Starcevo ceramic technology: the first potters of the Middle Danube Basin

Early Neolithic Starčevo groups made the first ceramics and fired clay cult objects in the Middle Danube basin during the 6th millennium cal BC. These groups were also the first farmers in the region. This study of Starčevo everyday pottery, ceramic figurines and four-legged vessels from Slavonia, Serbia and Romania shows that the same pottery chaîne opératoire was used throughout this region, at sites located in different geological settings, where potters could have used a wider range of raw materials. Starčevo potters were not specialists, but some later Starčevo ceramics were more sophisticated, particularly in decoration techniques. The similarity of pottery technology throughout the Middle Danube basin shows the ongoing connectedness and intermixing of Starčevo communities, while the use of one chaîne opératoire for almost a millennium, and the lack of technological exchange with contemporaneous Adriatic Impressed Ware pottery, reveals a conservative society, in which intergenerational transmission of technical skills and a strong network may have helped to maintain social stability over time.