Written by: Smiljana Dodić, museum counselor – archaeologist
With the first days of November, archeologists of the Regional Museum in Jagodina have completed their excavations in interior of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Ivkovački Prnjavor. This phase of research is usually accompanied by mixed feelings – while we pull out stakes from the corners of archaeological probes, satisfaction with achieved results overlaps with sadness due to conclusion of time spent within the monument, our final efforts to reveal its secrets, and parting with all the people we met along the way.
However, we continue to unravel layers of the centuries-old past of the Ivković Monastery in the cabinet conditions of the Jagodina Museum, Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments in Kragujevac and Institute for Balkan Studies in Belgrade. Along with cleaning of movable finds from six archaeological probes inside the Ivković church, work is also being done on digitization of field documentation of the newly discovered building remains and on creation of a conceptual solution for their presentation within the future church floor. Processing of the skeletal remains from five burial units inside the church has begun, as well as identification of the coins that will contribute to closer dating of construction stages and periods of devastation the suffering of the Ivković church. The next steps also include reconstruction of parts ceramic and glass vessels, as well as conservation of construction metal and liturgical objects. The most important will be analysis of fresco fragments, physical and chemical, as well as stylistic, with an attempt to reconstruct larger compositions.
Finally, all data obtained during research of the Ivković site will be presented through an appropriate exhibition to our public which, we believe, is much increased by many friends of the holy place in Ivković and who provided us invaluable help during our research journey… The extent of excavations and importance of results would not be possible without the initiative of inhabitants of Ivkovački Prnjavor, Beočić, Medojevac, Loćika, Dragoševac, Kolare, Topola, Rekovac and Jagodina, who are descendants of those who built and preserved the Ivković monastery church until today, led by their priests.
And for that we are infinitely grateful…
