PRISTINA, Kosovo (AFP) - Kosovo’s culture minister on Friday said Germany had returned seven millennia-old artefacts that were smuggled out during the 1998-1999 war with Serbia and unexpectedly found in a German police raid.
The seven terracotta items, including a small bowl, date back to the neolithic era, between 3,500 to 4,000 BC. They were found by German police in an unrelated investigation against two Serbs several years ago, Memli Krasniqi said, adding that it took a while to confirm the items came from Kosovo. Read more.
Scientists have unearthed a jawbone from an ancient human ancestor in a cave in Serbia.
The jawbone, which may have come from an ancient Homo erectus or a primitive-looking Neanderthal precursor, is more than 397,000 years old, and possibly more than 525,000 years old. The fossil, described today (Feb. 6) in the journal PLOS ONE, is the oldest hominin fossil found in this region of Europe, and may change the view that Neanderthals, our closest extinct human relatives, evolved throughout Europe around that time.
“It comes from an area where we basically don’t have anything that is known and well- published,” said study co-author Mirjana Roksandic, a bioarchaeologist from the University of Winnipeg in Canada. “Now we have something to start constructing a picture of what’s happening in this part of Europe at that time.” Read more.
ScienceDaily (Nov. 6, 2012) — Jewelry and female figurines from Belica, Serbia, to be exhibited for the first time at Tübingen University Museum.
Archeologists from the University of Tübingen’s Institute of Prehistory are working with the Serbian Archaeological Institute in Belgrade to analyze the most comprehensive Early Neolithic hoard ever found. Work on the nearly 8000 year old collection of jewelry and figurines is funded by the Thyssen Foundation.
The unique hoard is composed of some 80 objects made of stone, clay and bone. “This collection from Belica, in all its completeness, provides a unique glimpse into the symbols of the earliest farmers and herdsmen in Europe,” says Tübingen archaeologist Dr. Raiko Krauss, who heads the German side of the project. Read more.
BELGRADE - The remains of 31 early Christian tombs have been discovered during archaeological excavations in Nis, Serbia’s third largest city in the southern part of the country.
“These are the most important excavations carried out so far on the site of the early Christian necropolis of Jagodin-mala”, said Toni Cerskov, who heads the team of 45 archaeologists, architects, anthropologists, photographers and workers at the site. The tombs are located under the former textile factory Niteks, the Tanjug news agency reports.
Cerskov said the tombs are among the most important findings regarding the early Christian period and can be compared to the discoveries made in the necropolis of Pecs, Hungary, Solin near Split in Croatia, Sophia in Bulgaria and Thessaloniki in Greece.
Excavation work will continue until the end of July. Read more.
Nemanja Mrdjic and his team of fellow archaeologists were excavating a Roman cemetery when they stumbled upon something quite unexpected: a mammoth graveyard containing the skeletons of at least five of the extinct creatures, the first of its kind in the world.
The rare finding in the city of Kostolac, east of Belgrade, has drawn media attention from around the globe. Yet the unearthing of the world’s first mammoth field is just one in a series of extraordinary archaeological discoveries made in Serbia and the region in June.
“Archaeology in Serbia, but also in the Balkans in general is a goldmine of world archaeology right now,” Miljana Radivojevic, researcher at the Centre for Research in Archaeological Materials at the University College London told SETimes. Read more.
A team of experts from the Archeological Institute of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences (SANU) and the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade have discovered the necropolis.
It is located at the Manište dig in the village of Ranutovac, three kilometers north of Vranje, on the route of Corridor 10.
Aleksandar Bulatović, the coordinator of a project of archeological research and preservation on the Corridor 10 route, told Tanjug the necropolis contained remains of the deceased who were burned in funeral pyres.
“The necropolis dates back to the Early Bronze Age - based on our initial assessments between 2,000 and 1,800 BC, and it is significant because it is the only fully preserved necropolis from this period in the central Balkans,” he explained. Read more.
KOSTOLAC — Archaeologists in Kostolac, eastern Serbia, on Tuesday morning witnessed a stunning discovery at the Drmno coal strip mining field.
No less than five mammoth skeletons were discovered that day inside the stretch of about a hundred meters.
In all, seven skeletons have been found so far at the location, Belgrade daily Večernje Novosti is reporting.
Archaeologists working in the nearby Roman site Viminacium were first alerted to one set of giant remains of a mammoth, that was damaged by the mining machinery. But then torrential rain fell on Monday, rinsing away the sand.
On Tuesday morning, no less than five other skeletons of the ancient extinct animals - ancestors of today’s elephants - were clearly visible at the site. Read more.
(ANSAmed)- BELGRADE, DECEMBER - A prehistoric settlement from the early and late Iron Age and several remains from the Ancient Period (from 1,000 BC to II-III century AD) have been discovered at the site of Bare, southern Serbia, the head of an archaeological research team that made the discovery has told Tanjug news agency.
Several objects dating from the Iron Age were found on a terrain covering about three hectares of space, said the head of the team, Maja Djordjevic of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Serbia.
The discoveries from the Ancient Period include the foundations of a Roman villa that used to be part of a farm and parts of pottery objects. The found remains, said Djordjevic, point to a rich life at the locality, where there used to be a large settlement at the time. Read more.
