Carved stećci in Bosnia
Type:
Grave markers,
Monuments,
Sculptures
Date:
Twelfth to fifteenth centuries
Location or Findspot (Modern-Day Country):
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Dimensions:
up to 2 m tall
Description:
The stećci (sing. stećak) are late medieval carved stones found mainly in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina. About 70,000 of these enigmatic stelae survive; fewer than 10 percent have relief or incised carvings and a few hundred bear Slavic inscriptions. Scholars agree that they date mostly to the late Middle Ages (twelfth to fifteenth centuries), but the religious or cultural group that produced them is uncertain. They are no longer associated exclusively with the Bogomils, a dualist Christian sect that flourished in the region in the late medieval centuries and was deemed heretical by Roman and Orthodox church authorities. The stećci, almost all made of local limestone, vary in overall shape and size: some are simple slabs, others sarcophagus -shaped. Their iconography includes figural, vegetal, heraldic, and geometric imagery; some have crosses. It is likely that most served as funerary or commemorative markers.
Relevant Textbook Chapter(s):
10,
11
Repository and Online Resources:
• The stećci of 28 sites are collectively a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Image Credits:
Wikimedia Commons
