Society, spiritual and material culture and communications in prehistory and early history of the Balkans

Within the framework of the project ‘Society, spiritual and material culture and communications in prehistory and early history of the Balkans’, and as part of the Days of Belgrade manifestation, a workshop for children was organised on Saturday (25^th April 2015) at the archaeological site Vinča-Belo Brdo. During the workshop, both children and their parents had an opportunity to hear more about the diet of the Neolithic Vinča inhabitants, to observe and ‘feel’ archaeological food remains (animal bones and charred plant remains) and to combine the ingredients in ‘Neolithic recipes’. The workshop was a result of the successful collaboration between the researchers at the Institute for Balkan Studies (Dr Dragana Filipović, research associate and Kristina Penezić, research assistant) and the staff of the Belgrade City Museum (Milorad Ignjatović, senior curator). A similar interactive display was presented at the last year’s Festival of Science in Belgrade; however, given the number of visitors on Saturday, it seems that the wider public is still very much interested in the topic of the workshop and the hands-on approach. Besides the workshop participants, first-year archaeology students also had a chance to learn about the methods of investigation and reconstruction of food and diet in the past, as well as to have a closer look at different organic remains and artefacts that they will encounter during archaeological excavations.