Dimitar Mustakov Evtim Sprostranov Trebenishta 1918

Trebeništa () is an ancient necropolis from the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

(around the 7th century BC) southeast

Illyria In classical and late antiquity, Illyria (; , ''Illyría'' or , ''Illyrís''; , ''Illyricum'') was a region in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula inhabited by numerous tribes of people collectively known as the Illyrians. The Ancient Gree ...

, near the northern shore of

Lake Ohrid Lake Ohrid is a lake which straddles the mountainous border between the southwestern part of North Macedonia and eastern Albania. It is one of Europe's deepest and oldest lakes, with a unique aquatic ecosystem of worldwide importance, with more th ...

. The site is located near

Trebeništa Trebeništa () is an ancient necropolis from the Iron Age (around the 7th century BC) southeast Illyria, near the northern shore of Lake Ohrid. The site is located near Trebeništa, Debarca, Trebeništa in modern-day North Macedonia. It is belie ...

in modern-day

North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

. It is believed that the necropolis was used by the people from the nearby Illyrian town of Lychnidos. They are considered to have been the product of the local Illyrian population, which were attested in later historical sources and Hellenistic epigraphic material to have been the

Dassaretii The Dassaretii (Ancient Greek: Δασσαρῆται, Δασσαρήτιοι, ''Dassaretai'', ''Dassaretioi''; Latin: ''Dassaretae'', ''Dassaretii'') were an Illyrian people that lived in the inlands of southern Illyria, between present-day sout ...

, also identified with the earlier

Enchelei The Enchelei were an ancient people that lived around the River Drin and the region of Lake Shkodra and Lake Ohrid, in modern-day Albania, Montenegro, and North Macedonia. They are one of the oldest known peoples of the eastern shore of the Adri ...

, who constituted the oldest known

Illyrian kingdom The Illyrian kingdom was an Illyrian political entity that existed on the western part of the Balkan Peninsula in ancient times. Regardless of the number of the alternately ruling dynasties, of their tribal affiliation, and of the actual ex ...

. Some have hypothecised a

Thracian The Thracians (; ; ) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied the area that today is shared between north-eastern Greece, ...

influence,Ilieva, Pavlina, and Petia Penkova. "Funeral golden mask and hand with a ring The necropolis of Trebeniste." ArcheoSciences. Revue d'archéométrie 33 (2009). or a mixed Balkano- Aegean cultural expression. Archaeological material with gold-riches from the burials at Trebeništa,

Aiani Aiani (, before 1926: Καλλιανή - ''Kalliani'') is a town and a former municipality in the Kozani regional unit, Macedonia, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Kozani, of which it is a municipal unit ...

on the middle valley of the

Haliacmon The Haliacmon (, ''Aliákmonas''; formerly: , ''Aliákmon'' or ''Haliákmōn'') is the longest river flowing entirely in Greece, with a total length of . In Greece there are three rivers longer than Haliacmon: Maritsa (), Struma (Strymónas), bot ...

, and

Sindos Sindos (; ) is a suburb of Thessaloniki, Greece. It is the seat of the municipality of Delta. Sindos is home to the main campus of the Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki and the Industrial Zone of the city. The community ...

on the

Thermaic Gulf The Thermaic Gulf (, ), also called the Gulf of Thessaloniki and the Macedonian Gulf, is a Gulf (geography), gulf constituting the northwest corner of the Aegean Sea. The city of Thessaloniki is at its northeastern tip, and it is bounded by Pie ...

, indicates substantial cultural continuity throughout the wider region, despite the fact that different tribes lived in the various areas of the whole region.

Modern discovery

Trebeništa was discovered by

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

n soldiers during World War I Bulgarian occupation of Kingdom of Serbia in 1918. The Bulgarian government sent the archaeologist

Karel Škorpil Karel Václav Škorpil (; 15 May 18599 March 1944) was a Czechs, Czech-Bulgarian archaeologist and museum worker credited along with his brother Hermann Škorpil, Hermann with the establishment of those two disciplines in Bulgaria. Born in the c ...

to organize excavations. The artifacts were later researched by the archaeologist

Bogdan Filov Bogdan Dimitrov Filov (; 10 April 1883 – 1 February 1945) was a Bulgarian archaeologist, art historian and politician. He was prime minister of Bulgaria during World War II. During his tenure, Bulgaria became the seventh nation to join the Axis ...

. Since then, large amounts of graves, five golden masks, and some iron earrings and plates have been found. The excavations continued in 1930-1934, 1953-1954 and 1972 in Yugoslavia. The finds are housed now in the Archaeological Museums in Ohrid,

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

and

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

. A number of artifacts excavated in the necropolis are said to be imported from

ancient Greece Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...

while the rest are of a local origin with Greek influences. Archeological findings include a bronze

Krater A krater or crater (, ; , ) was a large two-handled type of vase in Pottery of ancient Greece, Ancient Greek pottery and metalwork, mostly used for the mixing of wine with water. Form and function At a Greek symposium, kraters were placed in ...

, a

Corinthian helmet The Corinthian helmet originated in ancient Greece and took its name from the city-state of Corinth. It was a helmet made of bronze which in its later styles covered the entire head and neck, with slits for the eyes and mouth. A large curved pro ...

Illyrian type helmet The Illyrian type helmet (or Greco-Illyrian type helmet) is a style of bronze helmet, which in its later variations covered the entire head and neck, and was open-faced in all of its forms.. It originated in Peloponnese, ancient Greece, and was d ...

s and golden funeral masks reminiscent of Aegean culture. A golden mask from Trebeništa is depicted on the

obverse The obverse and reverse are the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags, seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, ''obverse'' ...

of the 500

Macedonian denar The denar (; paucal: denari / ; abbreviation: den / ; ISO code: MKD) is the currency of North Macedonia. Though subdivided into one hundred deni (), coins with a denomination of less than one denar have not been in use since 2013. History ...

banknote, issued in 1996 and 2003.National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia
Macedonian currency. Banknotes in circulation
500 Denars
(1996 issue)
500 Denars
(2003 issue). – Retrieved on 30 March 2009.

Sources

Bibliography

* B.D.Filow, K.Schkorpil
Die archaische Nekropole von Trebenischte am Ochrida-See
Berlin und Leipzig 1927. * La nécropole archaïque de Trebenischte, Extr. de la Revue Archéo., janvier-avril 1934. Vulic (N.)
WERE THE AUTHORS OF THE TREBENIŠTE CULTURE AND THE GOLD FUNERAL MASKS
Nade Proeva, Ph.D. * Viktorija Sokolovska, Etnickite nositeli na Trebeniskata Nekropola, Skopje/Ohrid 1997 (Summary in English) {{DEFAULTSORT:Trebenista Archaeological sites in North Macedonia Ohrid Municipality Ancient Macedonia Archaeology of Illyria Necropoleis Iron Age sites in Europe

Modern discovery

See also

Sources

Bibliography