Archaeological excavations on the route of the railway bypass approx Niche brought one of the most significant discoveries in the recent history of Serbian archaeology.
On the site of Novosel, in the atar of the village of Malča, archaeologists found the remains of settlements and graves belonging to the Starčevo culture, which are about 8.000 years old.
Research is being carried out by the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments in Nis, and the preliminary results indicate that these are the most southerly discovered graves of this culture, as well as the oldest material evidence of burials in the area of Niš, the Institute announced.
Photo: Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments NisThe skeletons represent traces of the Starčevo culture
What is the special culture of Starčevac?
The Starcevac culture, which belongs to the early and middle Neolithic, developed in the area of the central Balkans and lower Pannonia, before Vinča culture.
Its settlements consisted of buried and semi-buried dugouts, and the specificity of burial is reflected in inhumation - laying the deceased in a crouched, fetal position, often inside the settlements and residential buildings themselves.
Exactly this method of burial was also confirmed at the Novosel site, announced the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments in Nis.
So far, three burial units with skeletal remains have been discovered, which will be the subject of detailed laboratory analyzes in the coming period, in order to more precisely determine their age and origin.
Photo: Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments NisThree graves were found.
Eight millennia of life in the surroundings of Niš
The archeological site of Novosel shows that it is a multi-layered site, with traces of life from different historical periods - from the Neolithic, through the Eneolithic, all the way to the ancient era.
This discovery further confirms that the area of Niš has been continuously inhabited for at least eight millennia.
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