Indications of Prehistoric Settlement Design in Archaeological Record

In the last few years, archaeological excavations conducted as part of a major infrastructure works in the area of upper Posavina, Croatia, resulted in collecting an extensive set of archaeologically significant data on past settlement systems. The research comprised a few large sites from the Middle and the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, characterized by the features of Virovitica cultural group. On the results of excavations conducted at two lowland sites from the period in question: Kurilovec-Belinscica and Selnica Scitarjevska (micro-region Turopolje) ; authors analyse different aspects of identified archaeological record. With an aim to discuss potential indicators on prehistoric settlement design, emphasis is placed on allocation of data that may represent reflections of deliberate selection of a settlement area, its organizational system and its architectural character. By comparison with the settlement features of contiguous sites with equal cultural characteristics, considerations are further directed towards the potential impacts of environmental, cultural and economic conditions on the occurrence of a specific settlement pattern in a regional context.