Žitkovac (

Serbian Cyrillic The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet (, ), also known as the Serbian script, (, ), is a standardized variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language. It originated in medieval Serbia and was significantly reformed in the 19th cen ...

: Житковац) is a village in central

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

situated in the municipality of

Aleksinac Aleksinac ( sr-Cyrl, Алексинац) is a town and municipality located in the Nišava District of Southern and Eastern Serbia, southern Serbia. According to 2022 census, the municipality has a population of 43,258 inhabitants. History Preh ...

, in the

Nišava District The Nišava District (, ) is one of administrative districts of Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , i ...

. Žitkovac has a population of 2,680 as recorded in the 2002 census. The name ''Žitkovac'' stems .

Education

Žitkovac has a school named after

Vuk Karadžić Vuk Stefanović Karadžić ( sr-Cyrl, Вук Стефановић Караџић, ; 6 November 1787 (26 October OS)7 February 1864) was a Serbian philologist, anthropologist and linguist. He was one of the most important reformers of the moder ...

which provides

preschool A preschool (sometimes spelled as pre school or pre-school), also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, play school, is an school, educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they ...

, primary and secondary education.

Geography

Žitkovac is located in the Aleksinac valley surrounded by mountains of Jastrebac and Ozren. The river which flows through the valley is

South Morava The South Morava (; Macedonian and Serbian: Јужна Морава, ''Južna Morava'', ) is a river in eastern Kosovo and in southern Serbia, which represents the shorter headwater of Great Morava. Today, it is long, including its source ri ...

. The nearest town is

(3 km), which is the centre of municipality, located in the

of Serbia. Žitkovac is geographically joined with two other villages Moravac and

Prćilovica Prćilovica () is a village in the municipality of Aleksinac, Serbia in the Nišava District of Serbia. The village is situated in the Aleksinac Basin on the left bank of the South Morava River. According to the 2002 census, the village has a popu ...

creating one of the most populated locality of the municipality of Aleksinac, with approximately 7 000 citizens. Thanks to its location, Žitkovac has become an economical and cultural center of the Aleksinac municipality on the left side of the South Morava river. It is connected with other Serbian cities by a railway station in the village.

History

Early period

In Žitkovac and its neighbour-village Moravac, there are numerous archaeological findings from the middle

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

period (between 5300 and 4500 BC). According to Tihomir Đorđević, Serbian

ethnologist Ethnology (from the , meaning 'nation') is an academic field and discipline that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). Scien ...

and historian from the late 19th century, who was exploring the history of the Aleksinac valley, all villages of the actual municipality of Aleksinac located on the left side of the

river, have been inhabited since middle neolithic. Most of its settlements belong to the

Starčevo culture The Starčevo culture is an archaeological culture of Southeastern Europe, dating to the Neolithic period between ''c.'' 6200 and 4500 BCE.Istorijski atlas, Intersistem Kartografija, Beograd, 2010, page 11. It originates in the spread of the Ne ...

In 1985 several urns were found in Žitkovac, today stored in the homeland museum in Aleksinac. In 1994, the archeologists discovered a

necropolis A necropolis (: necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'' (). The term usually implies a separate burial site at a distan ...

arie of 80 ha. Near the necropolis, numerous Neolithic ceramics and bronze artefacts were found 2002 in Moravac. Neolithic ceramics traces are scattered across the entire village. The Neolithic stone found in part of village Moravac called “Konjarnik” is displayed in the homeland museum in Aleksinac.

Modern period

From 1929 to 1941, Žitkovac was part of the

Morava Banovina The Morava Banovina or Morava Banate ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, separator=" / ", Моравска бановина, Moravska banovina), was a province ( banovina) of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between 1929 and 1941. This province consisted of parts of prese ...

of the

Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe, Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" () h ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zitkovac Populated places in Nišava District Starčevo–Körös–Criș culture