The Brnjica culture (Serbian: Брњица, Albanian: Bërnica), alternatively Donja Brnjica-Gornja Stražava cultural group, is a Late Bronze Age archaeological culture in present-day Kosovo and Serbia dating between the 14th and 10th/9th centuries BCE.[1][3]

Brnjica culture
Geographical rangeKosovo
PeriodLate Bronze Age
Dates14th c. BCE – 10th/9th c. BCE[1][2]
Type siteDonja Brnjica
Major sitesHisar Hill
Preceded byUrnfield culture
Followed byLa Tène culture

Description

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Reconstruction of a Bronze Age house from the locality Hisar

The Brnjica cultural group was a Late Bronze Age cultural manifestation in what was to become Dardania, closely connected to the Balkan-Danubian complex.[1][4][3] It dates between the 14th and 10th/9th centuries BCE.[1] In Yugoslavian historiography, starting from Milutin Garašanin, the Brnjica culture was interpreted as the "Daco-Moesian" and non-"Illyrian" linguistic component of the later Dardani,[4][3] an Iron Age Palaeo-Balkan group appearing as an Illyrian people in ancient literary tradition.[1]

The Brnjica culture is characterized by several groups:[3]

  • Kosovo with Raska and Pester
  • South and West Morava confluence zone
  • Leskovac-Nis
  • South Morava-Pcinja-Upper Vardar

Brnjica type pottery has been found in Blageovgrad, Plovdiv, and a number of sites in Pelagonia, Lower Vardar, the island of Thasos and Thessaly dating to 13th and 12th century BCE.[3]

Sites

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Donja Brnjica

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The main site of the culture is a necropolis at Donja Brnjica, (Albanian: Bërnica e Poshtme) near Pristina.

Hisar

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Hisar is a multi-periodal settlement at a hill near Leskovac.

Traces of life of the Brnjica culture (8th century BCE) are seen in the plateau that was protected by a deep moat with a palisade on its inner side, a fortification similar to that of another fortification on the Gradac site in Lanište in the Velika Morava basin.[5]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Drançolli 2020, pp. 4311–4312.
  2. ^ Stojic 2006, p. 80.
  3. ^ a b c d e Stojic, Milorad (2006). "Regional characteristics of the Brnjica cultural group" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2011-07-23. Retrieved 2010-08-03.
  4. ^ a b Vranić 2014, p. 35.
  5. ^ Milorad Stojic: Ferrous metallurgy center of the Brnjica cultural group (14th–13th centuries BCE) at the Hisar site in Leskovac. MJoM Metalurgija - Journal of Metallurgy, UDC:669.1

Bibliography

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See also

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