page_title: Lovas, Croatia
section_title: The Lovas Hoard
hierarchical_section_title: Lovas, Croatia / History / Early history / The Lovas Hoard
caption_attribution_description: English: The Lovas Hoard is kept and displayed in the permanent exhibition of the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb
context_page_description: Lovas is a village and seat of municipality in the Vukovar-Syrmia County of eastern Croatia, located on the slopes of Fruška Gora, a few kilometers south of the main road connecting Vukovar with Ilok. Lovas has a population of 1,214, and its municipality also includes the smaller village of Opatovac which is located to the north, at the Danube. Lovas is underdeveloped municipality which is statistically classified as the First Category Area of Special State Concern by the Government of Croatia.
context_section_description: The Lovas Hoard was discovered in October 1939. It was ploughed out from the soil by Zdravko Plaščević while he was working on his fields. The exact location and circumstances of the discovery remained unknown for years. However, the City Museum in Vukovar keeps a record of Mr. A. Dorn who mentions the "land of Zdravko Plaščević" on Gradac as one of the known archaeological sites in Lovas. However, that the use of the toponym Gradac in Lovas is somewhat problematic, since it is used to describe different locations or as a common term for the locations Kalvarija, Orlinac and Staro groblje ("Old Cemetery"), all confirmed archaeological sites.
  The Lovas Hoard contained a significant number of bronze and gold objects. The entire hoard was originally located inside of a larger ceramic vessel, as reported by Mr. Plaščević, but the vessel was unfortunately not preserved. Gold objects, or more precisely jewelry, were placed within a smaller black jar with two handles (a sort of a "kantharos"). The discovered objects were handed to Mr. Viktor Hoffiler, the director of the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb at the time. This was the beginning of the close affiliation of the archaeology in Lovas with the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb. The hoard itself did not become the subject of scientific discussion until 1956, and it was properly published only in 1958 by Mr. Zdenko Vinski, an employee of the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb and an expert in Medieval Archaeology.
  On the basis of bronze and ceramic finds, the hoard can be dated to the Middle Bronze Age period and it has been attributed to the late Vatin or Belegiš I Culture. Interestingly, a similar hoard of the same dating, but not as rich in deposited objects, was discovered in the city of Vukovar. It was found in Mala ulica ("Little Street") in Vukovar at the end of the 19th century. In 1897 the hoard was acquired by Josip Brunšmid, the director of the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb at the time. The circumstances of its discovery remain unknown. Therefore, it is quite possible that it contained more objects than are known today.
  In 2011 the team of the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb, discovered the location where the Lovas Hoard was possibly found. The team learned from local inhabitants that the possible site of the hoard should be sought in a location called Čajer, located on another elevated position west of the village Lovas. Čajer is not adjacent to Gradac, which was originally thought to be the location of the hoard. Fragments of ceramic vessels dating to the Bronze Age were also found at Čajer. The connection between this area and the hoard was further strengthened by the 2011 survey and 2017 excavation. More precisely, on the same plateau, but some 1,5 km to the north at Kovači ("Smiths"), the Museum’s research team discovered settlement remains dating to the same phase of the Middle Bronze Age as the Lovas Hoard.
caption: The Lovas Hoard is kept and displayed in the permanent exhibition of the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb (photo: P. Pavuk, Archaeological Museum in Zagreb, 2018).
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