The Prehistoric and Early Mediaeval Settlement of Bentez near Beketinci

In 2007 and 2008 the Institute of Archaeology in Zagreb carried out salvage archaeological investigations on the route of the international highway Budapest - Ploce. The investigation took place at the site marked as AN 18, at the plot known as Bentez near Beketinci, on the Osijek - Dakovo section. The remains of a prehistoric settlement of the Lasinja culture (around 4000 B.C.) and an early mediaeval settlement (10th-11th cent.) were investigated in the eastern part of the site. The investigated part of the settlement of the Lasinja culture consisted in its western, working part, of a number of pits for extraction of clay, working pits and two larger pottery kilns. Three large pit-houses (20x30 m) were discovered in the eastern, residential part of the settlement, with wells at their edges, as well as foundations of five above-ground houses. The largest above-ground house was 30 m long and 12 m wide, with three rooms and a smaller house (9 x5 m, with two rooms) at its southern side. A considerable quantity of ceramic vessels and spoons was found: biconical and round bowls and tureens, bowls on a hollow foot with a thickening in the upper part, and beakers with a handle - sometimes decorated - that reaches the rim. The ornaments were mostly incised, impressed and stamped. In addition to the ceramics, there were also few lithic finds - fragments of stone tools and shaft-hole axes. Three pits with fragments of early mediaeval vessels with simple rims, decorated with a comb-like wave-line and fragments of a deep biconical vessel - ceramic kettel, dated to the 10th-11th cent., were found in the northeastern part of the prehistoric settlement.