page_title: Stećak
section_title: Decorations
hierarchical_section_title: Stećak / Characteristics / Decorations
caption_attribution_description: Magyar: Radimlje, bogumil nekropolisz (Bosznia)
context_page_description: Stećak or Stećci in plural form is the name for monumental medieval tombstones, that lie scattered across Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the border parts of Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia. An estimated 60,000 are found within the borders of modern Bosnia and Herzegovina and the rest of 10,000 are found in what are today Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia, at more than 3,300 odd sites with over 90% in poor condition.
  Appearing in the mid 12th century, with the first phase in the 13th century, the tombstones reached their peak in the 14th and 15th century, before disappearing during the Ottoman conquest of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the very early 16th century. They were a common tradition amongst Bosnian, Catholic and Orthodox Church followers alike, and are sometimes related to the Vlach, or
  Croatian population, but the original ethnic and religious affiliation is still undetermined. The one of the best preserved collection of these tombstones is named Radimlja, west of Stolac in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
  Stećci were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016.
context_section_description: A fraction of stećci (384) bear inscriptions, mostly in Cyrillic, some in Glagolitic and Latin script. The language has some archaic phrases, characterized by Ikavian while toward the end by Ijekavian yat reflex. The inscriptions can be roughly divided into those of: religious phrase, description of heroic death, information of the deceased, information of the deceased's relatives and circumstances of death, information with only a personal name (sometimes with smith-pupil name), and a moral (or religious) lesson. The last are mostly brazen reminders of wisdom and mortality, relay a dread of death, more anxiety than peace.
  The most remarkable feature is their decorative motifs roughly divided in six groups which complement each other: social symbols, religious symbols, images of posthumous kolo, figural images, clear ornaments, and unclassified motifs (mostly symbolic, geometrical, or damaged). Many of them remain enigmatic to this day; spirals, arcades, rosettes, vine leaves and grapes, lilium, stars (often six-pointed) and crescent Moons are among the images that appear. Figural images include processions of deer, horse, dancing the kolo, hunting, chivalric tournaments, and, most famously, the image of the man with his right hand raised, perhaps in a gesture of fealty.
  A series of visual representations on the tombstones can not be simplistically interpreted as real scenes from the life, and symbolic explanation is still considered by the scholarship. The shield on the tombstones, usually with the crossbar, crescent and star, cannot be a coat of arms, neither the lilium which is stylized is used in the heraldic sense. On one stećak is displayed tied lion and above him winged dragon. Already in 1979, historian Hadžijahić noted that the horsemen are not riding with reins, yet (if are not hunting) their hands are free and pointed to the sky, implying possible cult significance. In 1985, Maja Miletić noted the symbolic and religious character of the stećak scenes. All the "life scenes" are considered to be part of ceremonial. Several scholars concluded that the motifs, as well the tradition of a posthumous indigenous cult, show the continuity of old Balkan pre-Christian symbolism from prehistoric time and the autochthonous Romanized Illyrian  (i.e. Vlachian) tribes. Alojz Benac noted that the displays of a sole horse with a snake, as well a sole deer with a bird, symbolize the soul of the deceased going to the otherworld, which representations are resembling those found on Iapydes artefacts. The Illyrian god Medaurus is described as riding on horseback and carrying a lance.
  Of all the animals, the deer is the most represented, and mostly is found on stećci in Herzegovina. According to Dragoslav Srejović, the spread of Christianity did not cause the disappearance of old cult and belief in sacred deer. Wenzel considered that it led the deceased to the underworld. Historian Šefik Bešlagić synthesized the representations of deer: sometimes accompanied by a bird (often on the back or horns), cross or lilium, frequently are shown series of deer or doe, as well with a bow and arrow, dog and hunter(s) with a spear or sword (often on a horse). It is displayed in hunting scenes, as well some kolo processions led by a man who is riding a deer. There scenes where deer calmly approach the hunter, or deer with enormous size and sparse horns. Most of the depictions of "deer hunting" are facing west, which had the symbolic meaning for death and the otherworld. In the numerous hunting scenes, in only one a deer is wounded (the stećak has some anomalies), indicating an unrealistic meaning. In the Roman and Parthian-Sasanian art, hunted animals are mortally wounded, and the deer is only one of many, while on stećci is the only hunted animal.
  The motifs of kolo (in total 132) procession along with a deer, and its specific direction of dancing, although not always easily identifiable, show it is a mortal dance compared to cheerful dance. From Iapydes urns, up to present-day women in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro, remorseful dances are
caption: The sacral motif of deer is considered to be of Paleo-Balkan and pre-Christian origin.
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