The team of the Foundation “Heritage Watchdogs – Bassania” traveled to Kopača, Novo Goražde municipality, surprised by the large number of historical sites in the region.
The research began with a search for the previously unrecorded necropolis Mramorje in the village of Naščenje, accessible via an extremely difficult dirt road. This small necropolis contains three gabled tombstones.
Due to thick fog and mined terrain, the team was unable to visit the nearby Illyrian hillfort, around which numerous legends and myths are woven. The road to the village of Surovi was impassable, preventing them from visiting the transitional tombstones (from the 15th century) as well.
They continued to the village of Gradac, where they successfully located an Illyrian hillfort that controlled the Drina River. Even the local residents were unaware of its existence. In this area, old 15th-century tombstones were found next to a new Muslim cemetery.
The research continued through the village of Kostenik, towards the Treštenica site, where Illyrian tumuli previously excavated by archaeologist M. Kosorić in 1984 were located. All artifacts from these sites were taken to Belgrade. On Borak Hill, they visited the Illyrian hillforts Kremenjača and Ždrijelo, where looted tumuli were also found and artifacts similarly removed to Belgrade.
“For next time, we have left the hillfort at Donja Sopotnica, which was also a medieval fortress with a donjon tower and a Bosnian church endowed by Herceg Stjepan Kosača. Along the way, we passed the villages of Slatina and Surduk, where remains of Illyrian and Roman constructions are also located; these too were looted, including a tumulus measuring 40 meters in circumference and 2 meters in height containing 27 skeletal remains,” said Emir Medanhodžić, the President of the Board of Directors of the Foundation “Heritage Watchdogs – Bassania”