The Cvrtkovci hoard in the context of the potential of the Late Bronze Age hoards from Bosnia

Abstract

The hoards from northern Bosnia, especially those along the wider stream area of river Bosna, are culturally and technologically interpreted in close connection with the emanating pattern of their manifestation in the wider area of south-western Pannonia and the extremely rich Posavina region within it. Data on 11 hoards in the region currently exists, with around 570 items and fragments recorded within these. Most hoards are considered to be representative of the cultural circumstances of the time and place in which they were deposited. Among them are included several exceptionally interesting recently published hoards from Majdan/Ridžal, Paležnica and Srebrenik, each with their own idiosyncrasies. These are now complemented by a hoard from Cvrtkovci, which is presented here in greater detail. All of these hoards, through typological-stylistic analysis and chronological attribution, have been attributed to the earlier period of the Urnfield culture, i.e., defined as falling within the range of phase II hoards of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As a result, they are deemed to be characteristic of an integral part of the enigmatic Pan-European phenomenon of the Late Bronze Age, synchronized with the Ha A1 phase of Central European periodization of the 13th and 12th centuries BC.
In the analyses of Bosnian hoards undertaken to date, an emphasis has been placed on the interpretation of objects as a valuable resource for typological and chronological evaluation, an approach that also forms the basis of this research. However, questions as to the spatial arrangement of the hoards within the landscape, interpersonal connections and origins have only recently been raised, and here, for the first time, an archaeo-metallurgical analysis of isotopes of representative objects from the Cvrtkovci hoard is presented.