Status of monument -> National monument
Published in the “Official Gazette of BiH” no. 75/08.
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 27 June to 2 July 2005 the Commission adopted a
D E C I S I O N
I
The archaeological site of Pod, a prehistoric hillfort settlement in Bugojno, is hereby designated as a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the National Monument).
The National Monument consists of the archaeological site of the prehistoric hillfort settlement and movable archaeological material housed in the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo.
The National Monument is located on a site designated as cadastral plot nos. 377 and 378 (new survey) corresponding to c.p.. 80/2 (old survey), Land Registry entry no. 392, cadastral municipality Čipuljić, Municipality Bugojno, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Hercegovina.
The provisions relating to protection 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, 27/02 and 6/04) 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 providing the legal, scientific, technical, administrative and financial measures necessary for the protection, conservation and presentation of the National Monument.
The Commission to Preserve National Monuments (hereinafter: the Commission) shall determine the technical requirements and secure the funds for preparing and setting up signboards with basic details of the monument and the Decision to proclaim the property a National Monument.
III
To ensure the on-going protection of the National Monument on the area defined in Clause 1 para. 3 of this Decision, the following protection measures are hereby stipulated:
- all works are prohibited other than research and conservation and restoration works, including those designed to display the monument, with the approval of the Federal Ministry responsible for regional planning and under the expert supervision of the heritage protection authority of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
- the area of the monument shall be open and accessible to the public and may be used for educational and cultural purposes
- the dumping of waste is prohibited.
To ensure the on-going protection of the National Monument, a buffer zone is hereby prescribed, consisting of a 100 m wide strip to the north of the site, extendingn to the east to the double well, and down to the main Bugojno-Gornji Vakuf road, which constitutes the southern boundary of Protection Zone II. To the west this zone covers plots nos. c.p. 374, 375 and 376 (new surey). In this buffer zone the construction of residential, commercial and other buildings and facilities that could have the effect of altering the surroundings and nature of the site is prohibited.
The Government of the Federation shall be responsible in particular for:
- research and conservation works
- making good the site and the access road thereto.
IV
The removal of the movable heritage referred to in Clause 1 para. 2 of this Decision (hereinafter: the movable heritage) from Bosnia and Herzegovina is prohibited.
By way of exception to the provisions of paragraph 1 of this Clause, the temporary removal from Bosnia and Herzegovina of the movable heritage 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.
Permission for temporary removal under the conditions stipulated in the preceding paragraph shall be issued by the Commission to Preserve National Monuments, if it is determined beyond doubt that it will not jeopardize the items in any way.
In granting permission for the temporary removal of the movable heritage from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Commission shall stipulate all the conditions under which the removal may take place, the date by which the items shall be returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the responsibility of individual authorities and institutions for ensuring that these conditions are met, and shall notify the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the relevant security service, the customs authority of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the general public accordingly.
V
All executive and area development planning acts not in accordance with the provisions of this Decision are hereby revoked.
VI
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.
VII
The Government of the Federation, the Federal Ministry responsible for regional planning, the Federation heritage protection authority, and the Municipal Authorities in charge of urban planning and land registry affairs, shall be notified of this Decision in order to carry out the measures stipulated in Articles II to VI of this Decision, and the Authorized Municipal Court shall be notified for the purposes of registration in the Land Register.
VIII
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.aneks8komisija.com.ba)
IX
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.
X
This Decision shall enter into force on the date of its adoption and shall be published in the Official Gazette 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.
No: 05.2-2-222/04-6
28 June 2005
Istanbul
Chair of the Commission
Ljiljana Ševo
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.
On 25 August 2004, experts from the Archaeology Department of the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo submitted a proposal to designate the archaeological site of Pod in Bugojno as a national monument.
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:
- Documentation on the location and current owner and user of the property (copy of cadastral plan and copy of land registry entry);
- Details of legal protection of the property to date;
- Data on the current condition and use of the property, including a description and photographs, data of war damage, data on restoration or other works on the property, etc.;
- The current condition of the property;
- Historical, architectural and other documentary material on the property, as set out in the bibliography forming part of this Decision.
The findings based on the review of the above documentation and the condition of the site are as follows:
1. Details of the property
Location
The archaeological site of Pod, a prehistoric settlement, is located on the slope of a spur of Mt Koprivnica that surrounds Bugojno and this part of the Skopsko plain to the north. The settlement took shape on the southern edge of this spacious terrace, about 40 m above the bed of the river Poričnica, a tributary of the Vrbas to the left bank. The site is above the main road leading from Bugojno to Gornji Vakuf, in the village of Čipuljić, which is now part of Bugojno. The Pod terrace has a view over the Vrbas valley both upstream and downstream for more than 10 km. Two major routes run along the river valley: upstream, via the Makljen bend to the Rama valley and beyond to the Neretva, and downstream to north-western Bosnia and Pannonia. A third and very ancient, though less commodious, route leads via Koprivnica to Kupres and beyond to Dalmatia.
Historical information
There is no written historical information. Life in Pod began in the Eneolithic, 2500/1700 BCE, and continued into the early Bronze Age. There was then a break before the site was again settled in the late Bronze Age and the early and late Iron Age to the turn of the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. A sizeable pit shaft dating from the Roman period has also been discovered.
2. Description of the property
The remains of the prehistoric settlement in Pod cover an area of about 5500 to 7000 m2. The terrain of the hillfort, on a plateau of 100 x 70 m, is undulating. In a number of places around the edge of the plateau are naturally projecting areas, which were used to build defensive trenches and ramparts, forming an arc around the plateau to the north, north-east and north-west. To the south, the plateau slopes somewhat, with the result that erosion has washed away the archaeological strata on that side.
Eneolithic settlement
No compact stratum dating from that period has been identified on the entire excavated area of the site; merely certain places with a greater or lesse concentration of pottery shards, invariably in a layer of primary humus. The reason for this is the extensive erosion that followed the abandonment of the Eneolithic settlement, and the excavation of housing in later times. Later, in the Bronze and Iron ages, settlements emerged on the area where the original Eneolithic settlement had been. This earlier Eneolithic settlement had no defensive ramparts. It may be deduced from the remains of a pitshaft that the houses of that time were quite small, of semi-dugout type with walls made of stakes driven vertically into the ground with an infill of wattle and daub.
Movable artefacts: The largest quantity of pottery shards were from thin-walled vessels, of poor, porous composition with the surface badly corroded from exposure to the elements. The vessels were made of refined clay without any admixture of hard mineral components, and poorly fired. Many of the shards had a glazed surface with a thin black overlay. In shape, the vessels included pots of varying sizes, probably with cylindrical necks. There were three basic shapes of dish: with moulded shoulders and funnel-shaped neck, shallow dishes with thickened rim, and simple dishes with inset rim. Another type of vessel found was a rounded bowl. The only tools or weapons found was a single moulded-type axe.
This, the oldest settlement in Pod. belonged to a group of probably pre-Vučedol Eneolithic population, dating to around 2500 BCE (Čović, 1991, 10, 11-13).
Early Bronze Age settlement – Pod A
The gap between the abandonment of the Eneolithic settlement and the resettlement of the site in the early Bronze Age is reckoned to be some 400 to 500 years. This next period of settlement, during the early Bronze Age, lasted about 400 years, and falls into two groups: Pod A-1, which lasted from about 2000 to 1850 BCE, and Pod A-2, lasting from 1850 to 1600 BCE (Čović, 1991, 10).
The settlement was naturally protected to the south-west and south-east by the lie of the land. If there had been a defensive trench or palisade to the most easily approachable side to the north, it was destroyed by the erection of a defensive rampart at the start of the Iron Age. The site was densely populated but not congested.
Little is known about the houses. Judging from one reconstructed building dating from stage A-1, the houses were small, about 5 x 4 m, rectangular in shape and consisting of a single room with an open hearth, which was sometimes as much as 1.1.5 m [sic] in diameter. More solidly built hearths with substructures were found in the strata of the more recent stage of settlement, Pod A-2. Vestiges of calotte-shaped furnaces cannot be identified with certainty. The walls of the houses were constructed of uprights driven to little depth into the ground and constituting the load-bearing components supporting a low-built roof. The infill of the walls consisted of thin logs and brushwood faced with daub. There were gaps between the houses, and no traces of fire. The floors of the houses were usually earthen, with in rare cases a thin coating of yellow clay.
The settlement consisted of a small social group of ten to twenty families, probably engaged in cattle-raising. Finds of a number of small decorative items of sheet bronze and wire, fragments of tweezers, a few small nuggets of bronze, and a crucible that could have been used for smelting ore, suggest that they had some rudimentary knowledge of metallurgy.
The most numerous movable artefacts found were pottery shards, most belonging to coarse, well-fired earthenware vessels with walls up to 1 cm thick. The clay mixture was of poorly refined clay with an admixture of finely ground limestone, sand or calcite. The vessel shapes included:
- ovoid pots, some with slightly prominent rimbs and roughly-shaped linguiform or horseshoe-shaped handles;
- jugs with clearly moulded necks, narrow mouths and vertical band-like handles running down from the mouth;
- deep dishes resembling kettles, with vertical or, more rarely, horizontal band-like handles. These dishes are biconical and rounded, with inset rim and hemispherical;
- deep conical dishes;
- shallow dishes, 5-6 cm deep and about 50-60 cm in diameter;
- shards from strainers, lids, vessels with crossbars below the mouth to hold the lid (probably used for churning milk).
The basic decorative designs of this group of earthenware consisted of deep finger imprints and applique’d moulded bands, often combined in a variety of ways.
The finer-quality earthenware was made of quite well-refined clay with an admixture of mineral substances, sometimes with glazed surfaces and an overlay of slip, and well fired. Various shapes were found in this group:
- jugs or ewers, biconical or pot-bellied;
- rounded or pear-shaped, high-necked amphora with vertical handles;
- cups with handles, of varying shapes and sizes: hemispherical, biconical, pot-bellied and conical;
- chalices, dishes and spoons.
The decorations are classified by technique into moulded designs (wart-like protuberances, applique’s ribbing, triangular extensions to the rim of dishes); grooved designs (bold or fine); incised and impressed (various designs); and designs using textile techniques (ribbon-like coiled thread technique, braid designs, and coiled rope technique).
Few artefacts used as tools or weapons were found – just four highly polished stone axes or hammers, and a number of slingshots, one arrowhead made of staghorn, a number of flint blades and scrapers, and a stone artefact for polishing earthenware. Needles and awls made of animal bone were found, as was one bone honing stick, and parts of a hoe and what was perhaps a mattock of staghorn (Čović, 1991, 10, 13-25).
Late Bronze Age settlement Pod-B
Pod remained uninhabited between the early and late Bronze Ages for some 600 years, from1600 to about 1000 BCE. Finds and stratigraphy in Pod suggest that it was resettled in about 1050 BCE, remaining inhabited until the late 8th century (750-725) BCE (Čović, 1991, 10; idem 1983, 435).
Well stratified material from Pod, along with material from many other hillfort settlements, has made it possible to define the central Bosnian cultural group of the late Bronze Age. This group, which ranged over the areas of the upper and mid course of the Vrbas (to Jajce) and the Bosna (to Zenica, but not including the Sarajevo plain), constituted an independent cultural and ethnic community with its own distinctive material and spiritual culture. Typical of this group are hillfort-type settlements located close to major areas of cultivable land, and a high standard of housing (Čović, 1983,433-434, 450).
It may be assumed from the discovery of part of a stone and earth rampart that even at this stage there was some kind of defence system on the readily approachable areas of the hillfort, but that this was destroyed when the massive earthworks and trenches were built in the next stage, Pod C.
From the start of settlement of the available area of the hillfort, approx. 5500 m2, orthogonally-arranged houses were built with pathways between them, and with two main roadways paved with stone or gravel, bisecting the hillfort along the natural lie of the land, north-east/south-west and north-west/south-east. The size of the houses ranged from 9 to12 m in length and from 6 to 8 m in width. Structurally, they were built on massive horizontal beams to which the upper part of the structure was attached with uprights and a roof. The walls had an infill of thin slats coated with daub. The wall surfaces were clumsily smoothed and some were coated with a whitish substance. Some parts of the facades were coated with a thick layer of clay decorated with impressed geometric designs. Most of the houses consisted of two rooms, with the floor of the smaller rather higher than that of the larger. The larger room had benches along one or both long walls, on which were built-in furnaces with calottes, usually one large and two or three smaller ones. There were also mobile furnaces. The floor and benches were composed of a thick layer of hard-rammed sandy earth or clay (Čović, 1983. 437-439).
Movable artefacts
The most numerous movable artefacts in Pod were pottery shards, which made it possible to define with almost complete certainty the shapes and decorative designs of the central Bosnian group. The material was not fully processed statistically, and only a small part has been published (Čović, 1965, T. VIII-XI).
The most common items among the coarser earthenware with well- or poorly-glazed surface were:
- coarse ovoid pots with insignificantly moulded rim, sometimes with tongue-shaped or horseshoe shaped handles;
- wide, deep pots with wide rims and vertical banded handles;
- deep terrines with rims cut at an angle;
- coarse, deep dishes, similar to terrines, with wide openings and (in some cases) banded handles;
- coarse, undecorated amphorae with cylindrical necks and wide rims.
The finer-quality, glazed earthenware included a) dishes, b) bowls, c) amphorae, d) cups or chalices, and f) double vessels.
a) the dishes fall into two basic types:
- dishes with inset rims. Most common among these were dishes with a thickened, faceted rim. This type of dish is one of the most typical features of the earthenware of the central Bosnian cultural group (Čović,1965, T IX, 14).
- dishes with a wide, flat-cut rim.
b) the bowls usually have a flat rim, and one or two banded handles projecting above the rim.
c) the amphorae are of varying sizes, with a distinct cylindrical neck, and often with two or three banded handles set symmetrically around the shoulders; occasionally, they have no handles. Another typical form of amphorae has a high cylindrical neck accentuated by low shoulders and a wide rim. Most of these amphorae are decorated with incised, impressed and grooved designs.
d) cups are blunt in shape, similar to the amphorae, with flat rims and two banded handles projecting above the rim
e) the double vessels with a handle between two attached receptacles are usually small-sized.
Other earthenware finds included:
- the columnar feet of a vessel, the shape of which has not been identified;
- covers, either flat or slightly rounded, and usually decorated;
- hollow cylindrical objects with a broad rim and foot, of varying sizes, usually decorated. The cylindrical body of these objects is pierced with circular and oval perforations;
- mobile furnaces with built-in receptacles on top;
Much of the finer-quality earthenware was decorated with incisions, impressions, grooves, puncturing and, much less frequently, with dots with minute serrations, and with white incrustations and moulded designs. The choice of basic designs was limited, consisting of hatched triangles, rows of oblique slits, rows of hollows, fir-tree-like patterns, concentric circles, semicircles and garlands. By combining or repeating these basic patterns, more complex designs were achieved, the most common of which were single or double rows of hatched triangles with zigzag bands between them; bands of triangles, concentric semicircles, double and triple lines, often in combination with oblique slits; bands either hatched or crosshatched; lattice-hatched bands; designs in the shape of an inverted V, usually on the belly and shoulders (Čović, 1983, 444-448).
An analysis of the shapes and decorative designs of the earthenware and the decorations on metal artefacts reveals that the area covered by the central Bosnian cultural group was one of the major centres of the late Bronze Age western Balkan geometric style. The basic features of this style are the tectonic association of decoration and form according to certain canons, strict symmetry and abstract geometrism, and the absence of scenes from real life (Čović, 1983, 449).
In one building in the most recent stratum (9th or early 8th century), a pile of ornamental household goods decorated with impressed designs and white incrustation was discovered. This covered a shallow rectangular pit into the base of which a deep vessel was sunken. This was presumably an altar, possibly of importance for the entire settlement (Čović, 1983, 450).
The fact that the hillfort was surrounded by extensive cultivable land, that it was inhabited over a long period, that its occupants led a settled lifestyle and lived in solidly-built houses, plus the finds of carbonized grain and stone grindstones, suggests that agriculture was the mainstay, and one that could readily develop in such circumstances. A large quantity of bones from domesticated animals was also found (oxen, pigs and small ruminants), along with those of wild animals (especially of the deer family). These finds are evidence of advanced livestock raising and of hunting as a means of supplementing the local economy.
Although finds of metal artefacts on other sites of the central Bosnian cultural group indicate that this group was a major factor in the introduction of bronze and iron metallurgy to this part of the world, in Pod only one indirect piece of evidence andvery little material has been found (Čović, 1983, 451). The find of a mould for sickles is evidence of the local production of sickles. In addition, a bronze chisel was found, as well as a crucible with the remains of limonite iron ore (bog iron) smelting (1965, T. IX,29; idem 1983, 440, 451). One item of jewellery was found – a bronze circlet/ring with spiral ends (Čović, 1983, 444).
The population of the central Bosnian cultural group must have led an ordered social life, as may be deduced from the layout and organization of the settlement in Pod, the advanced metallurgy of other sites of this group, and evidence of advanced agriculture and animal husbandry, all of which suggests an organized and disciplined community with a well-developed distribution of tasks. A find from Malo Mošunje represents the equipment of a warrior of that time, assumed to have been made for a member of the upper echelons of the local aristocracy (Čović, 1983, 452).
Iron Age Pod-C,D
The Iron Age covers five stages of settlement in Pod, and lasted without a break from about 750 (725) BCE to the turn of the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. It consisted of five stages, continuing without a break from stage Pod-B, the late Bronze Age, since earthenware of the shape dating from that period was found in the oldest stratum of Pod C (Čović, 1987, 483, 485).
The compact Iron Age stratum in Pod has two distinct residential layers with significant innovations in the organization of the settlement, the defence system and the characteristics of earthenware and metal artefacts. The first is the Pod C stratum, which lasted from about 850 (725) to 600 BCE, i.e. from the mid 8th to the end of the 7th century (with two stages), and Pod D, lasting from the late 7th century to the turn of the 4th and 3rd centuries (with three stages).
Pod-C
The most numerous archaeological artefacts are pottery shards, of which the most striking is a new type of earthenware mainly consisting of cups and bowls with very thin walls, made of refined clay with highly glazed surfaces, usually black or grey. The decoration is incised with thin, sharp tools. Earthenware items of all shapes have sharply defined moulding, so that dishes with inset rims have biconical moulding. The designs are no longer symmetrical, as in the late Bronze Age, and the range of decorative designs is also more restricted. One of the features of the new compositions is a frame composed of linked horizontal and vertical hatched bands or bands with double rows of impressed triangles. Elongated hatched triangles and rhombuses constitute entirely new design features.
Among the items of weaponry found were an iron spear and a large quantity of what were probably slingshots, in the shape of irregular spheres or prisms usually made of gabbro or other stone. These projectiles feature in every stage of settlement in Pod, but most were found in the strata dating from the Iron Age. Tools and appliances found include grain grindstones, clay loom weights, bone needles and awls, and pieces of hoes made of staghorn. Nuggets of iron ore and slag were also found in these strata.
Jewellery finds included long, thin pins with semicircular heads and spiral necks terminating in a prismatic midsection.
Pod-D
The first built stratum of Pod D was destroyed by a major fire. The major building in this stratum was a shrine dating to the turn of the 7th and 6th centuries. The building measured 6 x 5 m. The artefacts found in this building were those also found in the houses. The building was on two levels. There was a large platform with a circular hearth in the centre on a substructure of stone and gravel, probably used as an altar. The platform with the altar was full of pieces of clay column-like idols with human heads or sun discs (Čović, 1987, 518). A vase with an Umbro-Etruscan inscription was also found in the burned stratum, c. 600 BCE.
The settlement was soon rebuilt after the fire. The new settlement was organized rather differently from the former, and the fortifications were strengthened. In the early 6th century BCE a substantial drystone wall with gatehouse was erected on the south-west edge of the plateau.
Pottery shards from the Pod D stage indicate that the same basic forms and decorative designs were used, but that they were in a constant state of evolution. Among the shapes found were spoons with handles in the shape of a bird’s head, and earthenware lamps. The use of refined, glazed earthenware with thin walls ceased, and with it the complex compositions of the geometric style. Geometric designs remained in use, with the favoured designs consisting of hatched triangles, rhombuses and bands, together with bundles of impressed vertical lines, glazed hollows on the shoulders, and plug-like designs on the body and shoulders of the larger vessels.
Among the iron tools and weapons found were a spear, a celt axe, a double-headed axe with the blades set crosswise, and five knives. A large number of bone sheaths for knives and swords were also found. There were also many specimens of the standard tools and appliances of the kind found in the old strata.
Finds of considerable quantities of ore and slag, layers of ash, pieces of wire, a lump of bronze weighing 750 grams, and pieces of various metal artefacts rejected during attempts to mend them or as unsuccessful castings, are evidence that the trades of blacksmith, foundryman and other metal workers were thriving at this time.
Various sandstone moulds for casting bronze ingots and small items of jewellery are further evidence of the advanced nature of certain crafts. Among them was a mould for casting circlet-shaped belt buckles with lobed edges, an indigenous shape specific to this settlement.
Finds of jewellery were more extensive than in the earlier periods, and consisted of a double-headed fibula with a foot in the form of a Boetian shield, pins with curved heads, circlet-shaped and spherical belt buckles with lobed edges, bronze earrings of the Delmatian type, small rounded or conical bronze buttons, various pendants, glass beads and cowrie-shell beads, and decorative bone combs.
A separate group of finds from the first two strata of the Pod D settlement consisted of moulded clay items:
- pillar idols found in the ruins of the shrine in the stratum of the great fire of the first oldest stratum of the Pod D settlement. These idols were made in relief by coating a wooden post with clay. Geometric patterns were executed on the body of the idol, which was topped by a stylized human head. In one case the human face was replaced by a sun disc;
- two engravings with schematic images of an arrow (Čović, 1987, 445-494).
After a brief recovery from the disastrous fire of c. 550 BCE, there followed a period of further economic and social advance in the Pod D settlement, recorded in three successive strata of construction. This lasted about one hundred years, from 550 to 450 BCE.
There were changes to the organization of the settlement, which became a significant crafts and trade centre with the features of a proto-urban agglomeration. Roughly in the centre of the settlement, a number of houses were demolished to create an open space or square, which originally covered an area of 200 m2. At roughly the same time, a settlement took shape on the outskirts just below the hillfort, on the banks of the Poričnica.
New types of indigenous jewellery and earthenware emerged, along with the import of bronze and earthenware vessels. New pottery shapes appeared alongside the old ones, with certain differences of detail: these new shapes included hemispherical bowls with short concave necks and bent handles with a cross-bar at the most prominent point, hemispherical dishes with flat edges and a wide horizontal rib below the rim, and drinking cups on stems with decorative handles on the rim. The vestiges of the old geometric style and impressed decorative designs became ever more scarce. New designs typical of this stratum are various vertical bundles of incisions, hollowed-out lines and grooves, combined with round hollows, designs of incised lines with a row of slits, degenerate elongated hatched triangles, very prominent vertical ribbing combined with vertical incisions, grooves or rounded hollows. There was a marked gradual decline in the quality of earthenware.
Weapons and tools from these strata are of various customary forms. Among the items associated with metallurgy was an earthenware tuyere from the bellows of a forge, modelled in the shape of the head and neck of a horse, and a stone mould for casting bronze artefacts. Moulds specifically for casting buttons, made of staghorn, were found in large numbers. One distinct find consisted of parts of horse harness made of bone or horn. There were also rich finds of jewellery and metal items belonging to clothing, such as a range of fibulae of crescent-moon shape with the foot in the shape of a Boetian shield, fibulae with two or three buttons on the arc, banded fibulae with no disc, various bronze buckles and pins with curved heads or pins of double-headed type, bracelets with knobbed ends, astragals, buttons, Delmatian earrings, bronze lockets, glass beads and decorative bone combs.
Sculptural artefacts are represented by a single important find of a bearded man’s head in relief, on the side of a hearth, probably an altar.
Concentrated vestiges of crafts and metallurgical activities were found throughout the settlement (Čović, 495- 502).
The next stage of the Iron Age settlement, Pod D, consisted of three strata of settlement, lasting from 450 to 350 BCE. As part of the repairs and completion of the fortifications, drywall breastworks were erected on the crown of the ramparts of the hillfort. During this stage there were no changes to the basic features of the material and spiritual culture. The quality of the pottery as a whole continued to deteriorate. Items of importance for dating this stage are certosa fibulae and other types of jewellery, notably massive bronze armlets with knobs and rectangular bronze buckles, and the presence of certain decorative designs on earthenware vessels, such as inscribed V designs, small horns and stylized animal heads on the handles.
The most recent stage of the Pod D settlement lasted about fifty years, from 350 to 300 BCE, when the settlement was finally abandoned. This stage too has two strata. The material of this stage survives only on the northern part of the hillfort, since the southern part has been destroyed by soil erosion. The quality of the pottery continued to deteriorate. The old shapes were retained, but the modelling and decoration were increasingly carelessly executed. Some forms of weapons and jewellery, particularly crossbow certosa fibulae, belong to the early La Tène period (Čović, 1987, 506).
An oval pit about 12 m long and more than 3 m deep, dating from the antique period, was discovered and partly excavated. The lowest parts of the pit were regular rectangular in shape and rather smaller in size. The exact size of the pit was not determined, and neither was its purpose. The prehistoric strata forming the walls of the pit had fallen in, as a result of which it was mainly filled with a prehistoric cultural stratum. In addition to prehistoric artefacts, some Roman ones were found: pottery, small iron and bronze artefacts, and small pieces of brick and tile. Three iron agricultural tools were found on the roughly levelled bottom of the pit.
3. Legal status to date
In the procedure prior to the adoption of a final decision on designation, documents concerning the protection of the property were inspected, revealing the following:
- the archaeological site of Pod in Bugojno was not under the protection of the Republic Institute for the Protection of the Cultural and Natural Heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina
- the Regional Plan for the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina to 2002 listed the site as a Category I property.
4. Research and conservation and restoration works
In 1895, Karlo Patsch was the first to visit the site (Patsch, 1895, 568; idem, 1897, 512).
In 1957 and 1958 the site was visited by archaeologists Jozo Petrović and Zdravko Marić, after various archaeological artefacts were found in the vicinity during the excavation of a dual water reservoir (Petrović, 1958, 267-269).
Between 1959 and 1961 Borivoj Čović of the National Museum in Sarajevo conducted test digs of an orientational nature. Between 1963 and 1984, with brief interruptions, systematic excavations were carried out on the site.
The movable archaeological artefacts from the excavations are housed in the National Museum in Sarajevo.
The land on which the site is located is owned by the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo.
5. Current condition of the property
An on-site inspection of the Pod site on 16 May 2005 ascertained that the site is untouched, with no activity of any kind. Access to the site is via level ground with meadows, but is unmarked and without an access road or path.
III – CONCLUSION
Applying the Criteria for the adoption of a decision on proclaiming an item of property a national monument (Official Gazette of BiH nos. 33/02 and 15/03), the Commission has enacted the Decision cited above.
The Decision was based on the following criteria:
A. Time frame
B. Historical value
C. Artistic and aesthetic value
C.i. quality of workmanship
C.ii. quality of materials
C.iv. value of details
C.v. value of construction
D. Clarity
D.i. material evidence of a lesser known historical era
D.ii. evidence of historical change
D.iv. evidence of a particular type, style or regional manner
D.v. evidence of a typical way of life at a specific period
F. Townscape/ Landscape value
F.ii. meaning in the townscape
G. Authenticity
G.ii. material and content
G.iv. tradition and techniques
G.v. location and setting
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:
- Photodocumentation:
- from works cited in bibliography
- obtained from Bugojno Municipality
- taken on site in May 2005
- Drawings
- Geodetic map
- Documentation relating to geodetic map
Bibliography
During the procedure to designate the monument as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina the following works were consulted:
1985. Patsch, Carlo, “Epigrafski nahođaji 1895” (Epigraphic Finds 1895), Jnl of the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina VII, Sarajevo, 1895, 573-586.
1897. Patsch, Carlo, “Mali rimski nahođaji i posmatranja” (Small Roman Finds and Reflections), Jnl of the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina IX, Sarajevo, 1897, 511-537.
1958. Petrović, Jozo, “Arheološki referati iz Bugojna i Ljubije –Japra” (Archaeological lectures from Bugojno and Ljubija – Japra), Jnl of the National Museum in Sarajevo, Archaeology, n.s. vol. XIII/1958, Sarajevo, 1958, 267-271
1959. Čović, Borivoj, “Probno iskopavanje na gradini ‘Pod’ kod Bugojna” (Test digs in Pod hillfort nr. Bugojno), Archaeological Survey 1, Archaeological Society of Yugoslavia, Belgrade, 1959, 47-49.
1960. Čović, Borivoj, “Pod Bugojno-praistorijska gradina” (Pod Bugojno – prehistoric hillfort), Archaeological Survey 3, Archaeological Society of Yugoslavia, Belgrade, 1961, 51-52.
1963. Čović, Borivoj, “Pod Bugojno-praistorijska gradina” (Pod Bugojno – prehistoric hillfort), Archaeological Survey 5, Archaeological Society of Yugoslavia, Belgrade, 1963, 30-33.
1964. Čović, Borivoj, “Pod Bugojno-praistorijska gradina ranog i kasnog bronzanog i željeznog doba” (Pod Bugojno – prehistoric hillfort of the early and late Bronze and Iron Ages), Archaeological Survey 6, Archaeological Society of Yugoslavia, Belgrade, 1964, 23-24.
1965. Čović, Borivoj, “Pod Bugojno-praistorijska gradina ranog i kasnog bronzanog i željeznog doba” (Pod Bugojno – prehistoric hillfort of the early and late Bronze and Iron Ages), Archaeological Survey 7, Archaeological Society of Yugoslavia, Belgrade, 1965, 55-57.
1966. Čović, Borivoj, “Pod Bugojno-praistorijska gradina ranog i kasnog bronzanog i željeznog doba” (Pod Bugojno – prehistoric hillfort of the early and late Bronze and Iron Ages), Archaeological Survey 8, Archaeological Society of Yugoslavia, Belgrade, 1966, 23-27.
1967. Čović, Borivoj, “Pod kod Bugojna- gradina iz bronzanog i željeznog doba” (Pod Bugojno – prehistoric hillfort of the early and late Bronze and Iron Ages), Archaeological Survey 9, Archaeological Society of Yugoslavia, Belgrade, 1967, 27-28.
1968. Čović, Borivoj, “Pod, Bugojno- praistorijska gradina bronzanog i željeznog doba” (Pod Bugojno – prehistoric hillfort of the early and late Bronze and Iron Ages), Archaeological Survey 10, Archaeological Society of Yugoslavia, Belgrade, 1968, 25-26.
1972. Čović, Borivoj, “Pod, Bugojno-praistorijska gradina” (Pod Bugojno – prehistoric hillfort) Archaeological Survey 14, Archaeological Society of Yugoslavia, Belgrade, 1972, 39-40.
1974. Čović, Borivoj, “Pod kod Bugojna-praistorijska gradina” (Pod Bugojno – prehistoric hillfort) Archaeological Survey 16, Archaeological Society of Yugoslavia, Belgrade, 1974, 54-55.
1983. Čović, Borivoj, “7 Prelazna zona” (7 transitional zone), in: Bronzano doba. Praistorija jugoslavenskih zemalja (Bronze Age:Prehistory of Yugoslav Lands) IV, Sarajevo 1983, 171-183.
1983a. Čović, Borivoj, “Srednjobosanska kulturna grupa” (Central Bosnian cultural group), in: Bronzano doba. Praistorija jugoslavenskih zemalja (Bronze Age:Prehistory of Yugoslav Lands) IV, Sarajevo, 1983, 433-457.
1987. Čović, Borivoj, “Srednjobosanska grupa” (Central Bosnian group), in: Željezno doba. Praistorija jugoslavenskih zemalja (Iron Age:Prehistory of Yugoslav Lands) V, Sarajevo, 1987, 481-530.
1991. Čović, Borivoj, Pod kod Bugojna. (Pod nr. Bugojno), Publ. National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, 1991.
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