Season Director

• AIAC_5632 - Krnjice – Jelanje - 2006
  The prehistoric archaeological site of Krnjice - Jelanje is located on arable land about 2 km southeast of the centre of the village of Donji Andrijevci. The excavated area of 36,000 m² was located in two locations separated from each other by a melioration channel and a local field road. After the soil was machine-removed, manual polishing of the terrain was started, after which structures began to be outlined at the subsoil level. Most of them were pits of irregular shape. Only a small number of pits contained archaeological material, so it is difficult to place most of the structures in an archaeological context. They were probably created by geological action (underground water). The only structures in which archaeological material was found were the so-called "wells". These are round pits, with steep walls and a levelled bottom, with a relative depth of 1.40 to 1.80 m. The backfill was initially of a dark brown colour, but at about 1 m of relative depth it starts to mix with the subsoil, i.e. the pit is filled with transferred natural soil. Under this layer, which is about 20 cm thick, dark brown soil begins to appear again, in which 1 to 2 almost complete pots regularly appear, placed on natural soil from which underground water emerges. As bronze artefacts and one decorated bone artefact were found in some "wells" in addition to pottery, it may be assumed that those structures were graves. However, no remains of burnt bones were found in the pots, so this assumption remains unsubstantiated. A certain number of fragments of decorated pottery, essential for the chronological definition of the site, were also found. In addition, several bronze artefacts were found (a bronze needle and a bronze bracelet with two fragments of gold leaves), as well as a decorated bone object, actually part of a horse bit. A certain number of animal bones were also collected in the pits. Taking into account the archaeological material, it can be concluded that the Krnjice - Jelanje site was connected to the population living in the later phase of the Urn Field Culture, i.e. durint the Ha B period. This site thus belongs to the group of sites that existed during the later phase of the Urn Field Culture along both banks of the Sava as a series of settlements on the river terraces (Zvonko Bojčić, Tomislav Hršak 2007, Hrvatski arheološki godišnjak 3/2006, 71-72).