Gomila in Jal？abet – emergency rescue excavations in 2017 and 2018 within the A4: Ritual subtopic of the “Strategy for the Scientific Research Activities of the Institute of Archaeology 2014–2019”

Sa？etak In September 2017, during the implementation of Monumental Landscapes of the Early Iron Age in the Danube Basin, an international project of the Institute of Archaeology and partners from five Central European countries, the archaeological team of the Institute of Archaeology determined that one of the most famous prehistoric monuments on the Croatian soil and one of the rare gigantic unexplored prehistoric funerary tumuli of Central Europe was robbed and greatly damaged during the robbery. There has been a police inquest and a search for the perpetrators of this major attack on culture. Because of the danger of further damage to this valuable archaeological monument, and thanks to the urgent investment of the Croatian Ministry of Culture, the Institute of Archaeology started emergency rescue excavations in early winter 2017 already, and continued in 2018. During two campaigns, a large part of the tumulus was explored. It is planned to continue the field work in 2019, while the complex and long process of conservation and restoration of finds has only begun. The emergency rescue excavations of Gomila in Jal？abet and the entire archaeological landscape along the Bistri？ak stream go well with the subtopic A3: Ritual within the Strategy for the Scientific Research Activities of the Institute