The phenomenon of prehistoric ritual pits: Several examples from the central Balkans
Authors: Bulatovic Aleksandar 
Published: January 2016

In recent years, the phenomenon of pits with special deposits, i.e. ritual
pits, seems to have, once again, attracted attention both in Europe and in
the Balkans. In the central Balkans, scientific literature related to this
topic is still deficient, hence one of the objectives of this paper is to
change the current state and rekindle interest in the study of this form of
manifestation of the spiritual culture of prehistoric man. It appears that
one of the oldest reasons for sacrificial offerings is primal, instinctive
fear. The fear of the transience of life or of death compelled our ancient
ancestors to make some sort of ?agreement? with the surrounding forces,
bestowing particular sacrifices onto them. Sacrifice represents one of the
rituals of prehistoric communities which could have been performed in a
number of ways and in different circumstances. One of these are offerings
placed in pits, in the form of specific objects, food, drink or living beings
sacrificed to higher powers and accompanied by certain symbolic actions, for
the purpose of gaining their favour or help. When interpreting pits, what
should further be considered is that the fundamental difference between a
discarded object and an object used for a ritual purpose lies in the fact
that the object of ritual character is still meaningful to man, performing a
symbolic function, unlike the former, whose role is lost after being disposed
of. Aritual object, an item or a living being sacrificed in a pit, is no
longer of common, worldly significance (food, drink, tools, etc.), but rather
possesses a symbolic, sacral meaning, intended for higher powers, to
propitiate and appease them, that is to create some form of the oldest
religious communication. Not only is it difficult to identify the pits used
for ritual purposes in the course of fieldwork, but it is even more
challenging to interpret them and practically impossible to accurately
reconstruct the actions performed during the rituals. Many authors who
concern themselves with this topic concur that the context of a pit and the
objects within it, the choice of offerings and their symbolism, along with
the pit?s stratigraphy and other patterns observed in it, are in fact the
features that make it distinct, i.e. ritual. Similar pits are known
throughout history and their descriptions can be found in ancient written
sources, as well as identified in the field, with certain differences,
stretching back all the way into deep prehistory. This paper presents several
newly discovered ritual pits in the central Balkans from the Eneolithic,
Bronze and Iron Age, and additionally mentions some of the previously
published pits from the area and its near and more distant surroundings. In
the course of recent investigations conducted at the site of Bubanj, two
ritual pits were recorded in the Early Eneolithic horizon of the Bubanj-Hum I
culture. Next to the first, shallower (up to 0.2 m), oval shaped pit, of
around 2.5 m long and 1.7 m wide, an oven was noted, while the pit was filled
with whole vessels, parts of grindstones, chipped and polished stone tools,
baked clay, animal bones, etc. (Figs. 1, 2; Pl. I). Two smaller hollows were
noted in the northern part of the pit, while several postholes, which might
have supported some kind of roof or shelter construction, were detected
somewhat deeper in the subsoil, around the oven and the pit. Below this pit,
a smaller one was noted, around 0.7 m deep and with a base diameter of about
1.2 m, filled with yellow, sandy, refined soil. The bottom of the pit was dug
to the level of the subsoil and levelled. The second ritual pit from Bubanj
was considerably deeper (around 1.5 m) and approximately 1.7 m in diameter,
with baked walls and filled with red ashy soil. It contained fragmented or
whole vessels, chipped stone tools, a part of an altar, an air nozzle
(tuy?res), a polished stone axe, tools made of horn, a fragment of a
grindstone, pebbles, house daub and animal bones (Fig. 3; Pl. II). Part of
the inventory had been burnt, particularly in the lower section of the pit.
This paper also mentions the Late Eneolithic pit from Vinca, containing eight
whole vessels in an inverted position (Fig. 4; Pl. III), as well as the
Bronze Age complexes from Kokino Selo and Pelince, in northern Macedonia
(Figs. 5, 6), comprising several dozen pits, commonly with a broken stone
construction, in which whole vessels, along with tools made from chipped and
polished stone, baked clay or bone and large amounts of daub were discovered.
In the Iron Age, the number of ritual pits significantly increased in all of
Europe and, from this period, two pits from the area surrounding Vranje are
presented - one with mixed contents (the skulls, without the lower jaw, of at
least six male wild boars, as well as the skulls, lower jaws, right pelvic
bones and shoulder blades of at least six deer, along with parts of
grindstones, pottery and daub fragments and a chipped stone tool) and the
other with a complete skeleton of a young female horse, a baked clay weight
and chipped stone flaking debris (Figs. 7, 8; Pl. IV).1 The pits were dated,
by means of conventional C14 dating, to the period from the mid-6th to the
mid-4th century BC.2 By comparing and analysing a large number of pits from
the central Balkans and the neighbouring areas, it was observed that ritual
pits, as a form of an ancient, primitive religiosity, had already emerged in
the Palaeolithic and endured in Europe throughout the entire prehistory,
despite various natural and social changes that occurred during this extended
period. The pits proved to have been located both outside inhabited areas, as
well as in settlements (even under houses), either individually or clustered,
and in some cases also constituting entire complexes, with protective
architecture in the form of a roof or a shelter (Bubanj, Ohoden). The surface
areas occupied by the complexes, along with the dimensions and shapes of the
pits, the stratigraphy of their contents, their architecture and many other
elements vary considerably, even within a single complex. It is for this
reason that it is not possible, at this moment in time, at least without very
detailed and comprehensive analysis, to discern some regularities or patterns
which could, with any certainty, be considered reliable. This primeval
custom, therefore, cannot be linked to any particular period, culture or
region, but was entirely dependent on the state or level of the spiritual
consciousness of an individual or a community. This religious idea started to
decline during the Roman domination and vanished entirely at the time of
Christianity.