SERBIA: Serbian archaeological find could be oldest metal workshop in Europe

In Southern Serbia archaeologists have found evidence of what could be the oldest metal workshop in all of Europe. This could prove that the metal age started centuries earlier than previously believed. This archaeological site in Plocnik was discovered in 1927 during the building of a railroad from the city of Nis to Kosovo's capital Pristina. During decades of research and discoveries, archaeologists have dug out a large number of tools. But they are hoping that recent finds will prove that the metal age began much earlier than previously believed. Archaeologist Dusan Slivar said copper tools found at the location, conflict with it being a Neolithic site. "Very strong arguments and elements exist which indicate there was some kind of workshop where metal was processed and made," Sljivar said. "That is the character of this year's discovery because Plocnik has its long pre-history and now for the first time we have everything with clear chronologically defined stratography. So we now know that it was the Gradac phase of the Vinca culture, which means the end of the 6th millennium BC. We even have a copper chisel that was found here," he added. The archaeologists have found that houses were warm, they had stoves and slept on woollen rags and fur, made clothes of wool, flax and leather. They kept animals, used a copper tool that was an axe on one side, and a hammer on the other, with a wooden handle. And for woodwork they used a chisel. It is almost certain that people who lived in the village between 5400 and 4700 BC knew about trade, handicrafts, art and metallurgy, which makes this more of a metropolis than a village. The archaeologists have dug out three layers from different periods of the settlement, the oldest one 3.5 metres deep. Life was organised in a way that suited people best. They even took care of their hygiene, as special holes for trash have been found. They also buried their dead at an arranged necropolis. The site in Plocnik is spread over 120 hectares, bordered by rivers. It was a metropolis where copper and copper tools have been produced. Archaeologists found a big workshop which they say is proof of the metallurgical work. "Although we believed for a long time that the younger stone age, the Neolithic was followed by Eneolithic, the so called Copper age, which took place in the fourth millennium BC. But our latest discoveries show that the Vinca culture, although a Neolithic culture, knew about production of copper, which moves the start of copper metallurgy 500 years earlier, to the sixth millennium BC," archaeologist Julka Kuzmanovic said. Archaeologists hope that this find in southern Serbia will prove the theory that the metal age began a lot earlier than previously believed. They are now waiting for results and a second opinion from their colleagues at the German Heidelberg University where some samples have been sent.

ITN Source | October 29, 2007

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