Archaeological field survey on the route of construction of the Križevci – Koprivnica – Botovo railway

Institut za arheologiju iz Zagreba proveo je arheološko rekognosciranje područja izgradnje pruge Križevci – Koprivnica – Botovo. U široj okolici trase pruge otkriveno je više položaja sa srednjovjekovnom i novovjekovnom keramikom.The Institute of Archaeology in Zagreb carried out an archaeological field survey on the construction route of the Križevci-Koprivnica-Botovo railway in October and November 2013. The investigation was directed by Dr Hrvoje Kalafatić from the Institute of Archaeology with the participation of Dr Marija Šiša-Vivek and Marina Mađarević. In the impact area of the construction plan of the Križevci-Koprivnica-Botovo railway there are no registered cultural properties of archaeological heritage. An opportune circumstance in the construction of the second track of the Križevci-Botovo railway is that the planned new railway track to a large extent follows the existing track, thereby reducing the potential impact on the cultural heritage. Two sections of the track that depart from the existing route were given special attention in the archaeological field survey. Section 1 (Map 2) consists of a slightly elevated area of hills and valleys through which passes the future railway route. Positions 5 and 6 did not yield enough information to qualify as archaeological sites, since the small number of finds would rather point to recent remains. Position 7, in addition to abundant fragments of recent pottery, yielded several potsherds that can be dated to the Late Middle Ages. The landscape of section 2 is covered with meadows and, to a lesser extent, cultivated land. Even though not a single archaeological site was discovered in the field survey on the railway route, in favour of the probable existence of archaeological sites speaks the favourable terrain configuration and the toponyms Zidine, Gradina and Gradine (Map 3), with which this area is marked on maps, and which are used by the local population. The survey of the second part of the new railway route near the Carevdar settlement did not yield any traces of habitation. The survey of Section 4 around the villages of Drenje and Torčec resulted in the discovery of two positions—Position 1 and Position 4—with a small quantity of recent pottery, which does not point to archaeological sites. The finds from Positions 2 and 3 consist of recent and modern period pottery, as well as late mediaeval pottery. These are both favourable positions next to watercourses, which probably belong to a former dispersed settlement. Since the positions lie around 100 metres from the railway route, if the new track is constructed according to the plan, next to the existing one, it should not have any impact on the discovered site