Višeslojni tumul u Novom Selu kod Bijeljine

Abstract

The first step of the investigations in Novo Selo near Bijeljina (Republic of Srpska), in the northeastern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina known as Semberija, took place between 2016 and 2019 in the frame of the project “Visualizing the Unknown Balkans,” initiated by the Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology (now Austrian Archaeological Institute) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in cooperation with the Museum of Semberija in Bijeljina. The slightly elevated mounds in Novo Selo and Muharine at the eastern outskirts of the city of Bijeljina remained unregistered in archaeological literature despite their exposed position. Following the results of magnetic prospecting in 2016 that indicated the existence of ditches and a variety of structures, the first excavation was carried out in late 2018 at the mound in Novo Selo. At that point, neither a chronology nor an interpretation of the large earth mounds could be put forward, since there were no comparable investigated structures in the surroundings or surface finds suggesting an approximate age. The excavations in Novo Selo revealed highly remarkable structures and the use of the place as burial grounds in the Late Copper Age (3200–2600 BC), the earliest stage of the Middle Bronze Age (1750–1650 BC), and finally in the late Middle Ages (1000–1300 AD). In terms of cultural affiliation, the Copper Age finds (pottery) and urn cremation burials correspond with the repertoire of the late Baden complex and the Kostolac culture, while the Middle Bronze Age inhumation burial shows similarities with the graves in the lower Drina valley. The discoveries made in Novo Selo exemplify the complexity of burial mounds and their importance for prehistoric communities, especially in an open landscape like Semberija, with multifarious influences from the Balkans, the Carpathian Basin, and the Danube area