Schela Cladovei (Romania) and the Iron Gates

Iron Gates is the name applied to the region where the River Danube cuts through the Carpathian mountains on its way to the Black Sea, forming a series of spectacular gorges. The Danube gorges contain some of the best preserved Stone Age sites in southeast Europe. Many were discovered during surveys undertaken in the 1960s in advance of the construction of two hydro-electric dams that flooded a 200-km stretch of the Danube valley. The Iron Gates sites, which comprise both caves and open-air sites, are littered with the debris of centuries of human occupation, including animal remains, bone and stone artefacts, and pottery. The presence of numerous burials and house remains in several of the open-air sites implies that they were permanent or semi-permanent settlements. Some sites, such as Lepenski Vir, appear to have been inhabited continuously during the late Mesolithic and early Neolithic.

Since 1989 Clive Bonsall has co-ordinated a major interdisciplinary research project in the Iron Gates, in collaboration with specialists from Great Britain, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and the USA. The research has focused on the period from 7000 to 5000 BC during which farming was introduced to the region. Dietary tracing of human remains from Lepenski Vir and Vlasac (sites that are now submerged and no longer available for excavation) has provided a new perspective on subsistence practices and their changes through time. A more reliable chronological framework for the stone age settlement of the Danube gorges is being created by direct AMS ¹⁴C dating of bone artefacts and human remains from these and other sites in the region.

Between 1992 and 1996 Clive Bonsall conducted excavations at Schela Cladovei in partnership with Romanian archaeologist, Vasile Boroneanţ. This late Mesolithic and early Neolithic site is situated on the Romanian bank of the Danube, about 65km down river from Lepenski Vir. By employing strict sampling and recovery techniques, the excavations have provided better information on the economies of the two periods of occupation, and added substantially to our knowledge of architecture, burial practices and technology.

Co-researchers: László Bartosiewicz, Adina Boroneanţ, Vasile Boroneanţ, John Chapman, Alice Choyke, Gordon Cook, Elizabeth Dinan, Doug Harkness, Robert Hedges, Rosemary Lennon, Mark Macklin, Kath McSweeney, Sarah Mason, Robert Payton, Paul Pettitt, Catriona Pickard, Ivana Radovanović, Marian Scott.

Sponsors: British Academy, Carnegie Trust, NERC, University of Edinburgh (Hayter Fund, Munro Fund, University Development Fund, Vacation Grant Fund).

Images:

(click on thumbnail for a larger view)

Publications

• Cook, G.T., Bonsall, C., Hedges, R.E.M., McSweeney, K., Boroneanţ, V., Bartosiewicz, L. & Pettitt, P.B. (2002)
  Problems of dating human bones from the Iron Gates.
  Antiquity, 76: 77–85.
• Cook, G.T., Bonsall, C., Hedges, R.E.M., McSweeney, K., Boroneanţ, V. & Pettitt, P.B. (2001)
  A freshwater diet-derived ¹⁴C reservoir effect at the Stone Age sites in the Iron Gates gorge.
  Radiocarbon 43(2A): 453–460.
• Bartosiewicz, L., Boroneanţ, V., Bonsall, C. & Stallibrass, S. (2001)
  New data on the prehistoric fauna of the Iron Gates: a case study from Schela Cladovei, Romania.
  In R. Kertés & J. Makkay (eds) From The Mesolithic to the Neolithic. Budapest, Archaeolingua (Main Series): 15–21.
• Bonsall, C., Cook, G.T., Lennon, R., Harkness, D.D., Scott, M., Bartosiewicz, L. & McSweeney, K. (2000)
  Stable Isotopes, radiocarbon and the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the Iron Gates.
  Documenta Praehistorica 27: 119–132.
• Boroneanţ, V., Bonsall, C., McSweeney, K., Payton, R. & Macklin, M. (1999)
  A Mesolithic burial area at Schela Cladovei, Romania.
  In A. Thévenin (ed.) L’Europe des Derniers Chasseurs: Épipaléolithique et Mésolithique. (Actes du 5^e colloque international UISPP, commission XII, Grenoble, 18–23 septembre 1995). Paris, Éditions du Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques: 385–390.
• Boroneanţ, V., Bonsall, C., McSweeney, K., Payton, R. & Macklin, M. (1999)
  Mormintele mezolitice dîn Aria III de la Schela Cladovei.
  Drobeta, 8: 1–10.
• Bonsall, C., Lennon, R., McSweeney, K., Stewart, C., Harkness, D., Boroneanţ, V., Payton, R., Bartosiewicz, L. & Chapman, J.C. (1997)
  Mesolithic and Early Neolithic in the Iron Gates: a palaeodietary perspective.
  Journal of European Archaeology, 5(1): 50–92.
• Mason, S., Boroneanţ, V. & Bonsall, C. (1996)
  Plant remains from Schela Cladovei, Romania.
  Mesolithic Miscellany, 17(2): 11–14.
• Bonsall, C., Boroneanţ, V. & Srejović, D. (1996)
  AMS radiocarbon determinations on human bone from Lepenski Vir, Vlasac and Schela Cladovei.
  Mesolithic Miscellany, 17(2): 6–10.
• Bartosiewicz, L., Boroneanţ, V., Bonsall, C. & Stallibrass, S. (1995)
  Schela Cladovei: a review of the prehistoric fauna.
  Mesolithic Miscellany 16(2): 2–19.

Clive Bonsall Home Page

Department of Archaeology Home Page