Field survey of a section of D-2 state road – the northern bypass of Virovitica

U terenskom pregledu dijela trase Podravske brze ceste, odnosno sjeverne obilaznice grada Virovitice, zabilježena su dosad nepoznata arheološka nalazišta koja su smještena na blago povišenim položajima uz manje vodotoke. Na osnovi površinski prikupljenih keramičkih nalaza, definirane su površine za zaštitna arheološka istraživanja koja će omogućiti prikupljanje novih spoznaja o naseljenosti prostora virovitičke Podravine.The field survey carried out on a part of the route of the Podravina expressway, the Virovitica – Suhopolje section, led to the discovery of seven previously unknown archaeological sites. The 9.6 km long route bypasses Virovitica and Suhopolje to the north (Fig. 1) through a lowland territory with a number of small watercourses, next to which, on slightly elevated positions, lie all of these newly-discovered sites. The collected surface ceramic finds were used as the basis for a demarcation of zones for future rescue archaeological excavations that will lead to new insights into the habitation history of the Virovitica area. The intensive habitation was favoured by the fact that the area is positioned on an important communication route leading through the basin of the Drava river, which connected the south-eastern Alpine area with the Danube basin. The future broadarea rescue excavations will enable important knowledge about settlement infrastructure, especially those from prehistory and the Middle Ages