Status of monument -> National monument

             Pursuant to Article V para. 4 Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Article 39 para. 1 of the Rules of Procedure of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, at a session held from 6 to 12 May 2003 the Commission adopted a

D E C I S I O N

I

            The movable property of the Plaque of Grand Judge Gradeša, the property of the Museum of Zenica, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is hereby designated as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the National Monument).

            The provisions relating to protection and rehabilitation measures set forth by the Law on the Implementation of the Decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, established pursuant to Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of the Federation of  BiH nos. 2/02 and 27/02) shall apply to the National Monument.

II

            The Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the Government of the Federation) shall be responsible for ensuring and providing the legal, scientific, technical, administrative and financial measures necessary to protect, conserve, display and rehabilitate the National Monument.

III

            The Government of the Federation shall provide the appropriate physical and technical conditions for the safekeeping of the National Monument and shall supervise its preservation.

            The display and other forms of presentation of the National Monument in Bosnia and Herzegovina shall be executed on the basis of conditions determined by the federal ministry responsible for culture.

IV

            Everyone, and in particular the competent authorities of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Canton, and urban and municipal authorities, shall refrain from any action that might damage the National Monument or jeopardize the preservation and rehabilitation thereof.

V

            The removal of the National Monument from Bosnia and Herzegovina is prohibited.

            By way of exception to the above provision, the temporary removal of the National Monument from Bosnia and Herzegovina for the purposes of display or conservation shall be permitted if it is established that conservation works cannot be carried out in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

            Approval for the temporary removal of the National Monument from Bosnia and Herzegovina under the terms of the preceding paragraph shall be granted by the Commission to Preserve National Monuments (hereinafter: the Commission) if it is established beyond doubt that it will in no way endanger the National Monument.  The Commission shall set out in its ruling on approval for the temporary removal of the National Monument all the conditions under which the removal may be effected, the time limit for the return of the property to the country, and the individual authorities and institutions responsible for securing those conditions, and shall notify the Government of the Federation, the relevant security authorities, the customs service of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the general public accordingly.

VI

            The owner of the National Monument, the Government of the Federation, the Federal Ministry responsible for culture, and the Federation heritage protection authority shall be notified of this Decision in order to carry out the measures stipulated in Articles II to V of this Decision.

VII

            The elucidation and accompanying documentation form an integral part of this Decision, which may be viewed by interested parties on the premises or by accessing the website of the Commission (http://www.anek8komisija.com.ba) 

VIII

            Pursuant to Art. V para 4 Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, decisions of the Commission are final.

IX

            This Decision shall enter into force on the date of its adoption and shall be published in the Official Gazette of BiH and the Official Gazette of the Federation of BiH.

            This Decision has been adopted by the following members of the Commission: Zeynep Ahunbay, Amra Hadžimuhamedović, Dubravko Lovrenović,  Ljiljana Ševo and Tina Wik.

                          Chair of the Commission

Amra Hadžimuhamedović

No: 05-6-786/03

6 May 2003                                                                  

Sarajevo

E l u c i d a t i o n

I – INTRODUCTION

            Pursuant to Article 2, paragraph 1 of the Law on the Implementation of the Decisions of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, established pursuant to Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a “National Monument” is an item of public property proclaimed by the Commission to Preserve National Monuments to be a National Monument pursuant to Articles V and VI of Annex 8 of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina and property entered on the Provisional List of National Monuments of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of  BiH no. 33/02) until the Commission reaches a final decision on its status, as to which there is no time limit and regardless of whether a petition for the property in question has been submitted or not.

The Museum of the Town of Zenica applied to the Commission on 27 November 2002 with a proposal to designate the movable property of the plaque of the Grand Judge Gradeša as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina.  Pursuant to the provisions of the law, the Commission proceeded to carry out the procedure for reaching a final decision to designate the Property as a National Monument, pursuant to Article V of Annex 8 and Article 35 of the Rules of Procedure of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments.

II – PROCEDURE PRIOR TO DECISION

            In the procedure preceding the adoption of a final decision to proclaim the property a national monument, the following documentation was inspected:

Ÿ          Data on the current condition of the property, including a description and photographs,

Ÿ          Documentation of the Museum of the Town of Zenica on the property

Ÿ          Descriptions and photographs of the property in scholarly studies,

            The findings based on the review of the above documentation are as follows:

1.  Details of the item:

Location:

            The plaque of the Grand Judge Gradeša found in the village of Podbrežje near Zenica is housed in the archaeological department of the Museum of the Town of Zenica in Zenica (inv. No. 1).  In June 1964, Grgo Prkić, a railway worker in Zenica, was tilling the soil in Podbrežje, a village on a gentle slope about 3 km north-west of Zenica, when he found a stone with an inscription at a depth of about 1m.  Along with the stone he dug up some human bones, a grooved stone and a large slab, all of which he left in the soil.

Historical information:

            By analysis it was ascertained that this was the upper half of the left doorjamb of the mausoleum church of Judge Gradeša and his wife, and that it dated from the end of the twelfth century.  Gradeša was Grand Judge during the reign of Kulin ban.  This is new information about the structure of the judicial authorities of this period.

Legal status to date:

            Immediately on discovery the monument was transferred to the Museum of the Town of Zenica, but it has not been under legal protection.

2. Description of the property

            The inscription is on a stone in the form of a pillar, 87 cm. high, 31 cm. wide and 28 cm. thick.

            Two sides of the pillar are dressed as level surfaces and two are somewhat more irregular.  The upper face of the pillar was level, which suggests that it supported a horizontal stone beam that formed the architrave of the door.  Two sides of the pillar bear inscriptions.  The front level face of the pillar is inscribed all over, while the right-hand side is inscribed only on the upper part.  The craftsman engraved the Cyrillic lettering on the front of the pillar at a fairly acute angle.  The letters vary in height from 15 to 35 mm and form seventeen lines.  In the lower part of the inscribed surface the text is cramped as a result of failure to plan ahead for the space available for the inscription.  In this area, in addition to the letters there are also other symbols scratched in, such as twigs, groups of dots, and notches.  These symbols scratched in later corroborate the hypothesis that this was the upper part of a door jamb, since it was here that it was easiest to leave such marks.

            According to Bešlagić (1965, 204), the text inscribed on the front reads:

            while according to Vego (1970, 66, no. 252) it reads:

             The inscription on the other side occupies an area of 18 cm near the top of the pillar.  The entire surface of this side was once inscribed, but the lower part was later recut.  Only the first eight lines have survived and are partly legible.  The letters are from 10 to 16 mm high and superficially engraved with a sharp object.  The text is fairly illegible and various authors have come up with partial transcriptions:

            Bešlagić (1965, 206):

             Vego (1970, 66, no. 252):

             Although it has some features in common with the first text, this inscription differs in certain details of the graphics and punctuation, and is believed to have been written by another person, although without any considerable gap in time.  It was probably an occasional text related to the burial of Gradeša and his wife (Bešlagić et.al., 1965, 206). 

            Vego hypothesizes that the inscription relates to the consecration of the church on 6 May 1193 (by the Julian calendar) (Vego, 1981, 58).

            The following relevant historical data can be learned from the main inscription:

Ÿ         that in the reign of «great ban Kulin» (1180-1204), as he is titled on the monument, the office of Grand Judge existed and that Gradeša held the post; this is the first reference to Gradeša as a historical figure;

Ÿ         that Gradeša was clearly the founder of this family church (mausoleum) and that he was buried in it;

Ÿ         that somewhere in the vicinity of the find there was a church of St George of the same period, late twelfth/early thirteenth century.

            The inscription also tell us:

-          that Gradeša's wife was buried alongside her husband.  There is a similar instance on the stećak/slab of Kaznac Nespina and his wife Bjeloka of Malo Čajno near Visoko, dating from the thirteenth century;

-          that the church was built by Draže Ohmučanin, one of the first mediaeval builders to be mentioned by name.  The surname Ohmučanin probably derived from the area he originated from.  Vego mentions a site in Zenica, by the railway station, with the name Odmut or Ohmut (foal) (Bešlagić i et.al., 1965, 205, note. 12; Vego, 1970, 66., no. 252; Vego 1981, 60).

-          that the inscription was written by a priest whose name began with the three letters "Pro...". (Prodan – Bešlagić et.al., 1965, 205, note. 15, or Protazije, Prohorije, Prodanac – Vego, 1970, 66).

Conservation and restoration works:

            Thus far there have been no conservation or restoration works on the plaque of Grand Judge Gradeša.

Current condition of the item:

            The plaque of Grand Judge Gradeša is housed in the storeroom of the Museum of the Town of Zenica, and is in good condition.

III – CONCLUSION

            Applying the Criteria for the adoption of a decision on proclaiming an item of property a national monument, adopted at the fourth session of the Commission to Preserve National Monuments (3 to 9 September 2002), the Commission has enacted the Decision cited above.            The Decision is based on the following criteria:

A. Time frame

B. Historical value

C. Artistic and aesthetic value

C.v. value of details

D. Clarity

D.i. material evidence of lesser known historical periods

D.ii. evidence of historical changes

D.iv. evidence of a specific type, style or regional manner

G. Authenticity

G.i form and design

G.ii. material and content

G.iii. use and function

H. Rarity and representativity

H. i. unique or rare example of a certain type or style

            The following documents form an integral part of this Decision:

1.         Photographs of the inscription

2.         Documentation of the Museum of the Town of Zenica (copy ofnventory entry

Bibliography:

            During the procedure to designate the slab as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina the following works were consulted:

Bešlagić,Šefik,  Kajmaković, Zdravko, Ibrahimpašić, Fikret, Ćirilski natpis iz doba Kulina bana. (Cyrillic inscriptions from the period of Kulin ban) Naše starine X, Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of SR BiH, Sarajevo, 1965, 203-208

Vego,  Marko, Novi i revidirani srednjovjekovni natpisi iz Bosne (New and Revised Mediaeval Inscriptions from BiH), Naše starine XIV-XV, Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of SR BiH, Sarajevo, 1981, 39-64.

Vego, Marko, Zbornik srednjovjekovnih natpisa Bosne i Hercegovine IV (Anthology of Mediaeval Inscriptions of BiH IV), National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, 1970.