doiSerbia

Regional characteristics of the Brnjica cultural group

Stojić Milorad (Arheološki institut, Beograd)

A large number of newly registered and researched sites help to distinguish regional characteristics in the Brnjica cultural group development. On the basis of special features in the material culture, pottery in the first place, several regional entities were identified: (1) Kosovo with the Raška Region and Pešter, (2) The Južna and Zapadna Morava confluence zone is characterized by interweaving of the Brnjica and Paraćin cultural groups and afterwards, by a mixture of Brnjica cultural group elements with the Iron Age I a - b cultural groups from the Velika Morava basin, (3) The Leskovac-Niš region is characterized by symbiosis, after the initial phase, and later on by integration of the Brnjica cultural group with the ethno-cultural complex Iron Age I b in the Morava basin, and (4) the Južna Morava Region, upstream from Grdelica Gorge, the Pčinja and the Upper Vardar Regions, is characterized by specific Brnjica cultural group archaeological material. The sites with Brnjica type pottery finds in Blagoevgrad, Plovdiv as well as on a number of sites in Pelagonia, Lower Vardar basin, on the island of Thasos and Thessaly, show the extent of influence of the Brnjica cultural group within the period between the 13th and 12th centuries BC and portend the role of the Brnjica population in the events designated as the Aegean Migration.

Keywords: Brnjica cultural group, regional characteristics, pottery, iron, Aegean migration