Bronze Age sundial from Prokletije (Montenegro)

TL;DR

This study identifies a Bronze Age slab from Montenegro as an analemmatic sundial, revealing cultural contacts between the Western Balkans and the Northern Black Sea region during the 15th-12th centuries BC.

Contribution

It is the first detailed analysis identifying the slab as an analemmatic sundial and linking it to similar artifacts in the Black Sea region, highlighting cross-cultural interactions.

Findings

The slab is an analemmatic sundial with small cup marks along an ellipse.

Similar sundials from the Northern Black Sea region date to the XV-XII centuries BC.

The artifact indicates cultural contacts between the Western Balkans and the Northern Black Sea.

Abstract

The article presents the results of a study of signs on a Bronze Age slab "Sun stone" discovered at the foot of Maja e Can in Volusnica massif (Prokletije National Park, Montenegro). Studies have shown that the slab is an analemmatic sundial. The "Sun Stone" is more similar in marking to the slabs of the Srubnaya culture: all the cup marks are small and located along the ellipse line. Ellipses of bowl-shaped signs of analemmatic sundials from the Northern Black Sea region are similar in size to the reconstructed ellipse of the "Sun Stone". In addition, on one sundial from the Northern Black Sea region, the groove marks the distance that the gnomon must travel on the day of the winter solstice, similar to the groove on the Sun Stone. In the hour marking of sundial slabs from the Northern Black Sea region and Western Balkans, continuity can be traced, confirming the dating of the XV-XII centuries BC and indicating contacts of representatives of the synchronous local Glasinac culture of the Western Balkans with representatives of the Srubnaya culture of the Northern Black Sea region. Keywords: cup marks, hour markers, grooves, slab, analemmatic sundial, hour line, Bronze Age, Sun Stone.