Vučedol Culture Museum

Vučedol Culture Museum^[1]

Vučedol Culture Museum
Established	31 June 2015 (2015-06-31)
Location	Vukovar, Croatia
Type	Archaeological museum
Collection size	permanent exhibition
Director	Mirela Hutinec
Curator	Mirna Crnković
Website	www.vucedol.com

Vučedol Culture Museum (Croatian: Muzej vučedolske kulture) was established by a Croatian Government Decree 21 February 2013 as a national museum. This is the result of many years of efforts in Vučedol because its character is classified in the first row of archaeological parks and entered in the archaeological map of this part of Europe.

Archaeological site Vučedol

The Vučedol archaeological site is located on the right bank of the Danube River, four kilometres downriver from Vukovar at the spot where an intermittent watercourse in a loess plateau 25 metres high cut a narrow steep valley on the way towards the river. Both sides along the pass towards the Danube make up the archaeological site, on the left is the Karasović Vineyard, and on the right is a large complex which include the Streim Vineyard, the Streim Cornfield and artificially separated from them is a little plateau known as Gradac, which with later excavations was confirmed as being the metallurgical and cult centre of the site. Vučedol is one of the most significant archaeological sites in Europe.

The first investigations of the site date back to 1897. This attractive location was first inhabited in about 6,000 B.C. at the time of the first farmers, and more or less it was inhabited intensively through the whole of prehistory. The period between 3,350 – 2,300 B.C. was the most intensive period of its existence and in that period it was undoubtedly the most significant European centre. Since this was also the time of the early settlements of Troy (Troy I and II) many analogies can also be found with the archaeological material from Vučedol. More precisely, we can also characterise Vučedol as the European Troy by its contemporaneousness, but even more so by the continental significance of the site and its finds.

Archaeological excavations to date are able to very precisely reconstruct the daily life and customs of four cultural phenomena which in that time swept through Vučedol (Baden, Kostolac, Vučedol and Vinkovci). It was a turbulent time of the immigration of the first Indo-Europeans and their relationship with the natives, the blending of material cultures and religions. Each of the above-mentioned cultures had its own interesting separate destiny in Vučedol, however the most detailed one able to be reconstructed is the Vučedol which also gave its name to this site. Vučedol reached a real peak in the intensity of settlement right in the period of the Vučedol Culture (3,000 – 2,500 B.C.). Excavations show that the culture was literally born in this area and that for along time it was its most significant centre. This cultural phenomenon at its peak completely or partially covered 14 of today’s European countries – the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Albania and one settlement has even been registered in Eastern Greece.

Exhibitions

• The first real Indo-European Vučedol house – basket!
• The oldest prahistoric carts on four wheels
• The oldest Indo-European calendar based on observation of the winter sky
• Prehistoric foundry in which the first metal production took place
• Production of the first bronze in the world
• The first known saw in the world was created in the framework of the Vučedol culture
• The wealth of form and decoration within Vučedol ceramics – from cups to amphorae – 23 types of vessels
• The pit in situ where Vučedol Dove / Patridge was found
• The ritual burials within settlements – The grave where the oldest fixed date in prehistory can be read
• The ritual burial of the deer – a direct link with the shaman beyond this world
• Vučedolians knew five types of shoes – all designed for the right and left leg!

Floor plan

Museum floorplan / 19 rooms

Each room has a certain theme and topics are: geological position of Vučedol, foundation of culture, the arrival of the Indo-Europeans, livestorck breeding, farming, hunting and fishing, Vučedol house, weaving and clothing, handicrafts and footwear, metallurgy, ceramics, horizon, calendar, graves, natives, religion, successors, the formation of the Museum.

References

External links

• Official website (in Croatian)

Coordinates: 45°20′11″N 19°03′32″E / 45.3363°N 19.0590°E / 45.3363; 19.0590