Status of monument -> National monument
Published in the “Official Gazette of BiH”, no. 32/09.
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 20 to 26 January 2009 the Commission adopted a
D E C I S I O N
I
The historic site of the Česmina glava necropolis with stećak tombstones in Odžaci, Municipality Konjic, is hereby designated as a National Monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: the National Monument).
The National Monument consists of the necropolis with 68 stećak tombstones (63 chest-shaped and 5 gabled).
The National Monument is located on a site designated as cadastral plot no. 1475/1, Land Register entry no. 216,and part of c.p. no. 1196, Land Register entry no. 230/01, cadastral municipality Odžaci, Municipality Konjic, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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, 6/04 and 51/07) 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 erecting 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 site defined in Clause 1 para. 3 of this Decision, the following protection measures are hereby stipulated:
- all works are prohibited other than research, 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 dumping of waste is prohibited.
The Government of the Federation shall be responsible in particular for ensuring that the following measures are implemented:
- conducting a geodetic and general survey of the current condition of the site,
- drawing up a project for the repair, restoration and conservation of the necropolis.
The repair, restoration and conservation project shall cover:
- archaeological investigations,
- clearing lichen and moss from the stećak tombstones and making good any damage,
- tidying the site and clearing it of self-sown vegetation,
- drawing up and implementing a programme for the presentation of the National Monument
IV
All executive and area development planning acts not in accordance with the provisions of this Decision are hereby revoked.
V
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 thereof.
VI
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 V of this Decision, and the Authorized Municipal Court shall be notified for the purposes of registration in the Land Register.
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.aneks8komisija.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 the date after its publication 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 Martin Cherry.
No: 05.1-02-40/09-5
21 January 2009
Sarajevo
Chair of the Commission
Dubravko Lovrenović
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 5 November 2007 the Department of Administrative and Social Affairs and Inspection of Konjic Municipality submitted to the Commission a petition/proposal to designate the Česmina glava necropolis of stećak tombstones in Odžaci, Konjic Municipality, 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 para. 4 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 the current owner and user of the property (copy of cadastral plan and Land Register entry),
- Details of 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.,
- 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
The many necropolises with stećci (pl. of stećak) in the Konjic area could make a major contribution to solving the question of the origins of the stećak tombstone and shed light on historical changes (when certain clans began to detach themselves from neighbouring families and form their own family necropolises). As well as the Česmina glava necropolis with stećci in the cadastral municipality of Odžaci, another two larger such necropolises (Gradić, with 100 stećci, and Ježeprasina, with about 130) have been recorded within a radius of one kilometre from the necropolis that is the subject of this decision, while between them are other stećci, either as single, isolated tombstones or groups of up to four.
Location
Česmina glava is in Bjelimići, a village about 27 km as the crow flies to the south-east of Konjic.
The National Monument is located on a site designated as cadastral plot no. 1475/1, Land Register entry no. 216,and part of c.p. no. 1196, Land Register entry no. 230/01, cadastral municipality Odžaci, Municipality Konjic, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Historical information
The area around the upper Neretva straddles two regions. Since prehistoric times, the roads linking central Bosnia with the Adriatic coast ran along the Neretva valley and its outer margins. With some alterations and adaptations to the route, major roads ran here in antiquity, mediaeval times and the Ottoman period, until the road was laid through the Neretva gorge from Jablanaca to the south in the 1880s. The central Bosnian ore-rich mining area, the fertile soils of the Neretva valley, and the rich mountain pastures, all led to the formation of many settlements throughout history, in line with the conditions and demands of their respective times, on the great bend in the Neretva between the mountain massifs of Bitovnja, Bjelašnica and Visočica to the north, and Prenj and Čvrsnica to the south(1).
In the early mediaeval period, the wider Konjic region consisted of only one political territory, a typical župa (county), the Neretva county. What is now Konjic Municipality also includes part of the Zagorja župa (the area around Bjelimići) and part of the Kom župa (the area around Glavatičevo). The earliest reference to Neretva county is in the Chronicles of the Doclean priest, written in the mid 12th century, where it is said to have been part of the Podgorje district which, along with Hum land, Trebinje and Zeta, formed a tetrarchy or federation of four districts each of which was a semi-independent country or state. The Podgorje district included not only Neretva county but also the counties Onogošt, Morača, Komarnica, Piva, Gacko, Nevesinje, Viševa, Kom and Rama. By the mid 11th century the county had presumably been incorporated, by political agreement, into the Bosnian state. From then on until ban (governor) Tvrtko came to power in 1353, it enjoyed special status within the Bosnian state (Anđelić, 1982, 108-110).
From the mid 14th century on, heightened economic and political activities on the part of Bosnia's rulers can be traced in the Neretva župa. In the early 15th century the borders were redrawn between the later “Crown lands” and the feudal lands of the Kosača family. From 1404 to 1463, the Bosnian part of the Neretva župa belonged to the Crown lands and the Hum Neretva and Kom belonged to the feudal lands of the Kosača – later Herzegovina. The border between these two districts was the river Neretva, from the boundary of the Kom župa to that of the Rama župa. The area along the left bank of the Neretva belonged to the Kosačas, and that on the right bank to the Crown lands.
In the summer of 1463 an auxiliary Ottoman army commanded by Mahmut pasha Anđelović conquered both the Neretva districts and Kom. The area known as Hum Neretva, apart from the Borovac fort, and the western part of the Bosnian Neretva, were liberated in a counter-action between July and September that same year by Herceg (Duke) Stjepan. The region was finally conquered in mid 1465 in a campaign by the Bosnian sandžakbeg Isa-beg Ishaković in the Herceg's lands (Anđelić, 1982, 115-116)(2).
The mediaeval tombstones of Bosnia and Hum known as stećci became the subject of scholarly interest in not entirely favourable circumstances, hundreds of years after they had become a relic of a historic age. At the turn of the 18th-19th century, the western world began to hear of the unusual art to be found on tombstones in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Dalmatia, initially from the accounts of travellers that were not well documented enough to give rise to any significant interest in the west, particularly since western scholarship was then occupied with the analysis of entirely different works of art; as a result, the realistic, and indeed clumsy scenes on the stećci neither appealed to scholars nor aroused their interest. In Ottoman Bosnia itself, there were no forces capable independently of studying and presenting these treasures of mediaeval art (A. Benac, 1963, XVII, XXIX). In these circumstances, by the mid 19th century – when the process of modern national coalescence was in full swing and the question of whom Bosnia belonged to increasingly took on political and even apocalyptic significance – scholars were inclined to see the art of the stećci as having arisen from Bogomil teachings (A. Benac, 1963, XXIX). Nor was there any lack of efforts to give the stećci a purely Serbian or Croatian national stamp (V. Glušac, 1924, 31-35, 36-37, 50; Südland, 1990, 95, 96). From the mid 20th century, the prevailing scholarly opinion was that the stećci could not be explained by either “bogomilization” or any exclusively national theory, but rather than they should be situated in their own authentic world, the world in which they came into being, evolved and then died out in the late 15th century, after the mediaeval Bosnian state had itself come to an end.
The Bosnian context for the emergence of the stećci was dictated by the growing economic power of 14th century Bosnian feudal society, the opening of mines, and urbanization, along with the desire of individuals to mark their standing and power by the outward image of a tombstone. The large number of graves and burial grounds without stećci attest to the deep class differences of feudal society, which means that, chronologically speaking, the stećci echoed both the advance and the decline of feudalism and the development of towns and the bourgeoisie.
The birthplace of the stećak is Herzegovina (Đ. Basler, 1990, 130), and it was there, too, that the art of the stećak reached its peak. The slab tombstones of župans (lords of the county) of Trebinje, Grd (1151-1178) and Pribilša (1241), which may be regarded as the earliest known stećci, do not suggest a Bogomil origin. Both these župans lived at a time when Hum and Travunija were under Serbian Orthodox rule; nor could the Bosnian Church possibly have been present here (M. Vego, 1963, 196). It was the opening of mines and the urbanization of mediaeval Bosnia that form the context for the emergence of the stećak as a new way of marking graves, which began in Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries with the development of towns and the bourgeoisie. These tombstones are typical of the mediaeval Bosnian state (Š. Bešlagić, 1982, p. 32).
Stećci form part of an unbroken sepulchral continuity in Bosnia that reaches far back into prehistoric times, and are clearly associated with the older sites of prehistoric settlements and places of worship, agglomerations and burial grounds dating from antiquity, late antique and early mediaeval churches and fortified towns. They are widespread throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the exception of the Posavina (Sava valley area) and the western part of Bosanska Krajina (the frontier region), with a few in western Serbia and Montenegro, Dalmatia and, here and there, in Lika.
Their epitaphs attest to various other names used in tandem to denote the stećci: bilig, kâm (stone), zlamen, kuća (house) and eternal abode. Popular names long in use include mramorje (marbles), mašeti, Greek tombs, old tombs, kaursko groblje (giaours or 'infidels' burial grounds), and giants' stones.
The name most commonly used in reference works is stećak, deriving from the fact that they were designed to stand over graves as a monument. The word comes from the present participle of the verb stajati, to stand – stojeći or, as it used to be pronounced, steći.
Perhaps the primary significance of the stećak is its appearance, evolution and metamorphosis from smaller, simpler forms to larger and more complex ones. Though there is as yet no full analysis of the types of stećci, the nine different shapes represented at Radimlja near Stolac may be taken as a starting-point: from the plain slab to the slab with a plinth, the chest-shaped tombstone, the chest-shaped tombstone with plinth and tall chest-shaped tombstone, plain or with plinth, to the sarcophagus (gabled tombstone), sarcophagus with plinth and, finally, cruciform tombstone.
The basic shape of the stećak is a recumbent or erect stone monolith. Erect stone monoliths may be in the form of a stela, obelisk or nišan. Tombstones of this type are found in greater numbers in north-eastern Bosnia (in the Srebrenica and Zvornik area), featuring only singly in other parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Most stećci are recumbent monoliths, which take three shapes: slabs, chests and sarcophagi (gabled tombstones). Slabs are the most common, followed by chest-shaped stećci; gabled stećci are the least common. These recumbent tombstones are the primary and principal form of the stećak, and are found throughout the area of their distribution.
The artistic treatment of the stećci is to be seen in their form and decoration. As well as their pure function as lasting grave markers, stećci are designed to arouse in the observe a feeling of beauty, the aesthetic tendency of which is reflected in the forms of the gabled tombstones (sarcophagi) and the so-called tall chests.
The basic artistic quality of the stećci is their decoration, executed using two different techniques – usually in bas relief, though incised lines are not uncommon. The decorative motifs on the stećci possess the marked symbolism characteristic of mediaeval art, and fall into five groups that overlap and complement each other: social and religious symbols, representations of the posthumous round dance, figural scenes and pure ornament. There is also a sixth group of unclassified motifs: those of symbolic function, geometric forms, representations of certain unusual articles, and damaged motifs of which the meaning cannot be deciphered(3).
Taken as a whole, the ornamentation on the stećci reveals the mindset and sensibility of an entire era, both of the people who were involved in making them and of the deceased whose final resting place is beneath these great tombstones, in honour of whose wishes – as some of the epitaphs reveal – the stećci were carved(4).
With 3,000 to 4,000 specimens, the Herzegovina municipalities of Nevesinje and Konjic take first place in numbers of stećci, while among the municipalities of Bosnia, Rogatica stands out with 2,628. The number of stećci in a given necropolis is also an important indicator of social movements in mediaeval Bosnia in the 14th and 15th centuries.
Since most necropolises contain fewer than ten stećci, and those with 300 or more, belonging to larger communities, are the exception, small burial grounds may be regarded as family graveyards, indicating that the breakup of the old clan-based society and the emergence of small family communities organizing their own burial grounds as a sign of their “new” identity was already well advanced (P. Anđelić, 1966, pp. 455-495).
The mediaeval conception of death changed in western Europe with the Protestant reformers, who “based their ideas and beliefs solely on the Bible, rather than on a combination of the Bible and 'tradition' which had built up over the centuries” (Daniell, 1997, 196-199). Following a brief transitional period marked by the emergence of a hybrid stećak-nišan tombstone, the burial practices embodied in the stećci died out in the decades following the establishment of Ottoman rule in Bosnia and Hum, when gravestones began to differ by confession.
2. Description of the property
According to Š. Bešlagić’s statistics, Konjic municipality – with 3,018 recorded stećci – is one of those with the greatest number of stećci in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In terms of shape, chest-shaped stećci are the most numerous, with gabled and slab-shaped tombstones represented in almost equal numbers. The way in which the stećci are grouped makes it possible to trace and to document on the ground important historical features, processes and relations. The siting of large necropolises is a reliable indication of the centres of former religious and political communities. That of medium-sized necropolises enables one to follow the process of development of clan-based villages, while smaller groups reflect intensive feudalization and social differentiation, when individual clans no longer bury their dead alongside their neighbours, but form their own family necropolises. The stećci in the Konjic region can provide an important contribution to resolving the question of the origin of stećci, both in terms of ethnicity and as regards the origins of their basic form. The Sanković necropolis in Biskup is a striking example of the way in which, throughout the 14th century, stećci were used as tombstones by the most powerful landowning clan in the whole of Hum land, while the Bogopanci – Draživojevići – Sankovići are indubitably of Slav origin and culture, not Vlach. It should be borne in mind that by the 14th century the Vlachs already belonged to lower-class social structures and were certainly not in a position to impose their customs, and in particular the way in which graves were marked, on their overlords. The theory of the Vlach origin of stećci cannot be justified, even though there are several necropolises in the Konjic area, and perhaps the finest at that, which could be attributed to Vlachs.
Decorations on stećci increased in frequency only in the early 14th or late 15th century. Circumstances such as the geological composition of the rock from which stone was taken to make stećci no doubt influenced the finer shaping of the tombstones. The considerable difference in the quality of workmanship of the stećci in the Neretvica valley, where there was no suitable stone, and that of the karst regions around Glavatičevo and Bjelimići, is striking. It would seem, however, that this was not the only reason for the differences, for the Jablanica area has good material, and yet does not have any particularly evolved forms and decorations. Among the influences from neighbouring districts that of southern Herzegovina (old Hum) is particularly noticeable, as can be seen throughout the area to the east of Konjic. In Bradina are low gabled stećci clearly modelled on those of neighbouring regions of central Bosnia. The epitaphs on the stećci are of particular value. They are written in Bosnian Cyrillic script, and date from the end of the 14th and the beginning or second half of the 15th century (P. Anđelić, 1975, p. 223-225).
Description of the stećci:
A total of 68 stećci have been recorded in Česmina glava, of which 63 are chest-shaped and five gabled. All are of good workmanship, none bears decorations, and all lie east-west(5).
- Gabled, measuring 180x73x90 cm, tilted to one side, covered with moss;
- Tall chest, measuring 190x90x103 cm, tilted to one side, almost completely covered with moss;
- Chest, measuring 184x114x56 cm, tilted to one side, almost completely covered with moss;
- Chest, measuring 220x120x50 cm, tilted to one side and completely covered with moss;
- Gabled, measuring 155x80x43 cm, partly buried and completely covered with moss;
- Chest, measuring 150x70x 34 cm, damaged, partly buried, covered with moss;
- Chest, measuring 177x100 cm, damaged, partly buried, covered with moss;
- Chest, measuring 195x118 cm, damaged, partly buried, covered with moss;
- Gabled, measuring 145x90 cm, damaged, partly buried, covered with moss;
- Chest, dužine 160 cm, damaged, partly buried, covered with moss;
- Chest, measuring 175x84 cm, damaged, covered with moss;
- Chest, measuring 178x73x 43 cm, quite badly damaged (becoming amorphous in shape), covered with moss;
- Chest, measuring 244x148x75 cm, tilted to one side, damaged (top split) covered with moss;
- Chest, measuring 184x86x100 cm, tilted to one side, covered with moss;
- Chest, measuring 170x80x56 cm, tilted to one side, partly buried, covered with moss;
- Chest, measuring 212x120x67 cm, covered with moss;
- Tall chest with buried plinth, measuring 214x114x87 cm, covered with moss and overshadowed by oak branches;
- Chest, measuring 208x110x40 cm, tilted to one side, covered with moss;
- Chest, measuring 220x78x48 cm, quite badly damaged, covered with moss;
- Chest, measuring 201x67x60 cm, covered with moss and overshadowed by oak branches;
- Chest, measuring 143x75 x 40 cm, tilted to one side, covered with moss;
- Chest, measuring 178x106 x 42 cm, covered with moss;
- Chest, measuring 169x100 cm, partly buried, damaged, covered with moss;
- Gabled, partly buried, overgrown with grass and covered with moss;
- Gabled, almost completely buried, overgrown with grass and covered with moss.
3. Legal status to date
The Regional Plan for BiH to 2000 lists 69 sites of necropolises with stećci (3,018 tombstones) as Category III monuments in Konjic Municipality, without precise identification (various authors, 1980, p. 52).
The Česmina glava necropolis with stećci in Odžaci, Konjic Municipality is listed but not on the Register of cultural monuments of the Institute for the Protection of Monuments of the Federal Ministry of Culture and Sport.
4. Research and conservation and restoration works
The National Museum in Sarajevo began a systematic study of the necropolises with stećci in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1950s.
Š. Bešlagić states that the necropolis at Česmina glava has 40 stećci (35 chests and 5 gabled - Bešlagić, p. 334, 1971).
5. Current condition of the property
The findings of an on-site inspection conducted on 23 September 2008 are as follows:
- 68 stećci were catalogued (63 chest-shaped and 5 gabled), standing in a copse of oak saplings surrounded by a wire fence;
- the stećci are in poor condition, and covered to a greater or lesser extent with plant organisms (moss and lichens) which are destroying the structure of the stone;
- a number of the stećci have tilted to one side;
- a number of the stećci are partly buried;
- several of the stećci are almost amorphous in shape as the result of damage by plant organisms;
- several of the stećci are damaged (broken into two unequal halves, or with surface or deep cracks).
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
D. Clarity
D. i. material evidence of a lesser known historical era
D.iv. evidence of a particular type, style or regional manner
E. Symbolic value
E.i. ontological value
E.ii. religious value
E.v. significance for the identity of a group of people
The following documents form an integral part of this Decision:
- Copy of cadastral plan;
- Copy of land register entry;
- Photodocumentation, photographs taken on site;
- Drawings.
Bibliography
During the procedure to designate the property as a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina the following works were consulted:
1924. Glušac, Vaso, Srednjovekovna "bosanska crkva", in: Prilozi za književnost, jezik, istoriju i folklor, IV (The Mediaeval “Bosnian Church,”, in Contributions to Literature, Language, History and Folklore, IV, Belgrade 1924.
1961. Radojčić, Svetozar, Reljefi bosanskih i hercegovačkih stećaka (Reliefs on Bosnian and Herzegovinian Stećci), LMS, vol. 387/1, Novi Sad 1961
1963. Benac, Alojz, Stećci, Prosveta, Belgrade 1963
1963. Vego, Marko, “Patarenstvo u Hercegovini u svjetlu arheoloških spomenika” (Patarinism in Herzegovina in the Light of Archaeological Monuments), Jnl of the National Museum, n.s. (A), XVIII, Sarajevo 1963
1966. Anđelić, Pavao, “Doba srednjovjekovne bosanske države” (The Age of the Mediaeval Bosnian State), in Kulturna istorija Bosne i Hercegovine od najstarijih vremena do početka turske vladavine (Cultural History of Bosnia and Herzegovina from Earliest Times to the Start of Turkish Rule), Sarajevo, 1966
1971. Bešlagić, Šefik, Stećci, kataloško-topografski pregled (Stećci, a catalogue and topographical survey), Sarajevo 1971
1975. Anđelić, Pavao, Historijski spomenici Konjica i okoline (Historic Monuments of Konjic and its Environs), I, Konjic,1975.
1982. Bešlagić, Šefik, Stećci. Kultura i umjetnost (Stećak tombstones – culture and art), Veselin Masleša, Sarajevo, 1982.
1985. Bobaš, Mirko, Stećak Mihovila Grahovčića (The Stećak of Mihovil Grahovčić). Jukić, 15, Sarajevo 1985.
1990. Basler, Đuro, Kršćanska arheologija, II. izdanje, Crkva na kamenu (Christian Archaeology, 2nd ed, Churches in Stone), Mostar 1990.
1990. Südland, L. V. (Ivo Pilar), Južnoslavensko pitanje. Prikaz cjelokupnog pitanja, Varaždin (The Yugoslav Question. Full account of the issue, Varaždin). Title of original: L. v. SÜDLAND, Die Südslawische Frage und der Weltkrieg. Übersichtliche Darstellung des Gesamt-Problems, Wien 1990.
1997. Daniell, Christopher, Death and Burial in Medieval England, 1066-1550, Routledge, London and New York 1997.
2004. Bešlagić, Šefik, Leksikon stećaka (Lexicon of Stećak Tombstones), Svjetlost, Sarajevo 2004.
(1) The historical information section has been taken from the Decision designating the Archaeological Monuments in the Park at Varda below the Social Centre in Konjic as a National Monument.
(2) For more on the history of Glavatičevo and its environs, see (Jnl of the National Museum 1955, arch., 157—166; JNM 1957, arch., 127, 139, 272; M. Vego, Naselja bosanske srednjevjekovne države, Sarajevo 1957, 149, 164; M. J. Dinić, Glas 182, 210, 213; F. Šišić, Ljetopis Popa Dukljanina, 1928, 327).
(3) The world of Bosnia's and Hum's stećci abounds in symbolism, full of crosses, crescent moons, solar discs, swastikas and stars, scenes of the round dance, tournaments, cavalry processions, military weapoons, shields and arcades, vines and bunches of grapes, stylized fleur de lis and rosettes, deer and wild boar, coats of arms, swords and spears, portraits of the deceased with a disproportionately large raised hand, books, roofs and representations of houses.
(4) In line with the specific political, economic and cultural situation of various regions, the art of the stećak led to the formation of distinctive local styles and schools of art. The leading role is that of the stonemasons' school in Herzegovina, based in the Stolac region, in Trebinje and Bileća, and in Gacko and Nevesinje. A fourth stonemasons' yard was active in the wider Konjic area, and a fifth in the Lištica region. The principal stonemasons' centres in western Bosnia covered the area between Kupres and Duvno, and those of central Bosnia provided for the area around Travnik. In eastern Bosnia, the work of four stonemasons' yards can be identified: one between Kladanj, Olovo and Ilijaš, another around Zvornik, a third in Ludmer and a fourth around Rogatica. There were also centres of scribes, with the Herzegovina school – probably with several centres or workshops – again in first place. A significant centre of epigraphic literacy was to be found in the Stolac area, with Semorad as its most prominent figure (Š. Bešlagić, 1982, 479-482).
(5) The state of the site and the stećci (many partly buried, overgrown and inaccessible) made it impossible to take the measurements of all the tombstones.
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