A group of researchers from Gracanica visited the area of Gornji Skipovac, on the mountain Trebava, while looking for sites with medieval stecak tombstones. On that occasion, on the site of the former war positions and in the area that is full of mines, they managed to locate, record and process the long forgotten necropolis Raminac, which is located along the entity demarcation line.
“Within the current knowledge of stecak tombstones in our country and its territorial distribution, the area of Trebava is poorly explored, so that every registered location has great importance,” said Mr. Edin Sakovic, expert for cultural heritage in the Bosnian Cultural Centre in Gracanica and head of the Local museum collection in this city.
“We were interested in the current condition of the necropolis. We managed to find it after some time, and we found two tombstones, in the secondary position. They are damaged and located on the site where heavy battles took place in 1995 so that the surrounding area is contaminated with mines. This made our research quite difficult, but with a little risk, it was all worth it. We measured the tombstones, photographed them, established coordinates and gathered some information,” said Sakovic.
“Only a few sites with tombstones were known from the wider area of Gracanica until now. It is a small necropolis, with two or three preserved tombstones. Unfortunately, they are not adequately protected or familiar to the general public, not to mention tourism and educational purposes. Also, the tombstones are often victims of vandals. It is our task to try to change it, and field research is the first step towards that,” said Mr. sc. Edin Ibrisevic, the municipal councilor from Gracanica and teacher who is currently writing a Ph.D. thesis on the role of cultural, historical and natural heritage in the educational-teaching process and who also participated in the research.
The data collected in this study will be used in the project of recording the cultural heritage of the municipality of Gracanica, and will also be submitted to the Institute for the Protection of the Cultural and Natural Heritage of Canton Tuzla.
(Source: klix.ba)
