Original scientific paper
BIJELO BRDO CULTURE IN THE KALNIK HILLS
Željko Tomičić
; HR -10000 Zagreb, Institut za arheologiju
Abstract
Long ago the attention of archaeologists was focused on a mountain valley in the slopes of Kalnik (Table I) by a few chance finds. These finds were discovered alongside a village lane on the south-west slopes of Bregi Hill to the north of Popovec under Kalnik. While working in their vineyards and fields to the east and west of the lane leading there, the peasants from Popovec village often came across numerous remains of human skeletons and other finds which indicated the existence of an old cemetery. The finds, mostly jewelry, were collected during a survey of the site or field works and, especially, during three not very extensive archaeological campaigns. Typological analysis has enabled a precise chronology of the burials in the cemetery near Popovec.
From thorough evaluation of the inventory of the cemetery a chronological and typological table of burials on the site has been established (Table VII). An isolated, chance find of a cast earring of the 14a type, undoubtedly an earlier piece of jewelry, marks the lower time limit when the cemetery was first used. Other analyzed pieces of jewelry such as a small ring with an S-shaped loop (type I-II), necklaces of pierced facetted pearls (type 41a), innovations of cast rustic " Volinjane-type" earrings (type 17b) and a small cast cross (type 45), cover most of the time period of burials at Popovec (see Table VII) which leads to the conclusion that burials on this site must have been started towards the end of the first stage of Bijelo Brdo culture, probably around 1015-1020 (Table VII). The appearance of the cast silver rustic earring (type 17b) further confirms such a hypothesis, especially the lower time limit. The lead cross cast in a one-piece mould (marked as type 45 and dated to the late phase of the second stage) marks the upper time limit of burials on the Bregi Cemetery. According to Giesler's chronology, the beginning of the latter phase must be around the year 1070 which would mean that the cemetery stopped being used around 1070-1080.
The proposed time limit from 1015-1020 until 1070-1080 leads to the conclusion that two to three generations from the nearby Mediaeval village were buried here. When the cemetery near Popovec was no longer used burials continued in neighbouring cemeteries. In the late 11 th century the central cemetery might have been the nearby St Peter's (Sv. Petar Orehovac) where the present-day parish church with an interesting dedication and central cemetery serving several villages under Kalnik is located. Further research on the site will either confirm or reject this hypothesis.
From the chronological and typological table it can be concluded that the Bijelo Brdo Cemetery near Popovec was used from the end of the rule of the Croatian kings Mihajlo Krešimir III (1000-1030) until the end of Petar Krešimir IV's (1058-1074), that is, under the beginning of Dtnitar's or Zvonimir's rule (1074-1093). From 1027, the Kalnik area was governed by the Svetislavić family descended from the Trpimirović line. From 1075, Zvonimir was a strong king, but earlier as a governor of Slavonski Banat or Dukat, de facto, the area between the Drava and Sava Rivers, he tried to make firm family contacts with rulers from the Arpad line because of the Ottoman danger. Later this proved fatal for the Croatian Kingdom as a whole. With the assent of Ladislav I from the Arpad family (1077-1095) to the Croatian throne and the restitution of power in the area between the Sava and Drava and, especially, the foundation of the Zagreb bishopric (1093-94), the way was paved for the organization of the church hierarchy. This is an historical frame and the moment when the cemetery around the Church St Peter's in Orehovac must have been centralJy used by a dozen nearby Mediaeval villages. During the rule of Ladislav I and, especially, Koloman this was imposed by law.
Due to the chronological frame in which burials on the southwestern slopes of the Bregi site under Kalnik were practiced, that population, undoubtedly autochtonous Slavs, should be identified with the Croatian population which settled that historic area of central Croatia. The former population created Mediaeval Bijelo Brdo culture as manifested by the inventory of the burials. The Croats represent an autochtonous ethnic base which only later partly assimilated with the Hungarians. That is, with the rulers from the royal house of the Arpads a specific way of coexistence was formed on the entire territory of Mediaeval Croatia. This was preceded by a culture which can be recognized and evidenced in burial sites on the Bregi site under Kalnik Hill. The Bijelo Brdo culture was widely accepted which testifies to its rooting in the population which created and used the same jewelry and related typology of forms on a vast territory from east Slavonian fields between the Sava and Drava to Kalnik Hill. This material culture offered as spiritual wealth to the dead, accompanied them in their life after death before the coming of the Hungarians as is evidenced by the finds of the Bijelo Brdo Cemetery in Popovec-Bregi.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
93886
URI
Publication date:
19.12.1995.
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