The Vinca culture
A dense Balkan society with large settlements, fine figurines and among the earliest copper metallurgy.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 1.2 thousand years
- Known to
- ± 200 years
- Era
- Neolithic, Holocene
Vinca settlements along the Danube from around 5700 BCE reach substantial size, with two-storey houses and populations in the thousands. The culture produces enormous numbers of stylised figurines and pottery incised with signs — the Vinca symbols — sometimes claimed as the earliest writing, though there is no evidence they encode language. Its copper working at Belovode and Plocnik is among the oldest anywhere.