Arhitektura obredno-ukopnog prostora starčevačkog naselja u Slavonskom Brodu

During the first year of systematic archaeological research in summer 1997. at the locality "Galovo-ciglana" in the eastern part of Slavonski Brod (Posavina, central Slavonia, northern Croatia) ritual - burial area of Starčevo culture was discovered. It was marked and bordered with wooden fence and built inside one of the biggest settlements of the early phase of Starčevo culture (Linear A - level) in this part of Europe (picture 2). In the oldest culture of Neolitic in Pannonia and Balkans, burials of human skeletons were rarely found. In the whole area of cultural complex of Starčevo culture (northern Croatia, Voivodina, Serbia, Kosovo, northern Macedonia, eastern and central Bosnia), which includes regional types of Starčevo culture (Koros in Hungary and Romania, Cav-dar - Kremikovci - Karanovo in Bulgaria, Anzabegovo -Vrsnik in Macedonia) from 453 settlements (66 in Croatia), only in 64 settlements were found human burials (3 in Croatia), which is only 14% (0.6% in Croatia) of Starčevo culture findings with human burials. That is why discovery of human burials in Slavonski Brod is of special significance, because large area of Starčevo culture 1.150 m2 was explored in the beginning of systematic archaeological work. We suppose that this finding place expands on the area of 20.000 m2 and it is the biggest settlement of early Neolithic, discovered in wider Pannonian area. Heretofore discovered skeletons at the localities of Starčevo culture were buried in sod-houses or pits inside settlements among housing sod-houses and do not have special peculiarities (Markovič 1994., 43-44). A great defect in finding rare localities with skeleton burials is that in all finding places only small areas were examined, so in most finding places the shape of sod-houses or pits could not be seen in totality. Examinations of greater area in Slavonski Brod enabled discovery of wooden fence around the area with burials, which was separated in the settlement. Such wooden fences around necropolis were also found in countries of central Europe (Austria, Hungary, Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia) and belong to younger cultures of Neolithic (Truka 1991., 1-133; Petrasch 1990., 409-528), while wooden fences and ritual-burial area in Slavonski Brod is the oldest finding of this kind in Europe. Wooden fences around places where only the chosen members of the tribe were buried shows that this area was separated as the important and sacred one. Although Starčevo culture settlements are being examined for more than hundred years, their necropolises have still not been found. Archaeological research in Slavonski Brod is documented according to the most recent archaeological methods, so that the numbers of mobile and fixed objects mark the numbers of stratigraphic units SJ. Big sod-house SJ 09 and small sod-house SJ 015 dominate ritual-burial space. In big sod-house there were three human skeletons SJ 033,034,035 and in a small one SJ 015 only °ne skeleton. In northern part of the big sod-house SJ 09 two ritual furnaces SJ 030 and SJ 031 were discovered (pictures 2,7,9,10,11), similar to the furnaces in Starčevo sett- lement in Zadubravlje (Minichreiter 1992., 37-45 , pictures 1,5,6). The entrance of the sod-house SJ 09 had two steps in the central eastern part. In the middle of the sod-house there were some ceramic vessels with the remains of animal bones and stone tools, and pieces of baked soil. Under this heap we found a cattle horn (picture 9), similar to the one found in Zadubravlje (Minichreiter 1992., 19) and in Obri I in Bosnia (Benac 1973., 16). In the southern part of big sod-house around burial SJ 035, at the western, southern and eastern side, there were piles of ceramics vessels, animal bones and "sacrificial tables". In the small sod-house SJ 015, west from the big one, one human skeleton was buried, together with pieces of ceramics, stone tools, pieces of animal bones and parts of "sacrificial tables". Above the skeleton we found four clay discs with the whole in the middle and duck head made of clay (Minichreiter 1999. 7-15). In the northern part there was one step at the entrance, and in the western entrance there was the biggest heap of stone axes and stone tools, probably for cult purposes. Around the small sod-house SJ 015 we found holes from wooden posts (pictures 6a,b,c,d), which points to the importance of the deceased inside the tribal community. Big fences SJ 07, on the northwest side of ritual-burial area (pictures 2,3) are interrupted at the western side, where the row of big vertical posts held the construction of "western gate" - passage from the settlement into this separated space. Detailed survey and analysis of ritual-burial space architecture enabled, for the first time, foreseeing of rituals during burials, and consideration of the dwellers on life after death in early Neolithic and in the beginning of Starčevo culture not only in Croatia but in the whole cultural complex of Starčevo culture in this part of Europe. Explorations in Slavonski Brod enabled publishing of the first conclusions, which will be the basis for further research work of the earliest cultures in Croatia: - only the chosen members of the tribe are buried inside the settlement - the burial space is separated with wooden fences among which there are several passages ("northern, western and southern gate"). The finding place in Slavonski Brod is the oldest one of that kind in Europe. We suppose that ritual-burial space was in the northern and eastern part, protected with wooden fence and occupied the area of 1.962 m2 which is ten times bigger than the one in Zadubravlje (176 m2). Both places belong to the early phase of Starčevo culture (Linear A - level), but in Zadubravlje were not found any burials. - the deceased were buried in sod-houses similar to those in the settlement - there isn\u27t a rule on how many deceased are buried in one sod-house, but we would like to stress that all the deceased have the same area of the space in which they are buried. In smaller sod-house SJ 015 there is one skeleton SJ 036 buried in the space of 25 m2 , while in big sod-house SJ 09 there are three skeletons of the area 105 m2 (two in the north part - 50 m2 and one in the south part - 25 m2, while the central part - 30 m2 was used for rituals). - in bigger sod-house SJ 09 near the skeletons SJ 033 and 034, two ritual furnaces SJ 030 and 031 were discovered, the same as those found in Zadubravlje. Ritual furnaces in Slavonski Brod were not in use very often. - votive stone axes of small dimensions, used for some rituals, were found next to the west side of entrance stairs of the small sod-house SJ 015. In the big sod-house SJ 09, ceramic vessels and pieces of "sacrificial tables" were arranged in symmetrical intervals, showing that they were used for rituals - burials of the deceased with no heads or faces suggest cults and rituals during early Neolithic - burials in shrivelled position on the right or left side were common in Neolithic culture, as well as the covering of the deceased with soil, pieces of ceramics, clay figurines, small altars and little stone tools - small clot of ocher north from the skeleton SJ 035 maybe shows that the deceased were painted during the rituals. The explored part of pre-historic settlement "Galovo-cigla-na" is just a small part of eastern settlement of Starčevo culture (Minichreiter 1997., 22), for which we suppose was at the area of 20.000 m2. Discoveries of two similar settlements of Starčevo culture near Slavonski Brod - 2 km north of "Igrač" in Bukovlje and 2 km west from Agricultural school near the river Glogovica, show that this area was an important crossroads of the oldest pre-historical roads from the north (Pannonian valley) to the south (Balkans) and crossing of the river Sava, Which was the main transversal from the Alps in the west to the Danube and Black-sea in the east