"Kings and Saints of Serbia" in the Historical Museum of Serbia are described by the media as "a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition", primarily because of the original jewelry, weapons, manuscripts and money on display, which testify to the wealth and diversity of the preserved material heritage of the state of Stefan Nemanja and his successors, during two centuries of rule.
The topic is viewed from the point of view of archaeologists, the author of the exhibition Vanja Vuksan and her colleagues Marko Vuksan and Vesna Dragović Pop-Lazić, and not historians as is usual. "My colleagues and I made this exhibition based on available objects. I think that due to the still present disagreement among historians about many questions related to our Middle Ages, archeology could help a lot in solving some historical doubts. It is necessary to conduct more complex and extensive archaeological research, especially of medieval sites, which have been neglected for years," Vanja Vuksan told Vreme. It turned out that the archaeologist's view of the time of Nemanjić, about whom we think we know everything, resulted in some new details.
For example, Nemanjić's ancestors are almost unknown to the public. Among them, the most prominent is Prince Strojimir, who at the exhibition bears witness to a gold seal, the oldest material evidence of the existence of the Serbian state in the Balkans. It was used instead of a signature to seal personal letters and documents with wax. In the middle of the seal, a patriarchal cross is engraved, around which runs the inscription in Greek: "God help Strojimir". Vanja Vuksan explains that the patriarchal, as well as the small Greek cross that begins the inscription with the name, say that "its owner is a person of the Christian faith who was important to place the symbol of his faith as a personal sign, and the gold from which the seal is made indicates wealth and probably distinguished social status. Strojimir is also mentioned by the Byzantine emperor and writer Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, in his Writings on Nations, as one of the sons of the archon Vlastimir, the progenitor of one of the first known Serbian dynasties in the middle of the 9th century. Strojimir, like his brothers Mutimir and Gojnik, had a folk name. Only the next generations, Mutimir's son Stefan and Gojnik's son Petar, will bear Christian names. After the death of archon Vlastimir, his sons succeeded him, so that most probably each of them got their own part of the land to administer, and Mutimir, as the eldest, had supreme power. After the invasion of the army of the Bulgarian Khan Boris-Mihail (852–889), who, in his desire to avenge the defeat of his father Presiam, himself failed, and after the peace that followed, there was a conflict within the Serbian dynasty. Mutimir defeated Strojimir and Gojnik, captured them and exiled them to Bulgaria. After Mutimir's death, there will be years of constant conflicts over the throne, and the participants in those battles were the descendants of Vlastimir's sons."
However, there is no proof that the Nemanjićs were related to the Vlastimirovićs. In their ruling charters, they refer to their ancestors, their origin from ancient times in the sense of the Dukljan Kingdom, but nowhere is it precisely stated that they have their origin from a pre-Nemanjic ruler. Something has been preserved in Nemanja's Hilandar Charter, the original of which does not exist because the Hilandar monks presented it to King Alexander at the same time as Miroslav's Gospel, so it was lost. Photos and a transcript have been preserved. For that first period, the Church of St. Peter and Paul near Bijelo Polje, where an inscription is preserved where Zavida is mentioned as Miroslav's or Nemanja's father. No other evidence was found.
Ring silver 14th century; earring silver 12th century; sword 13-14. century; mace head 14-15. century
The History Museum of Serbia has kept Strojimir's seal since 2006, when it was purchased in Germany as one of 734 objects of ancient art offered at auction. It is only known that before that it was in a private German collection, but not how it got there. Immediately before the auction, Russian colleagues informed Dr. Đorđe Janković, head of the Department of National Archeology of the Middle Ages at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, that the seal was offered for sale, and contact was immediately established with the auction house. It turned out that Bulgarian collectors wanted to buy it before it was put up for auction, but since the Serbian side showed interest, negotiations with them were suspended. The initial initial auction price of 6500 euros was raised to 15.000 euros, and it was sold to the Vice-Consul of Serbia for 16.000 euros. Its total price with the commission of the auction house was 20.000 euros. The purchase of Strojimir's seal is considered one of the good deeds of the government of Vojislav Koštunica.
Strojimir's seal
The exhibition highlighted the fact that not a single ruling court of Nemanjić has been explored, and many have not even been located. In the context of the great interest of our scientific and social public in the most important Serbian dynasty, that information seems even inexplicable. Vanja Vuksan explains that "written sources provide information on the existence of a significant number of medieval palaces and residences of Serbian rulers and rulers, most of which are located in Kosovo and Metohija. Unfortunately, none of these residences have been archaeologically identified. There are probably many reasons for this, but they have always been financial and political in nature. In an attempt to find one of the palaces of King Milutin, in 1963 minor archaeological research was carried out at the source of the river Lab. Research was not carried out to the end, only one tower was excavated, so it is not possible to reliably identify this site with the famous Milutin Palace on Vrhlab. In an attempt to find the court of Queen Jelena in Brnjaci, archaeological research was carried out in 1978. Several objects were discovered, but the results of these excavations have not been published, so nothing reliable can be said about the purpose and dating of this site for now. In search of Dragutin's palace, which, according to the description of Archbishop Danilo II, was located in the area of Raška parish, in the eighties of the last century, archaeological research was carried out in the area of the present-day village of Deževe. For now, only a smaller single-nave church from the 13th century and parts of the necropolis around it have been discovered. Traces of the palace have not been confirmed, but it is assumed that the church formed part of a wider royal complex. In the late 3s and early 4s, the project "Medieval Towns and Castles in Kosovo and Metohija" was launched, but these researches were stopped at the initial stage. Archaeological excavations were carried out in Donji Nerodimlje near Uroševac, in a place where it was assumed that one of Nemanjić's palaces could be located. The remains of large Roman baths, richly decorated with mosaics, built in the 6rd and 14th centuries and reused and remodeled in the 15th century, were discovered. In addition to early Byzantine, ceramics from the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries were also found, which led the researchers to assume that the building in its late phase could have been used as part of a medieval ruler's complex. There are numerous other sites and monuments of the medieval courts of Serbian rulers that have not been reliably identified to this day."
A contemporary and very current topic here, which is talked about at the exhibition with the example of Nemanjić, is the relationship between the state and the church. Vanja Vuksan reminds that "Dušan is not the only Nemanjic ruler who was not declared a saint." After King Radoslav was deposed from the throne, he lived in the monastery as a monk Jovan. Based on the words of Archbishop Danilo II, we know that the former king Radoslav was buried in Studenica, but there is no mention of the creation of any cult of him. After the dethronement, King Stefan Uroš I retired to Hum, where he became a monk. In Žefarovićeva Stematography the image of King Uroš I is shown with the inscription 'saint', but his cult is not fully formed." In short, in medieval Serbia, being a ruler was not an argument that caused awe in the Church.
On the trail of the exhibition's intention to reveal or show something that we did not know or that it is not appropriate for us to know, it is inevitable to mention the Dečan Charter from 1330, a scroll of parchment five meters long, proof of the current issue of the presence of Serbs on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija. As is known, the charter was drawn up as a legal act by King Stefan Uroš of Dečane for his endowment, the Dečane monastery. The charter testifies, says Vanja Vuksan, that "the monastery was gifted with one of the largest estates, in terms of size, right after that of Hilandar. An analysis of the ethnic composition of the population established that in the 14th century, on the territory of the monastery estate, which included the territory of Kosovo and Metohija and the northeastern part of today's Albania, less than two percent of the listed houses were Albanian."
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