Abstract:

In 2010, the Institute of Archaeology conducted rescue excavations of AS 6 Gornji Vukojevac on the Zagreb-Sisak motorway route, section Velika Gorica (South)-Lekenik. The site was found in the 2008 field survey between Gornji and Donji Vukojevac. It is a ridge on the southern side of which the valley of the Koravec stream is located, while towards the north it continues into a mild elevation (Fig. 1). The concentration of collected pottery fragments suggested a single-layered settlement with preserved fills of sunken structures. The excavations encompassed a surface of 12.200 m2. As the site is single-layered, only sunken structures were found, including pits, channels, ditches and posts with various fills containing archaeological finds. Parallel rows of sunken posts remained from long houses from the Late Bronze Age, which allowed the approximate average size of the houses to be determined: 18 x 10 m (Fig. 3). The remains of smaller rectangular structures were also unearthed, which probably served for storage (Fig. 4). The houses were arranged in rows, with 2-3-metre-wide road-like communications between them. Brick and tegulae fragments suggest the existence of above-earth structures in the excavated part of the Roman settlement. A relatively small number of unearthed pits (Fig. 5) belong to the prehistoric part of the settlement, while the largest number is located in the northern part of the settlement as part of the infrastructure of the Roman settlement. Two rows of parallel channels on each side, one narrow and shallow, and the other wider and deeper, served as ditches on the edges of a Roman road, the other construction elements of which have not been preserved (Fig. 7). The width between the ditches was appropriately 5.50 m, which would correspond to the width of a Roman road. In one part of the Roman settlement, an incineration burial of the bustum type was found (Fig. 6). It is a rare instance of a Roman cremation grave within a settlement. In the structures’ fills, fragments of pottery, house daub, bricks and tegulae were found. As far as functional forms from the prehistoric settlement are concerned, fragments of various forms of pots and bowls were identified, which are mostly decorated with plastic appliqués and can be dated to the Late Bronze Age, probably to the older stage of the Urnfield culture (13th-12th centuries BC). In the fills of the Roman settlement structures, shards of wheel-made pottery were found that can be classified as Roman provincial ceramography with strong autochthonous influences. The most significant result gained from the excavations is related to the identified infrastructure of the Late Bronze Age and the Roman settlement. As a consequence, the researched part of the settlement will provide a model for other, as yet unknown Late Bronze Age settlements in the Posavina and Turopolje parts of central Croatia. Another significant result is the discovery of a Roman rural settlement positioned along a road, built probably close to a magistral road route that passed through Turopolje, connecting Emona and Siscia.

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