Sotin is a village in eastern

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

, located a few kilometers southeast of

Vukovar Vukovar () ( sr-Cyrl, Вуковар, hu, Vukovár, german: Wukowar) is a city in Croatia, in the eastern region of Slavonia. It contains Croatia's largest river port, located at the confluence of the Vuka and the Danube. Vukovar is the seat of ...

by the

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

. It is administratively part of the city of Vukovar, and its population is 782 (census 2011). The post code for Sotin is 32232 Sotin.

History

One

Scordisci The Scordisci ( el, Σκορδίσκοι) were a Celtic Iron Age cultural group centered in the territory of present-day Serbia, at the confluence of the Savus (Sava), Dravus (Drava), Margus (Morava) and Danube rivers. They were historically no ...

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

dating back to late

La Tène culture The La Tène culture (; ) was a European Iron Age culture. It developed and flourished during the late Iron Age (from about 450 BC to the Roman conquest in the 1st century BC), succeeding the early Iron Age Hallstatt culture without any defini ...

was excavated in the 1970s and 1980s as a part of rescue excavations in eastern Croatia. Sotin (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Sotting, Hungarian Szottin) was first mentioned in 1289 as a

fortress A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

of the

jobagions. In Sotin, there is an archaeological site with a settlement of the

Pannonian Pannonia may refer to: In geography: * Basin of Pannonia, a geomorphological region (plain) in Central Europe * Sea of Pannonia, an ancient (former) sea in Central Europe * Steppe of Pannonia, a grassland ecosystem in the Pannonian Plain In h ...

Kornakata tribe. Archaeological finds speak of life in the Sotin area from the

Copper Age The Copper Age, also called the Chalcolithic (; from grc-gre, χαλκός ''khalkós'', "copper" and ''líthos'', "stone") or (A)eneolithic (from Latin '' aeneus'' "of copper"), is an archaeological period characterized by regular ...

to the Younger

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

and the Celtic Skordisks.

Croatian War of Independence

During the

Croatian War of Independence The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between Croat forces loyal to the Government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY)—and the Serb-controlled Yugosl ...

, 32 residents of Sotin were killed and another 32 are missing . A

mass grave A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of execution, although an exact ...

containing three bodies was discovered near the village through information obtained by

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

n authorities conducting a criminal inquest of war crimes—killing of 16 Croatian civilians in Sotin—committed by the

Croatian Serb The Serbs of Croatia ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, separator=" / ", Срби у Хрватској, Srbi u Hrvatskoj) or Croatian Serbs ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, separator=" / ", хрватски Срби, hrvatski Srbi) constitute the largest national minority in Croa ...

militia and Territorial Defense Forces in late 1991. In April 2013, the second mass grave was found in the village. It contained ten bodies transferred from the mass grave containing the three other bodies to a village

slaughterhouse A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging facility. Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is no ...

pit where animal bones were disposed of at the time. The move was made in 1997 in order to hide the bodies better. All thirteen, whose remains were found in the two graves, were killed on 26 December 1991. Two other mass graves were found previously, one at the Catholic graveyard in the village and the other in nearby vineyards.

References

Populated places in Vukovar-Syrmia County Populated places on the Danube Populated places in Syrmia Archaeological sites in Croatia La Tène culture {{VukovarSyrmia-geo-stub