Where Lived the Masters of Trebenishte? The Settlement Strategies and the Question of Hilltops in the Ohrid region
Abstract
The phenomenon of the so-called princely graves has been a prominent feature in the study of the Iron Age in the Balkans since the discovery of the first rich finds at Trebenishte some 100 years ago. It has been often used to illustrate the socio-economic, political and cultural developments in the individual regions, and to highlight the connectivity between the Balkans and the Mediterranean. When compared to a similar phenomenon in the area of the so-called Hallstatt Culture, however, the rich graves in the Balkans can only rarely be related to settlements - not to mention a description of the latter as "princely seats".
This observation is particularly valid in the case of the Ohrid region and the necropolis of Trebenishte. Since there are no settlements that can be directly assigned to the graves, some scholars assumed pastoral communities that were not characterised by a permanent and representative seat (transhumance); the rich graves landmarked the territorial claims of the constantly moving cattle breeders. Other researchers tried to identify the related settlements on the site of the later Hellenistic fortresses in the region, which occupied the exposed points in the landscape, and controlled the communication routes. The assumed diachronic development of these fortified sites has been recently underscored by the excavation of the rich graves at Gorna Porta and the settlement remains at Plaoshnik and Samuelova Tvrdina, both located on the hill plateau in the city of Ohrid. However, both narratives are challenged by the very limited knowledge of habitation patterns and socio-cultural developments in the region, beyond the central place of Ohrid - ancient Lychnidos. As a response to the lacking of a regional multi-layer investigation, a long-term collaboration was initiated between the Archaeological Museum of Macedonia and the Charles University. This paper presents the preliminary results of the ongoing fieldwork at different sites in the Ohrid region, which point to local geomorphological and specific paleo-ecological factors strongly impacting the settlement organisation and strategies during the Iron Age - and ultimately also the economic and socio-cultural pre-conditions that led to the emergence of the rich graves in Trebenishte.