Tracing the Stećci: This summer’s fieldwork
This summer, researchers from ZRC SAZU, together with colleagues and students from other institutions, travelled to Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of the ERC project STONE ("Unde Venis? Unravelling the Enigma of Stećci Tombstones – Land of Stećci"). Their aim was to study stećci and everything connected to them.
During a short stop in Bileća, they collaborated with local NGOs to create a photographic exhibition highlighting the municipality's cultural heritage. "The exhibition is our proposal for how to at least partially revive the Museum in Bileća through a virtual exhibition. The museum was burned down more than thirty years ago during the war and has never been rebuilt," explained project leader Dr Saša Čaval (Institute of Anthropological and Spatial Studies ZRC SAZU).
The museum once displayed the heritage now submerged beneath the artificial Bileća Lake, created in 1969, and was designed by the renowned Yugoslav architect Juraj Neidhardt (famous for numerous projects in Sarajevo, including Olympic facilities, and recipient of multiple awards). The exhibition opened on 1 August, symbolically within the burned and destroyed museum building, which, at least for a day, returned to its former glory – today the space serves as an improvised sheep pen, Čaval added. According to her, the stećci exhibition was also one of several attempts to succeed in an application to the Headley Southeast European Cultural Heritage Fund, where, in collaboration with the Cultural Centre Jefto Dedijer under the leadership of Mr Gnjat Lazar, they proposed a virtual revival of the museum. Indeed, their application was approved at the end of June, the researcher added happily.
After a week in Bileća, the team moved on to a new site in the north of medieval Herzegovina, specifically Goražde, where they were welcomed by colleague Adi Džemidžić, curator of the Goražde Heritage Museum, and Prof Edin Bujak from the University of Sarajevo. Together, they began the initial archaeological investigations at the Pavlovac site.
The medieval fortress of Pavlovac stands just outside the town of Prača, an old caravan stop with a beautifully restored mosque and associated structures. Written sources confirm that Prača was an important commercial and strategic centre in the 14th and 15th centuries. The fortress of Pavlovac was commissioned by Duke Pavle Radinović, approximately three kilometres south-east of Prača, around 1415, and certainly before 1463, when sources report that the fortress was captured and destroyed by the Ottoman Turks. Its former grandeur is still evident today in the well-preserved defensive walls and the remnants of at least five defensive towers hidden in the undergrowth, which dominate the Prača valley.
This year's field team was divided into two groups. One, led by Dr Lucija Grahek (Institute of Archaeology, ZRC SAZU) and Prof Dr Monika Milosavljević (Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade), investigated a nearby necropolis with stećci, east of Pavlovac castle hill. The site had suffered damage from past forestry work, with some stones moved or broken and others overgrown. The team documented all 25 preserved stones, representing remnants of the original 23 stećci, and removed three to study the associated burials. Although no rich artifacts were found, microscopic traces of clothing suggest the high social status of those buried, as expected from the stećci.
The second group, led by Saša Čaval and curator/archaeologist Adi Džemidžić, worked at the tower known as Crkvina, where medieval walls remain clearly visible. As Pavlovac Castle has never been archaeologically investigated, the team's three-week research is particularly significant. Modern technologies allowed faster and more precise excavations, with detailed sampling of materials and sediments providing insights that would be impossible without scientific analyses.
The research conducted by the international team contributes to a better understanding of the region's past and highlights the importance of strong international collaboration in the preservation and interpretation of cultural heritage, agreed both the visiting archaeologists and local experts. A notable feature of this year's summer fieldwork was the collaboration with people from a wide range of interests and expertise. Together, they explored questions such as how to construct a wall 1.35 metres thick and over 6 metres high, which has remarkably survived for more than 600 years. They also considered how to present medieval heritage to contemporary audiences, engaging visitors to undertake the nearly hour-long climb up the steep hill to experience the grandeur of a structure long forgotten and almost returned to nature.
The 2025 field team, led by Dr Saša Čaval (ZRC SAZU), included: Dr Lucija Grahek (ZRC SAZU), Prof Dr Monika Milosavljević (Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade), conservator Mija Topličanec (Slovenian Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage), Filip Stefanović (Paraćin Museum, Serbia), Dr Brina Zagorc (ZRC SAZU), Dr Marta Hlad (Vrije Universiteit, Belgium), Dr Edin Bujak (Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy, Sarajevo), Dr Edita Vučić (Faculty of Philosophy, University of Mostar), and students from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Slovenia, Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States.