Balkan going Caput Adriae trade, contacts,
influences at the beginning of Late Bronze Age
Hrvoje Kalafati
Institute of Archaeology, Gajeva ulica 32, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Fig. 5 Finds from Makovac
Fig. 6 Find from epinski Martinci
Fig. 7 Finds from Northern Italy (Urban 1993)
Fig. 8 Map of sites in Croatia
This poster reconsider connections between the westerns Balkans
and the Northern Adriatic in Late Bronze Age, on the basis of new
research on pottery finds. To make an example, the poster presents
recent archaeological research that has been done on the material
collected in River Sava Basin and neighboring parts of continental
Croatia as well as on northern Bosnia. Archaeological excavations in
this region showed significant demographic boom in that in Late
Bronze Age, followed by propulsive economics and large scale
metallurgy activity. Populations that inhabited region in question can
be divided into two major cultural groups, Virovitica and Barice- Fig. 1 Bowl from Kastav (Starac 1993, T.27)
Greani group. These two groups are the two southernmost parts of
urnfield culture complex, what makes them particularly interesting for
contextualization of research in economic and cultural connections
between southern part of Carpathian Basin, northern Balkans and
Caput Adriae.
Presented are results of pottery analysis and possible analogies from
the Bronze Age site of Makovac (14th - 12th century BC), situated in
Sava River Basin and site epinski Martinci situated in River Drava
Basin. Both sites have been well defined, and systematically
excavated in past years. They belong to Barice-Greani cultural
group and date to Late Bronze Age of the Southern Carpathian
Basin.
First pottery type in our focus is bowl (Fig. 1), found in Kastav
probably, with oval knob ornament on inner side close to rim dated by
R. Starac(1991) and connected to early urnfield culture horizon. New
finds from site Makovac (Fig. 2,3,4) from same period (Br C2/Br D)
confirm and clarify chronological and cultural position of Kastav find
and raise questions on population migration from Carpathian Basin to
Adriatic or reverse. Find from Makovac(Fig. 2, 3) also has horn-
shaped protrusions, although small, like fragment from Kastav. Fig. 2 Bowl from Makovac - drawing
Second pottery type (Fig. 5-7) is vessel with wart-like clustered
applications found in earliest occupation phase (Br. C2) of both
settlements (Makovac and epinski Martinci). This pottery type is
found in closed contexts dated by radiocarbon analysis to 14 th
century B.C.
Urban (1993) differentiated two types of similar pottery types from
Northern Italy and mapped them (Urban 1993, 176-177). These types
in Italy dated to Late Middle Bronze Age and Late Bronze Age (Urban
1993). High resemblance and similarities between these pottery types
in Croatia and Italy also raise issues concerning connections between
two regions.
Pottery finds from Turjeva jama (M. Knavs & M. Mlinar 2005) in Soa
River Basin also have lot of analogies with one of the most prominent
sites of Virovitica group ,Oloris, and shows similar connections.
Due to various connections archaeologists were able to establish
links between single and hoard finds in Northern Adriatic region and
hoard finds in the southern part of Danube basin (ere, Turk 1996;
Buri-Matijai 2011). Further more the connections could be
supported by finds of needles with rounded head characteristic for Fig. 3 Bowl from Makovac - photography
River Sava Basin and River Po Basin already mapped by Dular
(2002,218).
Recent research of Virovitica and Barice-Greani groups shows
typological similarities in pottery production with Northern Adriatic.
The comparison of the pottery can help us to further explain and
better understand trade connection and cultural mobility between
Balkans and Adriatic.
Fig. 4 Fragment from Makovac (Karavani .2002)
Refrences cited:
K. Buri-Matijai, Nalaz bronanih predmeta s otoka Krka, Prilozi
Instituta za arheologiju u Zagrebu, Vol.27, 2011.
P. ere, P. Turk, ''Depoji pozne bronaste dobe -najdine okoliine
in struktura najdb, Depojske in posamezne kovinske najdbe bakrene in
bronaste dobe na Slovenskem II'', 30, Ljubljana 1996, 7-30.
Kastav epinski Martinci J. Dular, ''Dolnji Lako in mlaja bronasta doba med Muro in Savo'', in:
Oloris pri Dolnjem Lakou, Opera Instituti Archaeologici Sloveniae 5,
Ljubljana, Zaloba ZRC, 2002, 143-228.
Karavani, M. Mihaljevi, H. Kalafati, ''Naselje Makovac-Crinjevi kao
Makovac prilog poznavanju poetaka kulture polja sa arama u slavonskoj
Posavini'', Prilozi Instituta za arheologiju 19/2002, 47-62.
M. Knavs & M. Mlinar, Bronastodobna lonenina iz Turjeve jame v
dolini Nadie, Arheoloki vestnik 56, 2005.
R. Starac, Prilog poznavanju keramike bronanog doba na Kvarneru,
unpublished B.A. thesis, University of Zagreb, 1991.
T. Urban , Studien zur mittleren Bronzezeit in Norditalien, UPA Vol 14,
R. Habelt, 1993.