The medieval župa: Nahiya of Vatnica

On the basis of disclosed and closed records of the Dubrovnik Archive, Turkish census from 1468-1469. and 1475-1477, researches on the ground and relevant literature, we made an attempt to discover how the župa of Vatnica got its name and to define its borders that parted the area of Travunia from the area of Hum. Vatnica had been populated before Slavic people settled the area. Recent history records present Vatnica borders vaguely and imprecisely. Our findings contradict the findings presented in history records that state Travunia borders stretch to Trusina. The župa of Vatnica was placed eastward from the župa of Dabar in Hum land, with the borderline alongside Divin and Kuti village. In the northwest Vatnica bordered župa of Nevesinje alongside Davidovići and Lukavac villages, while the southeast border was reaching župa of Rudine, east from Narat village. Turkish invasion brought in suffering and migrations with local people causing them to leave their homes. Turkish administrative system naturalized itself according to its needs thus changing the old borders. While occupied by Turks, a part of former župa of Vatnica, including Vatnica village, became a part of Turkish nahiya Dabar, but at the same time on the east side of Vatnica village existed nahiya of Vatnica stayed behind with six unpopulated villages, which was supported by the Turkish census. Windy political odds affected the medieval economy of Vatnica. Population pursued agriculture, above all grape growing. They would breed draught cattle for transport and market. Economy of this region was partly influenced by Dubrovnik where the youngster would go to find work and learn trade. Remainders of the past times are stone tombs called 'stećak' as well as the sites of orthodox churches