Copper and Bronze age in Southeastern Balkans

Pre-requisites: None

Course objectives: To learn about the prehistoric past of southeastern European inhabitants from the 5th to the 2nd millennium B.C., that has been reconstructed based on the available archaeological material and literature.

Course description: The leading Copper and Bronze age cultures review, which have been named using the archaeological method in the area ranging from the Adriatic to the Black Sea and “The Knee of the Danube” in Hungary to the mainland Greece. First part of the course is dedicated to leading cultures from the Eneolithic period; special attention is given to early prehistoric mining and the typology of the first copper and gold objects. It is especially important to single out the lectures about solitary large tumulus with steppe characteristics in the Balkan region, and the movement of cattle farming communities in the assumed Indo-European migration. The second part of the course consists of a leading Bronze Age culture review of the Balkans. It is important to point out the differences in the Bronze age chronologies, which is in the central and western Balkans connected to the central European chronology, while in the eastern part of the Balkans the Bronze age is perceived as part of the Aegean Bronze age.

Learning Outcomes: Midterm examination and oral examination

Literature/Reading:

• . - ARHEOLOŠKI LEKSIKON BOSNE i HERCEGOVINE. Tom 1 (urednik. B. Čović) Sarajevo, 1988
• 1. –SHERRAT A., The Emergence fo Elites: Earlier Bronze Age Europe, 2500-1300 BC.In: PREHISTORIC EUROPE. An Illustrated History (edited by Barry Cunliffe), Oxford Univerisity Press, Oxford, Ne
• PREHISTORIC BULGARIA (ed. D. Bailey, I. Panayotov), Monographs in World Archaeology No. 22, Prehistoric Press, Madison Wisconsin 1995, p. 173-178; 243-248; 262-268; 291-308; 327-339
• HARDING A., European Societies in the Bronze Age, Cambridge University Press 2000
• On the Stratigraphy of Cernavoda III-Boleraz Finds from the Djerdap Area. In: Cernavoda III-Boleraz Symposium. Ein Vorgeschichtliches Phänomen zwischen Oberrhein und der Unteren Donau. Studia Dan
• Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages in the Danube Valley from V. Gradište down to Prahovo. In: The Yugoslav Danube basin and the Neighbouring Regions in the 2nd Millenium B.C., Symposium
• TASIĆ N., Jugoslovensko Podunavlje od indoevropske seobe do prodora Skita, Novi Sad – Beograd 1983.
• TASIĆ N., Eneolithic Cultures of Central and West Balkans, Belgrade 1995.
• PRAISTORIJA JUGOSLOVENSKIH ZEMALJA III (Eneolit), Sarajevo 1979
• PRAISTORIJA JUGOSLOVENSKIH ZEMALJA IV (Bronzano doba), Sarajevo 1983.
• Treasures of the Bronze Age in Romania (eds. C. Stoica, M. Rotea, N. Borofka), Muzeul National de istorie a Romaniei, Bucuresti 1995