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A New View of the Early Mediaeval Junuzovci Cemetery Finds
Željko Tomičić
orcid.org/0000-0002-6780-1887
Sažetak
In order to get a general cultural-historic idea of the Early Middle Ages in the interfluvial area of the Drava, Danube and Sava rivers, in which the Bijelo Brdo culture was present from the end of the 9th to the beginning of the 13th century, it is very important to become acquainted with several clan skeleton cemeteries in the north-western part of the neighbouring Bosanska Posavina region. These are cemeteries with a particular grave inventory discovered along the Vrbas river (Mahovljani–Kužno Groblje and Petešovci–Bagruša) and in the southern part of Potkozarje (Gomjenica–Baltine Bare). The lowlands of the Bosanska Posavina region, up to the northern mountain spur of the Dinarides, geographically belong to the larger European region of Southern Pannonia, where manifestations of the Bijelo Brdo cultural complex can be recognised. As a result thereof, in order to become better acquainted with the Croatian Early-mediaeval period in its material and spiritual sense, each small, seemingly irrelevant detail, such as the appearance of material remains of a devastated cemetery, is of great importance. Of particular interest in this sense is a series of chance grave finds from the devastated Early-mediaeval cemetery near the village of Junuzovci along the River Vrbas in Bosanska Gradiška municipality. Based on a new approach to the evaluation of the remains of this Early Mediaeval cemetery, using a detailed typological and chronological analysis of movable finds from the graves, the author managed to determine the cemetery’s character and its burial sequence timeframe. In this way, it was possible to incorporate damaged archaeological finds from the studied cemetery into the valuable overall picture of distinct and permanent cultural bonds within the Bijelo Brdo cultural circle. The analysis of the grave inventory shows how burials in the Early Mediaeval cemetery near Junuzovci started at the beginning or, at the latest, in the first half of the 10th century. We have conditionally labelled the initial phase of burials in the cemetery as the first one. The main part of the burials was performed during the second phase, i.e. in the period between the mid-10th century and the first third of the 11th century. Later, in the first third of the 11th century there was probably a third phase of burials in the cemetery (Tab. 1). On the basis of the information obtained, the chronological position of the Junuzovci cemetery within the overall chronological scheme of the Bijelo Brdo culture in the Drava, Danube and Sava interfluves was determined (Tab. 2). Burials in the Junuzovci cemetery were performed during the reigns of the Croatian kings Michael Krešimir II (945–969), Stephen Držislav (969–997), Svetislav Suronja and Michael Krešimir III (1000–1030), who ruled during the period of the Hungarian princes Taksony (947–972) and Geza (972–997), and the first king, Stephen I the Saint (997–1038). This period is contemporaneous with the reigns of the Byzantine emperors Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (913–959) and his successors Romanos II, Nikephoros, John Tzimiskes, and Basil II (976–1025), and those of the German emperors Otto I (936–973), Otto II (973–983), Otto III (983–1002), Henry II (1002–1024) and Conrad II (1024–1039). Based on the finds of rich and diverse ornamental pieces (Fig. 1), the cemetery near the village of Junuzovci, or to be more precise the part of the grave inventory collected from the devastated skeleton cemetery, can with relative certainty be dated to the period between the mid 10th and the first third of the 11th century (Tab. 1). It is likely that burials in this clan skeleton cemetery started before the mid 10th century, i.e. in the first half of the 10th century, and that after the mid-11th century it was no longer used. Despite significant progress in the exploration of the material and spiritual components of the Bijelo Brdo culture it is, at the moment, unfortunately not possible to present more data about the cemetery near the village of Junuzovci, since during the chance discovery (1903) and subsequent recovery of the grave inventory, which followed in 1904, it was not systematically collected but only partly documented. The site was for the first time scientifically presented and evaluated in 1942, more than four decades after its existence first came to light. It should also be pointed out that, unfortunately, no bioanthropological data about the Junuzovci cemetery was collected, which would certainly have significantly completed the picture of the buried population and its possible multi-ethnicity. We believe that our efforts have contributed to greater knowledge of the character and significance of a site that, along with several other cemeteries in the north-western part of the Bosanska Posavina region, can with certainty be classified as a part of the Bijelo Brdo cultural circle. The position of the excavation site in Junuzovci, along the left bank of the lower course of the Vrbas river, was certainly of great importance. In the Early Mediaeval period, it served as a transport corridor which connected the southern part of the eastern Adriatic coastal area, i.e. the core of the Croatian kingdom, with the Drava, Danube and Sava interfluves, where the profile of the Bijelo Brdo culture can be clearly identified. Here, in the fertile valleys of the Vrbas and the nearby Japra river, the preconditions for a continuous presence of an agricultural population existed. As testified to by moveable finds from the cemeteries here, the population exploited natural ores from the Japra Basin. Although most of the few preserved finds from Junuzovci contain features of the Bijelo Brdo culture, in a smaller part of the grave inventory it is possible to recognise external artistic craft influences, which confirm continuous contact with remote jewellery-making centres. In some types of earrings that imitate the granulation technique, it is possible to identify permanent contact with Byzantine goldsmithing art, most probably through the mediation of traditional Roman centres in the eastern Adriatic islands and coastal area. As mentioned earlier, such contacts are recognisable in other versions of Bijelo Brdo jewellery. Certain versions of the heart-shaped, two-piece pendants on necklaces, as correctly pointed out by P. Korošec after the first publication of finds from Junuzovci, bear witness to possible contacts and influences from the north, the area of what was then Hungary. In the collection of jewellery from this cemetery, a special place belongs to a distinctive type of necklace – torques (G type 1c), as well as a bracelet with joined snake-shaped heads facing each other (G type 8), as well as a crescent-shaped cast pendant (G type 12). In our opinion, these are atavisms which suggest chronologically remote points of origin, which is where their archetypes should be looked for. These are relics inherited from the indigenous inhabitants who contributed important features to the Bijelo Brdo culture. Although not numerous in finds, the Junuzovci cemetery confirms the syncretic character of the Bijelo Brdo culture, to which the population buried here certainly belongs. This is why the cemetery in Junuzovci needed to be approached from new research standpoints, primarily using up-to-date insights into groups of movable finds and their typological and chronological position within the Bijelo Brdo cultural complex. In this way, it was possible to determine the value of the grave inventory in order to become better acquainted with the Croatian Early Mediaeval period. At the end of our work devoted to the anniversary of the founding of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, we would like to point out that the first trial excavations of a site with features of the Bijelo Brdo culture in the Drava, Danube and Sava interfluves, i.e. the core area of this Early Mediaeval culture, were carried out in 1871 by Šime Ljubić, one of our initial sixteen Academy members, in the park of the manor house of the Drašković family in Veliki Bukovac. This was only ten years after the Academy was founded. The discovery of the cemetery in Junuzovci in 1903 and 1904 coincides with the publication date of the scientific article “Croatian Mediaeval Antiquities” by Josip Brunšmid, who along with Don Frano Bulić was a pioneer in Croatian archaeology, and to whom we owe our gratitude for the systematic excavations of the eponymous Bijelo Brdo site, which is permanently recorded in the cultural-historical heritage of the Early Mediaeval period in Europe.
Ključne riječi
Bijelo Brdo culture; Croatian Early Mediaeval period; Bosanska Posavina region; cemetery in Junuzovci; grave inventory; typological and chronological analysis
Hrčak ID:
83121
URI
Datum izdavanja:
25.5.2012.
Posjeta: 1.929 *