lower Danubian valley started already in the mid-5th millennium BC and somewhat later reached the areas around Vinca.

The turbulence was caused by a slow penetration of Anadole-Halcolithic Culture, type Can Hasan - Beycesultan, towards the Balkan peninsula going on in two directions: by road, from south-eastern Thracian towards the Danubian valley and by maritime communication from central Greece to Northern Dalmatia. The cultures of the Late Neolithic Age emerged on the whole Balkan peninsula and central Danubian valley. As a consequence of these flows the Anadolian forms were first confronted by and then assimilated in various forms, into the indigenous ones. Thus, in contact with new immigrants, the Starcevo Culture turned into a new Vinca Culture.

Miniature altar from Vinca

It was in those troubled times that Vinca was completely deserted, probably around 4500 BC. It is difficult to say how much time elapsed before reconstruction and establishment of new life in Vinca. It didn't take long, sure, because newcomers built a new large settlement immediately above the deserted tent-like dwellings. In new environment the newcomers were quickly assimilated with the neighbouring native population and remained there for almost 1000 years fostering and spreading a peculiar culture, the culture of Early Neolithic Age of the Central Balkan area, named after Vinca.

Pedestalled bowl from Vinca

Spirit of new culture and new way of life is clearly demonstrated in architecture. Special attention was given to positioning of a dwelling, when a new settlement was built. Unfortunately, only the foundations remained preserved but it was established that they were all oriented towards southeast-northwest, they had quadrangle, almost square bases, vertical walls and gabled roofs. Lumber and clay were continued to be used as building materials, but the building process was enriched by new details and skills, such as levelling, stabilisation of the foundation, insulation, wall covering and painting.

Zoomorphic pot from Vinca

The newcomers quickly accepted Vinca and its surroundings as their own land, the generations living and creating on that soil around 3500 BC, were their direct descendants. There was no disruption of life and culture, only their permanent enrichment, despite the fact what in the culture Vinca layer, at the depth of between nine and two meters, contains remains of many settlements. Thus, within the time span of a thousand years Vinca remained fenced settlement with straight streets, the same system of communication, but on the other hand with a noticeable extension of housing space and its functional layout. While initial dwellings, as a rule, were one-celled and sufficient for a small family, in later settlements large square buildings were discovered of about 40 to 60 m² with a number of rooms and built-in "furniture" (benches built onto the stove, braziers, waterwheels, tables). Continuity of this culture is abundantly manifested in movable archaeological finds, primarily ceramic works - dishes and anthropomorphic statuettes. The two big groups of finds which testify to a highly developed sense for artistic form, reflect, in a most sensitive way, all daily situations of numerous Vinca's generations, namely the dynamisms of the Vinca culture, on the whole. Stylistic properties of ceramics and anthropomorphic plastic clearly reveal the main stages of life in Vinca, namely the periods of the Late Neolithic in the central Danubian valley.

Ritual vessel from Vinca

The establishment, development and the peak of the Vinca culture are illustrated in the finds of Vinca, located at the depth of nine and six meters. At this period, which by method of C-14 may be dated to approximately 4500 to 3800 BC, the inhabitants of Vinca and their co-tribes created a culture of a particular style, which radiated far and dominated over the largest part of the central and south-east Europe. The Vinca culture covered a territory larger than only other Neolithic culture in Europe around 4000 BC; its individual settlements, for instance Vinca, Potporanj, Selevac or Divostin, surpassed in scope and population not only the Neolithic settlements of the time, but the first towns which emerged later, in Mesopotamia, Aegea and Egypt. The communities of those large settlement used to adapt their main activities to the local conditions. Thus, more attention was paid to farming and stock - breeding in some settlements, to weaving and trade in others, while in those abounding in rare materials started mining and various arts and crafts.

Pot with incised desiing from Vinca

Due to specialised activities all communities in the Vinca culture grew fast economically, differentiated socially and became rich. The communities in Sumadija, Banat and Srem had by careful land cultivation and cattle-raising created surpluses which enabled them to obtain raw materials they lacked in their own territory, primarily obsidian of Erdelj, precious raw material for sickles and precision tools, owned by the neighbouring ethno-cultural groups. On the other hand stability of economy enabled the Vinca communities to relieve some of their members of manual work and devote their efforts to discovery of local raw materials and then their processing. So, the Vinca people came to cinabarite, which was mined at Suplja Stena and minerals (alabaster, marble). Vinca became the biggest market in Southeast Europe not only because of an exceptional value of own products but rare materials or objects, which were brought in from Transylvania, upper Tisza valley, lower Danubian valley and even from the coasts of Aegean and Adriatic seas.

Anthropomorphic pot from Vinca

An extensive exchange of goods and development of communications released the creators of the Vinca culture from the clutch of a small plot of land and ancestral habit, gave wings to their imagination and let them hint at new worlds and take an attitude of trust towards nature, life and future. Vinca and some other Neolithic settlements near Vrsac (Potporanj), Kragujevac (Grivac, Divostin) Titova Mitrovica (Valac) and Pristina (Predionica) turned into major religious centres and simultaneously artistic retreat which influenced decisively visual arts in all Neolithic communities of Central and South-East Europe.

Hundreds and thousands of clay statuettes and ritual vases, discovered in the mentioned settlements, attest not only to creative imagination and gift but to a boom of magic-religious practices within the Vinca culture. Thematic variation of clay statuettes (naked or dressed figurines of women and men, standing, kneeling or sitting, statuettes with masks on their faces, hermaphroditic statuettes) and their stylistic advancement starting from naturalistic, to realistic through to quite abstract forms, are an evidence of the prevailing primitive magic power, namely the shaping of clear religious thoughts. Judging on the looks of clay idols and various culture objects, it was expressed in rituals and myths connected with the turn of seasons, sawing or harvesting times births and deaths, and permanent life cycle, visually most completely expressed in the presentation of a woman with a baby in her arms.

Bowl on three moulded legs from Vinca

Those Vinca communities that had not opted for crop farming or stock-breeding but for mining and working new raw materials, created however, quite a different spiritual world. Those living between the heights of Kucajna and Deli Jovan Mountains near caves, big holes and hot springs had early guessed that in the depths of earth, in its complete dark, there grow and mature fantastic minerals and rocks.

Members of those communities were the first in Europe to penetrate into the spell of the underground world, take its fruit to the light of the day and with the help of fire, make them turn into new materials - into metals, in this case copper.