engleski

Study of the Kaptol micro-region

The discovery of a burial mound cemetery with richly furnished burial mounds and princely graves near the village of Kaptol gave the Požega Valley a prominent place on the map of the Hallstatt cultural complex. Prestigious items originating from Central Europe and the Alpine region as well as from the Balkan Peninsula suggested the existence of a unique community living on the south-eastern fringes of the Eastern Hallstatt Circle. Seventeen years of continuous Iron Age research in the valley has generated a vast amount of data regarding the material culture as well as the spatial distribution of archaeological features. Kaptol was recognised as a complex site with two burial mound cemeteries and a hillfort. Based on these results, a hypothesis was constructed that Kaptol functioned as a sort of a central place in the area and that it was part of a hierarchical network together with the other Early Iron Age sites identified in the valley. Modern research methods involving LiDAR scanning and extensive geophysical surveys completely changed our perspective and interpretation paradigm, both in the spatial and diachronical sense. We now know that the contemporary site of Kagovac in Kaptol’s immediate vicinity is also a complex site with two burial mound cemeteries and a large fortified settlement, and that its status was comparable to Kaptol. We also became aware of more Iron Age sites in the valley and gained information indicating the existence of additional sites beyond its natural borders. This shows that in order to understand the Iron Age, we have to shift our interpretative focus from individual sites and direct it to the landscape and its specific features.

Kaptol, Hallstatt, landscape, Požega Valley

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