Identifying the level of the interface of prehistoric and medieval space is another open question of the stećci theme. These interfaces are manifested in (1) the medieval reuse of prehistoric mounds and (2) the millennia-long endurance of transhumance, resulting in the preservation of prehistoric communication networks.
Fig. 4: The transhumant routes from the villages in lowland Herzegovina to the mountain pastures, still used in the 1960s. The exact routes were documented in late medieval written records used by the Vlach communities. A transhumant group periodically moved between the parent lowland area to highland pastures in April and October and included men, women, and children - roughly 30% of the lowland community (Matley 1968, 236).
(1) Stećci cemeteries in Hum were frequently located in earlier burial locations. The pan-European custom of reusing prehistoric mounds for medieval burials is indeed echoed in the stećci phenomenon, particularly in medieval Herzegovina, while Roman-period burial sites, although chronologically closer to the medieval period, never developed into stećci cemeteries. The research on this specific feature of stećci is too limited to provide any solid chronological framework; however, the commencement of the stećci phenomenon and a few multiperiod sites that were excavated display the earliest medieval occupation of a prehistoric mound from the late 12th C onwards, which is between two and four centuries after it can be observed in the rest of Europe. Can this really be attributed to the geographical isolation of medieval BiH, or does it testify to the level of (un)exploration of this important and information-rich heritage?
(2) Transhumance is the key feature that directly connects Hum’s society to prehistory and enhances the mnemonic role of stećci monuments. Transhumant pastoralism played a significant part in the local economy from early prehistory until the 1960s. The W Balkans’ prehistoric princely tombs are located in areas renowned for enduring intensive transhumance along the roads and intersections of the most strategic commercial trails, linking mountains to valleys. Such symbolic occupation of an area conveyed the precise, well-determined meaning for an entire community; it communicated and memorialised social excellence, territorial affiliation, and a spiritual stronghold. Placing medieval cemeteries along the herders’ routes was a custom, highly praised among Balkans’ cattle breeders, aimed to enable the deceased to oversee their herd. It appears that medieval transhumant communities reflected a social structure and territorial organisation similar to those in prehistory. Therefore, stećci cemeteries had an influential position within their micro-region and a specific role within landscape networks; a role in cultivating individual and collective identities, preserving social memory and nurturing the spiritual domain.
The WP2 focuses on the significance of the landscape and the way medieval populations transformed the world around them to fit their ideological concepts, based primarily on landscape and spatial distributions of transhumant routes and prehistoric and medieval deathscape to expose the conceptual meaning of reused prehistoric burial locations in Hum. A GIS platform will be used as a relational interface for integrating landscape, old and new archaeological data, published evidence, old maps, and oral sources. Landscape digital technologies will be accentuated with social modelling, combining geospatial cultural mapping including settlement pattern analysis, a series of GIS analyses (spatial, cluster, density, networks, cost paths analyses), satellite images, aerial orthophoto, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) rendered maps, Reflectance Transformation Imaging - RTI, along with SNA analysis.
Macro level: The data and maps obtained within WP1 will serve as a base for WP2’s focused research. They will be superimposed with prehistoric and Roman-period sites (settlements, cemeteries, and communication routes), providing an insight into period-based use of space and the reuse of burial spaces. Written sources and Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian ethnographies will be used to chart transhumant routes. This will provide digitised multiperiod cultural landscape information and display the chronologically superimposed cultural patterns.
Meso level: The study area will then focus on two župas, to which UAV-rendered maps will provide increasingly detailed landscape analyses, adding natural resources (water sources, quarries), detailed oral histories and ethnology, and SNA modelling.
Micro level: The most detailed phase of research will be stratigraphic excavations of 4 stećci cemeteries. The excavations with archaeothanatological emphasis and scientific sampling will uncover details on burial-space reuse/continuity and the correlation of lowland original settlements with mountain stations.
