Although in 2007 Zagreb City Museum celebrated the centennial of its work, the archaeological collection is of a more recent date and was founded in 1993, when the museum for the first time employed an archaeologist. Because of the major archaeological investigations (1989-1995) during the reconstruction of the main building of the museum (previously the convent of the Order of Poor Clares) and the production of the new permanent display, as well as because of the ever-increasing needs for archaeological investigations in the old city centre, in 1997 the museum created a position for a second archaeologist. This created the premises for the division of the collection into a prehistoric and a medieval collection, within which it was possible to classify almost all of the archaeological holdings of the museum.
Because of the vigorous programme of excavations that the museum conducts in the city and surrounds, and the large quantity of newly found material, the founding of a new collection (for example, numismatic or modern) is actively under consideration.
The prehistoric collection of Zagreb City Museum contains finds that were acquired by gifts, reconnoitring and excavations. Most of the finds were acquired in the last score of years, when the research was stepped up. Prehistoric finds that are kept in the ZCM and were found by expertly run excavations can be considered in three groups.
The first group consists of finds collected during investigation of the site of the Zagreb City Museum itself, i.e. the Poor Clares’ Convent.
Although it had earlier been thought, and indeed, finds in the suburb had indicated, that in prehistory Gradec was an important settlement, these finds for the first time gave a glimpse of the size and importance of Zagreb’s Gradec in the first millennium BC.
The abundance of finds and the quality of workmanship of Late Bronze Age and Iron Age potters and founders show the high quality of life on Gradec hill.
The second group is constituted by finds collected in rescue excavations at various locations, particularly in the Upper Town of Zagreb (St Mark’s Square, Grič, Demetrova 7 and so on), which just filled in our knowledge of prehistoric Gradec, both culturally and temporally. It was established that the Gradec plateau was inhabited in its entirety from the end of the second millennium BC. Undoubtedly, this Gradec was then a large regional centre, which played an important and very likely a dominant role in the formation of the cultural identity of the whole area.
The third group consists of finds excavated at the site called Budinjak in Žumberak, where ZCM has systematically been conducting research since 1993. Budinjak is located in the central part of the Žumberak Hills at a height above sea level of 740 m, some fifty kilometres west of Zagreb. This was a fortified settlement (the hill fort called Židovske kuće) and a tumulus necropolis from the time of the Old Iron Age (Hallstat culture). Broader excavations of this site should explain the manners of interment and give new finds and understandings about Halstatt culture in north west Croatia.
The wealth of finds discovered to date at the necropolis in Budinjak tells of the economic strength of the Old Iron Age population that dwelled in the hill fort at Budinjak. This economic strength is comparable with that of the richest Iron Age finds from the south east Alps. The importance and significance of the finds tell of the importance of investigation of this site for the study of central European prehistory (Halstatt culture).
Želimir Škoberne, museum adviser
