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Sacred Groves of the Tribali on Miro^ Mountain*

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Sacred Groves of the Tribali on Miro^ Mountain* UDC 903.5 '16(497.11)"-05/-04" DOI: 10.2298/STA0656271J 271 MILO[ JEVTI] Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade SACRED GROVES OF THE TRIBALI ON MIRO^ MOUNTAIN* Abstract. – In this work are presented the results of the archaeological investigations at the site Mihajlov ponor (spring) conducted in 2005 and 2006. Few groups of densely concentrated circular stone structures, from 4 to 10 meters in diameter, have been discovered in the thick forest. The structures consist of outer stone circle made of few courses of broken stone and smaller inner circle made of the same stone. Various archaeological objects – fragments of pottery vessels, pieces of jewelry (iron and bronze single-looped fibulae with rectangular catchplate), iron knives, large iron arrowheads of Ferigile type and fragments of two pairs of bridle bits ending with horse head and gryphon head have been discovered within two investigated structures. Particularly important are the finds of wild animal bones (deer, chamois, doe) and one human mandible that are like the other finds scattered within the stone structures. Key words. – Triballi, cult places, Miro~ open area sanctuaries, 6th – 5th century BC, iron bridle bits, stone structures. he Miro~ Mountain is situated on the right bank type discovered in Oltenia and the Romanian section of the Danube, above the narrow and deep Iron of the Iron Gate1 or on the right Danube bank on the T Gate gorge. This is the wooded area with all necropolis of Basarabi culture at the site Vajuga–Pesak characteristics of karst, i.e. with many deep sinks, water downstream of Kladovo.2 This idea was supported by springs, small rivers and underground streams, caves, some of our »assistants in the field«, the self-proclai- rock shelters and clefts in the rock. The highest, mostly med lovers of antiquities with metal detectors who told rocky mountain plateau with just a few clearings ex- tends in the north–south direction immediately along the Danube bank and the highest points are Veliki [tr- * We gave a lecture under this title on November 17th 2006 in bac (768 meters above sea level) in the central area and the National Museum in Belgrade when we officially presented the Visoki ^ukar (632 meters above sea level) in the south. project Praistorija severoisto~ne Srbije (Prehistory of northeast Working on the project Prehistory of Northeastern Serbia) The basis for this work is also a lecture titled Miro~ karst in Serbia – Archaeological Site Surveying and Excavations the Danube Gorges hinterlands (NE Serbia) – one of the Sacred Mountains of the Triballi, given at the colloquium »Interpreted Iron that we initiated in 2004 on behalf of the Department Ages – Case studies, method, theory«, in the beginning of Novem- of Archaeology of the University of Belgrade together ber 2006 in Linz (Landesmuseum). In gathering the material for the with Du{an Bori} from the Cambridge University we study of the Thracian sanctuaries very valuable help was offered to were faced with archaeologically insufficiently inve- me by the colleague Nikola Theodossiev, from the University of St. Clement of Ohrid in Sofia and I wish to express my gratitude to him stigated wooded terrains in the Iron Gate hinterland. We on this occasion. We are aware of the fact that term grove (in Serbian must admit that at that time it did not passed through gaj – small forest), which we use is not the most adequate for the our minds to search for the Triballian sanctuaries or vast forest areas of the Miro~ Mountain. However, slightly archaic sacred places in the forests. In the background of re- Slavic world gaj (grove) has something mystic in itself. Sacred gro- ves were permanent or temporary habitations of the deities of the nowned prehistoric sites Padina, Lepenski Vir, Vlasac antique world and cult places were mysterious initiation rituals took and Hajdu~ka Vodenica on the Danube bank upstream place. and downstream of the mouth of Pore~ka river we 1 Berciu, Comºa 1956; Dumitrescu 1968; Guma 1993, 220–242. expected to find smaller Early Iron Age barrows of the 2 Popovi}, Vukmanovi} 1998. STARINAR LVI /2006. 272 MILO[ JEVTI] Fig. 1a and 1b. Bronze fibula bow and drawing of similar silver fibula from Mihajlov ponor in the private collection of @. ^vorovi} Sl. 1a, 1b. Luk bronzane fibule i crte` sli~ne srebrne fibule sa Mihajlovog ponora iz privatne zbirke @. ^vorovi}a us that they discovered some metal finds (iron spear- In the course of site surveying in 2004 and 2005 heads, knives, bronze and iron arc fibulae, etc.) »under we registered, besides Mihajlov ponor, previously un- the stones« in the forested areas of the Miro~ mountain known Late Bronze Age settlements (culture with en- and we cautiously associated these finds with stone- crusted pottery of @uto Brdo – Gârla Mare type) in the covered barrows. The real gold fever was instigated village Miro~ and at Plo~e above the Gorge (Kazan). among the local treasure hunters by certain pieces of We also discovered one multi-layered settlement dating silver jewelry allegedly discovered in »tumuli« in the from the end of Bronze Age and from Early Iron Age vicinity of Donji Milanovac. Somewhat more tangible under the hill called Glavica (site Kopana Glavica) to traces were provided by @eljko ^vorovi}, teacher in the north of the village Miro~ with pottery of Gava, the village Miro~ who has a small collection of antique Basarabi and Ferigile type. (Fig. 2). and prehistoric artifacts. Special assemblage in this The small-scale archaeological investigations were collection was a group of few iron objects (small single- conducted in 2005 and 2006 only at the site Mihajlov -edged knives, fragments of spearheads and arrowheads ponor (spring) situated around 12 kilometers to the with concave base) discovered with metal detector at northeast of the village Miro~ in the south section of the site Mihajlov ponor situated few kilometers to the the central Miro~ plateau.4 The site is located around northwest of the present forest road Donji Milanovac – 200 meters to the southwest of the strong water spring at Miro~ – Brza Palanka (modern road overlaps the line the foot of the hills Konjska glavica and Visoki ~ukar of the antique road Taliata – Gerulatis – Aegeta). In the on the elevation in the thick forest surrounded by sinks collection of @. ^vorovi} originating from the stone and covering the area of approximately one hectare structures at Mihajlov ponor was also one single-looped (Fig. 3). Thirty-two circular or elliptical stone structu- bronze fibula, which the finder presented as a gift to our res, 4–12 meters in diameter, 0.40 to 1.20 meters high, archaeological team (Fig. 1a) According to @. ^voro- and arranged in smaller groups have been identified in vi} one silver arc fibula (lost on the black market of this area (Fig. 4). All the structures have the outer ring antiquities) has also been found at Mihajlov ponor. We were only able to obtain the drawing of this silver single-looped arc fibula with elongated rectangular 3 catchplate made by @. ^vorovi} (Fig. 1b) The archaeological site surveying of the later prehistoric sites in the Iron Gate hinterland have been carried out in 2004 by In the first phase of the project we conducted the Mirko Pekovi}, keeper in the Military Museum in Belgrade and archa- site surveying in the end of 2004.3 At the site we enco- eologist Marija Mari~i}, while this author took part in survaying untered significant number of considerably destroyed from time to time. circular stone structures and isolated finds of the pre- 4 Members of the team investigating Mihajlov ponor in 2005 historic pottery. As some of these structures were ob- and 2006 were the directors M. Jevti} and M. Pekovi} and archae- ologists Marija Mari~i} and Milica Baj~eta, archaeology student viously destroyed by the treasure hunters we assumed Aleksandra Suboti}, geodesist Milan Arsenovi} and geologist Goran that it was the devastated tumulus necropolis. Klemen~i}. SACRED GROVES OF THE TRIBALI ON MIRO^ MOUNTAIN 273 Fig. 2. Positions of the cult places Mihajlov ponor and Plo~e on the Miro~ Mt. and the others Early Iron Age sites in the Iron Gate Sl. 2. Polo`aj kultnih mesta Mihalov ponor i Plo~e na planini Miro~ i drugi lokaliteti starijeg gvozdenog doba u \erdapu Fig. 3. Map detail with the site Mihajlov ponor on the Miro~ Mt. Sl. 3. Detaq sekcije sa lokalitetom Mihajlov ponor na Miro~u STARINAR LVI /2006. 274 MILO[ JEVTI] Fig. 4. Mihajlov ponor – Disposition of the circular stone structures Sl. 4. Mihajlov ponor – skica rasporeda kru`nih kamenih konstruicija of rather large broken stones and the inside area is consisted of three structures of various sizes. Similar covered with earth and smaller stones (Fig. 5a, 5b). It groups consisting of few circular stone structures have was often the case that smaller circle consisting also of been discovered about 700 meters to the north of the broken stones were constructed in the central zone of central area of the site also in thick and hardly passable the larger circular structure. The massive outer circle forest. The new location marked as Mihajlov ponor 2 of rather large broken stones that was higher than the with rather large group of circular structures made of internal segment of the structure was usually construc- broken stone have been discovered about 350 meters ted against the virgin rocks protruding from the ground. to the southeast of the spring Mihajlov ponor, not far The circular structures, which are smaller in diameter from the hill ^oka Grekuluj (meaning Greek hill in and not so high, were usually covered with smaller Romanian).
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