An Analysis of Small Finds from Archaeological Investigations near the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Donja Glogovnica

Sa？etak The goal of the paper was to analyse the available sources on the castle near the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Donja Glogovnica from an archaeological aspect, while special emphasis was placed on the description and catalogue of material found during archaeological excavations in 1998, 1999 and 2001. There are numerous profane fortifications and sacral monuments in the vicinity of Kri？evci, while the high number of castles, forts and churches tells us how important the town was during the Middle Ages. The domus of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre is mentioned in Donja Glogovnica, while the layout and the findings of architectural plastic art that shows the members of the Order serve as evidence of the existence of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre Church. The layout (fig. 1) shows the foundation of the church, upon which another church church was later built. The church itself is classified as a fortified church due to its elevated position and defensive ditch which is visible even today. Churches on elevated positions were often fortified, and sometimes even their bell-towers had a defensive purpose. The Glogovnica prepositure complex, which was erected under provosts Osvaldo and Andrija Alfons Thus in the 15th century, had exactly such a defensive role since such fortifications were erected in our region for defensive purposes during Ottoman attacks. The question where the members of the Order lived often arises and the term domus is mentioned with terms castellum (castle, 1500), fortalicium (1543) and castrum (1553) in many documents, which would mean that their domus served as a castle, that is some kind of fort. The problem arises due to fact that there are no documents that determine the precise location of the domus, that is the castle. A visual inspection of the site points to the fact that a medieval castle stood exactly in that sport, north of the church. The plateau on which the castle was located is horseshoe shaped, while the central fort had a quadrangular layout with arched corners which means that defensive towers existed in those spots. Such towers are characteristic for the period in which firearms – that is artillery – were used, while the findings of a ceramic mould for pouring lead cannon-balls from a refuse pit, as well as the findings of stone cannon-balls date the castle to the period from the second half of the 15th century to the beginning of the 16th century. Archaeological material found during the three stages of archaeological investigations was compared with other medieval materials and it was