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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2022

At the origin of the first complex societies: 70 years after Dumitru Berciu’s research on the Hamangia Neolithic culture (Romania)

Laurent Carozza
Cristian Micu
Laurence Manolakakis
Albane Burens-Carozza
Florian Mihail
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Résumé

In 1952, Dumitru Berciu initiated excavations in the district of Baia, formerly called Hamangia. Between 1952 and 1961, this researcher attached to the Romanian Academy lead research on the eponymous sites of the Hamangia Neolithic culture: Baia Goloviţa and Ceamurlia de Jos. He also carried out a rescue excavation in 1954 and 1961 on the Baia Boruz tell, threatened by the extension of the village dwellings. In 1966, Dumitru Berciu published the monograph "Cultura Hamangia/culture Hamangia" in which he displayed the main components of this culture, including its chronology. As part of the Romanian Academy's research project, our team began in 2020 the rereading of Dumitru Berciu's ancient archaeological collections from the excavations he realized in the Baia district. The origin of Hamangia culture is still being asked. The new chronometric data shed a new light on Berciu's proposals. The chronological succession between Baia Goloviţa (generally known as older) and Ceamurlia de Jos has not been validated by new radiocarbon dates. According to these data, the occupation of Goloviţa's settlement is included in a long interval between the 53rd century BCE (Goloviţa GrE: 5289-4953 cal BC) and the 47th century BCE (Drumul Vacilor: 4798-4608 cal BC). The seven dates gathered from the various parts of Ceamurlia de Jos indicates the existence of at least two stages in the site's occupation. The first one would place the initial occupation at the beginning of the 5th millennium BCE, in a time range between the 50th and the beginning of the 48th century BCE. Five other dates show that the settlement might be inhabited since the end of the 48th century and throughout the first half of the 46th century BCE. These new dates establish that Ceamurlia de Jos has been inhabited over an extended period of time, which can be estimated in its largest amplitude at 5000-4500 BC (nearly half a millennium). In Baia area, these data allow us to reconsider the place of the Hamangia culture in the context of the emergence of the so-called "complex" societies and over the course of the KGK culture culmination. It is interesting to note that on one hand we observe in this area the succession of Hamangia III and Gumelniţa cultures, and on the other hand the lack of the Hamangia stage IV. Taking this fact into account, and according to our radiocarbon dates rereading, it may be said that a "tipping point" could take place around 4650 BCE. All available evidence suggest that a fragmentation of space could appear at the beginning of the emergence of the European Chalcolithic.
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hal-03833141 , version 1 (28-10-2022)

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  • HAL Id : hal-03833141 , version 1

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Laurent Carozza, Cristian Micu, Laurence Manolakakis, Albane Burens-Carozza, Florian Mihail. At the origin of the first complex societies: 70 years after Dumitru Berciu’s research on the Hamangia Neolithic culture (Romania). New horizons in Prehistory, 50 since the openning of the Varna necropolis, V. Slavčev, Nov 2022, Varna, Bulgaria. ⟨hal-03833141⟩
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