![Brdo Hisar kod Leskovca 01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Brdo_Hisar_kod_Leskovca_01.jpg)
The Hisar ( sr, Хисар) is a hill near the town of
Leskovac in southern
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 ...
. A town's symbol, the hill is known for the remains of the large, fortified
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
settlement and has been declared a nature park. The evidence confirm the almost continuous habitation from the
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
to the
Ottoman period,
and as the town of Leskovac engulfs the hill, until today.
With numerous remains of the equipment for iron processing (grinders, furnaces, charcoal piles), iron ore itself and high quantities of discovered
slag
Slag is a by-product of smelting (pyrometallurgical) ores and used metals. Broadly, it can be classified as ferrous (by-products of processing iron and steel), ferroalloy (by-product of ferroalloy production) or non-ferrous/base metals (by-prod ...
, dated from the 14th to the 11th century BC, indicates that this was the oldest known occurrence of
ferrous metallurgy in Europe and one of the oldest in the world. A nicely preserved needle, discovered on the site in 2001, is considered to be one of the oldest surviving metallic objects on the planet.
[
]
Location
The hill is located within the urban area of Leskovac, in the valley of the Veternica river, which passes east of the hill. Almost from all sides it is surrounded by the town's urban tissue, with only southwest and, partially, south side remaining unurbanized. On the north, there is a Park "Devet Jugovića".
Characteristics
The hill makes the westernmost extension of the Goljak
Gollak ( sq-definite, Gollaku, sr, Гољак, Goljak) or Gallap ( sq-definite, Gallapi) is a mountainous and ethnographic region in the eastern part of Kosovo and partially in Serbia, bordering the Llap region to the North, the Kosovo field t ...
mountain, sloping into the Morava valley.
Name of the hill comes from the Turkish word ''hisar'', which means citadel
A citadel is the core fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of "city", meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core.
In ...
. Smaller forts were called ''hisardžik'' and fortresses above several cities in southern Serbia were in time named ''hisar'' (Leskovac, Prokuplje).
In its itinerary
Itinerary or Itineraries or Itinerarium may refer to:
Travel
* Itinerarium, an Ancient Roman road map in the form of a listing of cities, villages, and other stops, with the intervening distances
* ''Itinerarium Burdigalense'', also known as the ...
"Serbia - land and population", published in 1904, Austrian traveler Felix Kanitz
Felix Philipp Kanitz ( he, פליקס פיליפ קאניץ. 2 August 1829 – 8 January 1904) was an Austro-Hungarian naturalist, geographer, ethnographer, archaeologist, painter and author of travel notes, of Jewish heritage.
Biography
Kanitz w ...
wrote:
The nature park covers an area of . The Monument to the Unknown Soldier was erected on the hill in 1922, in honor of the anonymous captain who was killed on 26 October 1915 during the Morava Offensive
The Morava Offensive Operation ( bg, Моравска настъпателна операция), ( sr, Битка на Морави) was undertaken by the Bulgarian First Army between 14 October 1915 and 9 November 1915 as part of the strate ...
, part of the warfare with the occupational Bulgarian army during World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. A memorial park was built on the eastern slope in 1971, based on the preliminary design by architect Bogdan Bogdanović. There is also a memorial plaque, commemorating the first gathering of workers in the Leskovac area in 1897.
A transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...
of the local TV Leskovac is situated on the hill.
Archaeology
The archaeological works began in 1999, they have been continuous ever since and until today covered an area of . Head of the excavations is archaeologist Milorad Stojić from the Archaeological Institute in Belgrade.[ Remains of the multilayered settlement were discovered in 2001.
]
Older periods
There are remains from the Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
and 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 ...
.[ Over 7,000 artifacts from the prehistoric period were discovered.][
]
Bronze Age
Hisar is a multilevel settlement which spawned through several periods, at least from 1350 and 1000 BC, during the Late Bronze Age. It was a large fortified settlement, located on the highest plateau of the hill. It was protected with the defensive, deep moat and surrounded by the wooden piles palisade on the inner side. The fortification extended into the slopes, where the suburbs on the foothills of Hisar were located. The fortification is similar to the one discovered on the Gradac locality in Novo Lanište
The village of Novo Laniste (Serbian Cyrillic: Ново Ланиште) is located in the middle of the district of Pomoravlje, in the area of the river Morava's middle flow, seven kilometers away from the city of Jagodina.
There is an electrifi ...
, in the Velika Morava basin, though Gradac is much younger, originating in the 8th century BC. The settlement belonged to the Brnjica culture
The Brnjica culture ( sr, Брњица, full name: ''Donja Brnjica-Gornja Stražava cultural group'', al, Bërnica e Poshtme kulturë) is an archaeological culture in present-day Kosovo and Serbia dating from 1400 BC.
Description
The cultural g ...
.
The settlement occupies the southeast part of the hill. The Brnjica layers are discovered at the depth of , and consist of 4 strata which mark the 4 development phases (Brnjica I-a, I-b, II-a, II-b). Several thousand of objects were discovered, mostly pottery fragments.[
People lived in a small houses or in the half-]dugouts
Dugout may refer to:
* Dugout (shelter), an underground shelter
* Dugout (boat), a logboat
* Dugout (smoking), a marijuana container
Sports
* In bat-and-ball sports, a dugout is one of two areas where players of the home or opposing teams sit whe ...
. Houses were mostly made of wood, so they are not preserved, and the reconstruction was based on the imprints of the wooden piles, remains of the ''lep'', a wall plaster made of mud which contains remains of the paling and woven wattles and remaining parts of the floors made of compacted earth. Underground sections of the half-dugouts had a rectangular base with the floor made of the compacted earth. Section above the ground was made of wattle covered with mud with the tent-like hipped roof
A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...
covered with the straw or the wood bark
Bark may refer to:
* Bark (botany), an outer layer of a woody plant such as a tree or stick
* Bark (sound), a vocalization of some animals (which is commonly the dog)
Places
* Bark, Germany
* Bark, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland
Arts, ...
.[
A furnace was located at the entrance into the house and the discovered pottery includes pots, bowls, cups, etc. House utensils included leverages, weights, flint tools and both parts of ]millstones
Millstones or mill stones are stones used in gristmills, for grinding wheat or other grains. They are sometimes referred to as grindstones or grinding stones.
Millstones come in pairs: a convex stationary base known as the ''bedstone'' and ...
: bedstones and runner tones. Even some three-legged wooden stools have been preserved. Next to the furnace there was a ''piranos'', the pot with the firebox
Firebox may refer to:
*Firebox (steam engine), the area where the fuel is burned in a steam engine
*Firebox (architecture), the part of a fireplace where fuel is combusted
*Firebox Records, a Finnish 8101705801record label
* Firebox.com, an electro ...
and an outer handle, so the food was obviously prepared in the entry section of the house. Several food storages were discovered. Results of the archaeo-botanical researches showed that, concerning grains, the inhabitants cultivated mostly millet
Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets al ...
, but also barley
Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley pr ...
, rye
Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe (Triticeae) and is closely related to both wheat (''Triticum'') and barley (genus ''Hordeum''). Rye grain is u ...
, oats and some type of today extinct wild wheat. They also cultivated many legumes
A legume () is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seed of such a plant. When used as a dry grain, the seed is also called a pulse. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, for livestock fo ...
: peas, lentils, fava beans, bitter vetch and today in Serbia extinct ervil
''Vicia ervilia'', commonly known as ervil or bitter vetch, is an ancient grain legume crop of the Mediterranean region. Besides the English names, other common names include: (Persian), (Arabic), (Spanish), (Greek), and (Turkish). Accordi ...
(''urov''). A diet consisted of barley, millet and, to the lesser extent, wheat. The chaff
Chaff (; ) is the dry, scaly protective casing of the seeds of cereal grains or similar fine, dry, scaly plant material (such as scaly parts of flowers or finely chopped straw). Chaff is indigestible by humans, but livestock can eat it. In agri ...
was separated from the grain seeds by heating the seeds in the ''piranos'' until they become brittle so that they would separate easily in the mortar and pestle
Mortar and pestle is a set of two simple tools used from the Stone Age to the present day to prepare ingredients or substances by crushing and grinding them into a fine paste or powder in the kitchen, laboratory, and pharmacy. The ''mortar'' () ...
. The grains ware grinded by hand with the millstones. Due to the predominance of the millet, it is concluded that the most important and everyday meal was a millet porridge. They also made some kind of ''pogača
Poğaça is a type of bread baked in the ashes of the fireplace, and later on in the oven, similar to focaccia. Found in the cuisines of the Balkans, it can be leavened or unleavened, though the latter is considered more challenging to make. It i ...
'' of wheat and rye, while the legumes were cooked like today. The food was prepared and served in the clay dishes and the numerous complete objects were discovered: pots, jugs, pitchers, cups, etc. Large use of legumes is due to the climate as the Leskovac region is even today known for the production of this type of vegetables.[
The inhabitants also grew the wild flax (''lanak''). The stems were used to make fabric, for which the hand-operated looms were used. The seeds were used for the oil production.][
In September 2017, experts from the National Museum in Leskovac reconstructed one Bronze Age house and exhibited it in front of the museum. They also placed a stand where, among other things, visitors can try the meals, which are made in the way it is believed they have been prepared, like the millet porridge. Today, Leskovac is the most famous place in Serbia for the grilled meat and especially, for '' pljeskavicas'', or hamburgers. To add a humorous note, the ''pljeskavicas'' are also prepared, but instead of meat, they are made from peas and millet, with added soybeans.][
]
Metallurgy
It is estimated that the metallurgy center in the settlement was operational at least between 1350 BC and 1100 BC and the remains have been found in the layer up to thick. Iron ore, amorphous iron and vast amount of slag were discovered, but also remains of the grinding stones for crushing the ore (''pogača
Poğaça is a type of bread baked in the ashes of the fireplace, and later on in the oven, similar to focaccia. Found in the cuisines of the Balkans, it can be leavened or unleavened, though the latter is considered more challenging to make. It i ...
''), furnaces, charcoal pile
A charcoal pile or charcoal clamp is a carefully arranged pile of wood, covered by turf or other layer, inside which a fire is lit in order to produce charcoal. The pile is tended by a charcoal burner. It is similar to a charcoal kiln, but the lat ...
s, blowers and metal objects.[
Archaeo-metallurgy expert Radomir Pleiner pointed out that the Hittite ferrous metallurgy, until recently considered the oldest on the planet, is known exclusively from the archive in the remains of their capital Hattusa, near ]Boğazkale
Boğazkale ("Gorge Fortress") is a district of Çorum Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey, located from the city of Çorum. Formerly known as Boğazköy ("Gorge Village"), Boghaz Keui or Boghazköy, this small town (basically one street of ...
in Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
and not from the discovered objects or the smelting equipment. Archives mention iron and gifts made from it, calling it a "royal metal" because only the royal court had rights to produce it. Further importance of iron in that, and later periods, can be seen from Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
's labeling of iron as a "metal, more expensive than gold", because it was harder to find it and process it.[
]
Turović needle
A nicely preserved needle, discovered on the site in 2002, is considered to be one of the oldest surviving metallic objects on the planet. Amateur archaeologist Šćepan Turović discovered it, so it was named after him, the Turović needle.[
It was made from the stainless iron, without any hollows. It is long and dated to the 14th century BC (c.1300 BC). It considered a technological wonder even by modern standards as iron of such purity hardly can be produced even today.][ It is 98,86% pure iron and apparently can't rust. Research labs in ]Sartid
The HBIS GROUP Serbia Iron & Steel, commonly known as the Hesteel Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: Хестил Србија / Hestil Srbija) or Železara Smederevo ( sr-Cyrl, Железара Смедерево), is a Serbian steel manufacturi ...
steel factory in Smederevo
Smederevo ( sr-Cyrl, Смедерево, ) is a city and the administrative center of the Podunavlje District in eastern Serbia. It is situated on the right bank of the Danube, about downstream of the Serbian capital, Belgrade.
According to ...
and the Vinča Nuclear Institute
The Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences is a nuclear physics research institution near Belgrade, Serbia. Since its founding, the institute has also conducted research in the fields in physics, chemistry and biology. The scholarly institute is p ...
and Institute for physics in Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
showed that the needle was not made of pure iron which makes it "globally exquisite". Technologists stated that for such compactness and purity, it will take millions and millions of strokes. It has greater purity than the iron standard forged in space, which was brought from the United States to compare it to the needle.
In 2005, another needle-shaped object was discovered, also dated to the 14th century BC.
Dorian hypothesis
Stojić hypothesizes that the development of metallurgy confirms the theory of the Dorian Invasion from the northern route. The discovery of iron and bronze objects from the 12th century BC, coincides with the invasion. The Dorians lived in the basin of the South Morava and the surrounding Central Balkans regions in the 13th century and, producing the iron weapons, with ease conquered the southern people in Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
.[
]
Iron Age
A later 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 ...
settlement existed at Hisar from the 6th to the 4th century BC. Besides Greek fibulae
The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity is ...
and pottery, in 2005 a rare example of the silver buckle was discovered which, with other discovered artifacts, points to the existence of the necropolis
A necropolis (plural necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'', literally meaning "city of the dead".
The term usually im ...
of the old Balkan people, either the Thracian
The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied t ...
Triballi
The Triballi ( grc, Τριβαλλοί, Triballoí, lat, Triballi) were an ancient people who lived in northern Bulgaria in the region of Roman Oescus up to southeastern Serbia, possibly near the territory of the Morava Valley in the late Iron A ...
or the Thraco-Illyrian Dardani
The Dardani (; grc, Δαρδάνιοι, Δάρδανοι; la, Dardani) or Dardanians were a Paleo-Balkan people, who lived in a region that was named Dardania after their settlement there. They were among the oldest Balkan peoples, and their ...
.[
]
Later periods
The fortress was active during the later Roman, Byzantine, medieval Serbian and Ottoman periods.[
The Roman remains include the parts of a ]rampart
Rampart may refer to:
* Rampart (fortification), a defensive wall or bank around a castle, fort or settlement
Rampart may also refer to:
* "O'er the Ramparts We Watched" is a key line from "The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the ...
,[ which was dug into the remains of the old, 14th century BC fortification. The object is decorated with ]fresco
Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...
es and a mosaic and probably was port of a sacral complex. An ebony tablet, with the visible inscription ''reddeta'' ("return gift"), is also discovered. It is dated to the 4th century.[
During the Byzantine period, the hill hosted a crafts and metallurgy center.][
The "most beautiful 12th century archaeological findings in Serbia" have also been discovered. It most probably originated from the period of ]Grand Župan Grand, Great or Chief Župan ( sr, Велики жупан/Veliki župan, lat, magnus iupanus, gr, ζουπανος μεγας, ''zoupanos megas'') is the English rendering of a South Slavic Serbian title which relate etymologically to ''Župan' ...
Stefan Nemanja, who included the Dubočica
Leskovac (Serbian Cyrillic: Лесковац, ) is a city and the administrative center of the Jablanica District in southern Serbia. According to the 2022 census, City of Leskovac has a 124,889 inhabitants.
Etymology
Leskovac was historically ...
region and the basin of the South Morava in the Serbian state. Artifacts include the complete dishes and vessels and medieval colored glass ornamented in the multi-color technique. Remains of the settlement from c.1400 are also found, and silver coins minted by Stefan Lazarević
Stefan Lazarević ( sr-Cyrl, Стефан Лазаревић, 1377 – 19 July 1427), also known as Stefan the Tall ( sr, Стефан Високи / ''Stefan Visoki''), was the ruler of Serbia as prince (1389–1402) and despot (1402–1427), ...
, before he obtained his title of a despot.[
]
References
External links
{{coord, 42.990960, N, 21.936212, E, region:RS_type, display=title
Hills of Serbia
Ancient sites in Serbia
Thracian sites