Stone Age
The Collections of the Metal Age
The Brass Age
The Bronze Age
The Iron Age
The Antiquity Section And Early Middle Age

STONE AGE

Archaeological finds from the territory of the Town Museum of Vršac (municipalities Vršac, Alibunar, Plandište and Bela Crkva) are very numerous and tell about the convenience of this region for settling and producing since the times of the first human communities, in the Paleolithic. Since the middle of the 19th century, when the first collectors - antiquarians appeared, to the present day, over 80 localities from the period of the Stone Age have been registered in this region. The localities are mostly multi-layered, which means that the material remains found in them suggest about the continuity of living at the same place from the Paleolithic or Neolithic period until the Middle Ages.

Despite the numerousness of the collected material, as well as the registered localities, the archaeological researches have been undertaken at only three localities.

Palaeolithic finds are discovered at five localities: At, Crvenka, Balata and Mesić Canal, and all are located in the area of the north foot of Vršac Mountains.

The first curator of the Town Museum Vršac, Felix Milleker, began the collecting activity as far as in 1888. In the period until 1910, he collected the finds from the locality of Vršac – West side, Mesić Canal and Kozluk.

The collections of finds – cut stone tools, from the localities Crvenka, Balata and At are of newer date and were collected in the period from 1952 to 1978, while in 1984 on the locality At, the only archaeological excavations were undertaken, with the aim to study the Palaeolithic finds more precisely.

The analysis has shown that they are the remains of higher-Palaeolithic culture – orinjasijen - XXVII to XXIV millennium BC.

The collection of Flintstone finds from the localities Crvenka-At represents one of the richest collections of orinjasijen materials, collected in the region of middle Europe and Balkans.

Although over 70 Neolithic localities are registered, the archaeological researches have been made at just three of them. They are the localities Kozluk - at the edge of the Vršac mountains, At - at the northwest edge of Vršac and Kremenjak – near the village Potporanj. The oldest Neolithic culture on the territory of the Vršac Museum is the culture of Starčevo. The earliest finds of this cultural group originate from the end of the 19th century. In the post-war period the research activity was continued in Kozluk, although the systematic researches have never been done.

The culture of Starčevo has been registered at over 30 localities, but none of them has been researched yet. At some sites the finds from the middle and new Neolithic age have been registered, and only two such localities have been archeologically researched so far. They are the localities At - at the northwest edge of Vršac and the locality Kremenjak, near the village Potporanj, 10 kilometres south of Vršac. At both these localities, according to the researched area so far, the remains of the culture group of Starčevo have appeared only as the peripheral phenomenon. The settlements at these sites reached their complete development in the new Neolithic period, in the time of the culture of Vinča.

The material from these localities is numerous and it has been processed and published only partially so far.

 

THE COLLECTIONS OF THE METAL AGE

 

The final epochs of prehistory (Brass, Bronze and Iron Ages) could, all together, be called by one name – the Metal Age. This name, in itself, suggests the fact that the main characteristic of these epochs is the use of certain metals – firstly brass, and then silver, gold, bronze and iron. The prehistoric epochs, which are in question, had been developing in Europe, especially in its south and south-east part, in the central Balkans, approximately between the middle of the 4th to the end of the first millennium BC (3500-0). All the stages of this gradual and long-lasting development, during which particular prehistoric cultures were following each other, typical for this part of the Balkans, have been well-documented with numerous archaeological finds (more than 30,000 objects), which have been kept in the collections of the Prehistoric Section of the Department of Archaeology of the Museum. Considering the fact that the Department of Archaeology is one of the oldest in the museum, the forming of these collections begun, literally, since the day when the museum had started collecting the museum objects.

Why brass and gold, of all the metals, are the oldest known metals? The reason lies in the fact that these metals could be found in the nature as native, meaning in the pure, elementary state. Since, at the beginning, they were used exclusively for the manufacture of jewellery, at first these native quantities were sufficient. Later, when the solid tools were made of brass massively (axes, chisels), because of the greater demand, they had to think of complex metallurgical processes to separate brass from its oxide and carbonate ores (cuprite, malachite, azurite). It also implicitly included a gradual accumulation of the necessary petrographic and metallurgic knowledge, which were not acquired by understanding of the chemical processes, happening during the separation of metals from the ore, but by long and patient studying and experimenting. Unlike brass, bronze is an artificial material, which means that it cannot be found in the nature in that state, but it can be made only by alloying of two metals (usually brass and arsenic, or brass and tin). It could be done thanks to the already accumulated metallurgical knowledge, which later made it possible to get iron by melting its oxide, sulphide and carbonate ores (magnetite, limonite, hematite, pyrite and siderite). Without mentioning all the details of the prehistoric metallurgy development, including the production of steel, which represents one of the bases of modern civilization, it is enough to say that the metallurgic revolution of that time, realized as far as in prehistory, has represented one of the most important steps in the development of technology since today.

Besides metals, for the chronology and defining of particular cultures of the Metal Age, the ceramics is also important (pottery and objects made of baked clay), which is, as a rule, the main characteristic of the style of a particular prehistoric culture. Ceramic bowls, of specific shape and decoration, are exactly those that reliably give evidence which culture of the Metal Age is in question.

THE BRASS AGE

On the museum territory, which is covered by the museum in Vršac (the territory of the municipalities Vršac, Bela Crkva, Alibunar and Plandište, and part of the territory of Kovin municipality), 65 localities have been found so far, with the archaeological finds, belonging to the Brass Age. These finds mostly belong to the category of the surface, so-called, casual finds, which, although mostly published in the text books, have small documentary orderliness, and the excavations have been done only at the mound graves from the late Brass Age, near Uljma (the Itebejac mound grave – 1901) and Vlajkovac (Straža mound grave -1907), as well as at the settlement of the middle Brass Age, at the locality Kovin-Brza Vrba (1909–1971).

Mentioned localities at the same time represent the most important archaeological localities of the Brass Age in the south-east of Banat . The first finds of the Brass Age in this region were already discovered during 80's of the 19th century, not far from Veliko Središte and Bela Crkva. Besides the finds which are characteristic for certain cultures of the Brass Age (mostly typical ceramics), numerous finds of the solid brass tools (axes and chisels) represent a special category.

THE BRONZE AGE

The finds of the Bronze Age represent the first archaeological finds, which were found in the south-east of Banat. As far as in 1861, some pottery from the late Bronze Age were discovered not far from Alibunar and the following year near Banatska Palanka, and later they were taken to the Museum of Archaeology in Zagreb . Until the end of the 19th century all the important localities of the Bronze Age in the south-east of Banat had already been discovered: Orešac – Židovar (1877), Dubovac – Kudeljište (1879), Dupljaja – Grad (1879), Vršac – At (1888), Vršac – Crvenka (1888), Vršac – Stari Ludoš (1888), Banatska Palanka – Rudine (1890), Vatin – Bela Bara (1892). Besides these, the localities Gudurica – Kvenhen and Vatin – Železnička Stanica (Railway Station) are very important. In the period until the First World War, mostly thanks to the agile curator of the museum, Felix Milleker, a great number of finds from the Bronze Age was collected at the already mentioned and other localities of this region. These finds have mostly been brought to the museum in Vršac, and a certain number of objects were also gained by the museums in Belgrade, Timisoara, Segedin and Budapest, as well as by some collectors.

In the period between the two World Wars, extensive research activities were not done, but after 1945, thanks to Rastko Rašajski, who did the systematic control of the ground, the number of collected finds grew and the new localities from the Bronze Age were discovered, and the excavations were done at the localities Orešac – Židovar (with interruptions from 1948-977 and then from 1996-2005), Orešac – Selo-Village (1959), Vršac – At (1975,1984) and smaller, protective works at the localities Vršac – Crvenka (1962), Pavliš – Beluca (1962), Dupljaja – Grad-Town (1972) and Vršac – Jarak (1983). Today the finds from the Bronze Age have been kept in the collections of the Prehistoric Section of the Museum Department of Archeology, with the total number of 73 localities, among which are the objects of so-called zero category – “The Idol of Vršac” (locality Vršac – Ludoš) and the Votive Carriage from Dupljaja (Dupljaja – Grad), which represent the most significant and the most valuable individual specimens, not only in the Department of Archaeology, but also in the Museum collection on the whole.

The treasures of the late Bronze Age – The following 5 treasures, out of the total number of 21 so far discovered, treasures from the late Bronze Age in the south-east of Banat, disappeared in the course of time, or the objects have not been preserved: Gudurica – žamski Breg (discovered about 1850), Veliko Središte (1867), Velika Greda – Cavoš (1878), Uljma – Olarova ciglana-Olar's brickyard (1888) and Jermenovci (1903). Although they cannot be connected reliably with a certain culture from the Bronze Age, all the preserved treasures, with about 1,000 individual bronze objects, are the testimony of the strongly developed production and processing of bronze. That it was probably local production, not the import, can be proved by the great number of isolated, individual finds of bronze objects – weapons (swards, spears, daggers), tools (axes, small saws, sickles, razors) and jewellery (bracelets, pins, pendants), which were discovered in the south-east of Banat at 28 localities altogether.

 

THE IRON AGE

The final epoch of prehistory, the Iron Age, in the south-east of Banat lasted approximately 800 years, which means from the 800 BC till the beginning of the new age, in other words till the breakthrough of the Romans into this area, when the antique period had already begun. The archaeological finds of the Iron Age were discovered at 63 localities, the most significant being Veliko Središte – Ramnata, Orešac – Židovar, Vršac – At, Vršac – Staro Selo (Old Village), Vršac – Magarčevo Brdo (Donkey Hill) and Kovin – Ciglana (Brickyard). It should be emphasized that, in the archaeological sense, there are important differences between the old Iron Age ( halštat, from 800 to 400/300 BC) and the new Iron Age (laten , from 400/300 BC to the breakthrough of the Romans). As far as the bearers of some halštat cultures are concerned, their names are not known, except that it is certain that during the 5th century BC we should think about the relatively short breakthrough of the Scythians, which can be proved by the characteristic archaeological material, mostly ceramics and weapons (arrows, spears, daggers).

The bearers of laten (new Iron Age) are the Celts, and with their infiltration with the native people the population was formed, which was mentioned by the ancient writers under the name of Scordiscians. Many significant innovations in the material culture were connected with them, such as the large-scale production of weapons (swords, spears, and others), tools (even the scissors and tweezers), agricultural tools and other objects made of iron, then the manufacture of fine ceramic wares at the potter's wheel and the use of money. During the 1st century BC the Scordiscians, confronted with the attempt of the Roman legions to break through as far as to the Danube, made some kind of pact with the neighbouring Dacians, in order to resist together. The Dacian influence could be felt strongly in the material culture till the 1st century AD, when, after the long-lasting and tenacious resistance, the Roman weapons finally conquered. The Romans established the border of their empire at the Danube, so that the south and south-east of Banat were not formally under the Roman occupation, but they were in the Roman sphere of interest, when the ancient period started.

 

THE ANTIQUITY SECTION AND EARLY MIDDLE AGE

The Department of antiquity and the Early Middle Ages was officially founded in 1958, and until then the Department of Archaeology was divided into two departments: The Department of Prehistory and the Department of Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. The Archaeological objects from the ancient times, migrations of people and the Early Middle Ages, ending with the 13th century AD, have been kept and processed separately. The Department has 6,376 inventoried objects, which originated from many different localities, from the territory of the Vršac municipality, as well as from the neighbouring municipalities of the South Banat. A part of the musealia comes from the territory of the neighbouring Romania. The first archaeologist, who worked on the record keeping of the materials in this department was Stanimir Barački, the curator of the museum in that time. The development of archaeology as the science, on one side, and important field research activity, on the other, imposed the need for the Department to collect the newer finds as well, especially with the works at the locality “Sapaja” and at the Tower of Vršac, so that the limit was considerably moved and now there are the objects and documents from the 18th century. Since 1999, Miodrag Aralica, the archaeologist, has been the head of the Department. Besides the continuation of the works at the Tower of Vršac , which were finished in 2003, since 2002 till the present day, the researches have also been going on at the archaeological localities the Neuropsychiatric hospital “Dr. Slavoljub Bakalović” and Dupljaja.