The
Vinča culture, also known as
Turdaș culture or
Turdaș-Vinča culture, is a
Neolithic archaeological culture in
Central Europe and
Southeastern Europe, dated to the period 5700–4500 BCE. Named for its
type site,
Vinča-Belo Brdo, a large
tell settlement discovered by Serbian archaeologist Miloje Vasić in 1908, it represents the material remains of a
prehistoric society mainly distinguished by its settlement pattern and
ritual behaviour. Farming technology first introduced to the region during the
First Temperate Neolithic was developed further by the Vinča culture, fuelling a population boom and producing some of the largest settlements in prehistoric Europe. These settlements maintained a high degree of cultural uniformity through the long-distance exchange of ritual items, but were probably not politically unified. Various styles of
zoomorphic and
anthropomorphic figurines are hallmarks of the culture, as are the
Vinča symbols, which some conjecture to be an early form of
proto-writing. Though not conventionally considered part of the
Chalcolithic or "Copper Age", the Vinča culture provides the earliest known example of
copper metallurgy.