LASINJA CULTURE AT BREZJE NEAR VARAŽDIN This paper briefly presents results of several years of protective probing and excavations of a spacious site Brezje, south of the city of Varaždin. Among other periods, numerous finds were found at...
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This paper briefly presents results of several years of protective probing and excavations of a spacious site Brezje, south of the city of Varaždin. Among other periods, numerous finds were found at the site that can be dated to the Copper Age and attributed to the Lasinja culture. Ceramic finds from several enclosed units, dated by radiocarbon analysis, are being processed together with a collection of stone finds collected at numerous locations in Brezje. The Varaždin – Brezje site is very important in the context of studying the Lasinja culture for several reasons. Given the absolute dates obtained from several analyzes of radioactive carbon it can be said the site Brezje was inhabited throughout existence of Lasinja culture, from the early classical to the late classical phase. Given that Brezje currently lacks the finds of the cultures that precede or succeed it; obviously this position was suitable exclusively for the way of life and economy peculiar to this culture. Judging by previous research, at Brezje there are several smaller settlements of the Lasinja culture, which were located on mutually separated hills – former river sandbars within the wetland area between the Plitvice and the Drava rivers. It is very likely that these settlements were not simultaneous. It is possible that the Lasinja tribes moved to the position of Brezje at a regular time intervals. They would leave a previous habitat that was depleted from resources or was for some reason unsuitable for further life and for the same reason abandoned Brezje at as later stage. It is also possible that the Lasinja tribes re-inhabited some of these sandbars without even knowing that their predecessors
lived here, especially having in mind centuries-long duration of this culture. In addition to the five AMS c14 dates measured from the samples found the closed stratigraphic units of the Lasinja
culture at Brezje, four dates from the geographically nearest sites of that culture are also shown for comparison. As for the absolute dating of the Lasinja culture settlements on Brezje, the AMS c14 dates of probes from excavations indicate the area was occupied from about 4200 BC, until about 3700 BC, with the possibility that occupation lasted until the beginning of 3rd millennium, if future research confirms the earliest date recorded in Brezje 1. The research has so far pointed out the layouts of buildings within the settlement and gave a fairly clear picture of the
material culture that has been preserved to this day: ceramic vessels and stone tools of the Lasinja culture. From the pits dated with AMS c 14, the most characteristic finds were selected and presented in the photographs and drawings. Shapes and decorations of ceramic vessels can be successfully compared with other Lasinja culture sites in Croatia,
and they correspond typologically to the stages of cultural development. It is unusual that several pits were dated rather late by measuring radioactive carbon, although the finds in them are typical of the Lasinja culture. No finds from cultures that appear after Lasinja culture are known at the mentioned sites, so the question of the duration and longevity of this cultural phenomenon arises. Relatively scarce lithic finds recovered from various sites in the Brezje region correspond to the standards of the Lasinja culture in northwestern Croatia known from the sites of Čanjevo, Blizna, Pustakovec or Gromače 2, mostly directed at producing small flakes and ad hoc stone knapping strategies. In most cases lithic finds are rare, only the Eneolithic layers of Fort Čanjevo yielded more lithic artifacts. Flakes and debris are dominant categories of finds at these sites, while blades are usually scarce, as at the sites in the Brezje region. Tools are poorly represented, endscrapers being the dominant category. Such structure of lithic assemblages is not typical of the Lasinja culture sites from the eastern Slavonia region where blades
are more common as well as the tools in general. In contrast to the eastern Slavonia region, these finds exhibit more similarities
to the lithic assemblages from the region of nearby Slovenia regarding chaîne opératoire and production strategies. Artifacts made of polished and abrasive stone recovered from the Lasinja sites in the Brezje region belong exclusively to the category of utilitarian objects, although numerical data suggest that the sample was too small to be reliable
for a number of positions. The sites of Brezje 1 and Brezje 4 yielded more finds, but the only adequate sample in terms of quantity was found at the site of Brezje 6. Axes are dominant among the polished artifacts. Mould-shaped and flat axes are evenly represented in this category, while hammer axes are far less numerous. In situ tool production is
attested, at least at certain sites, by the presence of raw material in unmodified form, examples of tools broken during manufacturing, fragments with traces of unfinished procedures and retouch, and plugs resulting from making shaft holes.Certainly the archaeological site Brezje has the potential for research of Copper age cultures, especially because the remaining position of Brezje 5 and parts of Brezje 4 and 3 are still unexplored.
