prijava
ZENICA, August 29 (FENA) - Archeological excavations conducted so far by students from Vienna and Sarajevo for the past four weeks at two sites in Zenica, led by Dr. Mario Gavranović and Mr. Edin Bujak, according to the exhibits found, testify to the fact that some of the areas around Zenica were inhabited some 3,100 years ago,” Dr. Gavranović told FENA today.
He points out that they conducted geomagnetic aerial surveys in October and November last year in the areas of Gradišće and Kopilo area, which were the subject of these excavations, and that they already pointed to potential and interesting archeological sites.
“Now we have decided to start the excavation at these sites, where we found very interesting exhibits. There is a lot of pottery, iron objects, stone weapons ... All this testifies to the fact that the settlement Kopilo was inhabited until the second century BC,” points out Viennese archeologist Gavranović.
They found skeletons of animals - pigs, cows, goats that were bred by the then inhabitants, and since Kopilo is located at an altitude of 600 meters, while the fortifications in Gradišće are at over 900 meters above sea level, Gavranović concludes that the settlements during this period were mostly built at the high altitude areas.
“People went to the hills because probably the Bosna River was a swamp area at that time, that is, it did not have its own riverbed. Our goal in the coming period is to explore the entire Zenica area, some 15 locations, in order to shed light on the process of formation of settlements in these areas during the Bronze Age,” explains Gavranović.
The archeologists found two tombs in settlement of Gradišće, two burial mounds were also found, but also a completely new prehistoric settlement - Ravna gradina. In one of the tombs, Sarajevo archaeologist Bujak points out, they found human bones and pottery buried in the tombs together with the deceased.
“There are fifteen known localities in the Zenica area from the Bronze and Iron Ages, but so far only Kopilo has been explored.
These are also the first archeological excavations in the Zenica area in the last fifty years, which is also interesting. Archeology students from Austria and Bosnia and Herzegovina are also participating in the project, which gives this project an educational dimension as well, Bujak says.
(FENA) S. R.
