Croatia and the Pile-Dwelling Fever: Rediscovered 19th-Century Narratives from Budinščina

Abstract

One of the earliest documented accounts of pile-dwellings in present-day Croatian territory dates to 1885, when Šime Ljubić, the director of the Archaeological Department of the National Museum in Zagreb, discovered sharpened wooden piles embedded in an artificial island of a fishpond on the property of Mr. Petar Horvat in the village of Budinščina in north-western Croatia. Ljubić observed that the piles were arranged in regular patterns and identified them as remnants of a prehistoric pile-dwelling, drawing comparisons to the Terramara pile-dwellings in Italy. He conducted preliminary archaeological excavations at the site and subsequently presented his findings at a conference in Klagenfurt, Austria. These results were later published in two brief reports in 1885 and 1887. In late 1885, Luigi Pigorini, an Italian archaeologist engaged in research on the Terramara sites and a key figure in the 19th-century "pile-dwelling fever," read Ljubić's first report and initiated correspondence. This paper aims to present Ljubić’s discoveries by utilizing archival materials and archaeological artifacts housed at the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb. A significant portion of the article includes transcripts of the original letters exchanged between Ljubić and Horvat, as well as between Ljubić and Pigorini, thereby contributing historical context and highlighting the renewed scholarly interest in prehistoric pile-dwellings in the region.