Books by Martina Blečić Kavur
Monograph Series Book 3, NI Archaeological Museum of the Republic of North Macedonia, Skopje, 2024
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Monografije i katalozi Arheološkog muzeja Istre 39, 2024
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Studia Universitatis Hereditati, 2022
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At the crossroads of worlds at the turn of the millennium: The Late Bronze Age in the Kvarner region
The present book which has just made its way to you did so for a reason. It is because books, jus... more The present book which has just made its way to you did so for a reason. It is because books, just like any other objects, have their own soul and their own history that have to be respected, and they will stay only with such persons who pay them respect. In fact, this book is an “object” about objects that have been re-discovered. It is about lost things, about buried treasures, personal and collective, beloved and kept, discarded and unwanted, old and new, about symbols and metaphors… it is about objects that did not mark only their own, but also my and our common past. In the course of their life cycles their “soul” has been purified and their past is thus very remote. Through a “rebirth” in our era they got a chance to have their past interpreted, which is a complex and never ending “mission”. However, with a reliable provocation and a perfect motivation, the research of their meanings, values and backgrounds within a broader, larger and more detailed cultural context, enables us to discover “worlds” of consciousness and knowledge about the period of their then present. This was the time of the so called Late Bronze Age, an exceptional period covering the last centuries of the 2nd and the transition to the 1st millennium BC. It displays a specific manifestation on the territory of the northern Adriatic, in particular on the Kvarner territory – the area of my “object”, of my past and of our common present. The Kvarner area is the “point of departure” of every single, selected object presented in this book. In a specific “form”, which managed to be preserved or to “survive” for more than 3.000 years these artifacts reached me/us in extremely reduced quantities and in states of preservation which often required much effort in trying to understand their initial, primary, secondary and metaphorical meaning. Since this is one of the most poorly researched areas of the eastern Adriatic coast, as well as on the territory of today’s Croatia, this book presents, analyzes and interprets an impressive number of finds. Although the majority of those objects was published and is well known in the scientific literature, the attitude to those finds was often not satisfactory. In fact, it was an attitude of superficiality and underestimation, depriving them of that certain respect. It is because of such an attitude, which has unfortunately been confirmed lately, and from the perspective of that ancient culture of living and behaving, that I have tried to include amongst known artifacts also such finds from old, forgotten publications, both from chance finds and private property, as well as recent discoveries. This is why only a smaller number of finds has been published for the first time. However, the cultural, stylistic and typological, interactive and significant context of their essence and “soul” within the vast network of knowledge and skills of that past has been significantly extended and explained. “Old” and “new” artifacts united into one single “object” will redirect their manipulation and thereby also the evaluation of their cultural past and heritage of one of the most interesting and most colorful areas of the whole Adriatic basin.
The book has several units. The introductory discussions about the spatial reach and the natural features of the Kvarner area, as well as an overview of the sites and history of research provide basic information and illustrate the situation that follows in the most important part of the book – i.e. the Typological classification, chronological determination and cultural interpretation – containing all the finds that have been collected, by applying the archaeological method, but which have been analyzed and interpreted within a broader spatial and cultural context. The interpretations set and accepted are put into a more relative perspective in the final chapter, they are discussed within a reconstructed context of social potential, of cultural and historical manifestations which have not been critically evaluated in this way so far.
Being aware of the fact that every inconsistency or mistake in the present work is exclusively and only my responsibility, I wish you, dear readers, a pleasant and/or useful reading of the past which surely has its own soul.
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Papers by Martina Blečić Kavur
75 YEAR JUBILEE OF THE INSTITUTE OF ART HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY, 2024
The ancient necropolis of Gorenci near Trebenishta certainly has a special place in the context o... more The ancient necropolis of Gorenci near Trebenishta certainly has a special place in the context of Central Balkans archaeology. During several campaigns in the last century, some of the most valuable examples of arts and crafts from the 6th and 5th centuries BCE were discovered. Both older and more recent considerations of this material increasingly confirm the value of the Ohrid area in the dynamic processes of various intercultural relations and transmissions of leading members of society of that period, but also the spread of specific material culture of the narrower and wider region. An exceptional find is certainly Grave 8, which was systematically discussed in previous scientific discourse so that the preserved objects have undergone countless interpretations. However, they were rarely or never connected into a meaningful, coherent entity that represented the grave as a unique, cohesive unit. The present study focuses on the archaeological context of the grave and the analysis of symbolic grave goods, such as golden foils that covered various parts of the deceased's body, silver ceremonial drinking vases, an Illyrian bronze helmet, and a volute krater. Since the comparative analysis and iconographic interpretation of multidimensional visual art depicted on these objects are integral to understanding the archaeological context, their synthesis will revise previous knowledge and offer a new interpretation of the gender, age, and significance of the buried person as well as the burial ritual itself.
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Konteksti kulture: Studije iz humanistike i umjetnosti, 2023
An amber pendant with a figural scene was discovered in 1983 during rescue excavations in a destr... more An amber pendant with a figural scene was discovered in 1983 during rescue excavations in a destroyed burial mound in Lisijevo polje near Berane. The flat relief harmoniously and dynamically depicts three figures – a rider (ephebe), a horse and a dog. It is a small work of art which, although there are no direct parallels, is attributed to the art of the Archaic style. The amber pendant of a naked ephebe on a horse is not an independent, separate scene, but is placed in a context with accompanying attributes, above all a hunting dog and additional hare and wild boar pendants. Although the ephebe on horseback with a dog is a common artistic concept symbolising a dashing adolescent in an aristocratic hunt, this is the only example of its kind in the central and western Balkans, dating to the second half of the 6th century BCE. The paper re-evaluates the find context and then deals stylistically and iconographically with the figural concept, which is contextualised with a comparative analysis of the accompanying hare and boar pendants in the art of the Archaic style. New interpretations of its semantic meaning are presented, both as a pendant and as a sign of the deceased to whom it probably belonged.
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A Step into the Past Approaches to Identity, Communications and Material Culture in South-Eastern European Archaeology. Papers dedicated to Petar Popović for his 78th birthday, 2023
During the Early Bronze Age, the region of Syrmia had a very special position in the South
Pannon... more During the Early Bronze Age, the region of Syrmia had a very special position in the South
Pannonian territory. Its location at a natural and cultural crossroads of Europe enabled it to play a
historical role and to be important in communications and the trade of various goods of that time, as
indicated by old and new archaeological research. One of the most important settlements of that time was
located on Gradina on Bosut, which is unequivocally documented by the impressive stratigraphic picture
from the fringe of Gradina. The hoard of gold objects, which is presented, analysed and interpreted in
detail within the social manifestations of the Early Bronze Age elite of the Vinkovci cultural community,
is undoubtedly the most significant discovery from that settlement. Together with other prestigious finds
in the region, especially hoards from Orolik and Stari Jankovci, they are considered a symbolic capital
of this exceptional territory, whose owners sovereignly represented themselves as active actors in the
pan-European phenomenon of the first elites and “rulers” of Bronze Age cultures.
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No Limits 1(7), 2023
The hilly region of eastern Slovenia, with its wide river valleys and narrow tributaries, was the... more The hilly region of eastern Slovenia, with its wide river valleys and narrow tributaries, was the area where the cemeteries of the Urnfield culture such as Ruše and Pobrežje were discovered. They have shaped our understanding of the material culture and chronology of the Late Bronze Age. Since their discovery, the cemeteries in eastern Slovenia have been included in major discussions about the cultural characteristics of the phenomenon that encompassed large parts of Europe at the end of the second millennium BCE. A phenomenon that, due to the almost universal burial rite and nearly total absence of wealthy burials, triggered numerous assumptions about the society structure and the religious foundations of observable practices. Perhaps most fascinating was the discovery of grave 16, the resting place of a high-status woman.
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Studia universitatis hereditati 10/2, 2022
The paper presents activities that were carried out in the framework of the project “Virtual reco... more The paper presents activities that were carried out in the framework of the project “Virtual reconstruction and making a model of a Macedonian tomb in Ohrid” with the main aim of promoting and presenting archaeological cultural heritage inaccessible to the broader public. Creating the virtual reconstruction and digital 3D model gave the Macedonian tomb in Ohrid “visual access”. Thus, despite being completely isolated, the tomb is now accessible to everyone for inclusive learning and acquiring new knowledge or simply as a tourist attraction of exceptional regional cultural and historical significance.
Keywords: Ohrid, Macedonian tomb, virtual reconstruction, 3D Model
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Studia universitatis hereditati 10/2, 2022
In the period of last 50 years, the discussion of what authenticity really means changed from que... more In the period of last 50 years, the discussion of what authenticity really means changed from questions about realism, representation and reality in aesthetics and media studies, to “authenticity as idea” related to national identity and cultural heritage, as well as “authenticity as strategy” in marketing and place branding. Consequently, we can today define heritage tourism more narrowly as a phenomenon based on visitors’ motivations and perceptions rather than on specific site attributes. New perspectives of presentations, including the use of ICT devices are broadening the perspective of heritage tourism shifting it in to the world of virtual reality. Currently the presentation, this is the consumption of cultural heritage, is shifting from “authentic” material environments and experiences in to the hyper-realistic digital ones the differences between the capacities for consumption between different members of the society become reduced.
Key words: authenticity, cultural tourism, cultural heritage, archaeology, ICT, disabilities
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Studia Hercynia 26/1, 2022
The paper presents two decorative attachments depicting Sileni from stamnoid situlae from the eas... more The paper presents two decorative attachments depicting Sileni from stamnoid situlae from the eastern Adriatic sites of Karin and Budva. Through formal typological classification, stylistic and comparative analysis within the broader Late Classical and Early Hellenistic art of the Mediterranean, the ‘Adriatic’ Sileni are interpreted in terms of the miniature portrait art of that time, which had a decorative expression and aesthetic value on a lavish functional object such as the stamnoid situla. As visual art is particularly stimulating and evocative, these Sileni represented an iconographically clear message as a metaphor or a metaphor as a message. The artistic striving for recognition, idealizing or caricaturing and emphasizing the emotional state are some aspects that address the portraits of the presented Sileni. Even though every reading is a subjective act, it is an idealised artistic convention of a specific place and time, with a precise mythological and cultural‑historical background of the remarkable toreutic achievements. It has been impressive and essential to observers in the past, which is also evident from their prevalence in a wide variety of ‘Old World’ cultural communities.
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Roman Pottery and Glass Manufactures Production and trade in the Adriatic region and beyond, Archaeopress Roman Archaeology, 2022
During the archaeological excavations of the figlina at the Igralište site in Crikvenica, among o... more During the archaeological excavations of the figlina at the Igralište site in Crikvenica, among other things, seven very well-preserved
bronze fibulae were discovered, and are today accompanied by an older find of a fibula from the Kaštel site. According
to their formal features, they belong to two groups — fibulae of the Middle and Late La Tène schemes are significant forms of
the Late La Tène cultural traditions, while the cast fibulae of Aucissa type, strongly profiled fibulae and those with the multiply
segmented bow are characteristic elements of Roman provincial culture. Their morphological and stylistic features, as well as
the adequate context of their discovery, allow us a precise typological classification, chronological determination and cultural
interpretation, that is the basis of this discussion. Considered within the material culture of Kvarner and the wider northern
Adriatic region, the second half of the 1st century BCE and the course of the 1st century AD, they represent valuable first finds in
the archaeological record of the area, and some of them, are presented here for the first time. Their presence is associated with
cosmopolitan culture and various identities related with the early establishment and greatest flourishing of this significant and
first explored ceramic workshop in the province of Dalmatia belonging to Sextus M(e/u)tillius Maximus in Ad Turres.
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Arheološki vestnik 73, 2022
Situla art, as a specific visual and semantic synthesis, connected numerous culturally different ... more Situla art, as a specific visual and semantic synthesis, connected numerous culturally different societies of the prehistoric
and historic Iron Age of Europe. Situlae themselves, which gave the name to this art phenomenon, were not only
carriers of artistic expression and symbolic narrative, but also reflected a cognitive maturity and sublimation of society as
an accepted emblem of the way individual aristocracies represented their status. The area of the northern Adriatic boasts
examples of the Early Iron Age situla art and the later, ‘Hellenistic’ situlae. The starting point of the present research are
the fragments of Hellenistic bell-shaped situlae decorated with ivy leaves from Rijeka, which are analyzed typologically,
as well as stylistically and iconographically in comparison with all the hitherto known situlae of this type. The article
brings an updated list of bell-shaped situlae, presents arguments for their more precise chronological position, their
typological and technological division into two major groups with variants and the related different toreutic centres of
production. The distribution of Hellenistic bell-shaped situlae with ivy leaves shows that the eastern Adriatic coast and
its hinterland were a place of contact between Macedonian and Etruscan luxury toreutic products.
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by Martina Blečić Kavur, Viktória Kiss, Domagoj Perkić, Anita Kozubová, Ian Armit, Morana Causevic Bully, matija črešnar, Manuel Fernández-Götz, Károly Tankó, JOSIP BURMAZ, Joško Zaninović, Katalin Almássy, Marko Dizdar, Gábor Ilon, Jean Roefstra, Francesca Candilio, Michelle Gamble, and Jos Kleijne Nature, 2021
By: Nick Patterson, Michael Isakov, Thomas Booth, Lindsey Büster, Claire-Elise Fischer, Iñigo Ola... more By: Nick Patterson, Michael Isakov, Thomas Booth, Lindsey Büster, Claire-Elise Fischer, Iñigo Olalde, Harald Ringbauer, Ali Akbari, Olivia Cheronet, Madeleine Bleasdale, Nicole Adamski, Eveline Altena, Rebecca Bernardos, Selina Brace, Nasreen Broomandkhoshbacht, Kimberly Callan, Francesca Candilio, Brendan Culleton, Elizabeth Curtis, Lea Demetz, Kellie Sara Duffett Carlson, Daniel M. Fernandes, M. George B. Foody, Suzanne Freilich, Helen Goodchild, Aisling Kearns, Ann Marie Lawson, Iosif Lazaridis, Matthew Mah, Swapan Mallick, Kirsten Mandl, Adam Micco, Megan Michel, Guillermo Bravo Morante, Jonas Oppenheimer, Kadir Toykan Özdoğan, Lijun Qiu, Constanze Schattke, Kristin Stewardson, J. Noah Workman, Fatma Zalzala, Zhao Zhang, Bibiana Agustí, Tim Allen, Katalin Almássy, Luc Amkreutz, Abigail Ash, Christèle Baillif-Ducros, Alistair Barclay, László Bartosiewicz, Katherine Baxter, Zsolt Bernert, Jan Blažek, Mario Bodružić, Philippe Boissinot, Clive Bonsall, Pippa Bradley, Marcus Brittain, Alison Brookes, Fraser Brown, Lisa Brown, Richard Brunning, Chelsea Budd, Josip Burmaz, Sylvain Canet, Silvia Carnicero-Cáceres, Morana Čaušević-Bully, Andrew Chamberlain, Sébastien Chauvin, Sharon Clough, Natalija Čondić, Alfredo Coppa, Oliver Craig, Matija Črešnar, Vicki Cummings, Szabolcs Czifra, Alžběta Danielisová, Robin Daniels, Alex Davies, Philip de Jersey, Jody Deacon, Csilla Deminger, Peter W. Ditchfield, Marko Dizdar, Miroslav Dobeš, Miluše Dobisíková, László Domboróczki, Gail Drinkall, Ana Đukić, Ceiridwen J. Edwards, Michal Ernée, Christopher Evans, Jane Evans, Manuel Fernández-Götz, Slavica Filipović, Andrew Fitzpatrick, Harry Fokkens, Chris Fowler, Allison Fox, Zsolt Gallina, Michelle Gamble, Manuel R. González Morales, Borja González-Rabanal, Adrian Green, Katalin Gyenesei, Diederick Habermehl, Tamás Hajdu, Derek Hamilton, James Harris, Chris Hayden, Joep Hendriks, Bénédicte Hernu, Gill Hey, Milan Horňák, Gábor Ilon, Eszter Istvánovits, Andy M. Jones, Martina Blečić Kavur, Kevin Kazek, Robert A. Kenyon, Amal Khreisheh, Viktória Kiss, Jos Kleijne, Mark Knight, Lisette M. Kootker, Péter F. Kovács, Anita Kozubová, Gabriella Kulcsár, Valéria Kulcsár, Christophe Le Pennec, Michael Legge, Matt Leivers, Louise Loe, Olalla López-Costas, Tom Lord, Dženi Los, James Lyall, Ana B. Marín-Arroyo, Philip Mason, Damir Matošević, Andy Maxted, Lauren McIntyre, Jacqueline McKinley, Kathleen McSweeney, Bernard Meijlink, Balázs G. Mende, Marko Menđušić, Milan Metlička, Sophie Meyer, Kristina Mihovilić, Lidija Milasinovic, Steve Minnitt, Joanna Moore, Geoff Morley, Graham Mullan, Margaréta Musilová, Benjamin Neil, Rebecca Nicholls, Mario Novak, Maria Pala, Martin Papworth, Cécile Paresys, Ricky Patten, Domagoj Perkić, Krisztina Pesti, Alba Petit, Katarína Petriščáková, Coline Pichon, Catriona Pickard, Zoltán Pilling, T. Douglas Price, Siniša Radović, Rebecca Redfern, Branislav Resutík, Daniel T. Rhodes, Martin B. Richards, Amy Roberts, Jean Roefstra, Pavel Sankot, Alena Šefčáková, Alison Sheridan, Sabine Skae, Miroslava Šmolíková, Krisztina Somogyi, Ágnes Somogyvári, Mark Stephens, Géza Szabó, Anna Szécsényi-Nagy, Tamás Szeniczey, Jonathan Tabor, Károly Tankó, Clenis Tavarez Maria, Rachel Terry, Biba Teržan, Maria Teschler-Nicola, Jesús F. Torres-Martínez, Julien Trapp, Ross Turle, Ferenc Ujvári, Menno van der Heiden, Petr Veleminsky, Barbara Veselka, Zdeněk Vytlačil, Clive Waddington, Paula Ware, Paul Wilkinson, Linda Wilson, Rob Wiseman, Eilidh Young, Joško Zaninović, Andrej Žitňan, Carles Lalueza-Fox, Peter de Knijff, Ian Barnes, Peter Halkon, Mark G. Thomas, Douglas J. Kennett, Barry Cunliffe, Malcolm Lillie, Nadin Rohland, Ron Pinhasi, Ian Armit & David Reich
Present-day people from England and Wales harbour more ancestry derived from Early European Farmers (EEF) than people of the Early Bronze Age1. To understand this, we generated genome-wide data from 793 individuals, increasing data from the Middle to Late Bronze and Iron Age in Britain by 12-fold, and Western and Central Europe by 3.5-fold. Between 1000 and 875 BC, EEF ancestry increased in southern Britain (England and Wales) but not northern Britain (Scotland) due to incorporation of migrants who arrived at this time and over previous centuries, and who were genetically most similar to ancient individuals from France. These migrants contributed about half the ancestry of Iron Age people of England and Wales, thereby creating a plausible vector for the spread of early Celtic languages into Britain. These patterns are part of a broader trend of EEF ancestry becoming more similar across central and western Europe in the Middle to Late Bronze Age, coincident with archaeological evidence of intensified cultural exchange2–6. There was comparatively less gene flow from continental Europe during the Iron Age, and Britain’s independent genetic trajectory is also reflected in the rise of the allele conferring lactase persistence to ~50% by this time compared to ~7% in central Europe where it rose rapidly in frequency only a millennium later. This suggests that dairy products were used in qualitatively different ways in Britain and in central Europe over this period.
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Books by Martina Blečić Kavur
The book has several units. The introductory discussions about the spatial reach and the natural features of the Kvarner area, as well as an overview of the sites and history of research provide basic information and illustrate the situation that follows in the most important part of the book – i.e. the Typological classification, chronological determination and cultural interpretation – containing all the finds that have been collected, by applying the archaeological method, but which have been analyzed and interpreted within a broader spatial and cultural context. The interpretations set and accepted are put into a more relative perspective in the final chapter, they are discussed within a reconstructed context of social potential, of cultural and historical manifestations which have not been critically evaluated in this way so far.
Being aware of the fact that every inconsistency or mistake in the present work is exclusively and only my responsibility, I wish you, dear readers, a pleasant and/or useful reading of the past which surely has its own soul.
Papers by Martina Blečić Kavur
Pannonian territory. Its location at a natural and cultural crossroads of Europe enabled it to play a
historical role and to be important in communications and the trade of various goods of that time, as
indicated by old and new archaeological research. One of the most important settlements of that time was
located on Gradina on Bosut, which is unequivocally documented by the impressive stratigraphic picture
from the fringe of Gradina. The hoard of gold objects, which is presented, analysed and interpreted in
detail within the social manifestations of the Early Bronze Age elite of the Vinkovci cultural community,
is undoubtedly the most significant discovery from that settlement. Together with other prestigious finds
in the region, especially hoards from Orolik and Stari Jankovci, they are considered a symbolic capital
of this exceptional territory, whose owners sovereignly represented themselves as active actors in the
pan-European phenomenon of the first elites and “rulers” of Bronze Age cultures.
Keywords: Ohrid, Macedonian tomb, virtual reconstruction, 3D Model
Key words: authenticity, cultural tourism, cultural heritage, archaeology, ICT, disabilities
bronze fibulae were discovered, and are today accompanied by an older find of a fibula from the Kaštel site. According
to their formal features, they belong to two groups — fibulae of the Middle and Late La Tène schemes are significant forms of
the Late La Tène cultural traditions, while the cast fibulae of Aucissa type, strongly profiled fibulae and those with the multiply
segmented bow are characteristic elements of Roman provincial culture. Their morphological and stylistic features, as well as
the adequate context of their discovery, allow us a precise typological classification, chronological determination and cultural
interpretation, that is the basis of this discussion. Considered within the material culture of Kvarner and the wider northern
Adriatic region, the second half of the 1st century BCE and the course of the 1st century AD, they represent valuable first finds in
the archaeological record of the area, and some of them, are presented here for the first time. Their presence is associated with
cosmopolitan culture and various identities related with the early establishment and greatest flourishing of this significant and
first explored ceramic workshop in the province of Dalmatia belonging to Sextus M(e/u)tillius Maximus in Ad Turres.
and historic Iron Age of Europe. Situlae themselves, which gave the name to this art phenomenon, were not only
carriers of artistic expression and symbolic narrative, but also reflected a cognitive maturity and sublimation of society as
an accepted emblem of the way individual aristocracies represented their status. The area of the northern Adriatic boasts
examples of the Early Iron Age situla art and the later, ‘Hellenistic’ situlae. The starting point of the present research are
the fragments of Hellenistic bell-shaped situlae decorated with ivy leaves from Rijeka, which are analyzed typologically,
as well as stylistically and iconographically in comparison with all the hitherto known situlae of this type. The article
brings an updated list of bell-shaped situlae, presents arguments for their more precise chronological position, their
typological and technological division into two major groups with variants and the related different toreutic centres of
production. The distribution of Hellenistic bell-shaped situlae with ivy leaves shows that the eastern Adriatic coast and
its hinterland were a place of contact between Macedonian and Etruscan luxury toreutic products.
Present-day people from England and Wales harbour more ancestry derived from Early European Farmers (EEF) than people of the Early Bronze Age1. To understand this, we generated genome-wide data from 793 individuals, increasing data from the Middle to Late Bronze and Iron Age in Britain by 12-fold, and Western and Central Europe by 3.5-fold. Between 1000 and 875 BC, EEF ancestry increased in southern Britain (England and Wales) but not northern Britain (Scotland) due to incorporation of migrants who arrived at this time and over previous centuries, and who were genetically most similar to ancient individuals from France. These migrants contributed about half the ancestry of Iron Age people of England and Wales, thereby creating a plausible vector for the spread of early Celtic languages into Britain. These patterns are part of a broader trend of EEF ancestry becoming more similar across central and western Europe in the Middle to Late Bronze Age, coincident with archaeological evidence of intensified cultural exchange2–6. There was comparatively less gene flow from continental Europe during the Iron Age, and Britain’s independent genetic trajectory is also reflected in the rise of the allele conferring lactase persistence to ~50% by this time compared to ~7% in central Europe where it rose rapidly in frequency only a millennium later. This suggests that dairy products were used in qualitatively different ways in Britain and in central Europe over this period.
The book has several units. The introductory discussions about the spatial reach and the natural features of the Kvarner area, as well as an overview of the sites and history of research provide basic information and illustrate the situation that follows in the most important part of the book – i.e. the Typological classification, chronological determination and cultural interpretation – containing all the finds that have been collected, by applying the archaeological method, but which have been analyzed and interpreted within a broader spatial and cultural context. The interpretations set and accepted are put into a more relative perspective in the final chapter, they are discussed within a reconstructed context of social potential, of cultural and historical manifestations which have not been critically evaluated in this way so far.
Being aware of the fact that every inconsistency or mistake in the present work is exclusively and only my responsibility, I wish you, dear readers, a pleasant and/or useful reading of the past which surely has its own soul.
Pannonian territory. Its location at a natural and cultural crossroads of Europe enabled it to play a
historical role and to be important in communications and the trade of various goods of that time, as
indicated by old and new archaeological research. One of the most important settlements of that time was
located on Gradina on Bosut, which is unequivocally documented by the impressive stratigraphic picture
from the fringe of Gradina. The hoard of gold objects, which is presented, analysed and interpreted in
detail within the social manifestations of the Early Bronze Age elite of the Vinkovci cultural community,
is undoubtedly the most significant discovery from that settlement. Together with other prestigious finds
in the region, especially hoards from Orolik and Stari Jankovci, they are considered a symbolic capital
of this exceptional territory, whose owners sovereignly represented themselves as active actors in the
pan-European phenomenon of the first elites and “rulers” of Bronze Age cultures.
Keywords: Ohrid, Macedonian tomb, virtual reconstruction, 3D Model
Key words: authenticity, cultural tourism, cultural heritage, archaeology, ICT, disabilities
bronze fibulae were discovered, and are today accompanied by an older find of a fibula from the Kaštel site. According
to their formal features, they belong to two groups — fibulae of the Middle and Late La Tène schemes are significant forms of
the Late La Tène cultural traditions, while the cast fibulae of Aucissa type, strongly profiled fibulae and those with the multiply
segmented bow are characteristic elements of Roman provincial culture. Their morphological and stylistic features, as well as
the adequate context of their discovery, allow us a precise typological classification, chronological determination and cultural
interpretation, that is the basis of this discussion. Considered within the material culture of Kvarner and the wider northern
Adriatic region, the second half of the 1st century BCE and the course of the 1st century AD, they represent valuable first finds in
the archaeological record of the area, and some of them, are presented here for the first time. Their presence is associated with
cosmopolitan culture and various identities related with the early establishment and greatest flourishing of this significant and
first explored ceramic workshop in the province of Dalmatia belonging to Sextus M(e/u)tillius Maximus in Ad Turres.
and historic Iron Age of Europe. Situlae themselves, which gave the name to this art phenomenon, were not only
carriers of artistic expression and symbolic narrative, but also reflected a cognitive maturity and sublimation of society as
an accepted emblem of the way individual aristocracies represented their status. The area of the northern Adriatic boasts
examples of the Early Iron Age situla art and the later, ‘Hellenistic’ situlae. The starting point of the present research are
the fragments of Hellenistic bell-shaped situlae decorated with ivy leaves from Rijeka, which are analyzed typologically,
as well as stylistically and iconographically in comparison with all the hitherto known situlae of this type. The article
brings an updated list of bell-shaped situlae, presents arguments for their more precise chronological position, their
typological and technological division into two major groups with variants and the related different toreutic centres of
production. The distribution of Hellenistic bell-shaped situlae with ivy leaves shows that the eastern Adriatic coast and
its hinterland were a place of contact between Macedonian and Etruscan luxury toreutic products.
Present-day people from England and Wales harbour more ancestry derived from Early European Farmers (EEF) than people of the Early Bronze Age1. To understand this, we generated genome-wide data from 793 individuals, increasing data from the Middle to Late Bronze and Iron Age in Britain by 12-fold, and Western and Central Europe by 3.5-fold. Between 1000 and 875 BC, EEF ancestry increased in southern Britain (England and Wales) but not northern Britain (Scotland) due to incorporation of migrants who arrived at this time and over previous centuries, and who were genetically most similar to ancient individuals from France. These migrants contributed about half the ancestry of Iron Age people of England and Wales, thereby creating a plausible vector for the spread of early Celtic languages into Britain. These patterns are part of a broader trend of EEF ancestry becoming more similar across central and western Europe in the Middle to Late Bronze Age, coincident with archaeological evidence of intensified cultural exchange2–6. There was comparatively less gene flow from continental Europe during the Iron Age, and Britain’s independent genetic trajectory is also reflected in the rise of the allele conferring lactase persistence to ~50% by this time compared to ~7% in central Europe where it rose rapidly in frequency only a millennium later. This suggests that dairy products were used in qualitatively different ways in Britain and in central Europe over this period.
of Budva bear the characteristics of luxury and prestige. Apart from
representing the most valuable source for understanding particular culture-
historical dimensions of the entire South Adriatic area during the Late
Iron Age, they are also good illustrations of certain cultural and economic
interconnections of Budva with the tendencies and prospects of broad
Southeast Europe. Among them, it is worth singling out exceptional toreutic
objects, and in this work, the particular attention is paid to the interpretation
of the bronze stamnoid situlae. They represent luxurious vessels
from the 4th century BC concerning the symposium dishware sets, which
were used for storing and serving wine. Their prevalence from Ukraine to
southern Italy and the Spanish coast shows direct relations to the specimen
of the Macedonian toreutic circle, what reaffirms the existence of inherent
large-scale contacts of particular intercultural relation between the Late
Classical and new Hellenistic art. Finally, situlae were often deliberately
and forcefully crushed, broke, burned or damaged, and therefore they were
likely an element of the ritual practise that reflected and symbolised the
social dimensions of the living. However, a decorative element of those
vessels, particularly the lion-head spout, endured as the vessel metonymy
and the aggregate of numerous symbols of their consumers. By becoming
the subject – medium of the funerary context, they actually established the
status and prestige of the aristocratic society of Budva on the verge of the
Hellenistic culture of the Southern Adriatic coast.
Accordingly, the motif of a goat and/or of a he-goat is present in artistic expressions of “classical” south Balkan territory, while in its central and western part it appears only sporadically. This study will focus on the iconographic and semiotic interpretation of goat motifs on several luxury vessel-types, from dinos-craters to situlae and different types of jugs and their metonymies such as figural ornaments or decorated plates. In different temporal and spatial contexts, they were associated with lavish table services in which wine and other intoxicating (alcoholic) elixirs were mixed and served during various profane and ritual banquets, ceremonies and festivities. Special attention will be devoted to a bronze decorative plate from Osor on the island of Cres in Kvarner. Due to its typological and stylistic features, it is dated to the 4th century BC – in the period when Macedonian workshops massively produced luxurious items and distributed them to the North. This mostly applies to bronze vessels that, in every sense, were a reflection of the communications and propaganda of the elite of that time.
Communities of the Dead, Societies of the Living: The Late Bronze
Age cemetery in Zavrč
Zavrč is a long-lasting archaeological site, where a Late Bronze Age cemetery was discovered under the road leading to the border crossing between Zavrč and Dubrava Križovljanska. It is not unique among the Late Bronze Age cemeteries solely because of the number of uncovered graves and the richness of several burials, but also due to the long period during which people were buried there. It is a testament to the extraordinary long-lasting temporal integration of the location into the mental patterns and special perception of the Late Bronze Age (and Early Iron Age) societies in the region. Due to the variability of material culture itself, as well as burial rites and the concept of death, considered in a local as well as a global perspective, the cemetery opens up opportunities to understand the social dynamics of this extraordinary time in the human past. Therefore, changes in the composition of material culture in the graves of Zavrč can be understood as reflections of social changes, which at the subsystem level were not so influential powerful to change the system, but still enough to create a variability within the uniform perception of the functioning of societies in space. In other words, if the continuities of burial in other cemeteries changed, they did not change in Zavrč if the composition of grave goods in other cemeteries in the region changed, they changed differently in Zavrč – societies of the living created different "concept of death" in the Zavrč community of the dead.
Discussing the cemetery in Zavrč, Slovenia, might enable us to propose a location of the cemetery, not only in a physical environment but in an
ideologically created and sustained landscape — a cultural context with fluid boundaries between the sacred and the everyday. An attempt might
help us to unravel the multiple levels at which sacred sites interacted with a diverse range of communities and negotiated between these
in space and time. Rather than observing the urnfield cemetery in Zavrč and the finds in terms of styles and chronology, this paper will try to distinguish variations in burial rites as reflections of ritual instruments that integrated individuals and communities into a cultural fabric.
Iconographically, the rhyta were mostly interpreted as an essential ritual vessel, as the symbol of the continuity of life celebrated on festivities. It became therefore accepted that rhyta as symbols and attributes of Dionysus as well as of heroes and heroized ancestors, were the reception of the unification of death and divine. On the territory of the Eastern Adriatic and it’s hinterland we have detailed knowledge about only two contexts of discoveries – of rhyta from Stična and Jezerine. Further, we can ascribe to burials the rhyta from Tujan and Nesactium, while the finds from Valtida, Trogir and Palagruža should be considered as elements of the banquet service used during specific ceremonies in settlements or on specific ritual grounds. Their use was based on an existent ideology embedded within the societies, which had the communal feasting ritual at its core, an ideology susceptible to symbols coming from Mediterranean production centres. Focusing on rhyta as symbols of Mediterranean imports, our archaeological interpretations will become more culturally sensitive and anthropologically relevant by focusing on culture contact and redistribution of material culture.
A fragmented terracotta depiction of a human head from Pharos, a Greek apoikia established in the 4th century B.C. in Stari Grad on the island of Hvar in Croatia, exhibits a strange facial morphology – the bushy moustache allows us to interpret the image as a representation of an archetypal barbarian of the old world, i.e. as a depiction of a Celt. The present example of material culture, discovered in an archaeological context from the 4th century B.C., is a per excellence illustration of how people and ideas moved – they came from the other side of civilizations, from the northern part of the Apennine Peninsula. This barbarian stands with his physical materiality as a metaphor for the horror or destruction imposed upon the civilized world when people like him moved across the territory of northern Italy in large numbers. Feared and admired for their bravery and loyalty, they were soon incorporated into political plans and agendas of the rulers of the region – Celtic mercenaries became a major contribution to the military potential of the Hellenic states and warlords. Adopted by Hellenistic mythology, the Celts were presented with an origin that placed them inside the indefinite position between civilization’s builders and destroyers.
Large quantities of archaeological finds in a broader region deriving from closed contexts made it possible to understand the diversity and variability of pottery forms and their decorations in space and time. Most importantly, we were able to precisely date several such major changes for the first time – to pinpoint in absolute time the appearance and disappearance of specific forms and decorations that could be indicative for broader historical processes of cultural change.
In the region of Eastern Slovenia, the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 14th century BCE was the period when the regional Middle Bronze Age cultural traditions, observable in several forms and decoration of pottery and equated with the influences of the central European Middle Bronze Age tumulus culture, abruptly disappeared. There was a sudden change in the material culture but also a change in the burial rites, which introduced cremation – a procedure, interpreted as the beginning of the Urnfield Culture.
2 Монолог за илирски шлемови и симболи од раното железно време.
3 Мали портрети од источниот јадрански стамноидни ситули.
4 Инклузивно археолошко наследство по примерот на материјалната култура.
The development of such achievements required archaeology to move from being an exclusive field of academia to the development of the so-called archaeological sciences, encompassing both related and completely different scientific fields. Archaeology, as a science of past is transformed into an amalgam of knowledge in the present to reconstruct life in the past as precisely and directly as possible. However, the profession's primary objectives go beyond scientific achievement and perspective within a discipline. An even greater challenge is to make the vast body of knowledge accessible to a large and diverse audience so that they can fully experience and learn about their past. With the help of new and advanced technologies, the archaeological sciences have also paved the way for the inclusion of archaeology and cultural heritage in general.
je prikaz našega poznavanja preteklosti, ilustracija odnosa preteklih
družb do umrlih, pojasnitev vlog, ki so jih imele ženske v tedanjih družbah,
in najpomembneje – je pripoved o odnosu do smrti v prazgodovini.
Pogrebne prakse so navadno vezane na dolgoletne tradicije
in v starodavnih družbah o njih niso razpravljali. Povezane so
bile z mnenji o tem, kaj se je moralno storiti s pokojnikom
– čim prej upepeliti in preoblikovati telo ali ga inhumirati in
podaljšati proces preoblikovanja. Ravnanje z mrtvim telesom
in izvajanje obredov sta dejanji, ki izhajata iz kulturnih norm in
prepričanj o telesu ter umrlem. Grobna arhitektura in grobni
pridatki ter sam obred upepelitve so bili odraz naložbe, ki jo
je družba vložila v pokojnika. Naše dame niso bile pokopane
niti obrobno niti posebej dostojanstveno, kar kaže na to, da so
bile običajne in integrirane članice svojih skupnosti. Pa vendar
nam njihovi grobni pridatki kažejo, da so bile posebne, da
so bile nosilke tako družbenih kot kulturnih sporočil, varuhinje
tradicij ter šepetalke spominov. Dame, katerih tiha pripoved
povezuje njihov in naš čas.
the border between the land and the sea. Provenance studies are the starting point for analyses of the material evidence of the trade and related “visibility” of Osor on maritime routes. The backbone of the landscape-based approach is the use of airborne laser scanning, airborne laser bathymetry, terrestrial
and underwater geophysical prospection and geoarchaeological research for data acquisition behind vegetation, sediments and seawater. New results will provide detailed evidence of the coastal and marine conditions that would have affected the navigation and allow for a fact-based discussion of the
extent to which human intervention in the landscape was needed to support Osor's role in the region. Finally, provenance analyses of traded goods will place the city of Osor in the matrix of regional and transregional maritime networks.
Kaštela, Croatia, 2017
V regiji je prišlo do tektonskih premikov v razumevanju kulturne zgodovine pozne bronaste dobe ter vključenih ekonomskih in ideoloških procesov, ki pa niso bili zgolj posledica novih odkritij, ampak predvsem novih interpretacij odkritega gradiva. Razumevanje rezultatov naravoslovnih analiz je povzročilo premik k multidisciplinanosti, kjer novi podatki niso zgolj dopolnjevali vedenja, ampak so povzročili novo strukturiranje pripovedi o preteklosti. Na drugi strani pa so nova odkritja s svojo prepoznano kompleksnostjo pospešila razvoje arheoloških metodologij in tehnologij dokumentiranja ter preučevanja ostankov. Vedno večja količina podatkov je danes predvsem posledica številnih nov ih pogledov na arheološko dediščino.
Stoječ na ramenih velikanov so raziskave zadnjih dveh desetletij pokaz ale večjo količino arheoloških ostankov, večjo kulturno variabilnost, drugačno prostorsko dinamiko in intenzivnejše kulturne stike v širšem prostoru, kot se je domnevalo pred tremi in pol
desetletji, ko se je prvič v večjem obsegu začelo govoriti o problematiki pozne bronaste dobe. Da bi ustrezno razumeli preteklost bomo na kongresu predstavili sedanjosti raziskav in se pogovarjali o prihodnosti.