END OF THE LATE ANTIQUE FORT IN LOBOR AND THE BEGINNING OF THE SLAVIC SEIZING OF PRESENT-DAY NORTHWESTERN CROATIA

During the turbulent Migration Period, the late antique population of Roman provinces sought protection in easily defendable prehistoric hillforts that had been previously abandoned and such sites became the region’s new centres. One of such forts has been investigated at the archaeological site of Majka Božja Gorska in Lobor. In the early decades of the 6th century, the fort experienced its construction peak and an early Christian church with a separate baptistery building was built. A cemetery was located around the church, with graves with inventory consisting of objects mainly associated with the late antique population and the Germans. The time when the Slavs occupied their new homeland is still very poorly explored, and the end of life of their predecessors, the late antique population and the Germans, can still be better tracked as opposed to the beginning of life of the new Slavic population. During the 9th century, Lobor would become one of the most important ecclesiastical and political centres of Lower Pannonia.