Pages: 285-308

Thirteen sites with traces of settlements identified as Slavic and related to the sixth-seventh centuries were discovered on the territory of the Serbian Danube region on both sides of the river. Data on contemporary early Slavic burials are almost totally absent. Pottery is of crucial importance for the dating of the investigated sites, because other reliable chronological indicators were not found. Beside settlements, palmate fibulae were also considered in connection with the early appearance of the Slavs. Sites located on the left bank of the Danube, when regarded in a wider context of the early Slavic sites in other parts of the Carpathian Basin, suggest that there is no conclusive evidence about the dating of the Slavic presence in this territory before the 2nd half of the 6th century. Hand-made pottery from Byzantine fortresses were accepted as the earliest finds correlated with the Slavs who lived in the southern areas of the Serbian Danube region. A range of types of palmate fibulae are attributed to the same period and the population. Probably, the Slavs were engaged in the service of the protection of the Byzantine borders after 585, when the Byzantine population was thinned after the Avar raid. The first Slavic settlements in the same area are dated by approximately the same period.

Keywords: Serbian Danube region, 6th—7th century, Early Slavs, settlements, palmate fibulae.

Information about author:

Dejan Radičević (Belgrade, Serbia). Doctor in Archaeology. University of Belgrade. Čika Ljubina St., 18—20, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia
E-mail: [email protected]