The Prehistoric Site of Lepenski Vir Quiz

Answer: Serbia

The Lepenski Vir site is located on the right bank of river Danube, close to Iron Gates gorge, in Serbia. The entire area is rich in prehistoric finds. The Danube is one of the main corridors for the influence and/or immigration of neolithic cultures from Asia Minor into Europe.

Answer: Mesolithic

Lepenski Vir is a typical Mesolithic culture, i.e. the transitional phase from paleolithic (hunter gatherer cultures) to neolithic (predominantly sedentary agricultural) cultures. People from Lepenski Vir knew of some domesticated animals and corns, but used them only in the rituals. Thus Lepenski Vir clearly demonstrates both paleolithic and neolithic cultural traits.

Answer: between 5500 BC and 6500 BC

The caves surrounding Lepenski Vir were inhabited from around 20,000 BC on. The first humans arrived at the Lepenski Vir site around 7000 BC (Proto Lepenski Vir), when the climate became significantly warmer after the last glaciation. It reached its peak between 6500 BC and 5500 BC. The culture slowly evolved into a Neolithic type of culture, common to the surrounding area.

Answer: Dragoslav Srejovic

The first excavations on the site were in 1965, but only in 1967 it was realized that it was an important Mesolithic site. The excavations ended in 1971, when the whole site was relocated some 30 m higher, above new artificial lake made by new dam in the Iron Gates gorge.

The exploration of the site was led by professor Dragoslav Srejović of the University of Belgrade. In all, some 136 buildings, settlements and altars were unearthed in the initial excavations in 1965-1970. The Starcevo neolithic site, that characterizes the Starcevo culture, was discovered by Miodrag Grbic in 1939, and explored during 50's by Milutin Garasanin. Excavation of the Vinca Neolithic site was begun in 1908 by Professor Miloje Vasic. Stefan Milota explored the paleolithic site of Peștera cu Oase" (The Cave with Bones) close to Iron Gates, on the Romanian side of Danube. All these prehistoric sites are in the wider area of Lepenski Vir.

Answer: Brno-Predmosti

The Lepenski Vir people are supposedly the descendants of the early European population of the Brno-Předmostí hunter-gatherer culture from the end of the last Ice Age. Mousterian culture is a flint tools culture associated with Homo Neanderthalensis and dating back to the Middle Paleolithic, 30,000 to 300,000 years old.

The Hallstatt culture is an Early European Iron Age culture, dating from the 8th to 6th centuries BC, which is followed by the La Tčne culture. Magdalenian cultures is an Upper Paleolithic culture in western Europe, dating from around 15,000 BCE to 7,000 BCE.

Answer: fish-like stone sculptures

Big fish-like sculptures were carved from round sandstone cobbles found on the river banks. The sculptures either have simple geometric patterns or represent humanoid figures. These figural sculptures represent the head and face of the human figures and are modeled realistically, with strong eye brows, large noses, and fish-like mouths. Hair, beards, arms and hands are stylized.

Answer: by the hearth

The fish-like sculptures were kept in house shrines, near the hearths, thus symbolically uniting water and fire, sunlight, and creation.

Answer: primaeval egg

It was presumed that the boulder represented a primaeval egg, that gave birth to all living creatures, primarily fish-like creatures - the founders of the human race.

Answer: round the hearths

For the others the place of burial was outside the settlement, in an elaborate cemetery.

Answer: Starcevo

Starčevo culture is a Neolithic culture of the central and eastern Balkans, dating from between c. 5500 and 4500 BC (according to other sources between 6200 and 5200 BC), named after Starčevo site, located on the north bank of the Danube in Serbia, close to Belgrade.

It is the earliest settled farming culture in the area. However, hunting and gathering still provided a significant portion of the inhabitants' diet, the fact that emphasizes the fact that the cultural transitions take quite a time period to occur. Danubian culture was the first agrarian society in central and eastern Europe, from Balkans to the Netherlands. Cucuteni culture or Tripolye culture is a Neolithic culture between ca. 5500 BC and 2750 BC, from the Carpathian Mountains to the Dniester and Dnieper regions in Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine.

The Natufian culture was a paleolithic culture in Eastern Mediterranean, and its time span was 13,000 to 9,800 years ago.