Other
The Results of Trial Excavations at the Prehistoric Cemeteries Glavičice and Draganje in Dolina in 2009
Daria Ložnjak Dizdar
orcid.org/0000-0002-5769-2269
; Institute of Archaeology, Zagreb, Croatia
Marija Mihaljević
; Town museum Nova Gradiška, Nova Gradiška, Croatia
Marko Dizdar
orcid.org/0000-0003-3964-9002
; Institute of Archaeology, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
With the aim of defining protohistoric cultural phenomena in Posavina, in 2009 trial excavations began at the site in Dolina (Vrbje Municipality, County of Slavonski Brod and Posavina) in order to find out more about a series of processes that were occurring at the mentioned territory in the course of the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age, as intensive exchange of goods, people and ideas took place between the south-eastern Alpine region and the Danube region on the one hand, and between west Balkan and southern Pannonia on the other hand. In the course of the excavations it is expected to collect moveable finds, as well as facts on the location of the graves and their relationship towards the corresponding settlement, as well as their chronological position within the existing periodization of the cultural group Donja Dolina–Sanski Most (Marić 1964; Čović 1987), to which the sites around Dolina belong. The excavations were conducted in co-operation between the Nova Gradiška Town Museum and the Institute of Archaeology. Financing was provided by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports within the Scientific Project The Development and Mobility of Protohistoric Communities Settled on the Territory of Continental Croatia: 197-1970685-0711. On the basis of the past field surveys and individual finds, at thesite Babine Grede, on a slightly elevated and prolonged traverse – almost 1 km long – a settlement is situated, surrounded by often flooded lowlands. Northwest of the settlement, at the site called Glavičice, up to the present day 13 tumuli have been documented, although this number is significantly high in view of the fact that they are situated on a once intensively cultivated land. Next to the tumuli the existence of fl at graves is assumed. In the course of the trial excavations of 2009, a total of 8 tumuli were explored at the Glavičice site, while the Draganje site, approximately a hundred metres west of the tumuli where on the basis of surface finds the discovery of fl at graves was expected, was trial-trenched (Map 1).
Glavičice - Tumulus 8
Tumulus 8 has a diameter of 16-17 m and it belongs to a group of tumuli of smaller dimensions (Fig. 1). Under the upper layer of the tumulus, almost in its centre, grave T 8/1 was found with incinerated remains of a deceased woman. The remains were piled up together with fragments of bronze artefacts which were incinerated along with the woman as part of her costume. However, fragments of a needle and probably parts of bronze armlets/anklets as well as of a small rivet with a hemispheric head can be recognized. In the centre there is a jug with a grip and with a vertically cannelured belly (Fig. 2). Under the bottom layer of the tumulus, also almost in its central part, grave T 8/2 with incinerated remains of a deceased person was found. The pile of incinerated remains of the deceased is rather compact, which suggests that it must have been laid in a textile or leather cloth (Fig. 3). South of the bones, a larger bronze pin was found with diagonally ornamented neck and smaller profilations at the top. The pin might have closed the organic material in which the bones were kept.
Along with incinerated bones, fragments of a reddish vessel were found, which was decorated with zigzag and vertical curved lines filled with white incrustation. In the north-eastern quadrant, a bit further from the incinerated remains of the deceased, a bowl with a round body and an indented edge, and a smaller pot with a round body with a grip on the neck were found. At the level of grave 2, in the north-eastern quadrant, an oval surface of burned earth stands out that might suggest the spot where incinerations used to take place.
Draganje
About a hundred meters west of the tumuli group, at the site of Draganje, trench 1 was explored which partly encompassed a smaller elevation on which fragments of pottery and incinerated bones were collected that suggest the existence of fl at burials. In the northern part of the trench, grave 1 was found with incinerated remains of a deceased, laid in a rectangular pit with rounded corners (Fig. 4). Only the bottom of the grave was preserved with fragments of ceramic vessels – a pot with a round body and a horizontally faceted edge, and a bowl with a rounded body and an indented and horizontally faceted edge. The finds suggest that the grave is from the early stage of the Late Bronze Age.
Trial excavations at the sites of Glavičice and Draganje in Dolina contribute to a better understanding of the end of the Late Bronze Age and the beginning of the Early Iron Age in Posavina, a region which, according to the existing sporadic individual finds, belonged to Donja Dolina–Sanski Most cultural group. The significance of the settlement in Dolina is testified by numerous surface fi nds collected in fi elds – ceramic vessel fragments that can be dated between 11th and 7th centuries BC, even though finds of earlier pottery forms are probably not excluded either. More reliable stratigraphic indices can only be brought about by trial excavations.
The excavation of tumulus 8 at Glavičice with two dikes and two incineration burials represents a significant discovery, not only from the aspect of the study of burial rites in Posavina, but also for a chronological determination of the finds collected within the Donja Dolina–Sanski Most group. In the bottom grave T. 8/2 a bronze pin with an ornamented neck was found, analogies of which are found in the neighboring settlement in Donja Dolina, where it was dated in stage Ic (Marić 1964: 31, T. V: 7) or stage 1 (Čović 1987: 238) which is associated with stage Ha B3. In the grave, fragments of a ceramic vessel were also found with richly curved and white incrusted decoration. Analogies are found within the central Bosnian group and in the east in the Lower Danube region in the so-called Bassarabian style. The younger grave T. 8/1 contained numerous fragments of bronze artefacts which mostly lost their original shape as they were incinerated with the deceased female as part of her costume. Analogies for a jug with a vertically cannelured belly were documented on Dalj group sites. The settlement on Babine Grede as well as the Glavičice cemetery with tumuli and the Draganje flat burials, i.e. several seasons of trial excavations on these sites, may bring about facts that will bring more light into the beginning of a new civilization era characterized by the appearance of iron artefacts, with which social and economic changes are linked that are partly evident in the beginning of burying prominent individuals in tumuli. Bearing in mind the significance of settlements and cemeteries in the neighboring Donja Dolina, there must have been a corresponding settlement also on the northern bank of the Sava River, through which intensive trade and exchange of ideas and goods between the east Alpine region and the Danube region, as well as between western Balkans and southern Pannonia took place.
Keywords
Dolina; cemetery; Late Bronze Age; Early Iron Age; tumuli; flat burials; Posavina; Donja Dolina-Sanski Most Group; costume
Hrčak ID:
64738
URI
Publication date:
3.3.2011.
Visits: 2.407 *