Prethodno priopćenje
Crkvari - St Lovro Church 2005
Tatjana Tkalčec
Sažetak
The originally Gothic Church of St. Lawrence, close to the village of Crkvari (Orahovica Municipality, Virovitica - Podravina County), renovated in baroque style, is situated on an isolated hill with a commanding view of the wider surroundings (Fig. 1). It is surrounded by a deep trench and earthen ramparts. Based on the profile of the south portal, the Gothic phase of the church has been dated to approximately the fifteenth century. In 2003 the Institute of Archaeology in Zagreb launched systematic archaeological conservation excavations that resulted in unearthing a part of the medieval and baroque building outline north of the church, as well as graves. In 2005 excavations continued in the zone north of the church (Fig. 2). A further 67 graves were excavated (Fig. 3, Table 1), which together with earlier excavations makes a total of 116 graves. Apart from more recent graves, whose deep burials often destroyed or damaged older grave-pits, a layer of graves was identified, which on the basis of its stratigraphy and individual finds, can be dated to the thirteenth century. Due to frequent (more than one hundred) burials over a small area in the newly unearthed sacral room next to the Gothic Church of St. Lawrence, it is hard to follow the stratigraphic sequence of burials in any case, a detailed survey of all tombs with an electronic total station enabled the establishing of chronological relations between individual graves. The finds of fabric embroidered with golden threads (SF 27, SF 33) and simple clasps (SF 34, hook-clip) from grave 112 and a bronze button (SF 30) from grave 107 typologically indicate the modern historical period and possibly the Later Middle Ages (bronze ring SF 31 from grave 102). Coins minted by Matthias Corvinus found in grave 42 also indicate the Later Middle Ages. The excavations of 2005 also produced three coin finds: a silver coin, SF 23, in the fill of grave 60, which possibly belonged to older graves 93, 86 or 76, as well as the individual find of a silver coin that possibly belonged to grave 114, and a silver coin found near grave 109. Significant also is the find of a pair of large-format ear-ring with S-loop (Ohringe mit S - Schlauf) (SF 29), found outside the grave, pointing to the older burial horizon on the cemetery. It is significant that burials in the Gothic chapel or sacristy erected north of the St. Lawrence Church lasted during the long period of High and Later Middle Ages and probably also in modern history. Upon construction of the Gothic church and chapel (whose chronological construction sequence has not yet been determined), the graves of the older horizon were damaged, which were possibly dug around older Romanesque buildings indicated below the western part of the present church.
Further archaeological excavations supported by the achievements of other disciplines, history and art history, as well as absolute dating methods, shall certainly produce a complete picture of the sacral and fortified monument complex located at the site of the present St. Lawrence Church at the village of Crkvari.
Ključne riječi
Crkvari; Church of St Lovro; cemetery; archaeological excavations; Gothic phase; sacristy; chapel
Hrčak ID:
9148
URI
Datum izdavanja:
11.11.2006.
Posjeta: 2.332 *