Preliminary communication
Rescue archaeological excavations of the Roman age tumulus 1 in Stari Jankovci in 2017–2019
Boris Kratifil
; Town Museum Vinkovci, Vinkovci, Croatia
Marko Dizdar
orcid.org/0000-0003-3964-9002
; Institute of Archaeology, Zagreb, Croatia
Hrvoje Vulić
orcid.org/0000-0001-8792-4043
; Town Museum Vinkovci, Vinkovci, Croatia
Abstract
The archaeological site of Jankovačka Dubrava – Velika Međa is located at the western entrance to the village of Stari Jankovci near Vinkovci. One part of the site lies in the woods of Jankovačka Dubrava and the other lies on the arable land near the riverbed of what used to be a paleostream. The site has been known for more than a hundred years; it was first explored by the National Museum of Zagreb in 1878 and 1879. On that occasion, they described five large tumuli: four in the woods and one in the neighbouring field. Later papers dated the tumuli to the prehistoric period. Because of intensive cultivation of the land next to the woods, Vinkovci Municipal Museum undertook a magnetometric survey together with Eastern Atlas Ltd. in 2015 to verify whether the slight elevation on the field hides the remains of a tumulus. When the results were positive, they started systematic excavations. During the three seasons of excavations, from 2017 to 2019, it was confirmed that the tumuli were from the Roman period. The excavations of tumulus 1 uncovered two large burial chambers and two central cremation graves. The explored chamber contained a two-wheeled Roman carriage with two horses, while the central cremation graves were robbed. Around tumulus 1 there were cremation and inhumation graves from late antiquity.
Keywords
tumulus; Stari Jankovci; antiquity; two-wheeled carriage; horse gear; landscape; status; identity
Hrčak ID:
248427
URI
Publication date:
22.12.2020.
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