Vinkovci-Blato

Settlement, town, county: Vinkovci, Vukovar-Syrmia County

Site type: lowland settlement

Period: Late Iron Age, La Tène culture

Type of excavation: test excavation, field surveys

Institution: Vinkovci Municipal Museum in collaboration with the Institute of Archaeology

Excavation manager: Dr Marko Dizdar (1998), Hrvoje Vulić (2010)

The site of Blato is situated on a gentle elevation surrounded by lowlands, at the foot of the Đakovo-Vinkovci loess plateau, north-west of the centre of Vinkovci. The Vinkovci Municipal Museum, in collaboration with the Institute of Archaeology has carried out continuous field surveys and excavations at the site. The many collected ceramic, metal and glass finds point to the existence of a lowland settlement of the La Tène culture. A large collection of metal and ceramic finds were given to the Museum by Z. Harhaj, although the first finds from Blato had been known since 1878, when Neolithic potsherds and 6 to 7 cremation graves were discovered. The test excavation carried out by Š. Ljubić in 1887 yielded potsherds from the Late Iron Age. The field surveys carried out since 1997 yielded abundant material, which by and large belongs to the La Tène culture. A minor test excavation was conducted in 1998, while a test trench excavated in 2010 was 500 m long. The investigations showed that a Sopot culture settlement and an Early Bronze Age settlement existed in the eastern part of the site, and there was also a small assemblage of Late Bronze Age finds. Occasional finds from the Early Iron Age and from Antiquity were also documented on the surface of the site.

Most of the finds collected so far belong to the La Tène culture. The fragment of an Early La Tène Dux fibula is considered the oldest find. The test excavations uncovered the infrastructure of a lowland settlement of the La Tène culture, to which numerous surface finds of costume and jewellery can be attributed, as well as horse gear, bronze vessels and coins. Among costume items, a large number of different types of fibulae can be distinguished, including the characteristic bronze fibulae of the Vinkovci type with bow forged into the shape of a triangle or a leaf. Fragments of glass bracelets and beads were collected, too. Horse gear finds include strap separators and buttons decorated with the motif of a triple helix. There were also Scordiscan coins and drachms of Dyrrhachium and Apollonia. In view of the numerous finds of metal objects, it can be concluded that this was a prominent Late La Tène settlement of the Scordisci, which participated in the exchange and trade with central Europe, the south-eastern Alps, the western Balkans and the Lower Danube Basin.

Bibliography:

• Dizdar, M. 1998, Nekropola keltsko-latenske kulture u Vinkovcima, Obavijesti HAD-a, br. 1, god. XXX 38-43.
• Dizdar, M. 1999, Željezno doba, u: Vinkovci u svijetu arheologije, Vinkovci, 39-48.
• Dizdar, M. 2001, Latenska naselja na vinkovačkom području, Dissertationes et Monographiae, 3, Zagreb 2001.
• Dizdar, M. 2001, Nalazišta latenske kulture na vinkovačkom području, Prilozi Instituta za arheologiju u Zagrebu, vol. 18, 103-134.
• Dizdar, M. 2003, Prilog poznavanju kasnoga latena u istočnoj Slavoniji, Opvscvla Archaeologica, 27, 337-349.
• Dizdar, M. 2006, Nalazi staklenih narukvica latenske kulture u Podravini, Prilozi Instituta za arheolgiju u Zagrebu, vol. 23, 67-128.
• Dizdar, M., Radman-Livaja, I. 2004, Finds of Roman Bronze Ware on Celtic Sites in Eastern Slavonia, u: Actes du XIVème Congrès UISPP, Universitéde Liège, Belgique, 2-8 septembre 2001, Section 13, The Roman Age, General Sessions and Posters, Le Secrétariat du Congrès (ur.), BAR IS 1312, Oxford 2004, 49-53.
• Dizdar, M., Tonc, A. 2013, Finds of fibulae from 1st century BC in Croatia: Trade and exchange between Eastern Alps, the Danube and the northern Adriatic area before and during Roman conquest, u: Verwandte in der Fremde? Fibeln und Bestandteile der Bekleidung als Mittel zur Rekonstruktion von interregionalem Austausch und zur Abgrenzung von Gruppen vom Augreifen Roms während des 1. Punischen Krieges bis zum Ende des Weströmischen Reiches, Akten des Internationalen Kolloquiums, Innsbruck 27. bis 29. April 2011, Hrsg. G. Grabherr-B. Kainrath-T. Schierl, IKARUS Band 8, Innsbruck University Press, Inssbruck 2013, 49-75.
• Ložnjak, D. 2001, Nalazišta brončanog doba na vinkovačkom području, Prilozi Instituta za Arheologiju u Zagrebu, vol. 18, 33-61.
• Majnarić-Pandžić, N. 2009, On the South Pannonian Population in the Late Iron Age, u: Keltske študije II, Studies in Celtic Archaeology, Papers in honour of Mitja Guštin, Tiefengraber, G., Kavur, B., Gaspari, A. (ur.), Protohistoire Européenne 11, Éditions Monique Mergoil, Montagnac, 235-245.