The Rising of Copper Age Central Places

Abstract

Velika Humska Čuka is an archaeological site located in southeastern Serbia, on the northeastern periphery of the village of Hum, approximately 8 km north of the city of Niš. The site is composed of an oval plateau measuring 125 × 150 m. The plateau lies on a dominant elevation (alt. 454.79 m) with steep and inaccessible slopes, except for the northern side of the site that connects it with the opposite elevation known as Mala Humska Čuka. The site has a visual connection with the eponymous site of Bubanj (8.6 km aerial distance) and the renowned flint outcrop of Kremenac (2.3 km aerial distance). The position of the site dominates the landscape and provides control of most of the Niš Basin. First archaeological excavations of the sites of Velika Humska Čuka and Mala Humska Čuka were conducted in the 1930s and continued on Velika Humska Čuka in the 1950s. The results of those excavations and the excavations at the neighbouring site of Bubanj have provided the basis for the definition of a particular phase of prehistory, marked as the Bubanj-Hum group. After a long break, archaeological excavations were continued in 2014 by the Institute of Archaeology in Belgrade and the National Museum in Niš. The excavations are still ongoing, with a surface of more than 500 m² examined so far.