Professional paper
Archaeological Excavations at Špičak in Bojačno
Ivančica Pavišić
Abstract
Based on current state of excavations of house B/1, it can be assumed that it was erected on the southern side of the Gradina II Špičak acropolis, partly cut into a hill-slope, and partly lying on a rock base. The difference in soil level between the northern and the southern wall of feature B/1 is 35 cm, which is not a significant difference bearing in mind the size of the structure. Situated on a hill slope, the feature has an east-west orientation, facing north. House B/1 probably had a rectangular shape with the best-preserved southern wall, built in the drystone wall technique, while the remaining walls are rocks erected on stone and earth background with a superstructure of wooden piles, covered with clay, as daub finds suggest. The roof was probably a saddleback, supported by vertical wooden beams dug into the ground and surrounded by a stone cornice. The ridge probably laid on pillars of wooden beams with a vertical support in the centre of room I and was marked by stone decorations. The central part of house B/1 is connected to room I, in whose centre outlines of four worked rocks with various functions are evident. The interior of house B/1 is almost horizontal, following the ground surface that declines from east to west. A particularity of this house is its typical infrastructure.
In the inside of the residential part of the feature there are spurs of the remains of red and brown clay flooring, the level of which is determined by fragments of ceramic vessels, animal bones and some metal finds (bronze, iron dross), as well as stone finds. From the collected fragments, economic activity in the faturee/house B/1 is evident, suggesting intense and multiple craft activities − on the one hand local ceramic production (a stone rolling-pin for processing and pressing clay, a stone stroker for finishing artefacts, ochre in various nuances), and on the other side production of metal artefacts (bronze fi nds and iron dross).
Particularly significant are finds of bronze metal sheets − earrings and pendants decorated in the Punktbuckel technique, i.e. in toreutic technique, by beating from the reverse. It is exactly the toreutic technique applied on bronze sheet that points to Late Bronze Age traditions of jewellery decoration characteristic of the early Urnfield culture in the area of north-western Croatia, the central Danubian region and the south-western Pannonian Valley (Vinski Gasparini 1973, 142). Those rare bronze finds from Špičak decorated using the toreutic technique indicate the interrelation of the Hrvatsko Zagorje region and the Sava and Drava interfluve in the Late Bronze Age; this decoration technique continued also in the Early Iron Age. A part of the ceramic finds from house B/1 bears the traits of Late Urnfield culture, while the remainder suggests forms characteristic of the last phase of the Early Iron Age.
The settlement at Špičak is a so-called hilltop settlement, erected on naturally protected hill terraces as fortified hilltop enclosures. The Gradina II site is protected on its eastern side by a steep hill slope, which at the same time enabled easier settlement defence and better control of the surroundings. The settlement on Špičak as a hill-top settlement with its culturological traits and followingly its typological particularities is part of the central European circle of the Late Bronze Age. This is confirmed also by the material remains connected with the cultural circle of hilltop settlements in the area of north-western Croatia, particularly along the Sava, Drava and Kupa Rivers, as well as Treščerovac, Krupače, Belaj and Klinac. More recent finds suggest further cultural movements on the border with Dolenjska and further west with the group of St. Lucia. On the other hand, their interrelation is manifest in the flow of trade routes along the Sutla River, which used to be the border with northern and eastern Alpine regions, so that the cultural influences intermingle on this settlement site. According to the archaeological finds collected to the present, house B/1 can be dated in the final phase of Early Iron Age, i.e. in the Ha D 1 - D 2 stage. Archaeological excavations on this dwelling structure − house B/1 − have not finished yet, since the cultural layers extend further to the western slope of the acropolis, so that the picture shall be complete only in the course of further excavations.
Keywords
systematic archaeological excavations; settlement; Early Iron Age; Špičak; Bojačno; Zagorska Sela; Hrvatsko Zagorje
Hrčak ID:
9238
URI
Publication date:
11.11.2006.
Visits: 2.457 *