Some Balkan and Danubian influences to southern and eastern Spain
Celia Topp
[page-n-115]
CELlA TOPP
(London)
Some Balkan and Danubian influences
to southern and eastern Spain
The prehistoric archaeologist VIsiting Spanish provincial mu seums is frequen tly impressed by 0 number of objects showing
s trong Balkan or Danubian influences or even acusinR a direct
ancestry from those regions.
Bernaoo Brea, in his exhaustive paper on prehistoric Sicily and
its rela tions with the Orient and Iberia (1) clearly considers Balkan
and Danubian influences to hove been negligeable in "distant
Iberia". He applies this equally to the earliest period characterised
by cordial ,(or impressed) wore and to the later one contemporaneous with the pointed wares of Ripoli and Matera when a wove
of Balkan cultures. swept aver peninsular Italy. Brea considers most
of the foreign influences. traceable in Iberian material ef the ~e
early periods os emanating from the Aegean whereas Mortine:t
Santa 010110 and Son ValeTa would derive them mainly from 0
North African source. While both these interpre tations ore possible and even plaUSible the present writer would like to emphasi:te
yet 0 third, already envisoged by Childe (2). namely that ot 0 Bol ·
kan inspiration and origin for some of the exotic objects in v.1rious
Spanish assemblages of the Neolithic period. This view has recently been implicitly applied by Almagra (3) to the culture he calls
"Nealitica Hispona 11" (or the .Almerian) and there ore some slight
(I) L. SERNABO BREA; "Lo Sicjll0 PrehiSlorico 'I 5.... S .elociones con
OrienTe 'I COn 10 Peninsulo tberlco" . Ampurlos XV_XVI. 1953-54, pp. 137.235.
/2) V, GORDON CHllDE: "Th~ Down of Europoon Ci~ili1;Ollon" , 6Th ell.
london, 1957, pp. 266 _ 7.
(3) M. ALMAGRO: "Odge" y Formod,;n del Pueb!o Hispo"o", 80rcelon
-
115 -
[page-n-116]
C. TOPP
2
indication~
that these Bolkon-Danubion influences persisted into
later periods in the Iberian peninsula.
T he material under discussion in this article comes from two
museums, Valencia and Almerio. In the first (notable for its
splendid scholarly display) the relevant assemblages ore those of
the Cueva de 10 Serse, the Coveto de l'Or and the Cova de 10 Pastora (Alcoy). The first of these sites is a purely neolithic one: no
trace of metal was found during the excavation which yielded
q uan titi es of cordial wore. T he material hos been fully descr ibed
by Son Valera (4) and it is not proposed here to re-assess it as a
whole. Th e ob jects most relevant to our thesis are the bone spotu *
loe but the stone bracelets are olso noteworthy as a link with Vinca
and Tordos in this some ,e arliest period. And it is alsa worth remembering the relation between Starcevo and Cardial wares, already noted by Childe (5), and t he fact thpt the rusticated ware
from La Sarsa is remarkably reminiscent of that of the K6r6s
style.
The bone spatulae, some with engraved notches along one side
(which Sr. Fl etcher Volls regards as 0 Spanish Levontine characteristic (6), number over a dozen and are indeed startlingly Starcevo like. Childe has said of the Ba lkan ones: "Such spatulae recu r
on practically every Starcevo site throughout the province, but in
no other context, so that they can be used as a diagnostic type af
the culture as confidently os pots" (7). In his last book (8) he adds
that Cordial folk "a lso ladled the flour with the some sort of bane
spatulae as their kinsmen in the Balkans". This wark hod not yet
been written when the writer firs t noticed the Valencian spotulae
but the striking similarity between the Balkan and Spanish objects
is thus based on strang authority.
These bane spatu lae recur in the next assemblage under consi deration, that of the Coveta de l'Or, and odd emphas is to the argument. To the best of the writer's knowledge this most interesting site has not yet been published. Its materials present 0 curious
(4) J. SAN VALERQ APARISI: "La Cueva de 10 $arsa (Bacairenle, Valencia)", Trabojos Vories del Servicia de Invesligaci6n Prehistorico de Va lenCia, numera 12, Valencia, 1950.
(5) V. GORDON CHILDE: Op. cit. note 2, p. 266.
(6) The writer is greatly indebted to Sr. Fletcher , Director of Valencia Mu _
seum, for his courteous assistance in making material available and for sI,Jpplying
further information by correspo nden ce.
(7) V. GORDON CHILDE: OtJ. cit. note 2, p. 85 .
(8) V. GORDON CHILDE: "The Prehistory of European Society", London,
1958,
p.
47
-
116 -
[page-n-117]
SOME BALKAN AND DANUBIAN INFLUENCES
,
admixture of exotic imparted objects (such os the bone spatulae,
stone beads and arc-pendan ts, serrated tonged and tanged-andbarbed arrowheads) and remains of on au tochtonous culture of Mesolithic ancestry represented by numerous petit- tranchets and geometric micraliths. Naturally the advocates of the North African
origin of the Cordial ware culture would derive these latter from
a supposed Capsion tradition. But on eQually strong argument
could be pu t forward for 0 Mesalithic survival and this is reinforced
by the bane fragments from La $arsa decorated with finely incised
geometric patterns. In both these si tes, La $afsa and de 1'0r, occur
arc·pendants .of schist and stone which provide an interesting link
with other more northerly sites of the Western cycle. Both these
sites hove yielded cordial wares in abundance and are obviously
closely related.
The third assemblage under cansiderati9n, tha t of La Pastora
de Alcoy, belongs to a later period since it includes a few metal
objects. Here again there is a mixture of native and foreign material including omber and callois. The objects have been briefly described by Balleste r (9) but the si te has never been published as
a whole. The skulls have formed the object of 0 special study by
Riquet (10) and Fuste Ara (\1) and ore especially interesting in
view of the fact that many have been trepanned (\ Z). This provides ye t a further link with French sites and wi th the Danube (13) .
The most relevant items of this assemblage afe the numerous
bone pins, many of which ore very D.:!nubian in aspect. Most ore
mode in one piece but one has a separate head vertically pierced
in the manner of Danubion bulb-headed pins. There is also one
of amber and, most curious of 011, 0 crutch-headed one of bone
(PI. I, 1). The only exoct analogy known to Ihe writer comes from
19\ I. BALLESTER TOR MO; "' ldolos Oculodo. Volen ei onos" , Archivo de
Prehistorio Le-vonljno, 11 , Volencia, 1945.
(10) R. RIQUET: "Analyse anlhrooologiQul: des crones lffieolithiQues de 10
QrOlle sepultrole de 10 Postoro {Akoyl" , ...... chivo de Prehistoria Levonllno, IV.
1953.
(Ill M. FUSTE ARA: "ESludio antro»O!6gko de los f>Oblodares neo-eneolirleos de 10 regi6n yolenciona". Serie de. Trobaj as Varios del S. t. P de Valencia.
!"'umefo 20, Vol~nc lo. 1957.
1121 A. RrNCON DE ARELLANO y J . FENQLLOSA; "Alounos considera ciones oc~rco de ros crcincos tre-;l
~t31
V, GORDON CHILDE: "The Donube In Preh istory", Oxford, 1929.
_
117 -
[page-n-118]
4
C. TOPP
the much later con text of the Terramore (14). These two Terra ,
more pins ore of bronze and Saflund notes that they ore very rare
there; he adds that the type with horizontal head, found at Reme,
dellc, is locking in this later context. He cites as o:1ologous, but
not identical, two bronze pins from Cyprus (15) but these do not
appear to bear 0 very close resemblance to his type A6. T he two
Terramare pins mentioned above belong to this type; unfortunately
they hove no known stratigraphical context. Taken in conjunction
with the presence of amber and a Palme\lo point the Unetice-type
bone pin from La Postorn would lead one to infer 0 somewhat lote
date for this site, despite the scarcity of metal ob jects, somewhere
within the region of the first half of the second millennium .
The Uneticion context of crutch- headed pins is a wel'~estoblish ~
ed fact accepted by all. Local copies or imports are known from
peripheral areas such as the British Isles during the Wessex period
of the Early Bronze Age (16) . La Pastaro de Alcoy might con ~
ceivably be equated chronologically with the beginning of the Wes ~
sex Culture and this particular bone copy af the original metal
straight~headed pin could be considered as carres~nding to t he
British pins although these latter adhere more closely to the proto ~
type. It would then appear not unreasonable to seek a common
inspiration for both the British and Spo:lish pins in the Early Bron ~
ze Age of Bohemia. Childe was quite d isposed 10 envisage a date
within that period for the rich settlement of Los Millores in Alme·
rio (17). If La Postoro be considered os 0 poor but contemporary
site the bone pins fit into 0 logical chronological context. They
would. have been made by native Iberians influenced by traders
and metal prospectors possibly of Danubian origin or at least in
(14) G. SAFLUND: "Le Terremo re delle provincie di Modeno, Regg io, Em,·
lie, Pormc, Piocenxo", Skrifter utgivno OV Svenske Institutet i Rom. Acto Inslituti Romani regni Suecioe, VII, Lund, Leipzig, 1939. 7av. 58, num. 16. This
pin was k indly painted out to the writer by Professor J. D. Evans who olso contributed by helpful discussion.
(15). E. GJERSTAD, J. LlNDROS, E. SJOQVIST & A. WESTHOLM: "Finds
and resulls of the e:
10mb 320 and belong 10 the Middle Cypriate 11 period.
(16) V. GORDON CH ILD E: "Prehistoric Communities of the British Isles" ,
3rd ed, London, 1949, . PP. 137-8. No specific crutch-headed pins ore mentioned
but there is one in Gloucester City Museum which comes from Snowshill (Ar.
chaelogio Lll, pp. 70-72). The writer is indebted to Mr. A. Hu nter for this laSI
reference.
•
(17) "Hence while personally I wanl Los Millares \ to be 3rd mi\. it makes
just os good sense if it be 2nd i. e. firs t trading pOrI an way 10 Cornwall in
Wellcx period" (From 0 leller doted 19. i:<. 57\.
-
118-
[page-n-119]
SOME BALKAN ANO DANUBIAN INFLUENCES
,
con tact with contemporary Donubian civiliz ation. The amber, the
trepanned crania and the pins are all pointers in tha t direction
whereas the geometric micraliths argue an au tac thanous strain af
Epi-Palaeolithic ances try with a North African admixture.
These ten tative conclusians are the resu lt of 0 rapid survey of
part af the Neolithic and Chalcalithic material an show in Va lencia Museum. Some of the objects belonging to these periods
suggest con tac t with the Balkans and the Danube. There is doub t less much additional relevant material not noted here which would
serve to emphosil:e the argument, for instance twin-vases such as
that from La Sorsa (18). It would be tempting to see some late
Donubion survivols in the material from the Canary Islands amang
which the cloy pin toderas would provide the most suggestive item
(19). But that would take the discussion beyond the set chronological scope of this article. This Canary Islands' material is indeed
intriguing with its pointed pottery and its pintaderas, but at pre sent too little is known about it to wa rran t its inclusion within
any definite chronological context.
In the obscure provincial museum of Almeda lies a wealth of
s till unpublished material, despite the efforts of Arribas (20). The
larj:lest assemblage most relevant to the present discussion is that
from Tabernas. Much of the material from this impor tan t site remains in private hands but the wri ter and Arribas shortly intend
to publish the Tabernas objects on view in Almerio Museum. In
view of this it is only possible here to note the objects which sugges t possible Balkan or Danubian affinities. Since this habitationsite has yielded some me tal artefacts (notably a flat a xe and some
\l8) J . SAN VALERD APARISI: Cp. cl !. nOI" 4, Ilg. 20, p. 66 .
119) A blbllogcophy of Ihes" pin lod" ros ""0$ most kindly suppllcd by Sr .
FlclChe' VolI •.
J. ALCINA FRANCH: HDls lribuci6n geogr6tico de las Pinlodera. en Ame·
dca'·, Acchtvo de Prehluorlo L.,vonllno, Ill , Valencio, 1952, $I. 241.
J. ALCINA FRANCH: "Hlp6l.,si. oc.,reo de 10 dlfw;i6n mun-diol d., 10. Pin.
loderos", Trobojo. y conler e nda~ d~1 Seminada de Estudios American1S!a •. 6 ,
Madrid, 1955, p. 217.
J. ALCINA FRANC H: "Lo~ Plnlodero! d~ Cono,io, y sus POSibles ,elodones"
Anoarlo de Eslvd los Al16nlico., 2, Los Polmm, 1956, p. 77.
J . ALcrNA FRANC H: "Los ?'nlodero. mejicono. Y sus 'elociann " , Mod rld,
1958.
O. CORNAGGIA CASTIGLlONt : "Orlglnl e diW ibuz lone delle clnlode.os
prelslorlch" euro-osloliche", Alii del L- Canvengno Intencglonole Podono d l
Polelnologio Flrenu, 1957, pp. 79_ 162.
(20) A. ARRISAS PALAU: "El oiuo, de 10s CUNQ~ sepulcroles de 10$ Slon_
qulzar~ de Lebor (Mu.do)" , Memor ia. de 1
0$ Museo. A,queol60lcO$ P'ovindo le., val. XIV , MOOrld , 1953. PP. 78 _126.
-
Jl9 -
[page-n-120]
,
C. TOPP
awls of quadrangular seClion~ it seems reasonable 10 place i t in the
some chronological context os La Postore de Alcoy i. e. somewhere
within the first half of the second millennium.
Apart trom the metal objects (and it is worth noting that "quadrangular copper owls --.perhaps tattaing needles- are compara tively common in Morovia ond Bohem ia") (2 1) t he ones most relevont here ore some fragments of bone spotuloe cnd of possible
"fruitstands", strainers, Cl cloy spoon, twin -vases, on unusual pointed sherd and Cl very Donubion doy figurine.
Since t he spatuloe frogments ore amorphous it is impossible
to de termine their original shope cnd so they connot be rightly
compared with t he Storcevo ones in Valencia Museum. It is equally impossible to discuss the fragments of what appear to have been
pedestal led bawls (or fruit-stands). a type common to bath the
Balkans and t he Danube where they have a long history. Strainers
a lso are a Balkan type which con be do ted to the Gumelnitsa horiz.on (22) and would thus fit into the chronological horiz.on proposed for Tabernas. They also occur at Vile Nova de Son Pedro (23),
Chassey (24) ond Fort Horrouord (25" 011 of which ore sites whose
later phases hove many feotures in common with Tobernos. The
day spoon, like t he stroiners, is a frequent Western Neolithic type
first appeoring in the Bolkons in Boion A. All t hese spoons, lik~
the Tobernos specimen, hove solid handles and not socketed ones
like the Danubion ladles. But, though their Eas t Mediterranean
origin is not contested here, it seems possible to odvocote on inland
distribution-pa ttern following in the wake of the first formers for
these two types found in Copper Age habitation-sites whose roots
reach back in to the Neolithic.
•
T he tw in-vases and the pointed sherd both somewhat remotely
suggest the Balkans and the Danube. T he sherd is quite unlike
1211 V. GOROON CHILOE: Op. ci r. nare 13, P. 190.
1221 V. GORDON CHILDE: "Prehlslaric Mlgratian, ,n Europe", Landon ,
1950, CP. 181_3.
1231 e. JALHAY & A. DO PACO: "El Coslro de VUonovo d~ Son Pedro",
AeIO$ y M"",arias de 10 Sodedod Espoi'ialo de Anrrapalooia, Elnogrofla y , Prehistaric, XX, Modrld, 1945, p. 60.
12~1
J . DECHELETTE: "Monu,,1 d'Archeologle p<~his IOflo.u~, cei1;qu.. el
galla-romaine", Paris, 1908·14, ~al . I, P. 559.
C. BAILLOUO (;, P. M1EG DE BOOFZ HEIM: "Les c'vi li$CIl ions neolilhiQues
de 10 Fronce", Pads, 1955, pp. 91 If.
5. P1GGOTT: "Le Ne.;,lilhique Occlden lcl el - le Chl:licoli lhique en FraMe,
&qui .... pr~1im;"alre", L'Anlhrapolooie LVII, 1953, pP. 400_43, esp. p. 410.
(2 5) ABBE PHIUPPE: "CinQ an~es de foullles eu Fan Harroucrd" , Sociele no
[page-n-121]
\
SOME BALKAN AND DANUBIAN INFLUENCES
1
any other Iberian one of this Chaicolithic periods. It has a burnish ed surfoce with 0 pottem ef red parallel lines, chevrons cnd a lozenge on 0 dark background and it has 0 lorge nipple IU9. As it
stands it appears to be an isolated sp~cim:en of its kind in this region and its onalogies outside Spain would provide 0 frui~ful fjeld
of research.
The female figurine (PI. I, 2) is perhaps one of the firmest links
in this choin of evidence for Iberian contact with Balkan and 00nubion civilizations. It is of redd ish cloy tempered with mica and
sch ist, smoothed, cylindrical, 8 centimetres high, wi t h a strangulation indicating the neck and its has very marked breasts, The base
is narrower than the head and there is 0 transversal perforation
in the shoulde r region which sU9gests that is was worn os on omulet;
the morks of wear visible within the perforotion confirm this assumption. A ver y close parallel to this Tabernos idol comes from Zenoovorkony in the Donubion 11 period (26). There ore numerous
o ther idols from Tobernos which conform with the more usual types
found on local sites, such as conicol ond flat schematized figurines
of stone a nd bone, phalanges and phalli. These all suggest on ultimately Eastern origin whereas the idol desc ribed above pertains to
o different idealogy. Tabernas might be in te rpreted os a meetingplace af farei9n influences from various sources overlying 0 native
!roditian and such On outstandingly Donubian figurine cannot be
ignored os 0 pointer in that direc tion.
Although the objects from Tabernas now in Almeria Museum
rep resent on ly 0 fraction of the material from t he site and although
they hove no known strotigraphicol position they s till offer sufficient suggestions of Balkan and Donubian influences to make the m
no teworthy. A serious re-excavation of Tabernos ond 0 reassessment of new materiol and of that still in private hands looked 01
from this angle would probably greatly strengthen thi s hypotheSIS
which ot present rests merely on isolated specimens. A complete
reassessment of post and future moterial from habitation-sites of
these early periods might well produce 0 new concept of the development and the ramifications of the Westefn Neolithic culture
and of the Choicoli t hic period in Iberia. Meanwhile it remains both
possible and plausible to postulate on Eastern mediterroneon origin
for most of the objects under consideration.
But the purpose of this article is to suggest tho! the objects
1261.
v. GOR;OON CHILDE; CP.
-
~i l .
121
note 22, fig. 70 n." 2, p, 93.
[page-n-122]
•
C. TOP?
the mse lves \or their direc t inspira t ion) did flot necesscrily reoch
sout hern and eastern Spa in by the maritime rou te. Up to new it has
been argued c nd generally ag reed tha t mos t new infuences reached
Iberia either directly from the Aegean or by 0 slower infil t ra t ion via
North Africa. It is only very rece n t ly tha t certain Spanish prehis torians, such os Almogro (27) have begun to react cnd pr:)test
against t his "otricen mirage". Maluquer accepts the existence of a
neolithic cul tu re of Bal kan and Donubian ascendency in the zones
of westem Europe a t si tes such os Arene Candide (28) . But he
rightly a rgues t ha t t he presence o f one part icular type, in this instance the squore~ m ou thed pot in Ca talonia, does no t perm it to
post ula te t he .existence af this cul tu re t he re. In t his we are in com ple te agreement but when, in eastern and southern Spain, there ore
other types implying the same influences the t heory a t ance becomes for more plausible. Very recen tly fresPl evidence for th is t'esis
has been put farwo rd by Professor J. Evons who COnsiders that th Nort h African theory certainly does not tell q ui te "the whole story" .
His reference to t he habitation-site o f Cantarranas near Madrid
goes for towa rds support ing t he theory 50 tenta t ively advanced
here (29).
Objects such os t hose discussed above mark a trail fram t he
Ba lkans and the Danube to sou t hern Spain via nor th Italy, south
France and no rth-east Spain. It has al ways been argued tha t the
pi t-grove buriols of Catalonia represen t a nort hward spread of the
Alm erion cu ltu re bu t t hey migh t equally well stand for 0 south ward extension of- the Danu bian one. T he bone spatu lae, solid day
spoons and trepanned crania 011 occur in Provence. A s ite like
Cho teouneuf- Ies-Ma rt igues (30) provides 0 possible ha lf-way house
for th is southern s pread of types and rites in t he woke o f t he f irs t
farme r's in land expansion o f which one st ream goes nor th- wes t and
~;I .
nO le :I, p. 49.
1271
M. ALM AGRD: ()p.
(28)
J. MALUQU ER DE MOTES: "Lo cul luro de La Logoz:o en Co tolono"
(;, "Voses de boto cuodrodo en Cotoluno", Rivjsto di Stud l Ligurl, XV . nos. 1-2,
1949, pp. 46_ 52.
D. FLETCH ER VALlS: "Un \'0'0 de boco cuodrodo, de 10 prov incio de Vo·
lencio" , ,,,,"unicoci6n 01 VI C. A. N., Oviedo, 1959.
D. FLETCHER VALLS: "Vo,,,, de boto cvcdrodo en 10 PMjn~ulo lbe,;co" ,
homenoje c l prof~50r ZOtz .
(29) J . D. EV"NS: "Two phcses of prehistoric , eu lemenl in Ihe We
Universi ty ot London , 1958, p? 49-70 .
(30) M. ESCALON DE FONTON: "Prehis!oi, e de le Bc<,e P,ovence", p,,,.
hl,lelre XII , 1956. Thl, 51 vie1c!ed mllch cordl ol r>e!lcry Md e lso , poh;!oc o ~d
te
spoon. ,
-
122 -
[page-n-123]
,
SOME BALKAN AND OANUSIAN INFLUENCES
,
the other south-west. The first eventually reaches the British Isles
and the second Spain cnd Portugal : 0 square-mouthed pol wos
found there also (311. Through Ihe centuries this gradual spread is
enriched with loler types from the same source, os well of course
os from various others, and this exponsiOll losts weU into the Copper Age cnd possibly m:Jch later still (32).
While for from denying direct Aegean and North African in
fluences In Iberia in these early periods it olso seems only sensible
to admit others which travelled by on overland roule. In Childe's
words : "On the scanty evidence a t our disposal the neoli t hic constituents of the Cordial culture could equally well be derived from
Northern Africa, from the coasts of Hither Asia or from the South
ern Balkan peninsula." (33) .
1311
(l2)
1331
J. D. EVANS, Op . .:11. nole 29, pp. 59-60.
V. GORCON CHILDE: Op. ell. nole 13, p. 193 & P. 2-40
V. GORDON CHILDE: Op. eil. nole 8, pp. -48-9.
-
123 -
[page-n-124]
[page-n-125]
CELt.\ TOpp..-som,"- 8 " lkaa a ad Oa n u bl aa inftll ," n~
r
[page-n-126]
CELlA TOPP
(London)
Some Balkan and Danubian influences
to southern and eastern Spain
The prehistoric archaeologist VIsiting Spanish provincial mu seums is frequen tly impressed by 0 number of objects showing
s trong Balkan or Danubian influences or even acusinR a direct
ancestry from those regions.
Bernaoo Brea, in his exhaustive paper on prehistoric Sicily and
its rela tions with the Orient and Iberia (1) clearly considers Balkan
and Danubian influences to hove been negligeable in "distant
Iberia". He applies this equally to the earliest period characterised
by cordial ,(or impressed) wore and to the later one contemporaneous with the pointed wares of Ripoli and Matera when a wove
of Balkan cultures. swept aver peninsular Italy. Brea considers most
of the foreign influences. traceable in Iberian material ef the ~e
early periods os emanating from the Aegean whereas Mortine:t
Santa 010110 and Son ValeTa would derive them mainly from 0
North African source. While both these interpre tations ore possible and even plaUSible the present writer would like to emphasi:te
yet 0 third, already envisoged by Childe (2). namely that ot 0 Bol ·
kan inspiration and origin for some of the exotic objects in v.1rious
Spanish assemblages of the Neolithic period. This view has recently been implicitly applied by Almagra (3) to the culture he calls
"Nealitica Hispona 11" (or the .Almerian) and there ore some slight
(I) L. SERNABO BREA; "Lo Sicjll0 PrehiSlorico 'I 5.... S .elociones con
OrienTe 'I COn 10 Peninsulo tberlco" . Ampurlos XV_XVI. 1953-54, pp. 137.235.
/2) V, GORDON CHllDE: "Th~ Down of Europoon Ci~ili1;Ollon" , 6Th ell.
london, 1957, pp. 266 _ 7.
(3) M. ALMAGRO: "Odge" y Formod,;n del Pueb!o Hispo"o", 80rcelon
-
115 -
[page-n-116]
C. TOPP
2
indication~
that these Bolkon-Danubion influences persisted into
later periods in the Iberian peninsula.
T he material under discussion in this article comes from two
museums, Valencia and Almerio. In the first (notable for its
splendid scholarly display) the relevant assemblages ore those of
the Cueva de 10 Serse, the Coveto de l'Or and the Cova de 10 Pastora (Alcoy). The first of these sites is a purely neolithic one: no
trace of metal was found during the excavation which yielded
q uan titi es of cordial wore. T he material hos been fully descr ibed
by Son Valera (4) and it is not proposed here to re-assess it as a
whole. Th e ob jects most relevant to our thesis are the bone spotu *
loe but the stone bracelets are olso noteworthy as a link with Vinca
and Tordos in this some ,e arliest period. And it is alsa worth remembering the relation between Starcevo and Cardial wares, already noted by Childe (5), and t he fact thpt the rusticated ware
from La Sarsa is remarkably reminiscent of that of the K6r6s
style.
The bone spatulae, some with engraved notches along one side
(which Sr. Fl etcher Volls regards as 0 Spanish Levontine characteristic (6), number over a dozen and are indeed startlingly Starcevo like. Childe has said of the Ba lkan ones: "Such spatulae recu r
on practically every Starcevo site throughout the province, but in
no other context, so that they can be used as a diagnostic type af
the culture as confidently os pots" (7). In his last book (8) he adds
that Cordial folk "a lso ladled the flour with the some sort of bane
spatulae as their kinsmen in the Balkans". This wark hod not yet
been written when the writer firs t noticed the Valencian spotulae
but the striking similarity between the Balkan and Spanish objects
is thus based on strang authority.
These bane spatu lae recur in the next assemblage under consi deration, that of the Coveta de l'Or, and odd emphas is to the argument. To the best of the writer's knowledge this most interesting site has not yet been published. Its materials present 0 curious
(4) J. SAN VALERQ APARISI: "La Cueva de 10 $arsa (Bacairenle, Valencia)", Trabojos Vories del Servicia de Invesligaci6n Prehistorico de Va lenCia, numera 12, Valencia, 1950.
(5) V. GORDON CHILDE: Op. cit. note 2, p. 266.
(6) The writer is greatly indebted to Sr. Fletcher , Director of Valencia Mu _
seum, for his courteous assistance in making material available and for sI,Jpplying
further information by correspo nden ce.
(7) V. GORDON CHILDE: OtJ. cit. note 2, p. 85 .
(8) V. GORDON CHILDE: "The Prehistory of European Society", London,
1958,
p.
47
-
116 -
[page-n-117]
SOME BALKAN AND DANUBIAN INFLUENCES
,
admixture of exotic imparted objects (such os the bone spatulae,
stone beads and arc-pendan ts, serrated tonged and tanged-andbarbed arrowheads) and remains of on au tochtonous culture of Mesolithic ancestry represented by numerous petit- tranchets and geometric micraliths. Naturally the advocates of the North African
origin of the Cordial ware culture would derive these latter from
a supposed Capsion tradition. But on eQually strong argument
could be pu t forward for 0 Mesalithic survival and this is reinforced
by the bane fragments from La $arsa decorated with finely incised
geometric patterns. In both these si tes, La $afsa and de 1'0r, occur
arc·pendants .of schist and stone which provide an interesting link
with other more northerly sites of the Western cycle. Both these
sites hove yielded cordial wares in abundance and are obviously
closely related.
The third assemblage under cansiderati9n, tha t of La Pastora
de Alcoy, belongs to a later period since it includes a few metal
objects. Here again there is a mixture of native and foreign material including omber and callois. The objects have been briefly described by Balleste r (9) but the si te has never been published as
a whole. The skulls have formed the object of 0 special study by
Riquet (10) and Fuste Ara (\1) and ore especially interesting in
view of the fact that many have been trepanned (\ Z). This provides ye t a further link with French sites and wi th the Danube (13) .
The most relevant items of this assemblage afe the numerous
bone pins, many of which ore very D.:!nubian in aspect. Most ore
mode in one piece but one has a separate head vertically pierced
in the manner of Danubion bulb-headed pins. There is also one
of amber and, most curious of 011, 0 crutch-headed one of bone
(PI. I, 1). The only exoct analogy known to Ihe writer comes from
19\ I. BALLESTER TOR MO; "' ldolos Oculodo. Volen ei onos" , Archivo de
Prehistorio Le-vonljno, 11 , Volencia, 1945.
(10) R. RIQUET: "Analyse anlhrooologiQul: des crones lffieolithiQues de 10
QrOlle sepultrole de 10 Postoro {Akoyl" , ...... chivo de Prehistoria Levonllno, IV.
1953.
(Ill M. FUSTE ARA: "ESludio antro»O!6gko de los f>Oblodares neo-eneolirleos de 10 regi6n yolenciona". Serie de. Trobaj as Varios del S. t. P de Valencia.
!"'umefo 20, Vol~nc lo. 1957.
1121 A. RrNCON DE ARELLANO y J . FENQLLOSA; "Alounos considera ciones oc~rco de ros crcincos tre-;l
~t31
V, GORDON CHILDE: "The Donube In Preh istory", Oxford, 1929.
_
117 -
[page-n-118]
4
C. TOPP
the much later con text of the Terramore (14). These two Terra ,
more pins ore of bronze and Saflund notes that they ore very rare
there; he adds that the type with horizontal head, found at Reme,
dellc, is locking in this later context. He cites as o:1ologous, but
not identical, two bronze pins from Cyprus (15) but these do not
appear to bear 0 very close resemblance to his type A6. T he two
Terramare pins mentioned above belong to this type; unfortunately
they hove no known stratigraphical context. Taken in conjunction
with the presence of amber and a Palme\lo point the Unetice-type
bone pin from La Postorn would lead one to infer 0 somewhat lote
date for this site, despite the scarcity of metal ob jects, somewhere
within the region of the first half of the second millennium .
The Uneticion context of crutch- headed pins is a wel'~estoblish ~
ed fact accepted by all. Local copies or imports are known from
peripheral areas such as the British Isles during the Wessex period
of the Early Bronze Age (16) . La Pastaro de Alcoy might con ~
ceivably be equated chronologically with the beginning of the Wes ~
sex Culture and this particular bone copy af the original metal
straight~headed pin could be considered as carres~nding to t he
British pins although these latter adhere more closely to the proto ~
type. It would then appear not unreasonable to seek a common
inspiration for both the British and Spo:lish pins in the Early Bron ~
ze Age of Bohemia. Childe was quite d isposed 10 envisage a date
within that period for the rich settlement of Los Millores in Alme·
rio (17). If La Postoro be considered os 0 poor but contemporary
site the bone pins fit into 0 logical chronological context. They
would. have been made by native Iberians influenced by traders
and metal prospectors possibly of Danubian origin or at least in
(14) G. SAFLUND: "Le Terremo re delle provincie di Modeno, Regg io, Em,·
lie, Pormc, Piocenxo", Skrifter utgivno OV Svenske Institutet i Rom. Acto Inslituti Romani regni Suecioe, VII, Lund, Leipzig, 1939. 7av. 58, num. 16. This
pin was k indly painted out to the writer by Professor J. D. Evans who olso contributed by helpful discussion.
(15). E. GJERSTAD, J. LlNDROS, E. SJOQVIST & A. WESTHOLM: "Finds
and resulls of the e:
10mb 320 and belong 10 the Middle Cypriate 11 period.
(16) V. GORDON CH ILD E: "Prehistoric Communities of the British Isles" ,
3rd ed, London, 1949, . PP. 137-8. No specific crutch-headed pins ore mentioned
but there is one in Gloucester City Museum which comes from Snowshill (Ar.
chaelogio Lll, pp. 70-72). The writer is indebted to Mr. A. Hu nter for this laSI
reference.
•
(17) "Hence while personally I wanl Los Millares \ to be 3rd mi\. it makes
just os good sense if it be 2nd i. e. firs t trading pOrI an way 10 Cornwall in
Wellcx period" (From 0 leller doted 19. i:<. 57\.
-
118-
[page-n-119]
SOME BALKAN ANO DANUBIAN INFLUENCES
,
con tact with contemporary Donubian civiliz ation. The amber, the
trepanned crania and the pins are all pointers in tha t direction
whereas the geometric micraliths argue an au tac thanous strain af
Epi-Palaeolithic ances try with a North African admixture.
These ten tative conclusians are the resu lt of 0 rapid survey of
part af the Neolithic and Chalcalithic material an show in Va lencia Museum. Some of the objects belonging to these periods
suggest con tac t with the Balkans and the Danube. There is doub t less much additional relevant material not noted here which would
serve to emphosil:e the argument, for instance twin-vases such as
that from La Sorsa (18). It would be tempting to see some late
Donubion survivols in the material from the Canary Islands amang
which the cloy pin toderas would provide the most suggestive item
(19). But that would take the discussion beyond the set chronological scope of this article. This Canary Islands' material is indeed
intriguing with its pointed pottery and its pintaderas, but at pre sent too little is known about it to wa rran t its inclusion within
any definite chronological context.
In the obscure provincial museum of Almeda lies a wealth of
s till unpublished material, despite the efforts of Arribas (20). The
larj:lest assemblage most relevant to the present discussion is that
from Tabernas. Much of the material from this impor tan t site remains in private hands but the wri ter and Arribas shortly intend
to publish the Tabernas objects on view in Almerio Museum. In
view of this it is only possible here to note the objects which sugges t possible Balkan or Danubian affinities. Since this habitationsite has yielded some me tal artefacts (notably a flat a xe and some
\l8) J . SAN VALERD APARISI: Cp. cl !. nOI" 4, Ilg. 20, p. 66 .
119) A blbllogcophy of Ihes" pin lod" ros ""0$ most kindly suppllcd by Sr .
FlclChe' VolI •.
J. ALCINA FRANCH: HDls lribuci6n geogr6tico de las Pinlodera. en Ame·
dca'·, Acchtvo de Prehluorlo L.,vonllno, Ill , Valencio, 1952, $I. 241.
J. ALCINA FRANCH: "Hlp6l.,si. oc.,reo de 10 dlfw;i6n mun-diol d., 10. Pin.
loderos", Trobojo. y conler e nda~ d~1 Seminada de Estudios American1S!a •. 6 ,
Madrid, 1955, p. 217.
J. ALCINA FRANC H: "Lo~ Plnlodero! d~ Cono,io, y sus POSibles ,elodones"
Anoarlo de Eslvd los Al16nlico., 2, Los Polmm, 1956, p. 77.
J . ALcrNA FRANC H: "Los ?'nlodero. mejicono. Y sus 'elociann " , Mod rld,
1958.
O. CORNAGGIA CASTIGLlONt : "Orlglnl e diW ibuz lone delle clnlode.os
prelslorlch" euro-osloliche", Alii del L- Canvengno Intencglonole Podono d l
Polelnologio Flrenu, 1957, pp. 79_ 162.
(20) A. ARRISAS PALAU: "El oiuo, de 10s CUNQ~ sepulcroles de 10$ Slon_
qulzar~ de Lebor (Mu.do)" , Memor ia. de 1
0$ Museo. A,queol60lcO$ P'ovindo le., val. XIV , MOOrld , 1953. PP. 78 _126.
-
Jl9 -
[page-n-120]
,
C. TOPP
awls of quadrangular seClion~ it seems reasonable 10 place i t in the
some chronological context os La Postore de Alcoy i. e. somewhere
within the first half of the second millennium.
Apart trom the metal objects (and it is worth noting that "quadrangular copper owls --.perhaps tattaing needles- are compara tively common in Morovia ond Bohem ia") (2 1) t he ones most relevont here ore some fragments of bone spotuloe cnd of possible
"fruitstands", strainers, Cl cloy spoon, twin -vases, on unusual pointed sherd and Cl very Donubion doy figurine.
Since t he spatuloe frogments ore amorphous it is impossible
to de termine their original shope cnd so they connot be rightly
compared with t he Storcevo ones in Valencia Museum. It is equally impossible to discuss the fragments of what appear to have been
pedestal led bawls (or fruit-stands). a type common to bath the
Balkans and t he Danube where they have a long history. Strainers
a lso are a Balkan type which con be do ted to the Gumelnitsa horiz.on (22) and would thus fit into the chronological horiz.on proposed for Tabernas. They also occur at Vile Nova de Son Pedro (23),
Chassey (24) ond Fort Horrouord (25" 011 of which ore sites whose
later phases hove many feotures in common with Tobernos. The
day spoon, like t he stroiners, is a frequent Western Neolithic type
first appeoring in the Bolkons in Boion A. All t hese spoons, lik~
the Tobernos specimen, hove solid handles and not socketed ones
like the Danubion ladles. But, though their Eas t Mediterranean
origin is not contested here, it seems possible to odvocote on inland
distribution-pa ttern following in the wake of the first formers for
these two types found in Copper Age habitation-sites whose roots
reach back in to the Neolithic.
•
T he tw in-vases and the pointed sherd both somewhat remotely
suggest the Balkans and the Danube. T he sherd is quite unlike
1211 V. GOROON CHILOE: Op. ci r. nare 13, P. 190.
1221 V. GORDON CHILDE: "Prehlslaric Mlgratian, ,n Europe", Landon ,
1950, CP. 181_3.
1231 e. JALHAY & A. DO PACO: "El Coslro de VUonovo d~ Son Pedro",
AeIO$ y M"",arias de 10 Sodedod Espoi'ialo de Anrrapalooia, Elnogrofla y , Prehistaric, XX, Modrld, 1945, p. 60.
12~1
J . DECHELETTE: "Monu,,1 d'Archeologle p<~his IOflo.u~, cei1;qu.. el
galla-romaine", Paris, 1908·14, ~al . I, P. 559.
C. BAILLOUO (;, P. M1EG DE BOOFZ HEIM: "Les c'vi li$CIl ions neolilhiQues
de 10 Fronce", Pads, 1955, pp. 91 If.
5. P1GGOTT: "Le Ne.;,lilhique Occlden lcl el - le Chl:licoli lhique en FraMe,
&qui .... pr~1im;"alre", L'Anlhrapolooie LVII, 1953, pP. 400_43, esp. p. 410.
(2 5) ABBE PHIUPPE: "CinQ an~es de foullles eu Fan Harroucrd" , Sociele no
[page-n-121]
\
SOME BALKAN AND DANUBIAN INFLUENCES
1
any other Iberian one of this Chaicolithic periods. It has a burnish ed surfoce with 0 pottem ef red parallel lines, chevrons cnd a lozenge on 0 dark background and it has 0 lorge nipple IU9. As it
stands it appears to be an isolated sp~cim:en of its kind in this region and its onalogies outside Spain would provide 0 frui~ful fjeld
of research.
The female figurine (PI. I, 2) is perhaps one of the firmest links
in this choin of evidence for Iberian contact with Balkan and 00nubion civilizations. It is of redd ish cloy tempered with mica and
sch ist, smoothed, cylindrical, 8 centimetres high, wi t h a strangulation indicating the neck and its has very marked breasts, The base
is narrower than the head and there is 0 transversal perforation
in the shoulde r region which sU9gests that is was worn os on omulet;
the morks of wear visible within the perforotion confirm this assumption. A ver y close parallel to this Tabernos idol comes from Zenoovorkony in the Donubion 11 period (26). There ore numerous
o ther idols from Tobernos which conform with the more usual types
found on local sites, such as conicol ond flat schematized figurines
of stone a nd bone, phalanges and phalli. These all suggest on ultimately Eastern origin whereas the idol desc ribed above pertains to
o different idealogy. Tabernas might be in te rpreted os a meetingplace af farei9n influences from various sources overlying 0 native
!roditian and such On outstandingly Donubian figurine cannot be
ignored os 0 pointer in that direc tion.
Although the objects from Tabernas now in Almeria Museum
rep resent on ly 0 fraction of the material from t he site and although
they hove no known strotigraphicol position they s till offer sufficient suggestions of Balkan and Donubian influences to make the m
no teworthy. A serious re-excavation of Tabernos ond 0 reassessment of new materiol and of that still in private hands looked 01
from this angle would probably greatly strengthen thi s hypotheSIS
which ot present rests merely on isolated specimens. A complete
reassessment of post and future moterial from habitation-sites of
these early periods might well produce 0 new concept of the development and the ramifications of the Westefn Neolithic culture
and of the Choicoli t hic period in Iberia. Meanwhile it remains both
possible and plausible to postulate on Eastern mediterroneon origin
for most of the objects under consideration.
But the purpose of this article is to suggest tho! the objects
1261.
v. GOR;OON CHILDE; CP.
-
~i l .
121
note 22, fig. 70 n." 2, p, 93.
[page-n-122]
•
C. TOP?
the mse lves \or their direc t inspira t ion) did flot necesscrily reoch
sout hern and eastern Spa in by the maritime rou te. Up to new it has
been argued c nd generally ag reed tha t mos t new infuences reached
Iberia either directly from the Aegean or by 0 slower infil t ra t ion via
North Africa. It is only very rece n t ly tha t certain Spanish prehis torians, such os Almogro (27) have begun to react cnd pr:)test
against t his "otricen mirage". Maluquer accepts the existence of a
neolithic cul tu re of Bal kan and Donubian ascendency in the zones
of westem Europe a t si tes such os Arene Candide (28) . But he
rightly a rgues t ha t t he presence o f one part icular type, in this instance the squore~ m ou thed pot in Ca talonia, does no t perm it to
post ula te t he .existence af this cul tu re t he re. In t his we are in com ple te agreement but when, in eastern and southern Spain, there ore
other types implying the same influences the t heory a t ance becomes for more plausible. Very recen tly fresPl evidence for th is t'esis
has been put farwo rd by Professor J. Evons who COnsiders that th Nort h African theory certainly does not tell q ui te "the whole story" .
His reference to t he habitation-site o f Cantarranas near Madrid
goes for towa rds support ing t he theory 50 tenta t ively advanced
here (29).
Objects such os t hose discussed above mark a trail fram t he
Ba lkans and the Danube to sou t hern Spain via nor th Italy, south
France and no rth-east Spain. It has al ways been argued tha t the
pi t-grove buriols of Catalonia represen t a nort hward spread of the
Alm erion cu ltu re bu t t hey migh t equally well stand for 0 south ward extension of- the Danu bian one. T he bone spatu lae, solid day
spoons and trepanned crania 011 occur in Provence. A s ite like
Cho teouneuf- Ies-Ma rt igues (30) provides 0 possible ha lf-way house
for th is southern s pread of types and rites in t he woke o f t he f irs t
farme r's in land expansion o f which one st ream goes nor th- wes t and
~;I .
nO le :I, p. 49.
1271
M. ALM AGRD: ()p.
(28)
J. MALUQU ER DE MOTES: "Lo cul luro de La Logoz:o en Co tolono"
(;, "Voses de boto cuodrodo en Cotoluno", Rivjsto di Stud l Ligurl, XV . nos. 1-2,
1949, pp. 46_ 52.
D. FLETCH ER VALlS: "Un \'0'0 de boco cuodrodo, de 10 prov incio de Vo·
lencio" , ,,,,"unicoci6n 01 VI C. A. N., Oviedo, 1959.
D. FLETCHER VALLS: "Vo,,,, de boto cvcdrodo en 10 PMjn~ulo lbe,;co" ,
homenoje c l prof~50r ZOtz .
(29) J . D. EV"NS: "Two phcses of prehistoric , eu lemenl in Ihe We
Universi ty ot London , 1958, p? 49-70 .
(30) M. ESCALON DE FONTON: "Prehis!oi, e de le Bc<,e P,ovence", p,,,.
hl,lelre XII , 1956. Thl, 51 vie1c!ed mllch cordl ol r>e!lcry Md e lso , poh;!oc o ~d
te
spoon. ,
-
122 -
[page-n-123]
,
SOME BALKAN AND OANUSIAN INFLUENCES
,
the other south-west. The first eventually reaches the British Isles
and the second Spain cnd Portugal : 0 square-mouthed pol wos
found there also (311. Through Ihe centuries this gradual spread is
enriched with loler types from the same source, os well of course
os from various others, and this exponsiOll losts weU into the Copper Age cnd possibly m:Jch later still (32).
While for from denying direct Aegean and North African in
fluences In Iberia in these early periods it olso seems only sensible
to admit others which travelled by on overland roule. In Childe's
words : "On the scanty evidence a t our disposal the neoli t hic constituents of the Cordial culture could equally well be derived from
Northern Africa, from the coasts of Hither Asia or from the South
ern Balkan peninsula." (33) .
1311
(l2)
1331
J. D. EVANS, Op . .:11. nole 29, pp. 59-60.
V. GORCON CHILDE: Op. ell. nole 13, p. 193 & P. 2-40
V. GORDON CHILDE: Op. eil. nole 8, pp. -48-9.
-
123 -
[page-n-124]
[page-n-125]
CELt.\ TOpp..-som,"- 8 " lkaa a ad Oa n u bl aa inftll ," n~
r
[page-n-126]