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BRONZE AGE: HOUSES

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The Early Bronze Age houses

 

Sector I/1961: plan of the first building phase. The only somewhat complete house plan of this period comes from sector I/1961. It consists of a rectangular building, more than 10m long, whose exterior walls are made of building clay on a wooden post frame; its width is not known. Masses of burned clay and postholes are also found in the other sectors, some of which form rows that might represent rectangular houses. Small groups of stones were sometimes used to wedge the posts into place.The dominant although not exclusive construction technique is wattle-and-daub, as in the rest of the southern Balkans at this time. Fragments of building clay with reed impressions probably come from ceilings. Walls constructed on stone foundations are attested in the second phase of the building in sector I/1961. The plan and dimensions of this later building are unknown, but we presume that they were similar to those of the first phase.

Sector 6 (2010 excavation): stones used for wedging a post; Early Bronze Age.
Sector I/1961: plan of the second building phase. In the centre of the preserved part there is a big rectangular platform made of a layer of stones covered with clay; this technique goes back as far as the Late Neolithic I. There is a third building phase, badly preserved, that also had stone walls. Other features present in the Early Bronze Age layers include combustion structures and bins.Hearths, often surrounded with stones, can be found outside as well as inside the dwellings. On the other hand, ovens, seem to be situated more often in the interior, as was the case in the Neolithic. Finally, bins occur more often outside: take for example their presence in great numbers in sector 6 (more than a dozen), in an area with practically no wall- or roof-fragments, and their complete absence in the successive buildings of sector I/1961.

Secteur I/1961 : Sector I/1961: stone platform covered with clay.
  The finds from the Early Bronze Age buildings include, as in the Neolithic, substantial quantities of ceramic vessels and tools made of various materials (stone, bone, clay, metal), showing a large range of domestic activities: grinding grain, preparation and consumption of food, storage, and weaving. For the moment, however, we do not have any assemblages that would give us precise “snapshots”, as we have for the Neolithic or the Late Bronze Age.  

 

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Last Update : 2/02/12

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