After several months of preparations and all the necessary geotechnical and geomechanical research of the soil and the elaborates required for the arrangement of the cemetery, we received the consent for the archaeological research of the oldest Muslim cemetery in BiH on Presjeka, around six kilometers away from Ustikolina, according to Senad Cengic Sejo, the President of the Majlis of Islamic Community in Ustikolina under whose supervision this locality was declared as a national monument back in 2004.
The research started at the beginning of this week and it was performed by the archaeological team of the Museum of Sarajevo, the Society of Archaeologists 1894 and the Institute of Archaeology of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Sarajevo, whose results will surely be appreciated by the Institute for the Protection of Monuments of BiH.
Cengic also noted that the primary goal of this project, besides the research work in which was includes the Mufti Unit of Gorazde and Mufti Remzija Pitic, is the permanent protection of the cemetery on Presjeka as a national monument and its preservation for generations to come. They will try to take a maximum advantage of the nice springtime weather for the works, and residents of Foca were thrilled about this news.
“The exact creation of the cemetery is unknown, but it is linked to the 15th century and it has been active for less than a hundred years. It is actually an artificially created plateau, with a square shape, and it was created on the surface surrounded by a trench from the east and south. The cemetery was previously carefully selected and arranged,” said Adnan Muftarevic, leader of the research team of the archaeologist.
First it was a martyr’s cemetery, then civilian cemetery, and literally this site did not miss any of the wars that took place in Bosnia due to its strategic position, from the time of Greeks and the Romans until the last war. There are also no historians who dealt with the medieval Bosnia and the world travellers who did not write about the graveyard on Presjeka.
(Source: klix.ba)
