Sopot culture

Sopot culture

Horizon	First Temperate Neolithic, Old Europe
Period	Neolithic Europe
Dates	circa 5,500 BC — circa 3,800 BC
Type site	Sopot
Preceded by	Starčevo culture, Vinča culture

The Sopot culture is a neolithic archaeological culture that was first identified in eastern Slavonia in modern-day Croatia, and was since also found in several sites in Hungary. It was a continuation of the Starčevo culture and strongly influenced by the Vinča culture. Some of the archeological sites where artifacts of it were found include Samatovci, Vinkovci–Sopot, Otok, Privlaka, Vinkovci–Ervenica, Osijek, Bapska, Županja, Klokočevik. It spread into northern Bosnia from its original area to the west to northwestern Croatia and to the north to Hungarian Transdanubia, where it helped Lengyel culture start. The culture dates to around 5000 BC. Settlements were raised on the river banks (most noticeably on the banks of Bosut, around the area of the modern city of Vinkovci). Houses were square and made of wood using interlace technique, sometimes separated into multiple rooms. Artefacts include many weapons made of bone, flint, obsidian, and ironed volcanic rocks and some ceramic pottery of various sizes (biconical pots with two handles, conic bowls, pots, and s-shaped pots) decorated by carvings or light stabbings and painting.^[1][2][3]

The eponym site is Sopot, an archeological site near Vinkovci, which was dated to 5480–3790 BC. The culture was first identified in 1949 by Vladimir Milojčić, and first named after this site in 1968 by Stojan Dimitrijević, and has been generally referred to as such since 1971.^[4]