A tentative attempt to estimate the systemic number of the Late Neolithic Vinča culture figurines

Abstract

In this paper an attempt is made to estimate the number of figurines which were in "use" in households of the Late Neolithic Vin!a culture. The number of accumulated figurines and houses is used as a starting point. Given the complexities of the settlement dynamic, figurine use and the formation processes of the archaeological record, the ratio of the number of accumulated of figurines to the number of accumulated houses is only an indirect reflection of the systemic number of figurines. Different figurine use scenarios are evaluated in order to see what the result would be. Keeping in mind that the entire analytical procedure is highly speculative and the range of tested models is far from exhaustive, the results suggest that scenarios resting on the assumption that there was a single figurine per household and that the average use-life of the figurine was equal to the average human generation length predict outcomes that are comparable to the actual archaeological situation.