Mala and Velika Gruda tumuluses

Among many tumuluses, cairns, which are strewn over the hills of Boka Kotorska bay, the two stand out: Velika and Mala Gruda.

While the other tumuluses in the area are located on tops of hills, these two tumuluses are located in the middle of the Tivat field. The local people preserved the legends that these two stone tumuluses were Prokletije, piles of stones accumulated through centuries as part of the cursing ceremony. I wrote about Prokletija ceremony in my post entitled "Prokletija - The cursing ceremony". As a result, these tumuluses were preserved as the taboo linked with Prokletije forbids removal of even a single stone.

Velika Gruda and Mala Gruda tumuluses are only 270 meters away from each other. Mala Gruda is a single phase burial tumulus and has only a late Copper Age (early Bronze Age) tumb. Velika Gruda is a multi phase burial which has late Copper age (Early Bronze age), Iron age and Medieval burials. The late Copper Age (early Bronze Age) burial from Velika Gruda is equivalent to the late Copper Age (early Bronze Age) burial from Mala Gruda. These were rich princely graves, full of well made and decorated ceramics and metal objects made from silver, gold and copper alloys. The archaeologists who excavated these burials postulated that the people who were buried inside the Velika and Mala Gruda late Copper Age (early Bronze Age) burials were involved in trades between the Balkan Hinterland and Southern Italy and probably the rest of the Mediterranean.

So who was buried in these tumuluses? The archaeologists admit that despite all the modern procedures, analysis and equipment used it is "difficult to understand who built the Mala and Velika Gruda burials. This is because there is at present so little knowledge about what was going on in the Southwestern Balkans during the time when these tumuluses were built. Basically the problem is that the way these tumuluses were built, the way they were positioned in the  low lying landscape as well as some of the burial rite details have no parallels in the Mediterranean basin except in a small area of Montenegro and Northern Albania. The first next similar late Copper Age (early Bronze Age) burial is found in the steppe of the Yamna culture homeland....

The investigation of the Velika Gruda tumulus was completed in the early 1990s and the results were published in these two books:

"Tumulus burials of the early 3rd millenium BC in the Adriatic - Velika Gruda, Mala Gruda and their context" which was published in 1996 by Margarita Primas who excavated the late Copper Age (early Bronze Age) burial.

"The Bronze Age necropolis Velika Gruda (Ops. Kotor, Montenegro) : middle and late Bronze Age groups between Adriatic and Danube" published in 1994 by Philippe. Della Casa who excavated the Middle and Late Bronze Age burials.

A short review of both works by John Bintliff was published in the American Journal of Archaeology.

Archaeological investigation of the Mala Gruda tumulus was performed during the period 1970 - 1971. The tumulus was damaged during the First World War, when Austrian army built a bunker on top of it. The tumulus height in the middle is about 4 meters and the diameter is about 20 meters. Originally it was proposed that the tumulus dated to the period 1900 to 1800 BC. Howevere the latest dating pushes the date when this tumulus was built almost 1000 years back into the past to the period between 2800 to 2700 BC.

The Mala and Velika Gruda tumuluses have very unusual structure. Remember the Bjelopavlovic tumulus and Mogila na Rake tumulus that I already talked about? They both had central dolmen cists which were built on the surface of the earth. Mala and Velika Gruda tumuluses also have central dolmen cists built from massive stone plates. But these stone plates were placed inside the grave pit which was dug into the earth to the depth of half a meter. First the bottom of the grave pit was covered with a stone plate and then the vertical stone plates were placed on top of it to form the dolmen cist. The cover stone plate was then placed on top of it. The stone dolmen cist was then covered with a tumulus pile of yellow - brown clay. The surface of this clay inner tumulus was then burned using very strong fire, probably during the sacrificial rite which took place on top of this inner tumulus. This resulted in the whole inner clay tumulus being covered with a layer of ash which contained the most of the ceramic and stone finds. The clay inner tumulus was then covered with the layer of stones (large river pebbles) which varied in thickness between 0.3 - 0.5 meters. This stone layer was then covered with earth (humus). It is unclear if his layer of humus was natural or artificial.

The orientation of the dolmen cist was north - south. The body which was placed inside the dolmen cist was very badly preserved and was not possible to determine its precise position, but it is presumed that it was placed into the cist in the fetal position.

In the north part of the stone cist, next to the scull of the deceased, archaeologists have found five golden lock rings.

Lock rings are a type of jewelry from Bronze Age Europe.  They are made from gold or bronze and are penannular, providing a slot that is thought to have been used for attaching them as earrings or as hair ornaments. Ireland was a centre of production in the British Isles though rings were made and used across the continent, notably by the Unetice culture of central Europe. But these lock rings from Mala Gruda tumulus predate all the examples from northern Europe by many centuries and millenniums.

The only other lock rings from the late Copper Age (early Bronze Age) period which are similar to the lock rings from Mala gruda tumulus were found in Velika Gruda tumulus and in Gruda Boljevića tumulus, which is even older than the Velika and Mala gruda tumuluses. I will write about the Gruda Boljevića tumulus in my next post. Velika gruda tumulus also had lock rings of the type found in the Lefkas (Leukas) cemetary. But these Lefkas type rings are much simpler than the Mala Gruda type rings, and look like an inferior quality imitation of the Mala Gruda type lock rings. Here are the Lefkas type lock rings from Lefkas cemetary.

Next to the feet of the deceased, next to the eastern edge of the stone cist, archaeologists have found a set of ceramic dishes in fragments.

First is a shallow bowl with the ring leg:

Again we find the cross in the circle symbol which we see in the plate which was found in the Mogila na rake tumulus. 

Second is a jug with one handle:

Both dishes were made from reddish brown clay and were richly decorated and polished.

In that respect the plate from the Mala Gruda tumulus is very similar to the the ceramic bowls from the Vučedol culture from the same period like these two: 

In the past when it was believed that Mala and Velika Grida tumuluses were build at the beginning of the second millennium bc, it was proposed that the culture which built these Montenegrian tumuluses was influenced by late phases of Vučedol culture. But now that we know that Velika and Mala Gruda tumuluses were contemporary with the early period of the Vučedol culture things become much more complicated and confusing.

The most important artifacts were discovered at the eastern edge of the grave cist, at the waist level. These were a golden dagger and a silver axe. Actually both objects were made from complex alloys and not of pure gold and silver. Spectrographic analysis had shown that the dagger was made from the alloy of silver, gold and copper in proportion 3:2:2 and that the axe was made from the same alloy but in proportion  4:1:1.

The golden dagger:

The dagger  is leaf shaped with straight edges and rounded top. It has a short tong for attaching it to the handle and a triple profiled central ridge. Similar daggers are found in Anatolia dating to the mid 3rd millennium bc. Her is the Mala Gruda dagger and its Anatolian comparisons:

1. Mala Gruda: N. TASIĆ (ed.), Praistorija Jugoslavenskih Zemalja III. Eneolitsko doba (1979) pl. 42:8.
2. Karataş: M. MELLINK, “Excavations at Karataş-Semayük 1970,” AJA 73 (1969) pl. 74:21 (drawing J. Maran) dated to 2900 - 2600 BC.
3. Bayindirköy: K. BITTEL, “Einige Kleinfunde aus Mysien und aus Kilikien,” IstMitt 6 (1955) fig. 1 dated to 2500 - 2200 BC.
4. Bayindirköy: BITTEL (supra) fig. 4 dated to 2500 - 2200 BC.
5. Alaca Höyük: STRONACH (supra n. 47) fig. 3:4 dated to 3rd millennium bc.


The silver axe:

This silver axe is the last and the most important find from the Mala Gruda tumulus. For two reasons. Firstly the new dating of this axe opens some interesting questions about our understanding the chronology of the distribution of the shaft hole axes in the Balkans. Secondly the new dating of this axe opens some very interesting questions about our understanding of the Early Bronze Age Irish and British history. 

So, why is Mala Gruda axe important for our understanding the chronology of the distribution of the shaft hole axes in the Balkans?

The silver axe has a thin and narrow triangular blade with a cylindrical socket.  In the literature we read that "this type of axe belongs to the Vučedol Kozarac type axes". However no axes like the Mala Gruda axe have been found in Vučedol culture.

Shape wise Mala gruda axe does look like Vučedol culture axes with one blade and a cylindrical extension for a handle haft. These type of axes were exported to the Eastern Mediterranean including to Troy via Lemnos. This is a picture of a hoard of such axes from Brekinjska (Pakrac) in Croatia.

However the axe from Mala Gruda tumulus is of an exceptional quality and made of Gold + Silver + Copper alloy and not bronze. Silver axes were found in Vučedol site of Stari Jankovci.

You can read about them in this Croatian article and this English article. The Stari Jankovci axes are also silver shaft-hole axes, but their shape is completely different from the shape of the Mala Gruda axe. So we can't talk about direct link between these Vučedol silver axes and the silver axe from Mala Gruda. However this shows that both the knowledge how to make Mala Gruda type axe shape and material existed in the Vučedol culture, so we can say that it is possible the people who made the Mala Gruda axe were influenced by the Vučedol culture. So we could say that the Mala Gruda axe could have indeed been made by Vučedol metalworkers. Except that the site where the above two silver axes ware found was dated to 2500 - 2040 BC wheres Mala Gruda was dated to 2800 - 2700 BC. This means that the Mala Gruda axe is hundreds of years older. This is a very good article on the dating of the Vučedol culture sites .This opens a big question: who influenced who? Who learned from who?

It is assumed that the earliest shaft-hole axes were developed in the the north Caucasus by the Maikop culture sometime between 3500 and 3128 BC.

From here they spread within few hundred years to a large area in Central and Western Asia and Eastern and Central Europe and the Balkans.

 

This picture shops main types of shaft-hole axes and axe molds from the above distribution area from the period late fourth millennium bc - early third millennium bc:

Aegean: 1 Thebes, 2 Servia, 3 Petralona, 4 Triadi, 5 Poliochni;Montenegro: 6 Mala Gruda;
Hungary: 7 Zók-Várhegy;
Rumania: 8 Virgis;
North Caucasus: 9 Lebedi, 10 Novosvobodnaya/Klady;
Daghestan: 11 Velikent;
East Anatolia: 12 Arslantepe, 13 Norşuntepe.

You can read more about the early shaft-hole axes in this great article entitled: "Indications for Aegean-Caucasian relations during the third millennium BC". The most interesting part of this article I believe is this:

"...The earliest axes in Southeastern Europe are assumed to be the Baniabic type (Vîlcele) axes because their blade is not differentiated from the shaft. The upper edge of the axe is straight, while in the case of the axes of the Fajsz type and Corbasca type this edge is convex. At least some of the axes can be dated to the early Vučedol Culture (c. 31th – 28th century BC). The problem is that this dating is based on the fact that their shape is generally comparable to axes or moulds for axes from the northern Caucasus and Koban region, like the mold from Lebedi or from the Kura-Araxes Culture which were dated to that period. But the type is so simply shaped that even comparisons to much later axes are possible, and this makes the dating of the Baniabic type axes uncertain. The southeast European types of Dumbrăvioara, Izvoarele, Darabani and Kozarac have short shaft tubes and can be grouped to the second morphological trend. In some cases their tubes are faceted or ribbed. This feature is also found on one axe from the hoard of Stublo (Steblivka) in the western Ukraine. These types can be dated mainly to the earlier half of the third millennium BC.... "

So Vučedol culture Kozarac type axes are dated to the same period to which the Mala Gruda tumulus axe was dated. So is it possible that the Mala Gruda axe predates the Vučedol culture Kozarac type axes? And is it possible that knowledge how to make this type of axes was transferred from the South of the Balkans up North and not the other way round?

Finally why is Mala Gruda axe so important for our understanding of the Early Bronze Age Irish and British history? 

According to the archaeological data, a new people appeared out of nowhere on the Atlantic coast of Europe around the mid 3rd millennium BC: The Bell Beaker people. The Wiktionary says: "Bell Beaker is a complex cultural phenomenon involving metalwork in copper, gold and later bronze, archery, specific types of ornamentation and shared ideological, cultural and religious ideas....Several proposals have been made  as to the origins of the Bell Beaker culture, notably the Iberian peninsula, the Netherlands and Central Europe. And debates are still continuing. Archaeologists and historians are still debating whether the spread of Beaker culture was due to the migration of people or spread of ideas or both...". 

Well for Ireland we know that the arrival of the Beaker culture was due to the arrival of the Beaker people. Before 2500 BC there was no metalwork in Ireland and no beakers. After 2500 BC there was as thriving sophisticated metalworking culture in Ireland and beakers. That can only happen if we have an influx of people with metalworking skills into Ireland around 2500 BC. And archaeologists and historians all agree on this. But where did these metalworking beaker using new Irish come from and who they were is "a mystery".

But as I already said in my post about the Irish Gold, the answer to this "mystery" has been hidden in plain view in the ancient Irish annals. If only the archaeologists and historians read the ancient Irish annals as histories and not as "pseudo histories" as they like to call them.

So what can the Irish annals tell us about the arrival of the Beaker people to Ireland?

Well the old Irish annals don't talk about Bell Beaker people of course. But they tell us that: "...after the flood, came Partholón with his people..." The Annals of the Four Masters says that Partholóin arrived in in Ireland 2520 Anno Mundi (after the "creation of the world"), Seathrún Céitinn's Foras Feasa ar Érinn says they arrived in 2061 BC, Annals of Four Masters says that they arrived at 2680 BC. So Sometimes in the second half of the 3rd millennium.

Partholón and his people are credited with introducing cattle husbandry, plowing, cooking, dwellings, trade, and dividing the island in four and most importantly for this story, they are credited with bringing gold which before them was not used in Ireland. As I already said in my post about the Irish gold, this has was actually confirmed by the archaeological finds from Ireland. Some people came to Ireland around the 2500 BC or there after, and brought with them copper metalworking knowledge. They opened the first copper mine in Ireland in Ross Island and started making copper axes. The archaeologists originally believed that these immigrant copper metalworkers also started mining gold in Ireland. And that they used that gold to make golden ornaments. The reason for this belief is that around the same time when the Beaker copper metalworkers arrived to Ireland, we suddenly see gold being used for making ornaments, mostly gold lunulae, about which I wrote in my post about the Irish Gold, and gold cross discs like these ones:

 

But as I already said in my post about the Irish gold, it turns out that the gold from which the Irish lunulae and cross discs were made was not mined in Ireland, but that it was brought into Ireland from somewhere else. Archaeologists are now saying that the gold was brought into Ireland from Cornwall. The local Irish craftsmen then used it to make the lunulae and cross discs. In my post about the Irish gold I argued that these gold ornaments were probably not made in Ireland from imported gold, but that they were made wherever the gold was mined and smelted (Cornwall???), and that the finished gold lunulae and cross discs were imported into Ireland.

The archaeologists believed that these types of ornaments originated in Ireland because they have no precedence in Europe. Until the discovery that the gold from which these ornaments were made did not come from Ireland but from Cornwall. Now they believe that these types of ornaments originated in Ireland or Britain. And I would agree with them when it comes to lunulae. So far there is no precedence for this type of gold ornaments. But I have to say that now we have a proof that the golden cross discs did not originate in Ireland or Britain. I can say this because now we know that hundreds of years before these gold cross discs appeared in the British isles, they were made and used in the Balkans, more precisely in Montenegro. 

Have a look again at the silver axe from Mala Gruda tumulus. 

This silver axe was found together with a strange golden cap covering the the top of the axe shaft. The cap was made from a golden disk which is a thin embossed sheet of gold with a cross at the centre, surrounded by a circle. 

The design on the gold disc cap resembles the most the design found on the gold sun disc which was found in a burial mound at Monkton Farleigh, just over 20 miles from Stonehenge, in 1947 along with a pottery beaker, flint arrowheads and fragments of the skeleton of an adult male.

The two pence piece sized gold disc was made in about 2,400 BC, soon after the Sarsen stones were put up at Stonehenge, and is thought to represent the sun.It was kept safe by the landowner since its discovery and has only now been given to the Museum. The disk is a thin embossed sheet of gold with a cross at the centre, surrounded by a circle, and between the lines of both the cross and the circle are fine dots which glint in sunlight.

The golden cross discs found in Ireland and Britain were all dated to 2400 BC - 2100 BC. The golden cross disc from Mala Gruda was originally dated to the period 1900 to 1800 BC. I believe that this is why no one before made a connection between the Mala Gruda golden cross disc and the cross discs found in Ireland and Britain. Even if someone did make a connection, the Mala Grida golden cross disc was probably classified as being made under the influence of the late Beaker culture. However the latest dating pushes the date when Mala Gruda tumulus was built almost 1000 years back into the past, to the period between 2800 to 2700 BC. Now this changes everything. Someone in Montenegro was making golden cross discs 300 - 400 years before the first such disc appeared in Ireland and Britain. The thing is that this golden cross disc from Mala Gruda has no precedence. Except for another golden cross disc which was used in the same way, for making the axe shaft cap. And this other golden cross disc was found in an even older Montenegrian tumulus, which was dated to the end of the 4th - beginning of the 3rd millennium bc and which was linked directly to the late Yamna culture. I will write about this tumulus in one of my next posts. This means that we can say that unless new archaeological data emerges, the origin of these golden cross disc ornaments is in the early 3rd millennium BC Montenegrian tumulus building culture. 

Now the big question: Is it possible that people who made these golden cross discs in Montenegro or their descendants, were the same people who later made the golden cross discs in Ireland and Britain? Was there a migration from Montenegro to British Isles around the middle of the 3rd millennium BC? I believe so. And guess what, the Irish annals says so too. But I will talk about this more in one of my next posts. 

Until then stay happy and keep smiling. 

The power of the Thunder Giant

In Serbian the expression "On vedri i oblači" means "he rules", "he has absolute control, absolute power". Literally this expression means "he makes the sky clear and cloudy"...

This expression was obviously originally applied to the sky god, The God, The Lord of the early agricultural societies and the peasants, particularly the wheat farmers, whose lives depend on the climate...

Having the right weather at the right time is most important during the vegetative season from May to November. Having the right weather at the right time is in the north of Europe most critical right in the middle of the vegetative season. This is the period around the beginning of August. The period from just before the end of the ripening season to just after the beginning of the harvest season.

At this time, too much clear sunny sky and the wheat will burn. 

 
Too much cloudy rainy sky and the wheat will not ripen properly or it will fall down and rot. 

Either one of these extremes will result in the destruction of the harvest and famine. 

And so the wheat farmers, the world over, have since the time immemorial been turning their eyes to heaven (sky) at this time of the year, and praying to the same Sky God. They would pray to the one who "vedri i oblači", the one who can make the sky clear and cloudy, The Lord in heaven (sky). They would pray to him, the Giving God (Dabog in Serbian) to give them just the right amount of sunshine and rain, and by doing so to give them the good harvest.

And interestingly right there, on the 2nd of August, on the day that marks the border between the summer and autumn, growing and harvesting, we find In Ireland the day of Crom Dubh. I believe, as I said many times before, that this god is the same god which is in Serbia known as Hromi Daba, Dabog. And that both Chorm Dubh and Hromi Daba are just corruptions of Grom Div, The Thunder Giant, The Thunder God. That this is indeed so can be seen from the fact that the 2nd of August is in Serbia known as the day of Perun, the Thunder God, the one who "vedri i oblači", the one who can make the sky clear and cloudy, the Lord....

PS:

All weather-related French phrases also imply the action of God. 

Il fait beau = He makes beautiful (weather)

Il pleut = He rains

Il vente = He winds

Il neige = He snows

etc. 

Similarly, "Il fait la pluie et le bau temps" (he makes rain and sunshine) defines an all-mighty person.

Krkava Triglav stone

This is Krkavški Kamen (Krkava stone) also known as Triglav stone from Istria. Dating of the stone is uncertain but it is proposed that it was not built later than the 12 century and that it could be much older. It stands 400 metres southeast of the Krkavče cemetery, north of the path leading past the Gradišče field towards the Škrljevec hamlet.

The monolith is approximately 2.5 metres high and roughly hewed. Only 1.6 m still stand above ground and the upper part of the monolith is partially damaged. There is a stylised human image carved on both sides. 

It is an anthropomorphic image with widely spread arms, erect penis and with a crown of sun rays. 

In this the image from the Krkava stone resembles the "Lion man" stone from Armagh in Ireland. 

I wrote about this stone and its link with the Slavic Triglav worship in my post about Radegast.

The surface of the two images shows different treatment and the reliefs were probably made in two if not even three phases. 

The locals say that the stone once had three heads carved on its top which are now missing. Some say that it was only one head with three faces. Maybe like this one from Ireland:

This is why the stone is called Troglav, Triglav, the Three headed one. This Triglav is the the old European Trinity, Sun, Fire, Thunder, the three in one, the one which is three, the Trinity known in India as Trimurti. I wrote about Triglav worship in Serbian tradition in my post about Triglav.  

There are local legends that claim that in the field called Gradišče, which means "Fortified city" once stood a stone city and that the Triglav stone was erected by the people who built the city. Other legends say that the stone is older than the city. People say that the city was built by the king who had a golden calf...Other legends say the it was the Devil himself who lived in the old stone city and who had the golden calf. They say that the Devil went under ground to protect his gold. This is very interesting as in Serbia we also have legends of the evil king Trojan (Triglav) who lived in the old stone city on top of the mountain. Trojan, Triglav was in Serbia identified with Dabog, who later became Christian Devil.. Archaeologists have found Roman villa in the field, but there is an Illyrian fortress nearby. 

Locals say that the stone was once worshiped as holy. They say that according to the local lore, the stone is dedicated to the sun god. On the day of St. Vid people used to come to the stone to lay hands on the stone. St Vid is Christianized Slavic sun god Svetovid, who was originally celebrated on the day of the Summer Solstice. On Christmas eve, which is Christianized Winter Solstice celebration, people used to spend all night burning oak logs around the stone. This is the ceremony of rekindling of the fire of the Sun which is still performed in the Balkans for Orthodox Christmas. At the dawn the whole village would gather around the stone and celebrate the rising of the first sun of the new solar year. This is the rebirth of the young Sun god which Christians turned into the birth of Christ. In Serbian the word for god is "bog" and the word for young god is "božić", which is what Serbians call Christmas. The whole Winter Solstice ceremony around the stone was linked to fertility. I already wrote about similar ceremonies from Serbian territories in the Balkans in my post about threshing floors. These pagan ceremonies were condemned by the Christian clergy and were performed in secret and eventually abandoned. They were replaced by church processions following the same routes that the old pagan processions probably followed.  

There were many Christian processions which either started or ended at the stone or passed by the stone. The main one started from the stone and and ended in front of  the Church of St. Michael the Archangel. These processions took place on Rogation Days preceding Accession Day. The Accenssion Day is the old Beginning of the Summer ceremony, Beltane, the day of Jarilo, the Fire part of the Triglav. I wrote about Beltane, the Day of Jarilo in my post about the Beltane circle. It is very interesting that the procession ends at the church dedicated to the Archangel Michael. In Serbian tradition, Triglav was replaced by Archangel Michael who represents the lightning part of the Triglav trinity.

According to the local tradition the stone used to be used as a punishment, shaming stone. People who committed a crime were tied to the stone. They were then spat on and had insults and curses hurled at them. In recent times children were threatened with being tied to the stone when they did something wrong. Was this an ingenious way devised by Christians to replace the veneration of the holy Triglav Sun Stone with loathing of the Punishment and Humiliation stone? Or was the stone used as a shame stone even before the arrival of Christianity? In Serbian we still have an expression "to put someone on the pillar of shame" when you want to expose and shame someone for the bad deeds that he had committed. Is this somehow linked with the "prokletija" stoning ceremony about which I wrote in my last post? Were people who were tied to the Triglav stone originally stoned? Was spitting and hurling of abuse originally spitting and hurling of stones and abuse?

Archaeologists Pleterski and Puhar have proposed that the stone is part of a large spatial alignment. The stone and the four surrounding churches form perfect Latin Cross. 

The churches are all linked to the stone with well trodden paths once used for annual processions.  Local legends say that the churches were deliberately build like this around the stone so that they would "destroy the devil's power residing in the stone". But they were probably built on top of the old holy places which with the Triglav stone once formed the larger holy landscape dedicated to the celebration of Triglav, the old Trinity. 

You can read detailed study of the stone written by Jana Puhar and Andrej Pleterski in Slovenian here.

Prokletija - The cursing ceremony

The English nursery rime says:

Sticks and stones will break my bones
But words will never harm me.

But people didn't always think this way. In the past when people swore or cursed at someone, they weren't just being rude. Every curse or a swear was a prayer to God(s) to do something bad to someone, because the person who was cursing or swearing could not do it himself. This is still clearly visible in Serbian curses. 

In Serbian the standard list of curses starts with "Jebi se" meaning "F*@k yourself",  "Jebem te" meaning "I F*@k you",  "Jebem ti majku, oca, sestru, decu..." meaning "I F*@k your mother, father, sister, children..." all the way to "Jebem ti mrtvu majku" meaning "I F*@k your dead mother" and "Jebem ti celu familiju, i one koje znas i one koje neznas, i one sto je zivo i one sto je mrtvo" meaning "I F*@k all your family, all that you know of and all that you don't, all that are alive and all that are dead" and such things... On top of the curses which have to do with f*@king of the family members, there are also"Jebem ti lebac" meaning "I F*@k your bread", "Jebem ti sunce" meaning "I F*@k your sun" and "Jebem ti boga" meaning "I F*@k your god" and so on. 

What is interesting is that these "F*@king" Serbian curses are structure as a bad wish which one man wishes on another man. This I believe shows that "F*@king" is here seen as act of defiling,  humiliating, desecrating and not as a sexual act. It is related to the loss of power, enslavement, putting a man into a situation where he can not prevent other men taking, defiling, desecrating what was his like family, food, god, honor. "F*@king" here is act of ultimate submission. This shows that these curses are deeply linked to the patriarchal clan society. The proof for this is the fact that in Montenegro, where this patriarchal clan society still survives, the curse "Jebem ti oca" meaning "I F*@k your father" is worse than the curse "Jebem ti majku" meaning "I F*@k your mother".

All of these curses actually have an implicit  "Da Bog da", now spelled as "Dabogda" meaning "May God give, allows, lets it happen..." which used to precede the actual bad wish, but are omitted in the F*@king curses. However this explicit prayer to God is still present in many other Serbian curses. Like "Da bog da ti se vino ukiselilo" meaning "May god give that your vine gets sour", "Da bog da ti se žito osušilo" meaning "May god give that your wheat dries in drought", "Da Bog da crko" meaning "May God let you die", "Da  Bog da ti se seme zatrlo" meaning "May god give that your seed (line of descendants) disappears", "Da bog da te majka prepoznala u bureku" meaning "May God give that your mother recognizes you inside the meet pie", "Da bog da ti svi u kući plakali, a samo pop da ti peva" meaning "May god give that everyone in your house cries and only priest to sing (requiem)", "Dao bog da ti ispadnu svi zubi osim jednog a da te taj zadnji zub boli" meaning "May god give that all your teeth fall out except one which will hurt you for the rest of your life",  "Da bog da ti konj (pas) krvavim kurcem jebao sestru na majčinom grobu" meaning "May god give that a horse (dog) f*@ks your sister with a bloody dick on your mother's grave"...This goes on and on and on. The list of curses is only limited by your hatred and imagination...

My "favorite" Serbian curse is "Da bog da imao pa nemao" which means "May god give that you have and then have not". This curse is not rude but it is devastating. Having something, family, health, possession and losing it is one of the worse things that can happen to anyone. This is why this curse is so bad. 

In Serbian the word for curse is "klet". The words "uklet", "proklet" mean "cursed", the verb "prokleti" means "to succeed in cursing someone".
 

Interestingly the word "zakletva" means oath and "zakleti" means to swear oath. Ancient oaths were basically magical contracts which consisted of a promise and the curse which will befall the person who breaks the promise. Something like this:

"If I don't (pledge goes here) may God(s)...(list of curses, curse goes here)"

This is why we say "to swear the oath" and why "to swear" means to curse.

An example of such ancient "oath - curse" is the "The Kosovo curse" or "Prince's curse" which is, according to legend, a curse said by Serbian Prince Lazar before the Battle of Kosovo. Lazar curses those Serbs who ignored his call for war against the Ottoman Empire. Constantine of Kostenets, a medieval Bulgarian writer and chronicler best known for his biography of Serbian despot Stefan Lazarević, recorded that Lazar issued "invitation and threat" to Serbian states which is preserved in the Serbian epic poetry in the form of the curse.

Whoever is a Serb and of Serb birth,
And of Serb blood and heritage,
And comes not to fight at Kosovo,
May he never have progeny born from love,
Neither son nor daughter!
May nothing grow that his hand sows,
Neither red wine nor white wheat!
And may he be dying in filth as long as his children are alive!

So what does all this have to do with the Irish the word "cleath" which means a goad, a wattle, pole, stake? 

Well let me tell you a story:

Stoning is a form of capital punishment whereby a group throws stones at a person accused of a capital crime until he or she dies. On the Wiki page on stoning I read that the stoning is done so that "...no individual among the group can be identified as the one who kills the "subject"..." But stoning is not done so that no one can be identified as the person who kills the "subject". Stoning is done so that everyone in the group can be identified as the person who killed the "subject". Stoning is not just an execution. It is also an act of group bonding. It is the group who kills the "subject", and casting a stone is a symbol of being part of the group, of agreeing with the group, of obeying the group's will. Casting a stone is an act of communion. 

But what happens if a capital crime is committed, but the perpetrator is not known or was not caught? Well in Serbia, and in other parts of the Balkans where we find Serbian population, he is symbolically stoned and cursed in a ceremony known as "Prokletija" meaning punishment through cursing a stick.

Prokletija is a custom of cursing of an unknown perpetrator of a capital crime or some other serious crime, like theft, arson, killing of livestock, betrayal... In the ceremony, god and saints are summoned to identify and punish the culprit. This custom survived until the present time in Eastern Serbia and in the last century was still practiced in Eastern Nercegovina, Montenegro and few other parts of Serbia. Prokletija, also known as Temija (from Anatema) and Amen, ceremony takes place on Sunday or on some Red Letter church holiday. Injured party reports the damage, crime to the village elders, and asks that the village curses the unknown culprit. On a certain holy day, all the people from the village gather at the place where the crime was committed, or on a crossroads, or at the "an unmarked grave of an unknown person" (tumulus), or at the holy oak tree, or on top of a conical (tumulus like) hill or at the village court house.

At the place where the Prokletija ceremony is performed, a stake is stuck into the ground, or a wooden cross, often made from the burned support columns of a burned building. People gather around the stake or the cross. They take their caps and hats off, like they do in a church during the mass. They cross themselves looking at the stake or the cross, then they turn to the sun, and curse the one who committed the crime, asking god and saints to bring misfortune to the perpetrator of the crime. 

This is extremely interesting. Is the stake a totem, obelisk, as the earthly seat, the temple of the God which the people are praying to? Or is the stake the representation of the missing criminal? I am not sure. But I am sure that we can identify the God the people are praying to. It is the Sun. The cross, the crossing are later additions, a Christianization. What happens next during the Prokletija ceremony is even more interesting. 

During the cursing, every member of the group curses the perpetrator of the crime and throws several stones onto or next to the stick, cross. Remember that every person from the village has to be present at the ceremony, and that usually it is someone from the village who committed the crime. This means that the person who committed the crime has to curse himself and his family, or that the people related to the person who committed the crime, have to curse their relative and his family. 

After the ceremony is finished, the stake or cross is surrounded, or covered depending on the number of people participating in the ceremony, by a pile of stones, a small stone cairn. 

The stake, cross and stones are never removed. The place is protected by a village taboo and is from that day on known as Prokletija which literally means "The place where I curse you". Moreover, from that moment on, anyone who passes by this cursing stake throws more stones on the pile of stone and utters more curses. Eventually the stake, cross would rot away and only a pile of stone, a kind of a stone cairn would remain. 

Now what is the word for a curse in Serbian? It is "klet". What is the word for a pole, a stake in Irish? It is "cleath". Is Serbian word for a curse derived from the Irish word for a stick, pole, stake, the cursing stick which is used to summon the God of wrath, or to represent the cursed criminal? 

Remember the Eastern Serbia is the place where people still use "Celtic" crosses as their village crosses, like this one from Crna Trava area in Eastern Serbia: 

Or this one from Vlasotince area, also in Eastern Serbia:

So if this word was indeed borrowed from Irish, when did this happen? Celtic times? Or much much earlier, during early Bronze Age, or even earlier, during the spread of agriculture?

Here is a list of the descriptions of the recorded Prokletije ceremonies from various parts of Serbia, Montenegro and Eastern Hercegovina.

In the villages of the Upper Nišava area in eastern Serbia, there is a Prokletija stone pile which is fenced off, and everyone who passes by, throws a stone on top of it and says: "Cursed be who killed (the name of the murdered person)". In the villages of Vlasotince area in eastern Serbia, Prokletije ceremony is always organized when someone had something burned down by arsonists. There people stick the charred piece of wood from the burned building into the ground and then everyone throws stones at it cursing the person who started the fire. The stone pile is never removed. We find the same custom in western Bulgaria in near by villages of Zaplanje and Znepolje. 

In Montenegro, Prokletije ceremony is called "Amen". This type of ceremony was performed when someone was killed or betrayed, or when someone broke the personal or village (clan) oath. Kuči tribe in Montenegro performed the Prokletija ceremony like this: One person would utter a terrible curse, asking God and saints to bring misfortune on the perpetrator of the crime, and everyone else would say "amen" and through stones on the pile around the stake. When a theft, burning or other destruction of property was committed, the same ceremony was performed but a sort of a delay clause was added to the curses, giving the perpetrator chance to secretly return the stolen property or leave the money to repay the damage. Vasojevići tribe from Montenegro organized these ceremonies until the mid 19th century. During these ceremonies a village elder would hold a stone in one hand and a dry stick in the other. He would raise his hands and curses the person who committed the crime wishing that "every thing he owns turns to stone, that his arms dry out, that evil befalls him, that every trace of him disappears, that his house gets swallowed by earth, that his Slava candle (Christian replacement for the house holy flame) gets extinguish, and that the curse falls on next nine generations of his descendants". The rest of the participants of the Prokletije ceremony exclaim "amen" after every curse. There are records that Prokletije ceremonies were performed in Zeta area of Montenegro at the end of the 19th century. One of them was performed to curse someone who stole someone's beehives. The ceremony was performed on top of the hill in the middle of the village (probably tumulus).

There is a record that a cursing ceremony was performed in Bjelopavlovići area of Montenegro in 1751. In Popovo area, when something is stolen, and the perpetrator can't be found, the victim asks the village elders to help him find who committed the crime by organizing the Amen (Prokletije) ceremony. The elders would then gather the villagers making sure that the ones who are suspected of committing the crime are among them. Everyone who is asked to come to the gathering has to come. After the reason for the gathering is announced, a cursing ceremony is organized. First to curse the criminal is the victim. He takes his hat off, crosses himself and curses: "who ever stole from me or knew who stole from me. May god give that he suffers from terrible wounds and illnesses and that he never dies or recovers". And all the other people respond with "amen". Then the victim curses: "May god give that he loses his site and that living flesh falls off his bones. That he never has any happiness and prosperity or descendants..." And so on. And everyone again responds with "amen". In upper Hercegovina, people sometimes say to the priest after a mass in a church: "Common father say amen (say the curse). Someone stole my horse (or burned my hay or committed some other crime)" and I can't find who, so may God punish him, so that he doesn't do the same bad deed to others. The priest would then say that who ever did the bad deed didn't know what he was doing out of drunkenness or rage and is now feeling guilty. Then the priest would announce that who ever committed the crime should come to the church and confess and that he should repay the damage in secret and that then the debt will be re-payed and that there will be no need for the Prokletije (Amen). It is said that in Eastern Hercegovina everyone is afraid of Prokletije (Amen). 

Old Montenegro is full of toponyms "Gomila" meaning pile of stone, earth, tumulus. Several hill tops are also called "Gomila". What is interesting is that a lot of conical hills in Montenegro and Hercegovina have stone cairns built on top of them. One hill is actually called "Kletvena gomila" which means cursing pile of stones. Below is an actual ancient stone cairn tumulus from Hercegovina. 

An old cursing stone pile looks exactly like this. Many ancient stone tumuluses have been preserved because of the taboo attached to the cursing stone piles, which forbids removal of the stones from the pile. 

How old is this custom? Where did it originate? Does it exist anywhere else?

You can read more about Prokletije in 

"Prilog Proucavanju Nacina Sahranjivanja i Podizanja Nadgrobnih Spomenika u Nasim Krajevima u Srednjem Vijeku" (In Serbian)

"Srpski Mitoloski Recnik Grupa Autora" (In Serbian)