Archaeologists from the National Museum of Toplica in Prokuplje and the National Museum in Belgrade have continued their archaeological research in the municipality of a Pre-Slavic and Pre-Serbian site at Kurshumlija, which has been conducted every autumn for the past five years.
So far, they have discovered 11 lost cities on the slopes of Kopaonik and Mount Radan, reports the Serbian news agency Beta, as transmitted by InfoPress.
Until now, nothing was known about five of the cities discovered around Lukovo Banja. Julka Kuzmanović Cvetković, archaeologist at the National Museum of Toplica, stated that these five cities still represent a mystery and that broader archaeological research is needed to learn more about them.
“These cities were never recorded on the archaeological map of Pre-Slavic Serbia. They are mountain-peak settlements around Lukovska Banja. What I can say now is that these cities are related to some kind of activity in that area — most likely mining,” said Kuzmanović Cvetković.
In some locations below the fortified cities, archaeologists have found remains of settlements showing that people lived here from prehistoric times through the Middle Ages.
Emina Zečević, archaeologist at the National Museum in Belgrade, said that the archaeological finds across the entire territory of Kurshumlija municipality have completely changed previous knowledge about the region’s history.
“Everything we have found and discovered almost completely changes what we knew until now. For example, we now know that this region — today’s Kurshumlija and its surroundings — was much more densely populated than today, and also much wealthier,” said Zečević.
The archaeologists have recorded around 140 sites from various historical periods.
Archaeologist Milan Savić from Kurshumlija emphasized that support from the state and the municipality of Kurshumlija is necessary to conduct more detailed archaeological research, as these discoveries are of great importance not only for Kurshumlija but for all of Serbia.
Pre-Slavic heritage (Dardanian and Illyrian)
These archaeological discoveries in the Kurshumlija region are predominantly Pre-Slavic and Pre-Serbian in character.
The fortified mountain settlements and associated sites on the slopes of Kopaonik and Mount Radan, including the five previously unknown cities around Lukovska Banja, reflect layers of human activity stretching back long before the arrival of the Slavs in the Balkans (6th–7th centuries AD) and the emergence of medieval Serbian polities.
Archaeologists have documented remains of settlements at the foot of these fortified sites showing continuous or repeated occupation from prehistoric times (likely encompassing Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age periods) through the Roman, late antique, and early Byzantine eras.
These mountain-peak sites, possibly linked to mining activities and strategic control of routes, belong to cultural contexts associated with Illyrian, Thracian, Dardanian, or Roman provincial populations — long predating Slavic ethnogenesis in the region.
The broader survey recorded around 140 sites across multiple historical periods, underscoring that the area was far more densely populated and economically significant in antiquity than in later times. While some activity extended into the Middle Ages (including the Serbian medieval period), the core “lost cities” and fortified settlements highlighted in the 2017 reports represent a pre-Serbian and pre-Slavic cultural landscape.
They illuminate the rich, multi-layered history of the Dardanians and Illyrians in what is todays southern Serbia before the ethnolinguistic and political transformations that shaped the Serbian identity in the region.
These findings thus expand our understanding of pre-Slavic Balkan societies, their economic activities (especially mining and trade), and their resilience in mountainous terrain. Further systematic excavations could reveal even more about these enigmatic Pre-Serbian chapters of the area’s past.
Sources
https://kallxo.com/krypometer/ekzagjerimi-peri-nje-zbulim-ne-zonen-e-kurshumlise-ne-serbi/
N1.rs (main detailed report, Nov 11, 2017):
https://n1info.rs/magazin/scitech/a341365-Otkriveno-11-izgubljenih-gradova-na-Kopaoniku-i-Radanu/
Blace Info Press (local source):
https://www.blaceinfopress.rs/u-kursumliji-pronadjeno-11-izgubljenih-gradova/ blaceinfopress.rs
