Field research of the Institute

Podgorač-Ražište

The archaeological site Ražište near Podgorač, lying 11 km east of Našice, has been known since 1965. The test excavation carried out at the site in 1975 covered an area of 75 m2. The settlement discovered on that occasion belonged to a new type of Sopot culture, which was named the Ražište type in 1981. It was observed that in Slavonia around Našice and Đakovo, during or towards the end of phase I of the classical Sopot culture, which was spread to the east, following the Spiraloid B phase of the Starčevo culture, a specific cultural phenomenon was formed, which can generally be dated to the period between around 5000 and 4700 BC. In addition to ceramic finds, this cultural variant is characterized by pit-dwellings, unlike the parts of Slavonia lying more to the east, where people lived in rectangular houses. The pit-dwelling way of life was adopted from the Starčevo culture, while pottery decoration points to connections with the Vinča and Linear-Band Pottery cultures. Recent investigations at the Novi Perkovci-Krčavina site near Đakovo and Golinci-Selište near Donji Miholjac have corroborated this thesis.

New research carried out in 2013 on an area of 100 m2 and in 2015 on an area of 50 m2 confirmed, by virtue of its finds, the existence of the Ražište type of Sopot culture of the Middle Neolithic. However, these investigations, too, failed to reveal above-ground structures, which separates this variant (as well as a part of the ceramic finds) from the territory of the classical Sopot culture, spread more to the east. The impulses of the classical Sopot culture from eastern and central Slavonia advanced towards Hungary (giving rise to the Bicske type of Sopot culture, which precedes the Lengyel culture), as well as towards the western part of northern Croatia, where the Brezovljani type was formed as a part of the Sopot culture. The research at this site is important for connecting the end of the Starčevo culture with the emergence and spread of the Sopot culture in northern Croatia. The information collected at this site will provide an answer to the question about the role of the Ražište type of Sopot culture in the formation of cultural phenomena of the Croatian and Hungarian Podravlje (Drava river basin).