During excavations at the Novo Selo archaeological site, in the area of the village of Malča near Niš, on the route of the railway bypass construction, a part of a settlement and graves whose age is estimated at around 8,000 years were found.
This discovery has special significance, as the graves from the Starčevo culture era at this site are the oldest material evidence of burial in the Niš area. Archaeologist Aleksandar Aleksić spoke to Euronews Serbia about the importance of this research.
“First of all, these are new discoveries in the sense that they are the southernmost confirmed ones. What is interesting for the city of Niš is that it is the oldest confirmed material evidence of burial in the past of Niš. The burial process itself is interesting, because at that time they were buried crouched, in a side position, or rather in a fetal position,” Aleksić stated.
“We started doing trial investigations last summer, and then full excavations. After several months of excavation, we know that it is a multi-layered site containing layers from the Starčevo period. It is most likely both a settlement and a necropolis, as in those times people were buried within the settlement,” Aleksić added.
According to him, there are immovable archaeological finds on that surface area that contain movable archaeological finds, which serve to reconstruct life itself.
“The second group of finds are animal bones, namely the remains of what people ate or the animals they kept. In addition, we have tools made of chipped stone, polished stone, and bone. At this site, it is approximately between 10 and 100 kilograms per day. We have already reached the stage where we do not classify material by boxes but by tons,” Aleksić concluded.
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Source: Telegraf, Photo: Wikipedia