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121-423: Traces of organized human life on the territory of Ruma municipality date back as far as prehistory . The most important archaeological locality in the municipality is Bronze Age Gomolava near Hrtkovci , with two exclusive tombs of Bosut culture dating to the 9th century BC and 3000BC Vučedol culture pottery. The first known inhabitants of this area were various peoples of Illyrian and Celtic origin, such as

242-628: A broader struggle of Christian Serbs against Muslim Albanians. The ethnic Albanian nationalism movement was centred in Kosovo. In 1878 the League of Prizren ( Lidhja e Prizrenit ) was formed, a political organisation that sought to unify all the Albanians of the Ottoman Empire in a common struggle for autonomy and greater cultural rights, although they generally desired the continuation of

363-592: A common impurity. Tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before 3000 BCE. The Bronze Age forms part of the three-age system for prehistoric societies. In this system, it follows the Neolithic in some areas of the world. While copper is a common ore, deposits of tin are rare in the Old World , and often had to be traded or carried considerable distances from

484-544: A further increase in emigration of Kosovo Serbs and other ethnic groups. The Yugoslav leadership tried to suppress protests of Kosovo Serbs seeking protection from ethnic discrimination and violence. Inter-ethnic tensions continued to worsen in Kosovo throughout the 1980s. In 1989, Serbian President Slobodan Milošević , employing a mix of intimidation and political maneuvering, drastically reduced Kosovo's special autonomous status within Serbia and started cultural oppression of

605-439: A majority in all settlements. The ethnic composition of the municipality of Ruma: The following table gives a preview of total number of registered people employed in legal entities per their core activity (as of 2018): Prehistory Prehistory , also called pre-literary history , is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins c.  3.3   million years ago and

726-517: A member of the European Union . The name Kosovo is of South Slavic origin. Kosovo (Serbian Cyrillic: Косово ) is the Serbian neuter possessive adjective of kos ( кос ), ' blackbird ', an ellipsis for Kosovo Polje , 'Blackbird Field', the name of a karst field situated in the eastern half of today's Kosovo and the site of the 1389 Battle of Kosovo Field . The name of

847-551: A membership in the collective presidency and the Yugoslav parliament, in which it held veto power. In the aftermath of the 1974 constitution, concerns over the rise of Albanian nationalism in Kosovo rose with the widespread celebrations in 1978 of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the League of Prizren . Albanians felt that their status as a "minority" in Yugoslavia had made them second-class citizens in comparison with

968-528: A more deliberate approach to converting the Roman Catholic population who were mostly Albanians in comparison with the mostly Serbian adherents of Eastern Orthodoxy, as they viewed the former less favorably due to its allegiance to Rome, a competing regional power. In the 19th century, there was an awakening of ethnic nationalism throughout the Balkans. The underlying ethnic tensions became part of

1089-674: A much more evident Mesolithic era, lasting millennia. In Northern Europe , societies were able to live well on rich food supplies from the marshlands fostered by the warmer climate. Such conditions produced distinctive human behaviours that are preserved in the material record, such as the Maglemosian and Azilian cultures. These conditions also delayed the coming of the Neolithic until as late as 4000 BCE (6,000  BP ) in northern Europe. Remains from this period are few and far between, often limited to middens . In forested areas,

1210-570: A part of the Moesia province. During the reign of Diocletian , Dardania became a full Roman province and the entirety of Kosovo's modern territory became a part of the Diocese of Moesia , and then during the second half of the 4th century, it became part of the Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum . During Roman rule, a series of settlements developed in the area, mainly close to mines and to

1331-591: A pilot school, a school for parachute instructors and a school of aircraft modelling in Ruma, all of which were funded by the Airforces of Yugoslavia. This led to an impressive International air show held in the center of the town in 1950. The Ruma municipality comprises the town of Ruma and the following villages: According to the 2011 census results, the municipality of Ruma had 54,339 inhabitants. The municipality of Ruma has many ethnic groups, with Serbs constituting

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1452-564: A republic, or declaring support for Albania. After the ouster of Ranković in 1966, the agenda of pro-decentralisation reformers in Yugoslavia succeeded in the late 1960s in attaining substantial decentralisation of powers, creating substantial autonomy in Kosovo and Vojvodina, and recognising a Muslim Yugoslav nationality. As a result of these reforms, there was a massive overhaul of Kosovo's nomenklatura and police, that shifted from being Serb-dominated to ethnic Albanian-dominated through firing Serbs in large scale. Further concessions were made to

1573-654: A single room. Settlements might have a surrounding stone wall to keep domesticated animals in and hostile tribes out. Later settlements have rectangular mud-brick houses where the family lived in single or multiple rooms. Burial findings suggest an ancestor cult with preserved skulls of the dead. The Vinča culture may have created the earliest system of writing. The megalithic temple complexes of Ġgantija are notable for their gigantic structures. Although some late Eurasian Neolithic societies formed complex stratified chiefdoms or even states, states evolved in Eurasia only with

1694-749: A single source. The emergence of metallurgy may have occurred first in the Fertile Crescent , where it gave rise to the Bronze Age in the 4th millennium BCE (the traditional view), although finds from the Vinča culture in Europe have now been securely dated to slightly earlier than those of the Fertile Crescent. Timna Valley contains evidence of copper mining 7,000 years ago. The process of transition from Neolithic to Chalcolithic in

1815-410: A sovereign state and continues to claim it as its constituent Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija , it accepts the governing authority of the Kosovo institutions as a part of the 2013 Brussels Agreement . Kosovo is a developing country, with an upper-middle-income economy . It has experienced solid economic growth over the last decade as measured by international financial institutions since

1936-543: Is Machedonius, who was a member of the council of Serdika . Other known bishops were Paulus ( synod of Constantinople in 553 AD), and Gregentius, who was sent by Justin I to Ethiopia and Yemen to ease problems among different Christian groups there. In the next centuries, Kosovo was a frontier province of the Roman , and later of the Byzantine Empire , and as a result it changed hands frequently. The region

2057-800: Is also a transition period between Stone Age and Bronze Age, the Chalcolithic or Copper Age. For the prehistory of the Americas see Pre-Columbian era . The notion of "prehistory" emerged during the Enlightenment in the work of antiquarians who used the word "primitive" to describe societies that existed before written records. The word "prehistory" first appeared in English in 1836 in the Foreign Quarterly Review . The geologic time scale for pre-human time periods, and

2178-464: Is an alternative name for Western Kosovo, having been in use since the 15th-16th century as part of the Sanjak of Dukakin with its capital Peja , and is named after the medieval Albanian Dukagjini family . Some Albanians also prefer to refer to Kosovo as Dardania , the name of an ancient kingdom and later Roman province , which covered the territory of modern-day Kosovo. The name is derived from

2299-516: Is an example. In archaeology, the Iron Age refers to the advent of ferrous metallurgy . The adoption of iron coincided with other changes, often including more sophisticated agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles, which makes the archaeological Iron Age coincide with the " Axial Age " in the history of philosophy. Although iron ore is common, the metalworking techniques necessary to use iron are different from those needed for

2420-488: Is anonymous. Because of this, reference terms that prehistorians use, such as " Neanderthal " or " Iron Age ", are modern labels with definitions sometimes subject to debate. The concept of a "Stone Age" is found useful in the archaeology of most of the world, although in the archaeology of the Americas it is called by different names and begins with a Lithic stage , or sometimes Paleo-Indian . The sub-divisions described below are used for Eurasia, and not consistently across

2541-782: Is called the Lower Paleolithic (as in excavations it appears underneath the Upper Paleolithic), beginning with the earliest stone tools dated to around 3.3 million years ago at the Lomekwi site in Kenya. These tools predate the genus Homo and were probably used by Kenyanthropus . Evidence of control of fire by early hominins during the Lower Palaeolithic Era is uncertain and has at best limited scholarly support. The most widely accepted claim

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2662-536: Is mainly continental with some Mediterranean and alpine influences. Kosovo's capital and the most populous city is Pristina ; other major cities and urban areas include Prizren , Ferizaj , Gjilan and Peja . The Dardani tribe emerged in Kosovo and established the Kingdom of Dardania in the 4th century BC. It was later annexed by the Roman Empire in the 1st century BC. The territory remained in

2783-520: Is not generally used in those parts of the world where the working of hard metals arrived abruptly from contact with Eurasian cultures, such as Oceania , Australasia , much of Sub-Saharan Africa , and parts of the Americas . With some exceptions in pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas, these areas did not develop complex writing systems before the arrival of Eurasians, so their prehistory reaches into relatively recent periods; for example, 1788

2904-597: Is one intriguing line of argument to suggest that the Slav presence in Kosovo and southernmost part of the Morava valley may have been quite weak in the first one or two centuries of Slav settlement. Only in the ninth century can the expansion of a strong Slav (or quasi-Slav) power into this region be observed. Under a series of ambitious rulers, the Bulgarians pushed westwards across modern Macedonia and eastern Serbia, until by

3025-558: Is provided by a wide variety of natural and social sciences, such as anthropology , archaeology , archaeoastronomy , comparative linguistics , biology , geology , molecular genetics , paleontology , palynology , physical anthropology , and many others. Human prehistory differs from history not only in terms of its chronology , but in the way it deals with the activities of archaeological cultures rather than named nations or individuals . Restricted to material processes, remains, and artefacts rather than written records, prehistory

3146-551: Is seen as a transition period between the Stone Age and Bronze Age. An archaeological site in Serbia contains the oldest securely dated evidence of copper making at high temperature, from 7,500 years ago. The find in 2010 extends the known record of copper smelting by about 800 years, and suggests that copper smelting may have been invented independently in separate parts of Asia and Europe at that time, rather than spreading from

3267-500: Is that H. erectus or H. ergaster made fires between 790,000 and 690,000 BP in a site at Bnot Ya'akov Bridge , Israel . The use of fire enabled early humans to cook food, provide warmth, have a light source, deter animals at night and meditate. Early Homo sapiens originated some 300,000 years ago, ushering in the Middle Palaeolithic . Anatomic changes indicating modern language capacity also arise during

3388-446: Is usually taken as the end of the prehistory of Australia . The period when a culture is written about by others, but has not developed its own writing system, is often known as the protohistory of the culture. By definition, there are no written records from human prehistory, which can only be known from material archaeological and anthropological evidence: prehistoric materials and human remains. These were at first understood by

3509-516: Is when the first signs of human presence have been found; however, Africa and Asia contain sites dated as early as c.  2.5 and 1.8 million years ago, respectively. Depending on the date when relevant records become a useful academic resource, its end date also varies. For example, in Egypt it is generally accepted that prehistory ended around 3100 BCE, whereas in New Guinea

3630-464: The Amantini , Breuci , Scordisci , etc. During the Roman rule, local inhabitants lost their ethnic character and adopted Roman culture. There were no larger Roman settlements on the territory of Ruma, but a certain number of agricultural estates known as " villae rusticae " were located there. Migrations of Huns , Germanic peoples , Avars and Slavs destroyed Roman culture in this area. During

3751-532: The Banate of Zeta , the Banate of Morava and the Banate of Vardar . In order to change the ethnic composition of Kosovo , between 1912 and 1941 a large-scale Serbian colonisation of Kosovo was undertaken by the Belgrade government. Kosovar Albanians' right to receive education in their own language was denied alongside other non-Slavic or unrecognised Slavic nations of Yugoslavia, as the kingdom only recognised

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3872-607: The Battle of Kosovo of 1389 is considered to be one of the defining moments, where a Serbian-led coalition consisting of various ethnicities fought against the Ottoman Empire. Various dynasties, mainly the Branković , would govern Kosovo for a significant portion of the period following the battle. The Ottoman Empire fully conquered Kosovo after the Second Battle of Kosovo , ruling for nearly five centuries until 1912. Kosovo

3993-751: The Bronze Age coincides with the presence of tumuli burial grounds in western Kosovo, like the site of Romajë . The Dardani were the most important Paleo-Balkan tribe in the region of Kosovo. A wide area which consists of Kosovo, parts of Northern Macedonia and eastern Serbia was named Dardania after them in classical antiquity, reaching to the Thraco-Illyrian contact zone in the east. In archaeological research, Illyrian names are predominant in western Dardania, while Thracian names are mostly found in eastern Dardania. Thracian names are absent in western Dardania, while some Illyrian names appear in

4114-741: The Byzantine Empire , facing Slavic migrations from the 6th-7th century AD. Control shifted between the Byzantines and the First Bulgarian Empire . In the 13th century, Kosovo became integral to the Serbian medieval state and the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church was moved to Kosovo. Ottoman expansion in the Balkans in the late 14th and 15th century led to the decline and fall of the Serbian Empire ;

4235-653: The Copper Age or Bronze Age ; or, in some geographical regions, in the Iron Age ). The term Neolithic is commonly used in the Old World ; its application to cultures in the Americas and Oceania is complicated by the fact standard progression from stone to metal tools, as seen in the Old World, does not neatly apply. Early Neolithic farming was limited to a narrow range of plants, both wild and domesticated, which included einkorn wheat , millet and spelt , and

4356-554: The First Balkan War , the 1913 Treaty of London was signed with Metohija ceded to the Kingdom of Montenegro and eastern Kosovo ceded to the Kingdom of Serbia . During the Balkan Wars , over 100,000 Albanians left Kosovo and about 50,000 were killed in the massacres that accompanied the war. Soon, there were concerted Serbian colonisation efforts in Kosovo during various periods between Serbia's 1912 takeover of

4477-574: The Great Turkish War , a number of Serbs that lived in Kosovo, Macedonia and south Serbia migrated northwards near the Danube and Sava rivers, and is one of the events known as the great migrations of the Serbs which also included some Christian Albanians. The Albanians and Serbs who stayed in Kosovo after the war faced waves of Ottoman and Tatar forces, who unleashed a savage retaliation on

4598-661: The Kosovo War of 1998 and 1999, which resulted in the withdrawal of the Yugoslav army and the establishment of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo . Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008, and has since gained diplomatic recognition as a sovereign state by 104 member states of the United Nations . Although Serbia does not officially recognise Kosovo as

4719-545: The Nemanjić dynasty , a prominent dynasty of mediaeval Serbia . In 1389, as the Ottoman Empire expanded northwards through the Balkans, Ottoman forces under Sultan Murad I met with a Christian coalition led by Moravian Serbia under Prince Lazar in the Battle of Kosovo . Both sides suffered heavy losses and the battle was a stalemate and it was even reported as a Christian victory at first, but Serbian manpower

4840-531: The Paleolithic , by the Neolithic only Homo sapiens sapiens remained. This was a period of technological and social developments which established most of the basic elements of historical cultures, such as the domestication of crops and animals , and the establishment of permanent settlements and early chiefdoms. The era commenced with the beginning of farming , which produced the " Neolithic Revolution ". It ended when metal tools became widespread (in

4961-674: The Principality of Serbia . During and after the Serbian–Ottoman War of 1876–78 , between 30,000 and 70,000 Muslims, mostly Albanians, were expelled by the Serb army from the Sanjak of Niš and fled to the Kosovo Vilayet . According to Austrian data, by the 1890s Kosovo was 70% Muslim (nearly entirely of Albanian descent) and less than 30% non-Muslim (primarily Serbs). In May 1901, Albanians pillaged and partially burned

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5082-525: The Račak massacre , which attracted further international attention to the conflict. Within weeks, a multilateral international conference was convened and by March had prepared a draft agreement known as the Rambouillet Accords , calling for the restoration of Kosovo's autonomy and the deployment of NATO peacekeeping forces. The Yugoslav delegation found the terms unacceptable and refused to sign

5203-649: The Republic of Kosovo , is a country in Southeast Europe with partial diplomatic recognition . It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the north and east and North Macedonia to the southeast. It covers an area of 10,887 km (4,203 sq mi) and it has a population of approximately 1.6 million. Kosovo has a varied terrain, with high plains along with rolling hills and mountains , some of which reach an altitude of over 2,500 m (8,200 ft). Its climate

5324-540: The Stalinist regime of Enver Hoxha of Albania. In 1956, a show trial in Pristina was held in which multiple Albanian Communists of Kosovo were convicted of being infiltrators from Albania and given long prison sentences. High-ranking Serbian communist official Aleksandar Ranković sought to secure the position of the Serbs in Kosovo and gave them dominance in Kosovo's nomenklatura . Islam in Kosovo at this time

5445-543: The Volunteer Company Ruma ES der DM , was formed from local Volksdeutsche volunteers. A large number of non-German citizens of Ruma participated in the anti-fascist struggle against Axis occupation. In 1944, as a consequence of the war, most members of the German ethnic minority left the town, escaping from Yugoslav partisans and Soviet Red Army . Around 1,000 of them remained when the partisans took

5566-606: The three-age system for human prehistory, were systematised during the nineteenth century in the work of British, French, German, and Scandinavian anthropologists , archaeologists , and antiquarians . The main source of information for prehistory is archaeology (a branch of anthropology), but some scholars are beginning to make more use of evidence from the natural and social sciences. The primary researchers into human prehistory are archaeologists and physical anthropologists who use excavation, geologic and geographic surveys, and other scientific analysis to reveal and interpret

5687-417: The "Chalcolithic", "Eneolithic", or "Copper Age" refers to a transitional period where early copper metallurgy appeared alongside the widespread use of stone tools. During this period, some weapons and tools were made of copper. This period was still largely Neolithic in character. It is a phase of the Bronze Age before it was discovered that adding tin to copper formed the harder bronze . The Copper Age

5808-413: The "nations" of Yugoslavia and demanded that Kosovo be a constituent republic , alongside the other republics of Yugoslavia. Protests by Albanians in 1981 over the status of Kosovo resulted in Yugoslav territorial defence units being brought into Kosovo and a state of emergency being declared resulting in violence and the protests being crushed. In the aftermath of the 1981 protests, purges took place in

5929-654: The 850's they had taken over Kosovo and were pressing on the border of Serbian Principality . The First Bulgarian Empire acquired Kosovo by the mid-9th century, but Byzantine control was restored by the late 10th century. In 1072, the leaders of the Bulgarian Uprising of Georgi Voiteh traveled from their center in Skopje to Prizren and held a meeting in which they invited Mihailo Vojislavljević of Duklja to send them assistance. Mihailo sent his son, Constantine Bodin with 300 of his soldiers. After they met,

6050-705: The Azilian cultures, before spreading to Europe through the Iberomaurusian culture of Northern Africa and the Kebaran culture of the Levant . However, independent discovery is not ruled out. "Neolithic" means "New Stone Age", from about 10,200 BCE in some parts of the Middle East, but later in other parts of the world, and ended between 4,500 and 2,000 BCE. Although there were several species of humans during

6171-646: The Bulgarian magnates proclaimed him "Emperor of the Bulgarians". Demetrios Chomatenos is the last Byzantine archbishop of Ohrid to include Prizren in his jurisdiction until 1219. Stefan Nemanja had seized the area along the White Drin in 1185 to 1195 and the ecclesiastical split of Prizren from the Patriarchate in 1219 was the final act of establishing Nemanjić rule. Konstantin Jireček concluded, from

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6292-497: The Communist Party, and rights that had been recently granted to Albanians were rescinded – including ending the provision of Albanian professors and Albanian language textbooks in the education system. While Albanians in the region had the highest birth rates in Europe, other areas of Yugoslavia including Serbia had low birth rates. Increased urbanisation and economic development led to higher settlements of Albanian workers into Serb-majority areas, as Serbs departed in response to

6413-632: The Emperor rebuilt the city after it had been destroyed by an earthquake and renamed it to Iustinianna Secunda . Other important towns that developed in the area during Roman rule were Vendenis , located in modern-day Podujevë ; Viciano , possibly near Vushtrri ; and Municipium Dardanorum , an important mining town in Leposavić . Other archeological sites include Çifllak in Western Kosovo, Dresnik in Klina , Pestova in Vushtrri, Vërban in Klokot , Poslishte between Vërmica and Prizren , Paldenica near Hani i Elezit , as well as Nerodimë e Poshtme and Nikadin near Ferizaj . The one thing all

6534-400: The Iron Age, often through conquest by empires, which continued to expand during this period. For example, in most of Europe conquest by the Roman Empire means the term Iron Age is replaced by "Roman", " Gallo-Roman ", and similar terms after the conquest. Even before conquest, many areas began to have a protohistory, as they were written about by literate cultures; the protohistory of Ireland

6655-631: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Turkey were signed on the expatriation of 240,000 Albanians to Turkey, but the expatriation did not occur due to the outbreak of World War II . After the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941, most of Kosovo was assigned to Italian-controlled Albania, and the rest was controlled by Germany and Bulgaria. A three-dimensional conflict ensued, involving inter-ethnic, ideological, and international affiliations. Albanian collaborators persecuted Serb and Montenegrin settlers. Estimates differ, but most authors estimate that between 3,000 and 10,000 Serbs and Montenegrins died in Kosovo during

6776-517: The Middle East is characterized in archaeological stone tool assemblages by a decline in high quality raw material procurement and use. North Africa and the Nile Valley imported its iron technology from the Near East and followed the Near Eastern course of Bronze Age and Iron Age development. The Bronze Age is the earliest period in which some civilizations reached the end of prehistory, by introducing written records. The Bronze Age, or parts thereof, are thus considered to be part of prehistory only for

6897-470: The Middle Palaeolithic. During the Middle Palaeolithic Era, there is the first definitive evidence of human use of fire. Sites in Zambia have charred logs, charcoal and carbonized plants, that have been dated to 180,000 BP. The systematic burial of the dead , music , prehistoric art , and the use of increasingly sophisticated multi-part tools are highlights of the Middle Paleolithic. The Upper Paleolithic extends from 50,000 and 12,000 years ago, with

7018-420: The Ottoman Empire. The League was dis-established in 1881 but enabled the awakening of a national identity among Albanians, whose ambitions competed with those of the Serbs, the Kingdom of Serbia wishing to incorporate this land that had formerly been within its empire. The modern Albanian-Serbian conflict has its roots in the expulsion of the Albanians in 1877–1878 from areas that became incorporated into

7139-434: The Ottomans as sovereigns. The resulting alliance facilitated the mass conversion of Albanians to Islam. Given that the Ottoman Empire's subjects were divided along religious (rather than ethnic) lines, the spread of Islam greatly elevated the status of Albanian chiefs. Centuries earlier, Albanians of Kosovo were predominantly Christian and Albanians and Serbs for the most part co-existed peacefully. The Ottomans appeared to have

7260-550: The Second World War . Another 30,000 to 40,000, or as high as 100,000, Serbs and Montenegrins, mainly settlers, were deported to Serbia in order to Albanianise Kosovo. A decree from Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito , followed by a new law in August 1945 disallowed the return of colonists who had taken land from Albanian peasants. During the war years, some Serbs and Montenegrins were sent to concentration camps in Pristina and Mitrovica. Nonetheless, these conflicts were relatively low-level compared with other areas of Yugoslavia during

7381-508: The Serbian press and that led to further ethnic problems and eventual removal of Kosovo's status. Beginning in March 1981, Kosovar Albanian students of the University of Pristina organised protests seeking that Kosovo become a republic within Yugoslavia and demanding their human rights. The protests were brutally suppressed by the police and army, with many protesters arrested. During the 1980s, ethnic tensions continued with frequent violent outbreaks against Yugoslav state authorities, resulting in

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7502-406: The Slavic Croat, Serb, and Slovene nations as constituent nations of Yugoslavia. Other Slavs had to identify as one of the three official Slavic nations and non-Slav nations deemed as minorities. Albanians and other Muslims were forced to emigrate, mainly with the land reform which struck Albanian landowners in 1919, but also with direct violent measures. In 1935 and 1938, two agreements between

7623-448: The Vilayet of Kosovo, a political unit created by the Ottoman Empire in 1877. However, those borders were different. Tensions between ethnic Albanians and the Yugoslav government were significant, not only due to ethnic tensions but also due to political ideological concerns, especially regarding relations with neighbouring Albania. Harsh repressive measures were imposed on Kosovo Albanians due to suspicions that there were sympathisers of

7744-459: The ancient tribe of the Dardani , which is considered be related to the Proto-Albanian term dardā , which means "pear" (Modern Albanian: dardhë ). The former Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova had been an enthusiastic backer of a "Dardanian" identity, and the Kosovar presidential flag and seal refer to this national identity. However, the name "Kosova" remains more widely used among the Albanian population. The flag of Dardania remains in use as

7865-448: The beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems . The use of symbols, marks, and images appears very early among humans, but the earliest known writing systems appeared c.  5,200 years ago. It took thousands of years for writing systems to be widely adopted, with writing having spread to almost all cultures by the 19th century. The end of prehistory therefore came at different times in different places, and

7986-398: The case of Indigenous Australian "highways" known as songlines . The Mesolithic, or Middle Stone Age (from the Greek mesos , 'middle', and lithos , 'stone'), was a period in the development of human technology between the Palaeolithic and Neolithic . The Mesolithic period began with the retreat of glaciers at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, some 10,000 BP, and ended with

8107-404: The cities of Novi Pazar , Sjenica and Pristina, and killed many Serbs near Pristina and in Kolašin (now North Kosovo). In the spring of 1912, Albanians under the lead of Hasan Prishtina revolted against the Ottoman Empire. The rebels were joined by a wave of Albanians in the Ottoman army ranks, who deserted the army, refusing to fight their own kin. The rebels defeated the Ottomans and

8228-416: The collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy, on November 24, 1918, the Assembly of Syrmia in Ruma proclaimed the unification of Syrmia with the Kingdom of Serbia . In 1933, Ruma officially gained the status of a city. When World War II began, Ruma was one of the centers of German national minority in Vojvodina . In 1942, during the Axis occupation of Syrmia, a unit of the Third Reich's Wehrmacht , known as

8349-463: The collection of folklore and by analogy with pre-literate societies observed in modern times. The key step to understanding prehistoric evidence is dating, and reliable dating techniques have developed steadily since the nineteenth century. The most common of these dating techniques is radiocarbon dating . Further evidence has come from the reconstruction of ancient spoken languages . More recent techniques include forensic chemical analysis to reveal

8470-401: The correspondence of archbishop Demetrios of Ohrid from 1216 to 1236, that Dardania was increasingly populated by Albanians and the expansion started from Gjakova and Prizren area, prior to the Slavic expansion. During the 13th and 14th centuries, Kosovo was a political, cultural and religious centre of the Serbian Kingdom . In the late 13th century, the seat of the Serbian Archbishopric

8591-409: The development of human settlements in Kosovo, as is highlighted by the hundreds of archaeological sites identified throughout its territory. Since 2000, the increase in archaeological expeditions has revealed many, previously unknown sites. The earliest documented traces in Kosovo are associated to the Stone Age ; namely, indications that cave dwellings might have existed, such as Radivojce Cave near

8712-411: The eastern and western areas of the country; the term Kosovo ( Косово ) is used for the eastern part of Kosovo centred on the historical Kosovo Field , while the western part of the territory of Kosovo is called Metohija (Albanian: Dukagjin ). Thus, in Serbian the entire area of Kosovo is referred to as Kosovo and Metohija . Dukagjini or Dukagjini plateau (Albanian: 'Rrafshi i Dukagjinit')

8833-592: The eastern parts. Thus, their identification as either an Illyrian or Thracian tribe has been a subject of debate, the ethnolinguistic relationship between the two groups being largely uncertain and debated itself as well. The correspondence of Illyrian names, including those of the ruling elite, in Dardania with those of the southern Illyrians suggests a thracianization of parts of Dardania. The Dardani retained an individuality and continued to maintain social independence after Roman conquest, playing an important role in

8954-529: The economic climate for more favorable real estate conditions in Serbia. While there was tension, charges of "genocide" and planned harassment have been discredited as a pretext to revoke Kosovo's autonomy. For example, in 1986 the Serbian Orthodox Church published an official claim that Kosovo Serbs were being subjected to an Albanian program of 'genocide'. Even though they were disproved by police statistics, they received wide attention in

9075-506: The end of the Bronze Age large states, whose armies imposed themselves on people with a different culture, and are often called empires, had arisen in Egypt, China, Anatolia (the Hittites ), and Mesopotamia , all of them literate. The Iron Age is not part of prehistory for all civilizations who had introduced written records during the Bronze Age. Most remaining civilizations did so during

9196-639: The end of the prehistoric era is set much more recently, in the 1870s, when the Russian anthropologist Nicholai Miklukho-Maklai spent several years living among native peoples, and described their way of life in a comprehensive treatise. In Europe the relatively well-documented classical cultures of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome had neighbouring cultures, including the Celts and the Etruscans , with little writing. Historians debate how much weight to give to

9317-605: The ethnic Albanian population. Kosovar Albanians responded with a non-violent separatist movement, employing widespread civil disobedience and creation of parallel structures in education, medical care, and taxation, with the ultimate goal of achieving the independence of Kosovo . In July 1990, the Kosovo Albanians proclaimed the existence of the Republic of Kosova , and declared it a sovereign and independent state in September 1992. In May 1992, Ibrahim Rugova

9438-484: The ethnic Albanians of Kosovo in response to unrest, including the creation of the University of Pristina as an Albanian language institution. These changes created widespread fear among Serbs that they were being made second-class citizens in Yugoslavia. By the 1974 Constitution of Yugoslavia, Kosovo was granted major autonomy, allowing it to have its own administration, assembly, and judiciary; as well as having

9559-446: The few mines, stimulating the creation of extensive trading routes. In many areas as far apart as China and England, the valuable new material was used for weapons, but for a long time apparently not available for agricultural tools. Much of it seems to have been hoarded by social elites, and sometimes deposited in extravagant quantities, from Chinese ritual bronzes and Indian copper hoards , to European hoards of unused axe-heads. By

9680-653: The first find of prehistoric art in Kosovo. Amongst the finds of excavations in Neolithic Runik is a baked-clay ocarina , which is the first musical instrument recorded in Kosovo. The first archaeological expedition in Kosovo was organised by the Austro-Hungarian army during the World War I in the Illyrian tumuli burial grounds of Nepërbishti within the district of Prizren . The beginning of

9801-554: The first organized settlements and blossoming of artistic work. Throughout the Palaeolithic, humans generally lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers . Hunter-gatherer societies tended to be very small and egalitarian, although hunter-gatherer societies with abundant resources or advanced food-storage techniques sometimes developed sedentary lifestyles with complex social structures such as chiefdoms, and social stratification . Long-distance contacts may have been established, as in

9922-497: The first signs of deforestation have been found, although this would only begin in earnest during the Neolithic, when more space was needed for agriculture . The Mesolithic is characterized in most areas by small composite flint tools: microliths and microburins . Fishing tackle , stone adzes , and wooden objects such as canoes and bows have been found at some sites. These technologies first occur in Africa, associated with

10043-455: The following centuries, the region was ruled by Frankish Empire , Bulgarian Empire , Byzantine Empire and Kingdom of Hungary . The settlement named Ruma was first mentioned in an Ottoman defter from 1566/7. In that period Ruma was a village inhabited by Serbs , with 49 houses, a church and three priests. From 1718, Ruma was under administration of the Habsburg monarchy . In 1746,

10164-655: The formation of new groupings in the Roman era. During Roman rule, Kosovo was part of two provinces, with its western part being part of Praevalitana , and the vast majority of its modern territory belonging to Dardania . Praevalitana and the rest of Illyria was conquered by the Roman Republic in 168 BC. On the other hand, Dardania maintained its independence until the year 28 BC, when the Romans, under Augustus , annexed it into their Republic. Dardania eventually became

10285-588: The introduction of agriculture , the date of which varied by geographic region. In some areas, such as the Near East , agriculture was already underway by the end of the Pleistocene , and there the Mesolithic is short and poorly defined. In areas with limited glacial impact, the term " Epipalaeolithic " is preferred. Regions that experienced greater environmental effects as the last ice age ended have

10406-522: The karst field was for the first time applied to a wider area when the Ottoman Vilayet of Kosovo was created in 1877. The entire territory that corresponds to today's country is commonly referred to in English simply as Kosovo and in Albanian as Kosova ( definite form ) or Kosovë (indefinite form, pronounced [kɔˈsɔvə] ). In Serbia, a formal distinction is made between

10527-474: The keeping of dogs , sheep , and goats . By about 6,900–6,400 BCE, it included domesticated cattle and pigs, the establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, and the use of pottery . The Neolithic period saw the development of early villages , agriculture , animal domestication , tools , and the onset of the earliest recorded incidents of warfare. Settlements became more permanent, some with circular houses made of mudbrick with

10648-547: The late 14th and early 15th centuries, parts of Kosovo, the easternmost area located near Pristina, were part of the Principality of Dukagjini , which was later incorporated into an anti-Ottoman federation of all Albanian principalities, the League of Lezhë . Medieval Monuments in Kosovo is a combined UNESCO World Heritage Site consisting of four Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries in Deçan , Peja , Prizren and Gračanica . The constructions were founded by members of

10769-582: The latter were forced to accept all fourteen demands of the rebels, which foresaw an effective autonomy for the Albanians living in the Empire. However, this autonomy never materialised, and the revolt created serious weaknesses in the Ottoman ranks, luring Montenegro , Serbia , Bulgaria , and Greece into declaring war on the Ottoman Empire and starting the First Balkan War . After the Ottomans' defeat in

10890-486: The local population. To compensate for the population loss, the Turks encouraged settlement of non-Slav Muslim Albanians in the wider region of Kosovo. By the end of the 18th century, Kosovo would reattain an Albanian majority - with Peja, Prizren, Prishtina becoming especially important towns for the local Muslim population. Although initially stout opponents of the advancing Turks, Albanian chiefs ultimately came to accept

11011-426: The major roads. The most important of the settlements was Ulpiana , which is located near modern-day Gračanica . It was established in the 1st century AD, possibly developing from a concentrated Dardanian oppidum , and then was upgraded to the status of a Roman municipium at the beginning of the 2nd century during the rule of Trajan . Ulpiana became especially important during the rule of Justinian I , after

11132-570: The metal used earlier, more heat is required. Once the technical challenge had been solved, iron replaced bronze as its higher abundance meant armies could be armed much more easily with iron weapons. All dates are approximate and conjectural, obtained through research in the fields of anthropology , archaeology, genetics , geology , or linguistics . They are all subject to revision due to new discoveries or improved calculations. BP stands for " Before Present (1950)." BCE stands for " Before Common Era ". Kosovo Kosovo , officially

11253-401: The nature and behavior of pre-literate and non-literate peoples. Human population geneticists and historical linguists are also providing valuable insight. Cultural anthropologists help provide context for societal interactions, by which objects of human origin pass among people, allowing an analysis of any article that arises in a human prehistoric context. Therefore, data about prehistory

11374-486: The official Presidential seal and standard and is heavily featured in the institution of the presidency of the country. The official conventional long name, as defined by the constitution , is Republic of Kosovo . Additionally, as a result of an arrangement agreed between Pristina and Belgrade in talks mediated by the European Union, Kosovo has participated in some international forums and organisations under

11495-683: The onset of the financial crisis of 2007–2008 . Kosovo is a member of the International Monetary Fund , World Bank , EBRD , Venice Commission , the International Olympic Committee , and has applied for membership in the Council of Europe , UNESCO , Interpol , and for observer status in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation . In December 2022, Kosovo filed a formal application to become

11616-469: The politics of extermination and expulsion, there was also a process of assimilation through religious conversion of Albanian Muslims and Albanian Catholics into the Serbian Orthodox religion which took place as early as 1912. These politics seem to have been inspired by the nationalist ideologies of Ilija Garašanin and Jovan Cvijić . In the winter of 1915–16, during World War I , Kosovo saw

11737-455: The province and World War II , causing the population of Serbs in Kosovo to grow by about 58,000 in this period. Serbian authorities promoted creating new Serb settlements in Kosovo as well as the assimilation of Albanians into Serbian society, causing a mass exodus of Albanians from Kosovo. The figures of Albanians forcefully expelled from Kosovo range between 60,000 and 239,807, while Malcolm mentions 100,000–120,000. In combination with

11858-544: The regime collapsed, this was never materialised with historians and contemporary references emphasising that a large-scale migration of Albanians from Albania to Kosovo is not recorded in Axis documents. The existing province took shape in 1945 as the Autonomous Region of Kosovo and Metohija , with a final demarcation in 1959. Until 1945, the only entity bearing the name of Kosovo in the late modern period had been

11979-658: The regions and civilizations who developed a system of keeping written records during later periods. The invention of writing coincides in some areas with the beginnings of the Bronze Age. After the appearance of writing, people started creating texts including written records of administrative matters. The Bronze Age refers to a period in human cultural development when the most advanced metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use) included techniques for smelting copper and tin from naturally occurring outcroppings of ores, and then combining them to cast bronze . These naturally occurring ores typically included arsenic as

12100-612: The retreat of the Serbian army as Kosovo was occupied by Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary . In 1918, the Allied Powers pushed the Central Powers out of Kosovo. A new administration system since 26 April 1922 split Kosovo among three districts ( oblast ) of the Kingdom: Kosovo, Raška and Zeta. In 1929, the country was transformed into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the territories of Kosovo were reorganised among

12221-502: The rise of metallurgy, and most Neolithic societies on the whole were relatively simple and egalitarian. Most clothing appears to have been made of animal skins, as indicated by finds of large numbers of bone and antler pins which are ideal for fastening leather. Wool cloth and linen might have become available during the later Neolithic, as suggested by finds of perforated stones that (depending on size) may have served as spindle whorls or loom weights. In Old World archaeology,

12342-785: The separation of Kosovo and the eventual creation of a Greater Albania , had prevailed over the Rugova's non-violent resistance movement and launched attacks against the Yugoslav Army and Serbian police in Kosovo, resulting in the Kosovo War . By 1998, international pressure compelled Yugoslavia to sign a ceasefire and partially withdraw its security forces. Events were to be monitored by Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) observers according to an agreement negotiated by Richard Holbrooke . The ceasefire did not hold and fighting resumed in December 1998, culminating in

12463-407: The settlements have in common is that they are located either near roads, such as Via Lissus - Naissus , or near the mines of North Kosovo and eastern Kosovo. Most of the settlements are archaeological sites that have been discovered recently and are being excavated. It is also known that the region was Christianised during Roman rule, though little is known regarding Christianity in the Balkans in

12584-635: The sometimes biased accounts in Greek and Roman literature, of these protohistoric cultures. In dividing up human prehistory in Eurasia, historians typically use the three-age system, whereas scholars of pre-human time periods typically use the well-defined geologic record and its internationally defined stratum base within the geologic time scale . The three-age system is the periodization of human prehistory into three consecutive time periods , named for their predominant tool-making technologies: Stone Age , Bronze Age and Iron Age . In some areas, there

12705-642: The source of the Drin River , Grnčar Cave in Viti municipality and the Dema and Karamakaz Caves in the municipality of Peja . The earliest archaeological evidence of organised settlement, which have been found in Kosovo, belong to the Neolithic Starčevo and Vinča cultures. Vlashnjë and Runik are important sites of the Neolithic era with the rock art paintings at Mrrizi i Kobajës near Vlashnjë being

12826-697: The term is less often used in discussing societies where prehistory ended relatively recently. In the early Bronze Age , Sumer in Mesopotamia , the Indus Valley Civilisation , and ancient Egypt were the first civilizations to develop their own scripts and keep historical records, with their neighbours following. Most other civilizations reached their end of prehistory during the following Iron Age . The three-age division of prehistory into Stone Age , Bronze Age , and Iron Age remains in use for much of Eurasia and North Africa , but

12947-559: The three first centuries AD. The first clear mention of Christians in literature is the case of Bishop Dacus of Macedonia, from Dardania, who was present at the First Council of Nicaea (325). It is also known that Dardania had a Diocese in the 4th century, and its seat was placed in Ulpiana, which remained the episcopal center of Dardania until the establishment of Justiniana Prima in 535 AD. The first known bishop of Ulpiana

13068-472: The title "Kosovo*" with a footnote stating, "This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSC 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence". This arrangement, which has been dubbed the "asterisk agreement", was agreed in an 11-point arrangement on 24 February 2012. The strategic position including the abundant natural resources were favorable for

13189-526: The town of Ruma was founded near the original village of Ruma. The first inhabitants of the town were Serbs , who came from neighboring settlements, as well as Germans , who came from Germany. In the beginning of the 19th century, Croats and Hungarians settled there as well. In 1807, a large rebellion of the Syrmian peasants known as the Tican's Rebellion started on the territory of Ruma, with its center in

13310-642: The town. Many of them were shot in November 1944, while survivors were taken to the Svilara concentration camp in Sremska Mitrovica. After the war, colonists from various parts of the former Yugoslavia settled this area. During the 1990s, about 10,000 refugees from Croatia , Bosnia and Kosovo settled in Ruma as well. In 1949 the Union of Pilots of Yugoslavia (Vazduhoplovni Savez Jugoslavije) opened

13431-587: The use and provenance of materials, and genetic analysis of bones to determine kinship and physical characteristics of prehistoric peoples. The beginning of prehistory is normally taken to be marked by human-like beings appearing on Earth. The date marking its end is typically defined as the advent of the contemporary written historical record. Both dates consequently vary widely from region to region. For example, in European regions, prehistory cannot begin before c.  1.3  million years ago, which

13552-580: The village of Voganj . During the 1848-1849 revolution , Ruma was one of the important centers of the Serbian national movement in Syrmia. In the late 19th and early 20th century, Ruma was a district capital in the Syrmia County of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia . According to the 1910 census, the population of the Ruma municipality was 49,138 inhabitants, of whom 22,956 spoke Serbian , 15,529 German , 5,746 Hungarian , and 3,730 Croatian . After

13673-440: The war years. Two Serb historians also estimate that 12,000 Albanians died. An official investigation conducted by the Yugoslav government in 1964 recorded nearly 8,000 war-related fatalities in Kosovo between 1941 and 1945, 5,489 of them Serb or Montenegrin and 2,177 Albanian. Some sources note that up to 72,000 individuals were encouraged to settle or resettle into Kosovo from Albania by the short-lived Italian administration. As

13794-460: The whole area. "Palaeolithic" means "Old Stone Age", and begins with the first use of stone tools . The Paleolithic is the earliest period of the Stone Age . It extends from the earliest known use of stone tools by hominins c.  3.3  million years ago, to the end of the Pleistocene c.  11,650   BP (before the present period). The early part of the Palaeolithic

13915-422: Was defeated in 1395–96. A small part of Vuk's land with the villages of Pristina and Vushtrri was given to his sons to hold as Ottoman vassals for a brief period. By 1455–57, the Ottoman Empire assumed direct control of all of Kosovo and the region remained part of the empire until 1912. During this period, Islam was introduced to the region. After the failed siege of Vienna by the Ottoman forces in 1693 during

14036-469: Was depleted and de facto Serbian rulers could not raise another equal force to the Ottoman army. Different parts of Kosovo were ruled directly or indirectly by the Ottomans in this early period. The medieval town of Novo Brdo was under Lazar's son, Stefan who became a loyal Ottoman vassal and instigated the downfall of Vuk Branković who eventually joined the Hungarian anti-Ottoman coalition and

14157-738: Was elected its president. During its lifetime, the Republic of Kosova was only officially recognised by Albania. By the mid-1990s, the Kosovo Albanian population was growing restless, as the status of Kosovo was not resolved as part of the Dayton Agreement of November 1995, which ended the Bosnian War . By 1996, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), an ethnic Albanian guerrilla paramilitary group that sought

14278-589: Was exposed to an increasing number of raids from the 4th century CE onward, culminating with the Slavic migrations of the 6th and 7th centuries. Toponymic evidence suggests that Albanian was probably spoken in Kosovo prior to the Slavic settlement of the region. The overwhelming presence of towns and municipalities in Kosovo with Slavic in their toponymy suggests that the Slavic migrations either assimilated or drove out population groups already living in Kosovo. There

14399-481: Was moved to Peja , and rulers centred themselves between Prizren and Skopje , during which time thousands of Christian monasteries and feudal-style forts and castles were erected, with Stefan Dušan using Prizren Fortress as one of his temporary courts for a time. When the Serbian Empire fragmented into a conglomeration of principalities in 1371, Kosovo became the hereditary land of the House of Branković . During

14520-427: Was repressed and both Albanians and Muslim Slavs were encouraged to declare themselves to be Turkish and emigrate to Turkey. At the same time Serbs and Montenegrins dominated the government, security forces, and industrial employment in Kosovo. Albanians resented these conditions and protested against them in the late 1960s, calling the actions taken by authorities in Kosovo colonialist, and demanding that Kosovo be made

14641-546: Was the center of the Albanian Renaissance and experienced the Albanian revolts of 1910 and 1912 . After the Balkan Wars (1912–1913), it was ceded to the Kingdom of Serbia and following World War II, it became an Autonomous Province within Yugoslavia . Tensions between Kosovo's Albanian and Serb communities simmered through the 20th century and occasionally erupted into major violence, culminating in

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