Research

OVERVIEW OF THE ACTION

SOLMUS project examines the stećci agency in the construction and transformation of medieval social and religious worlds, and their role in the formation of social memory. The project seeks a holistic response to the discussed issues focused on uniformity concerning differentiation in identity building while proposing interpretations of how significant changes in European medieval societies are expressed in the material record. SOLMUS synthesizes complementary data sets from archaeological and historical records, which are often treated separately. The proposed studies model social interactions in medieval Bosnia and Herzegovina, accessed from the perspective of a combination of social and landscape archaeology, using social network analysis (SNA), archaeoastronomical analysis of graves or churches and digital remote sensing technology with modern geospatial tools: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) satellite images, transformation reflection mapping (RTI), and unmanned aerial mapping (UAV). Using these cutting-edge techniques and grounded theory, SOLMUS systematically deals with the above-mentioned lack of knowledge:

a.) Assessing and mapping the scope and categories of stećci using a global archaeological approach;

b.) Generating original archaeological data for a representative sample through modern excavations and scientific analyses;

c.) Interpretation and dissemination of results, in the form of new knowledge, into a public domain through fieldwork.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES (SC)

The specific objectives of the SOLMUS project are to provide original data to address issues related to death and burial, the dynamics of political complexity and the eternally important themes of religion and society. In the Middle Ages, death meant a transition, a change of status, but not an end. The dead were omnipresent, with an active role and service for society. The dead and the living had permanent relationships, offering and receiving signs and services. The living owed to the dead certain obligations, the most important of which was the memory of the dead in all religious and social domains. An extraordinary number of stećci enable and dispose of information for qualitative spatial assessments of social, religious and political dynamics in medieval Herzegovina. Using this approach to study the past, social, and landscape archaeology intertwine, revealing a new understanding and vision of past communities.

  • SC 1 – Political dynamics of medieval župa Dabar: The localities of the stećci cemetery and the stone monuments themselves were involved in complex and changing processes in evolving rituals and social practices in inhabited landscapes that were rapidly changing with each generation in terms of population density, roads, settlements, and territorial organizations. The political dynamics in medieval župa Dabar willbe explored through iconography and epigraphy because the inscriptions on the tombstones of political personalities gave the political note to the location of their burial. Using the landscape and environmental archaeology, this project explores the development and relationship between cemeteries and settlements, as well as their impact on landscape, accessibility, relationship, and management of ecological resources (agricultural land, water resources, quarries).
  • SC 2 – Religious dynamics of the medieval župa Dabar: Landscape archaeology emphasizes the relationship between material cultures and cultural modifications to landscapes. The project here concentrates on the religious significance of the landscape and medieval populations’ transformations of the world around them, based explicitly on religious meaning, sense and implications of stećci in medieval BiH. Also, some locations show a continuity of burial use since prehistory. SOLMUS explores the nature and status of these sites in medieval societies and whether the physical location is integrated into the religious sphere. Interesting is the status of the cemeteries surrounding the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Specifically, this SC will be examined in the site of Milavići, as the geophysical survey has shown that there is a built structure in the center of the cemetery. Given that the toponym of this location is Crkvina and that the area today is inhabited by mostly Orthodox populations, the contingency of burials shows connection with the Orthodox Church today, and we presume also in the past. Archaeological excavations will show whether this really is a medieval church. We will also use archaeoastronomical analyses, which reveal the orientation of these monuments, the spiritual relation to connected churches, settlements and the nearby landscape, and the cognitive level and abilities of these medieval communities.

In general, stećci combine ontology, understanding of life before and after death, and illustrate the sacred and profane perceptions of these medieval communities, developing their own identities in the time between late antiquity and the Ottoman period.

  • SC 3 – Social Dynamics of the medieval župa Dabar:The societies carefully integrated their memories, memory in the landscapes, intertwining places and meaning with memory in order to create a “site awareness”. Thus, the construction of memory is a material practice because it leaves traces in the landscape. Stećci represent a remarkable base of such a memory since they embody strategies for the construction of personal and shared identity and their preservation. As indicated, they also synthesize the historical, chronological, cultural and religious components of the medieval Western Balkans. SOLMUS examines such transformations and continuities that relate to issues of identity, society and ontology, including, among other things, cultural memory reconstruction, embedded in regional and local archaeological medieval landscapes, including the assessment of anthropogenic land-change and the construction of the cultural landscapes. Furthermore, the project explores the social structure and complexity, with identity interactions as expressed through the stećci and as seen from the funerary remains.

Cemeteries of medieval stećci represent the social aspects of society and provide an insight into the very structure of society: the mortuary remains, and associated practices reflect the social phenomena. The form and structure of a culture’s complexity is reflected in the form and structure of its mortuary practices: the social position of the deceased is communicated through mortuary treatment. In this part, we work on the interpretation of status, rituals, symbolism and territory, and consider how and when the use of stećci began and has grown into a tradition. SOLMUS not only examines the social concepts related to the burial of the dead but through a social archaeological approach also provides a more in-depth insight into cultural events and innovative social interpretations of the past in the border area between medieval Christian Europe and the Islamic world.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND APPROACH

The global material view of SOLMUS project access, from the single artefact to the landscape, incorporating concepts and principles of social archaeology, contributes to the innovative perspective of contemporary scientific archaeology. The methodology includes many well-established protocols, which are rarely used together. Landscape digital technologies are accentuated by social modelling, combining geospatial cultural mapping, a series of GIS analyses (spatial, clustering, density, networking, cost paths analysis), the production of local site maps, precise mapping of the monuments with RTI, together with SNA and archaeoastronomical analysis. This interdisciplinarity and volume of data require analytical techniques to be integrated and implemented at three levels (global, regional, local) at the same time. The theoretical foundations of SOLMUS are based on the patterning of tombstones, settlements and road networks, as well as on interconnections that reflect the social, political and economic organization of the country, region and localities. The complexity and versatility of data are managed by an appropriately designed relational database Filemaker. GIS is an interface for the integration of archaeological data with evidence from publications, ancient and modern maps and oral sources. SNA examines the social relations among several actors and the materiality of stećci in the medieval regions of BiH. Thanks to innovative data modelling and advanced technologies, we can rapidly add new high-resolution evidence previously unobtainable without expensive and time-consuming fieldwork and analysis. By mapping the location of cemeteries, settlements and roads, accounting for applicable variables (village & house population, civil status, wealth, agricultural capabilities & production), and using spatial analyses and SNA to measure the network’s properties, meaningful interpretations can be made about the inhabitants’ inter-relationships and the their representation in the post-mortem world.

Research plan:

  • September 2018 – January 2019, University of Reading, UK and Oxford University Library, UK: A review of literature on history, archaeology, geography and art of BiH;
  • December 2018 – February 2019; University of Reading, UK: Obtaining various maps, which can be used for further research. Historical maps will be studies and enhanced during the project;
  • February 2019, Dabarsko polje, BiH: Overview of locations of the entire medieval administrative unit – župa Dabar in situ; in cooperation with the Institute for the Protection of Historical, Cultural and Natural Heritage (IPHCNH) from Banja Luka (archaeologists Prof. Ljubica Srdić and Ljiljana Vručinić) and with the history professor Dr Radmilo Pekić.
  • March 2019; Dabarsko polje, BiH: Non-destructive geophysical survey – in collaboration with University of Reading, UK, geophysicist Dr Rob Fry.
  • June, July 2019; Dabarsko polje, Bileća, BiH: Based on the information obtained on the geophysical survey, in agreement with the IPHCNH (Prof. Srdić, Mrs Vručinić), the location of archaeological research will be identified.
  • July 2019 – August 2020; University of Reading, UK; National Museum, Slovenia: Post-excavation analysis of the excavated material: samples, objects and human remains, and its interpretations.
  • August – December 2020: All the materials and documentation are returned to the IPHCNH in Banja Luka.

Archaeological excavations will include the following techniques and methods:

  • Digital documentation of the cemeteries’ condition before excavation (drawings, total station measurement, photography, other image capturing and processing);
  • Cleaning of the stećak monuments – after consultation with the conservators and the IPHCNH, this will be completed only with water and pressure equipment;
  • Capturing decorations and inscriptions on monuments with an epigraphic technique called “squeeze”;
  • Removing tombstones from the original position, so that we can perform the excavations. This will be made with a digger and a tractor, which will harness the monument, lift it and transfer it to a secondary place, far enough, to make the excavations safe for the researchers;
  • Stratigraphic excavation of graves, with sampling for scientific analyses in osteology, uranium dating, archaeobotany, geomorphology. Human bones and other materials in graves will be explored and excavated with the latest scientific techniques and high ethical approach.
  • Extraction of material from graves for initial statistical analysis – how many people were buried in the grave, first pathological examinations, bone clearing, weighing and further documentation of all material.
  • Creation of a list of materials that will be investigated by further scientific analyses.