The pottery from the iron age settlements in the Užice area: Towards the solution of ethnic questions in the central part of Western Serbia

Abstract

From the pottery unearthed in the Iron Age settlements - which all are of hill fort type - it may be inferred that the central part of western Serbia made part of the proto-Triballian or early Triballian territory from the 13th-12th centuries to the end of the 8th century BC. Indicative of that is the fact that all the proto-Triballian settlements in the region are also of hill fort type, which makes a significant difference from the concurrent mostly plain-type settlements, in other parts of the proto-Triballian territory. It is obvious that all factors conditioning the building of hill fort settlements were manifest in the region from the very beginning of the proto-Triballian period, first of all the hostile attitude of an alien ethno-cultural community, in this case of a population whose culture is very similar to that of the Glasinac plateau. The development of settlements in the westernmost part of the region was interrupted by the end of the proto-Triballian period, most likely in the 9th century BC, and of those in the east - in the course the early Triballian period, in the late 8th or early 7th century BC, which indicates that the Triballi were gradually yielding up their westernmost domain to a population invading from the west. The further ethnic and cultural development of the region was included into that of the Glasinac culture, the protagonists of which are likely to have been the Autariatae. The spread of the Glasinac culture protagonists into the central part of western Serbia resulted in the adequate response by the Triballi: observable in the topography of settlements (hill forts) in the proto-Triballian period, the reaction culminated in the early Triballian period in the building of defense systems, based upon a specific grouping of hill forts. It is possible that it was this incursion of the Illyrians into a part of the Morava basin, or a sign of some other danger, that precipitated the building of defense systems in the early Triballian territory, such as discovered in the Morava basin, on Fruška gora or Titel plateau. By conquering the upper Western Morava basin (upstream from the Ovčar-Kablar Gorge) the Illyrians reached the most important central Balkan communication branching out into all the directions - the Morava basin. In the 6th century, two routes crossed in the borderland between the two peoples: the one (most likely, the Ibar basin) that connected this region, deep in the interior of the Balkan Peninsula, with the Greek world and the Mediterranean, and the road a section of which followed the Western Morava valley. Amber routes from the Adriatic and Ionian Seas were also passing through this part of the Morava basin. Owing to these communications roads and, undoubtedly, due to the need of both the borderland communities to build up their military potentials and demonstrate their power, a mass purchase began of the best weapons of the period either from the Greek world (spears, knives, swords helmets, knemidae) or from the Scythians (arrowheads, war and parade chariots), but also of luxury objects made of precious metals, bronze, glass amber and bone from various sources (Greek world, Etruria, Egypt, perhaps Phoenicia). The tremendous acquisition is indica - live of the abruptly increased 'purchasing' power of the leading social strata, first of all of the military and theocratic classes, responsible for the defense both of the territory and of the ethno-cultural and spiritual identity of their respective communities. That the contacts with the civilized world were not limited to trade, but were considerably more complex, is confirmed by the realm of cult, as suggested by the appearance of the sanctuaries at Atenica and Mrčajevci, shaped after Greek or Mediterranean models. The Triballian and Autariataean communities in the border zone were under a considerable influence of the Mediterranean culture, at the period corresponding to the last decades of Archaic Greece. Intensive contacts with the Scythians were also maintained, as evidenced by the weapons, chariots and decorative objects discovered in the area - after the unsuccessful war that Persia had waged against this powerful people. In the light of all those facts, it comes as no wonder that the first, indirect mention of the Triballi ('Triballian plain') in the written sources, dating from the late 6th century BC, refers to the Morava basin. In the course of the 5th century BC. the region under consideration and most of the Morava basin lost out their precedence to other Triballian and Autariataean regions; the roads in the upper part of the Western Morava basin, which in the previous period had given such an impetus to the development of the Triballi and Autariatae, fell out of use. In the 4th century BC the precedence was taken by the Triballian regions closest to Paeonia and Macedonia (upper Southern Morava basin, the ravines of Kumanovo and Skopje), and to the most powerful Thracian peoples (Odrysians) and the Scythians - the region between the Isker and Timok rivers. Such a situation in the Triballian territory shows to what extent their development depended on the contacts with the leading barbarian communities and, most of all, with the Greek world.

Na osnovu keramike iz naselja gvozdenog doba u užičkom kraju analizirane su etno-kulturne veze zapadnog dela centralne Srbije sa susednim oblastima u razdoblju prelaznog perioda iz bronzanog u gvozdeno doba i starijeg gvozdenog doba. Konstatovano je da je oblast zapadne Srbije u razdoblju od XIII-XII do kraja VIII veka pre n.e. sačinjavala etno-kulturnu celinu sa Pomoravljem, dok se od VII veka pre n.e. etno-kulturni razvoj ove oblasti odvijao u sklopu glasinačke kulturne grupe.