Vinča warriors

You know the story about this amazing place that was Neolithic Europe, where Matriarchal societies lived peacefully together growing grains, making art... Then Patriarchal steppe warriors came from the steppe and destroyed everything...

Well some people believed in this story for a while...

Unfortunately, one day this was found:

This is a group of 43 figurines and 11 miniature weapon models discovered by Adam Crnobrnja in Stubline [12], a Late Neolithic Vinča-culture settlement built around 4700 BCE on an elevated slope near Serbian’s capital Belgrade [3]...Here it is, in situ...

The figurines, were found together on a specially constructed platform, but positioned to form smaller groups...

The figurines have no discernible facial features except noses, or no other distinguishing features, except that few are larger than the others, a well known way of depicting the powerful members of society, leaders, commanders...

When I saw these figurines first time, my first thought was these must be agricultural implements, knowing how peaceful the Neolithic Europeans were (or so I was taught). Unfortunately, these are clubs and axes...

And so it seems that this was a depiction of an army, an armed force of a clan, or a tribe, ready to go to war. At least Adam Crnobrnja, the archaeologist who originally discovered these figurines, thought so [12]...

So then I thought, like everyone else did for a while, that this must have been a weird, one of a kind thing...And so far, this is the only such set ever found...But...

After the set discovery, other archaeologists who excavated other Vinča sites, remembered the weird little models of axes found all over Vinča world, which they had no idea what to do with [5]. Suddenly they realised that these were probably remnants of similar sets or single figurines which have been destroyed, or scattered either during the destruction of the settlement of during the dig...

Now I don't know if anyone have asked this question before, so I will ask it: are we dealing here with a Neolithic warrior cult?

I definitely think so...What was the purpose of these figurines? Were they cultic objects? Or toys? Them being cultic objects would mean that warriors were deified or at least worshiped as heroes by the Vinčans and would suggest maybe the beginning of the development of the warrior cult. Them being toys would be even bigger confirmation of the existence of the warrior cult in Vinča civilisation...Kids only play with superhero figurines 🙂 ...Once the heroes figurines become toys, we are definitely in a late stage of a warrior cult...

And believe of not, these miniature axes were most likely models of metal axes...

Vinča guys invented copper metallurgy at some time during the mid 6th millennium BC. And by the mid 5th millennium BC they started making copper tools and axes [2]

Here is an example of one of the early copper hammer axes:

A lot of copper ore used in the Balkans was dirty, meaning it had a lot of various additional minerals...This eventually resulted in the production of the so called "arsenic bronze", mix of copper and various impurities...

Vinča guys seem to have also invented tin bronze as early as the mid 5th millennium BC. These are tin bronze foils discovered in the Pločnik site [1]

We don't know if Vinča guys made any tin bronze axes, but I believe that they did, we just didn't find them yet...

One thing we do know is that Vinča guys did make huge number of metal axes...Were they used only for cutting trees? Or for killing people?

I think, and I am not the only one who think so, that these were weapons made for cutting people not wood [4]...

But, but...Peaceful Neolithic Europe....This is not possible? If these guys were warriors, waging wars, we should surely have some proof for this? Like fortifications, ramparts, people being killed, houses being burned...Actually we do have proof for all this... Picture 1, geophysical data for the Vinča settlement Uivar showing concentric ditches surrounding the settlement. The oldest layers were dated to 4830 - 4700 BC. Interpreted as defensive [7].

Picture 2, construction of a typical Vinča fortification palisade [7].

Picture 3. Map of the so called "Obrovac type settlements" of Vinča culture, settlements surrounded by a defensive ditch or built on a crannog [7]... 

Picture 4: The massive Stubline settlement (200 houses), where these warrior figurines were discovered was also surrounded by (most likely defensive) ditches which were expanded as the settlement grew [3]...

Picture 5: The late Neolithic Vinča culture site Pljosna stena, which was from three sides protected by cliffs, was from the fourth side protected by a stone wall [7]... A stone wall!!! The site is now under artificial lake...

That this is not some late development due to the influence of the bad Patriarchal steppe invaders in the 4th millennium BC....

Picture 5: Fortified Vinča site Oreškovica-Selište in Serbia, dated to the last centuries of the sixth millennium BC...Fortifications interpreted as defensive [6]...

"...Growing evidence indicates that many Neolithic settlements in Europe were enclosed by a complex system of ditches, ramparts, and palisades..." 

Why would peaceful people do this? "Maybe to protect themselves from animals?" some would say...Well no actually. To protect themselves from other people...

Several settlements of the Gumelniţa–Karanovo VI culture present traces of settlements being assaulted and mass finds of human remains in their cultural layers [4]....

In Pietrele in Romania, in one of the burnt down dwellings of the Gumelniţa layer, remains of 8–9 people were found, belonging to one family. One of the persons bludgeoned to death and disparate human bones (with animal bite marks) were found scattered in the cultural layer as well [4]...

Similarly, in Yunatsite in Bulgaria, numerous remains of inhabitants were found in burnt houses (47 skeletons in total preserved in various states), including ones with evidence of ‘specific cranial trauma made with picks’ [4]...

Over a hundred arrowheads found in Druţa I settlement in Northern Moldova of the Cucuteni–Tripolye culture, by all appearances testify to military actions related to an assault on the settlement...The arrowheads were concentrated on the periphery of the dwellings, at the field side of the headland from where the settlement was attacked from this side. The arrowheads are typical for the Tripolye culture [4]... 

Tripolye people were killing Tripolye people...

They also made these...

So it seems that we have pretty good indication that Neolithic people did fight each other, killed each other, and possibly even waged wars against each other [11]...

But even among the blood thirsty Neolithic Europeans, Vinča guys were "special"....

If Vinča guys had all the technological knowhow to make weapons and fortifications and had armies, they were one step away from forming a militaristic society. All they needed was a myth, something that would make them believe in their superiority...Which wasn't that difficult to emerge because, well, they were superior...They invented copper and bronze metallurgy, made first copper and possibly bronze weapons, invented first symbolic script...So it was quite possible that they actually believed that they were superior... 

So did Vinča culture eventually become a militaristic society? And did Vinča culture in any way contribute to the development of the first copper and bronze age warrior cultures in Eurasia?

I would say yes to both...

Vinča was the first culture built around industrial-military complex....They didn't just have metal weapons...They knew how to find metal ores, mine them, smelt them and cast them into more metal weapons...They made weapons for themselves and for sale, exchange, profit...They also knew how to build fortifications...And they also knew how to wage wars...And they seem to already have had a developed warrior cult...

The question is, did they just hang around Balkans killing each other, or...

What do you think?

Sources:

1. "Tainted ores and the rise of tin bronzes in Eurasia, c. 6500 years ago" by Miljana Radivojević, Thilo Rehren, Julka Kuzmanovic-Cvetkovic, Marija Jovanović 2. "Prehistoric copper tools from the territory of Serbia" by D. Antonovic

3. "A Group Find of Neolithic Figurines of the Vinča Culture from Stubline, Serbia" by Miloš Spasić 4. "Group Portrait of the Early Agricultural Era: A Set of Figurines of Vinča Culture from Stubline (Serbia) in the Context of the European Neolithic and Copper Age Societies" by Ilia Palaguta 5. "MODELE MINIATURALE DIN LUT ALE TOPOARELOR ENEOLITICE DIN SPAŢIUL CARPATO-DANUBIAN/Miniature clay axes models from the Carpatho-Danubian Eneolithic" by Enea Sergiu 6. "Enclosing the Neolithic World: A Vinča Culture Enclosed and Fortified Settlement in the Balkans" by Dusan Boric, Bryan Hanks, Duško Šljivar, Miroslav Kočić 7. "Household and Community. House and Settlement Histories in the Late Neolithic of the Central Balkans (book in Serbian)" by Boban Tripkovic 8. "The Late Neolithic settlement mound Borđoš near Novi Bečej, Serbian Banat, in a multiregional context – Preliminary results of geophysical, geoarchaeological and archaeological research" by Alexander Medovic, Robert Hofmann, Tijana -Stanković-Pešterac, Stefan Dreibrodt 9. "Fortifications and Enclosures in European Prehistory: A Cross-Cultural Perspective" by William Arthur Parkinson, Paul R. Duffy 10. "Warfare in Neolithic Thessaly: A Case Study" by Curtis N. Runnels, Claire Payne, Noam V. Rifkind, Chantel White, Nicholas P. Wolff and Steven A. LeBlanc 11. "Warfare in the European Neolithic" by Jonas Christensen

12. "Arrangement of Vinca culture figurines. A study of social structure and organisation" by Adam Crnobrnja

13. "Group identities in the Central Balkan Late Neolithic" by Adam Crnobrnja 14. "Vinca Culture Settlement at Crkvine In Stubline: Household Organization and Urbanization In the Late Vinca Culture Period" by Adam Crnobrnja, Marko A. Janković

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