Zagreb City Museum in collaboration with the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb, exhibition in the Arhaeological Museum
Exhibition concept: Zoran Gregl, Želimir Škoberne
Exhibition design: Ivan Ružić
The first news about archaeological finds from the Žumberak region to arrive in what was then the Archaeology Department of the National Museum in Zagreb extend into the second half of the 19th century. However, it was only some twenty years ago that Zagreb archaeologists began to undertake systematic field survey, and soon thereafter test excavations, followed by systematic excavations in this region. This resulted in the discovery of many highly valuable archaeological sites from various chronological periods. From the prehistoric period, this refers primarily to the settlement and cemetery near the village of Budinjak in the central part of the Žumberak Heights (9th – 5th cent. BC), and from the period of the Roman Empire, cremation type cemeteries in the villages of Gornja Vas and Bratelji (1st – 2nd cent. AD). In addition to the material from so many sites have been exhibited in several museums in Croatia and Europe, part of the sites have been presented in situ – a grave from the Roman period in Bratelji, while the presentation of one tumulus is being prepared at Budinjak, while grave 48 from Gornja Vas was “lifted” and placed in a central position in the Lapidarium of the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb, meaning in the very center of the city.
The arrival of archaeologists in May 1982 was highly surprising to the local inhabitants. Žumberak abounds in beautiful nature with an unpolluted environment, but it is almost uninhabited, without paved roads, running water, telephone wires or developed tourism. Naturally the locals were suspicious. The archaeologists arrived on the basis of a report by the then director of the elementary school in Kalja, Zlatko Banović, who noted that “some pottery vessels”, or “krugle” as the locals call them, had been found at the site of Ravnice, below the village of Gornja Vas. The report arrived in the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb, and was received by Dr Branka Vikić-Belančić, who set off together with her colleague Zoran Gregl on the 24th of May 1982 for Gornja Vas. After the site of the Roman period cemetery was located and surveyed, a surprise followed – sitting on the veranda of a village house was a glass urn (olla) with all the other pottery finds from the grave. Everything that was seen that day indicated the existence of a rich, but highly endangered cemetery (because of ploughing), and excavations began in July of the same year.
Research continued and expanded soon after – in 1984 a hillfort and cemetery of 141 tumuli was found at Budinjak, placing it among the largest cemeteries in this part of Europe. The results of these investigations mark a major contribution to the study of the central European Hallstatt Culture of the early Iron Age.
The reason for presenting the exhibition Žumberak from Prehistory to the Roman Period is thus clear: after two decades it is necessary to show the results of field research and professional study. The aim of this exhibition is to introduce the public to the most important remains known at present from the mentioned sites. However, we also wanted to introduce other important, more or less accidentally discovered finds to the public, which despite the insufficient amount of excavations in the Žumberak region, offer much information about the ancient past of this part of Croatia. Some of the finds presented in the exhibition, kept in the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb, the Zagreb City Museum, or the Samobor Museum, are analyzed and presented in catalogue form for the first time, and some are even published for the very first time. The exhibition shows that Žumberak is not merely a nature park, an inexhaustible reservation of flora and fauna, but also a major keeper of the Croatian cultural heritage, which hopefully will be explored in more detail and also be preserved for future generations.
Exhibition catalogue
Radovčić, Jakov; Ivan Galović; Želimir Škoberne; Zoran Gregl. Žumberak – from Prehistory to Late Antiquity / edited by Vesna Herak.
Zagreb : Archaeological Museum, 2002
