Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic Sultana-Ghețărie, Lower Danube: First Results and Interpretation on Site Formation, Absolute Dating, Subsistence Economy and Material Culture

Abstract

In 2021, in a Romanian-Belgian-German collaboration, previously initiated excavations were continued at the multi-period flat-site of Sultana-Gheţărie, where settlement remains and burial features from the Boian-Vidra, Gumelnița and Cernavodă III periods have been documented. In the broader context of the multi-component site of Sultana, these investigations provide evidence for decentral structured settlement and burial activities from the period before, during, and after the occupation of Tell Sultana-Malu Roșu situated on the high terrace of the Mostiștea River. In addition to a so far undated prehistoric inhumation burial, a stratigraphic sequence of a Boian-Vidra (first half of the 5^th millenium) and a Cernavodă III (ca. 3600–3500 BCE) pit were excavated, which allow a diachronic comparison of pottery-typological, archaeozoological, and archaeobotanical data. Compared to find assemblages of the first half of the 5^th millenium (Boian-Vidra), the material culture from the Cernavodă III context is characterised by reduced decoration rates and a reduced range of decoration techniques in pottery possibly indicating a decline in social complexity. The chipped stone inventory of the same pit provides evidence for primary flint tool production on site. The composition of the archeozoological assemblage from the Cernavodă III feature, compared to the final Tell Sultana-Malu Roșu phase (ca. 4200–3950 BCE), indicates that hunting played only a very minor role in securing subsistence and that the communities living here might have had a rather mobile settlement behaviour. With regard to a possible climatic shift, this would match with the frequent occurrence of the tiny awn fragments of feathergrass, which seems to indicate a greater openness of the landscape and associated the spread of steppe vegetation. In connection with the excavations, a magnetic survey was conducted that revealed no evidence of a continuation of the settlement in the part of the high terrace south of the site.