Vina

Jennifer Spence

The Vinca culture flourished in Europe between 6000-3000

BC.
The culture is also known as Turda culture or Turda-Vina
culture
It is currently the oldest known culture in the Neolithic
period
The sites are currently located in modern day Bosnia,
Serbia, Romania and Macedonia

The first modern excavations of these sites began in 1918

in a small village not far from the capital of Serbia,
Belgrade. These village is called vinca and is where this
culture got its common name.

Significant Sites

Sites that have been excavated have revealed figurines and

marks along with an undeciphered language
Since this language remains undeciphered historians are
left with the artefacts to investigate this culture
The figurines are made of clay and include women in
various clothing and some figurines are believed to be
deities.
At the Plonik site a thermal well found there might be
Europes oldest spa.

Artefacts

Some of these artefacts allow

us to discover more about
this ancient culture

Found at Plonik

Prediconica mask, Vinca culture 4500-4000

There has been no evidence to suggest any found cities

were militaristic or that they had defences. It is commonly
believed that Vinca relied on trade and agriculture.
The agriculture they could have possibly had access to
include common wheat, oat and barley.

Life

Of the various figurines found some are

wearing mini skirts and jewellery.
It is not known whether this was
common attire, or just for select
individuals.

Clothing

The excavated sites also revealed complex architectural

layouts in their housing. This is also included streets
between the housing.
The houses were made of wood covered with mud. These
houses often had several rooms.
The houses had stoves, predating the romans use of stoves
and had holes just for rubbish.
The largest found sites are suspected to have housed to up
2500 people.
At the

Architecture

The language found at Vinca sites is the oldest writing

ever found, and predates ancient Egyptian and Sumerian
writing by thousands of years.
Since the writing found is often written in short phrases
and on various rocks it unlikely this ancient writing will
ever be deciphered.

Language

The culture, similar to ours todays, buried their dead in

cemeteries.
The Plonik site had a nearby area where they buried
their dead.

Death

Later in the civilisation copper crafting also developed,

meaning they were the first known culture to smelt
copper.
A sophisticated metal workshop with a furnace and tools,
such as a copper chisel, a two-headed hammer and an axe
was also found at the Plonik site.
This was also supported with the discovery of a mine at
the nearby Mlava river.

Crafting

All of this indicates an advanced civilisation with a love of

art and fashion.
Despite this, the Vinca culture has been largely forgotten
and aspects of this lost culture may never be found.
This culture remained largely unchanged for 2000 years,
after which it is believed they may have formed some
Mediterranean and Aegean cultures.

http://philipcoppens.com/oldeurope.html

http://www.ancient-wisdom.com/serbiavinca.htm

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/vinca.htm

https://www.lessingimages.com/viewimage.asp?i=06010
243+&cr=12&cl=1#
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plo%C4%8Dnik_(archaeolo
gical_site)