Containers and grains: food storage and symbolism in the Central Balkans (Vinca period)

Abstract

Since Flannery who showed that types and locations of storage facilities provide a variety of associations for explaining social change, the economic and social role of storage has been reviewed numerous times. So far, no research pertaining to storage practice has been conducted in the Central Balkans. However, storage strategies play an important role in the agricultural history of the region. Similar, or exactly the same storage techniques have been practiced from the Early Neolithic until modern times, and even today some are practiced by traditional farming communities. Hence this article, which is intended to lay the foundations for understanding the relation between economic and social processes as reflected by storage behaviour in the Late Neolithic-Early Eneolithic in the Central Balkans region.