Vučedol Culture Museum

Vučedol Culture Museum

Vučedol Culture Museum
Established	30 June 2015 (2015-06-30)
Location	Vukovar, Croatia
Type	Archaeological museum
Collection size	permanent exhibition
Visitors	122,721
Director	Mirela Hutinec
Curator	Mirna Crnković
Website	www.vucedol.com

Vučedol Culture Museum (Template:Lang-hr) is a museum of prehistory located at Vučedol, near the city of Vukovar, Croatia. The site has significant representation of Vučedol culture.

Museum history

The museum was formally established on the 21 February 2013 by a Croatian Government Decree.

The museum was first opened in 2015.

In 2017, Vučedol Culture Museum was the most visited museum in Slavonia and the 7th most visited museum in Croatia.

Archaeological site Vučedol

The Vučedol archaeological site is located on the right bank of the Danube River, four kilometres downriver from the city of Vukovar, at the spot where an intermittent watercourse in a loess plateau has cut a 25 metre high narrow steep valley that runs to the Danube river. Both sides along this steep pass make up the archaeological site, on the left is the Karasović Vineyard, and on the right is a large complex which includes the Streim Vineyard and the Streim Cornfield. Artificially separated from the pass, a little plateau known as Gradac, which through archeological excavations was confirmed as being the metallurgical and cultural centre of the site. It gives its name to the Vučedol culture that existed in Copper Age Europe.

The first investigations of the site dates back to 1897. The location was first inhabited around 6,000 B.C. 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, when it was a significant centre of human settlement in Europe. Since this was also the time of the early settlements of Troy (Troy I and II), many similarities can be found between the archaeological material from Troy and Vučedol.

Archaeological excavations to date are able to precisely reconstruct the daily life and customs of four cultural phenomena which in that time swept through the sites of the Vučedol culture - 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 aforementioned settlements had its own characteristics, however the most detailed one able to be reconstructed is the Vučedol one, which also gave its name to this site.

Exhibitions

• The oldest found prehistoric carts on four wheels
• The oldest found Indo-European calendar based on observation of the winter sky
• Prehistoric foundry in which the first known metal production took place
• Production of the first known bronze in the world
• The first known saw in the world, 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 / Partridge 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
• Five types of shoes, with both right and left versions

Floor plan

Museum floorplan / 19 rooms

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

Bibliography

• Marić, Ivona (September 2016). "Pregled hrvatskih novih muzeja, novih stalnih postava i ostalih zanimljivih projekata iz svijeta muzeja u 2015" [Review of new Croatian museums, new permanent displays and other interesting projects from the museum world in 2015] (PDF). Informatica museologica (in Croatian) (45–46): 24–34. Retrieved 29 October 2018.

External links

• Official website