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Excavation

  • Bioče
  • Podgorica
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    Credits

    • The Italian Database is the result of a collaboration between:

      MIBAC (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale per i Beni Archeologici),

      ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) and

      AIAC (Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica).

    • AIAC_logo logo

    Summary (English)

    • The Bioce site lies on the left bank of the river Moraca valley, 12 kilometres north from Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. The joint Russian-Montenegrin archaeological works, carried out during 2010-2011, were continued during 2012. The excavations covered an area of 6,5 square metres, to the depth of 4 metres., 29,172 archaeological artefacts were found, as well as 10226 bone fragments.

      The stratigraphy study of the objects defined litologic sublayers boundaries 1.1.1. and 1.1.2, discovered the previous year, and confirmed the boundaries of lower layers which go to the rocky base. The majority of finds were recorded in the litological layers 1.1.1–4. On the whole, the stone industry looks very homogeneus. According to its composition, morphology and processing techniques, it is related to the final stage of the Middle Palaeolithic. Technically, it is very non-plastic, with small percentage of Levallois tecnique and bifacial processing. The original splitting is dominated by radial divulsion in one direction and a simple parallel divulsion. In the fragment industry, small fragments, wastes and flakes are generally present. Regarding the tools, small and middle sized scrapers prevail, mostly with an elongated shape. The presence of the nucleus and tools which are typical for the early Palaeolithic show the existence of cultural levels of early palaeolithic which are disturbed by human activities, and they can explain the transition from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Late Palaeolithic. The closest similar materials, both technologically and typologically, can be found in the post-Mousterien complex of Crvena Stijena in Montenegro and Velika Pecina and Mujina Pecina in Croatia. According to these analogies, and especially to those in Dalmatia, the stone industry in Bioce can be dated in the chronological range from 50.000-35.000 years BP.

      The paleontological material from the 2012 campaign consists of 3119 specimens of bones. The equidaes prevail in fauna: the representatives of Perissodactyla species and Artiodactyla. The remains of Equus are the most numerous among equidaes, similar to the modern Equus caballus. The remains of rhinos are very rare. Ungulates are present with small representatives of Caprinae sub-family in the majority. There are also significant remains deer teeth: elk (Alces alces) and ordinary deer (Cervus elaphus). The bone material from Bioce site is rather damaged. Practically, all tubular bones, especially equidae digits were broken for the extraction of bone marow. That points to high level of utilization of bio-resources of the Moraca valley inhabitants in the Palaeolithic.

    Director

    • Derevjanko A.P. - Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch

    Team

    • Kandiba Aleksandar
    • Pavlenok Konstantin
    • Šunjkov Mihail
    • Goran Čulović
    • Uljanov Vladimir
    • Čeha Andrej
    • Agadžanjan Aleksandar
    • Bolihovska Natalija

    Research Body

    • Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch
    • PI Museums and Galleries of Podgorica

    Funding Body

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