# Butmir Culture (c. 5100–4500 BCE)

URL: https://allhistories.com/bosnia/timeline/-5100-butmir-culture
Location: Butmir, Ilidža, Sarajevo
Themes: Key Events

By the later Neolithic the valley of the River Bosna, from the Sarajevo plain down to Zavidovići, supported a dense network of farming villages. Their material culture is known as the Butmir culture, one of the most distinctive Neolithic groups of south-eastern Europe and part of the wider Danubian world of early farmers. The culture takes its name from Butmir, near Ilidža on the outskirts of Sarajevo, where a large settlement was discovered in 1893 during building works and excavated soon afterwards. The finds included finely made pottery decorated with spirals and incised patterns, polished stone tools and a remarkable series of hand-modelled human figurines with individualised faces. Later work identified further Butmir settlements, including Obre II near Kakanj and the largest known site, Okolište in the Visoko basin, a large village enclosed by ditches and palisades. The culture is dated to about 5100–4500 BCE. Butmir pottery and figurines are among the most celebrated prehistoric collections of the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo. The discovery made Butmir a reference point in European archaeology, and an international congress of archaeologists and anthropologists visited the site in 1894. At this point in the timeline (c. 5100–4500 BCE), no ruler of the Bosnian lands is recorded in this dataset; the region was home to prehistoric and Illyrian peoples or ruled from Rome and Constantinople.

## Why it matters
Butmir is Bosnia and Herzegovina's best-known prehistoric culture and a showcase of Neolithic art in Europe.

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Butmir culture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butmir_culture)
- [Wikipedia — Ilidža](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilidža)
- [National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina](https://www.zemaljskimuzej.ba/)
- [Wikipedia — Prehistory And Illyrians (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistory_of_Bosnia_and_Herzegovina)