Archeological Party Plans Quest For More Prehistoric Relics in Jugoslavia

With hopes of finding further connecting links between the areas of high cultural development in the Aegean region on one hand and central and northern Europe on the other, a Harvard expedition will sail on Wednesday, April 20, to continue excavations in Jugoslavia begun during a two-week survey last summer.

Archaeological deposits of unusually extensive proportions including a layer of Neolithic material belonging to a people living before 3000 B. C. have been discovered there.

Excavations at Starcevo

The site of the find, at Starcevo, near Belgrade was excavated last summer by the joint archaeological expedition to central Europe from the Peabody Museum of Harvard and the University Museum of Philadelphia. With the exception of these extensive soundings, the work at other sites was primarily a matter of reconnaissance. The leaders of the party last summer, Dr. V. J. Fewkes, of the University Museum in Philadelphia, and R. W. Ehrich, of Harvard, will be in charge of the new expedition.

The survey is to last two months and is planned to cover the most important river valleys. It is hoped that this will throw new light on the routes by which prehistoric cultural developments were spread in southern Europe. This part of the continent is one of the most important and yet least known areas from the standpoint of prehistoric civilization. The expedition will visit reported sites and search for new discoveries as well. Soundings for cultural remains will be made in as many places as time will permit.

Discovered Prehistoric Deposits

The major part of the fieldwork is to devoted to large scale excavations at Starcevo. This site is located upon an ancient bank of the Danube, the present course of which runs three miles to the south of it. Culture-bearing deposits were discovered here in the course of brickmaking.

At Starcevo vestiges of several prehistoric periods were observed, ranging from the early New Stone Age through the Bronze and Iron Ages. Foundations of hut dwellings, skeletal and cremated graves, as well as quantities of ceramics, bone and stone artefacts, and a few metal objects, comprised the major finds. The Neolithic layer of the site proved to be the most important. Its yield of fine painted pottery was particularly surprising to the excavators.