Donja Dolina i Makedonija
Donja Dolina and Macedonia

Summary/Abstract: Donja Dolina — a pile-dwelling on the river Sava near Bosanska Gradiška, is well known in archaeological literature. The cultural remains can be dated from the Late Bronze Age to the Roman era, but the most varied and richest material here belongs to the period from the seventh to the fourth centuries B. C., when obviously Donja Dolina was an important commercial and artisan centre in the northern Balkans. In the material from the pile-dwelling and the necropolis belonging to it, one can recognise elements from various parts o f the Balkan peninsula — Slovenia, Bosnia, Pannonia, Serbia and western Bulgaria, Transylvania, Oltenia, even from Macedonia and Greece. These Macedonian and Greek elements are the subject of this short contribution. Some of the objects found in Donja Dolina point clearly to a direct connexion between the two areas. In the first place, the re is a curious elongated pendant, usually with a stylized human figure on the top (so-called wine-cork, after U. Jantzen). This object, typically Macedonian, is well known in Aegean Macedonia and Thessaly (Chalcidice, Amphipolis, Bohemitsa, Pherae), while it is less frequently found in Yugoslavia and Albania (Prilep, Kuçi and Zi, unpublished example from Otovica near Titov Veles). In Greece and Macedonia, it belongs to the eighth or seventh centuries, but the example from Donja Dolina might be of a later, date, perhaps from as late as the beginning of the sixth century. The long life of these objects is confirmed by examples from Bohemitsa, which were found together with material showing some Balkan elements — bracelets, bow fibulae, triangular pendants — dating from the last third of the seventh century. On the basis of the stylization of the human figure, one could perhaps speak of an earlier — 'plastic’, and a later — linear’ type (to which the example from Donja Dolina belongs)., though a more precisely dated material is needed to confirm this statement (T. 1,1). A pendant in the shape of a jug with elongated lower part (T. I, 2) has direct parallels in Macedonia, and suggests, in spite of local imitations in the interior of the Balkans, an import from the south because of its finish and details. A round plate fibula with petals and incised circles from Donja Dolina has a parallel on Chalcidice (Potidea). To these Macedonian objects belong probably two-shank pins with a simple head in the shape of a triangle (T. I, 3, 4). Although two-shank pins are well known in the Balkans—especially in Bosnia, this particular form is common in Macedonia (Amphipolis, Axiokastro, Kozani, Pateli, Radanje etc.) from where it probably spread to the north (Kara- gač in Ko so vo. Kadin Most in Bulgaria, Gogosu in Oltenia). The two examples from Donja Dolina had obviously come there by the same route. This is confirmed to a certain extent by the bow fibulae with quadrangular leg. All finds of this type in Donja Dolina (T . I , 5— 8) belong to the sixth century examples, which developed from Thessalian fibulae of the seventh and the sixth centuries (Blinkenberg's groups VI, and partly VII). They came from Macedonia via Serbia, western Bulgaria and Oltenia before local forms of this fibula type had been produced in the Balkans at the end of the sixth and in the fifth centuries. While these objects suggest the spreading of cultural elements which were partly absorbed by the indigenous culture, there is another type of material which points to a developed commerce between Donja Dolina and the Aegean Coast, occurring almost at the same period. One should, first of all, note ’Illyrian' helmets, two of which were fou nd in Donja Dolina (T. II, 1, 2), and another one close by, in Kaptol, Slavonia (T. II, 3). All three belong to the mature or organically animated form, according to E. Kunze, which could be dated from the second half of the seventh to the third quarter of the sixth centuries B. C. Apart from the Peloponnese, a number of these has been discovered in northern Greece and Macedonia (T. II, 4), so that the assumption that they came to Donja Dolina from down there is quite plausible. This is confirmed, to a certain extent, by the lack of this mature form on the Adriatic Coast, where more than thirty 'Illyrian’ helmets were found, all of them belonging to the later form, dated from the last quarter of the sixth century onwards. A lotos fialae, found in a Donja Dolina grave along with one of these helmets (T. I, 9), might have come by the same comm ercia l route. One could conclude that frequent relations of different kinds existed between Donja Dolina and the south from the end o f the seventh to the third qu a r te r of the sixth centuries. Bear ing in mind that sometime since the m id d le o f the seventh century B. C. indigenous tribes had been developing economically and p o litica lly , the appearance of an important commercial centre in their surrounding was, in fact, conditioned by the ir new needs. Thanks to its suitable geographical position, Donja Dolina became quite known in this way and was visited even by caravans from the far south. In the second half of the sixth century the importance of this southern route decreased. The reason lies partly in the increasing strength of the neighbouring tribes which may have temporarily governed the commerce in D on ja Dolina, and also — which seems more imp o rtant — in the appaerance of rich Greek material in the graves of indigenous princes in Trebenište, Novi Pazar, Çinamak, Peć etc. They speak of new and close clients, very interested in Greek wares — thanks to a new step in the development o f social and economic relations in the Balkans — so that the need for distant and somewhat hazardous markets, like Donja Dolina, did not exist any more. For a complete understanding o f this 'Macedonian' route to Donja Dolina one needs more space for a large analysis and mo re field-work data. However, it might have been of more importance for the connexion between Greece and the interior of the Balkans (prior to the development of frequent traffic along the Adriatic Coast at the end of the sixth century), than one can judge at the first sight from a couple of objects mentioned here. At the end, may we bring back to your attention the fact that both Cornthian helmets found in the Balkans — in Glasinac and Kaptol — belong to the type which was produced before the last quarter of the sixth century. It is possible that they also came by the same route fr om the south, considering the fact that such helmets have not been found on the eastern Adriatic Coast as yet.

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