The Brnjica culture (, ), alternatively Donja Brnjica-Gornja Stražava cultural group, is a Late Bronze Age archaeological culture in present-day Kosovo and Serbia dating between the 14th and 10th/9th centuries BCE.
Description
The Brnjica cultural group was a Late Bronze Age cultural manifestation in what was to become Dardania, closely connected to the Balkan-Danubian complex. It dates between the 14th and 10th/9th centuries BCE. In Yugoslavian historiography, starting from Milutin Garašanin, the Brnjica culture was interpreted as the "Daco-Moesian" and non-"Illyrian" linguistic component of the later Dardani, an Iron Age Palaeo-Balkan group appearing as an Illyrian people in ancient literary tradition.
The Brnjica culture is characterized by several groups: Kosovo with Raska and Pester South and West Morava confluence zone Leskovac-Nis South Morava-Pcinja-Upper Vardar
Brnjica type pottery has been found in Blageovgrad, Plovdiv, and a number of sites in Pelagonia, Lower Vardar, the island of Thasos and Thessaly dating to 13th and 12th century BCE.
Sites Donja Brnjica The main site of the culture is a necropolis at Donja Brnjica, (Albanian: Bërnica e Poshtme) near Pristina.
Hisar
Hisar is a multi-periodal settlement at a hill near Leskovac.
Traces of life of the Brnjica culture (8th century BCE) are seen in the plateau that was protected by a deep moat with a palisade on its inner side, a fortification similar to that of another fortification on the Gradac site in Lanište in the Velika Morava basin.Milorad Stojic: Ferrous metallurgy center of the Brnjica cultural group (14th–13th centuries BCE) at the Hisar site in Leskovac. MJoM Metalurgija - Journal of Metallurgy, UDC:669.1
References
Bibliography
See also Museum of Kosovo Kingdom of Dardania Archaeology of Kosovo Neolithic sites in Kosovo Roman heritage in Kosovo Copper, Bronze and Iron Age sites in Kosovo