Prehistory

Prehistory can be divided into the Palaeolithic – Old Stone Age and the Neolithic – New Stone Age. In our regions no archaeological sites of the Palaeolithic have been found. The only exception makes the discovery of mammoth’s head and other bones found on the banks of Tisa River near Novi Bečej in the year 1952. The discovered archaeological sites, however, indicate that these regions had already been inhabited in the early Neolithic period about 5000 years B.C. The most important archaeological site from this period is so-called Krstić tumulus, near Mužlja, about 10km away from Zrenjanin. Here were found the ceramics, with interesting ornaments. Beside the brewery ground have been found rough, with coloured fine ceramics, ornaments (Starčevo culture). The middle Neolithic appeared in our area as Vinča and Potisje culture, in the down course of the Tisa River. What makes this area important is the fact that the influence of two parallel cultures flew through it at the same time. The metal-working age has not been enough explored yet. No traces of the early Bronze Age have been discovered yet. A few regions with some archaeological materials from the metal-working age have been found: in the residential area  Šumica a tip of a spear was found and near the Oil Factory pieces of ceramics from the Bronze Age were discovered.
 
At the beginning of A.D., this area was settled by many native tribes, but also by many newcomer tribes: the Illyrians, the Celts, the Goths, the Geths, the Sarmaths and Jazghs. In the end of the 3rd century and in the middle of the 4th century, in the area of Zrenjanin and its surroundings, the sarmath tribe Roksolans appeared. From this period a Sarmath’s graveyard has been found in a city residential district, near the railroad bridge. Finally in the necropolis, not far from Aradac, “Mečka”, more than 120 graves, which date from the end of the 6th and the beginning of the 7th century, have been excavated in 1952.