The Iron Gates Mesolithic (International Monographs in Prehistory: Archaeological Series, 11)

An extensive review of the Mesolithic sites in the Iron Gates Gorge of the Danube River, between Yugoslavia and Romania. The important sites of Lepenski Vir, Vlasac, Padina, and Hajducka Vodenica are among the many covered in this comprehensive work, which includes much previously unpublished data. The author offers fundamental re-analyses and interpretations of stratigraphies, relative and absolute chronologies, architecture and settlement organization, the placement and styles of altars and sculptural elements, the chipped and polished stone industries, the bone and antler artifacts, the mortuary practices, ecology, and social organization of this remarkable archaeological culture. In conclusion, all of these materials, analyses, and interpretations are placed both within their broader, European archaeological context, and in an explicit theoretical framework. An important and thought-provoking work.