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ARCHEOLOGY  

The fertile Sava river valley, delimited  by Medvednica and Vukomeričke gorice, always offered ideal life conditions. During the centuries, the Sava river has been changing its stream and this "pulsing" influenced the choice of the housing grounds. 
In the younger period of the Stone Age (6. - 5. century BC) cattle-breeders and farmers in Gradišće, in vicinity of  Staro Čiče, built first catacombs. Since then, the tradition of  populating Gradišće and its importance lasted, probably, until the beginning of the Roman civilization. Surface exploration of this territory, that is about three meters higher than  surrounding grounds, provides facts about particular life style, even in the late Middle Ages. The territory was bordered with the Siget brook in south and east, and ten meters wide ditch in the south, which was, towards the west, turning into a marsh. The thickness of the cultural layer was about 3,5 meters. In Gradišće, members of the Korenovo culture used to make vessels for preparing and preserving dishes, stony polished axes and knives, arrows, scrapers, grindstones, weights for nets, driving - wheels for spindles, bony needles, avils, etc. Vessels used to be burned either by oxidation or reduction and decorated mostly by engraved stripy adornment (two or three parallel lines) or by just one line. Adornments done in such ways formed garlands, "A" motifs and rudimental spiral ("kuke" - hooks). The Korenovo culture was based on the Starčevo culture tradition and belonged to a great group of Central European stripy - line ceramics. 
The Neolithic or the Copper Age (fourth and third millennium BC) is correlated with the beginning of  the Indo-European tribal communities. At the time, the Lasinja culture appeared on these grounds (Novo Čiče and Dubranec), in the same way the Vučedol culture, whose material evidence were found in Gradišće in vicinity of Staro Čiče, spread across the Sava river's valley. 
The Vučedol culture members mastered in full the skills of copper production. The Vučedol culture is also known for its very specific, high - quality ceramics, often completely covered in motif. Decorating techniques used at the time were plotting and carving. The Bronze Age (2200 - 750/700 BC) is denoted by bronze arms, tools and jewelry production. It was a time of intensive metallurgy and trade development. Archeological finds of the Vinkovci group and ceramics decorated in Litzen style from the Staro Čiče settlement, belong to the early period of the Bronze Age (2200 - 1600 BC). 
The Vinkovci cultural group developed on the Neolithic tradition. Its ceramics were seldom embellished. Those of finer fabric imitated metal goods, while the rougher pieces were sometimes decorated with plastic stripes with fingerprints on, or by pseudo - barbotine adornment. The Litzen culture spread all over Central Europe. The name was taken after the vessel's decoration method; in other words, adornment was pressed into a raw vessel by imprinting a rope or a ratchet - wheel. The basic shape of the Litzen ceramics was ball - shaped jug with a funnel - shaped neck and a handle that held together upper part and a neck. The necks were decorated with few parallel, horizontal, on the handle - vertical, stripes done in the manner already described. The phenomenon of those ceramics is  linked with the cattle - breeders migration in the early period of the Bronze Age. 
The late period of the Bronze Age, or so - called "The Culture of the Field with Urns" lasted almost six hundred years (1300 - 750/700 BC). The representatives of this European cultural appearance belonged to the Indo-European group, but they did not have the same ethnical characteristics. What they had in common was a ritual of cremating dead (the culture was named after it) and burial of remains in urns with arms, tools and jewelry subjoined. More "urn" tombs in one place were called necropolis. Until the end of the thirteenth century BC the Virovitica group was the main cultural group on this territory; the group that took over from there on was the Zagreb group that held the prime until the eleventh century BC. From the tenth century BC until the end of the Bronze Age, inhabitants of these parts were also the representatives of the Velika Gorica group. The members of this group are distinguished by the archeological finds from Veliki brijeg necropolis in Velika Gorica, unveiled in the beginning of the twentieth century.  One of the interesting things is that the urns in their necropolises were ball - shaped with the round hole inside. Some authors explain that as a connection with the life after death, in other words, they see it as a passage  through which soul was able to come in and out. Bronze swords, lances, hollow hatchets, knives, fibulas,  decoration needles, etc. were also found as supplements to the tombs. In the middle of the eight century BC, the Iron Age in Europe began and  the Hallstatt culture started to spread around. The La Tene culture of the younger period of the Iron Age is put in a limelight by presence of the Celtic tribes in this part of Croatia. The Celtic culture influence became the dominant one in the end of the second and the beginning of the first century BC owing to the Celtic tribe Taurisc' expansion towards east. 
In the third decade of the first century Romans started conquering Pannonia and integrating its parts into a system of Roman civilization. Pannonia used to be inhabited by the tribes with Iliric cultural tradition which contained some of the Celtic cultural elements. Octavian (Augustus - founder of the Empire) began with the conquering,  but the complete pacification of these territories started after the crash of the Iliric rebellion ( in Pannonia and Dalmatia) between the sixth and the ninth year of this era. The rebellion was put down by the Augustus' legate Tiberius, who was the heir to the throne. Soon after, the south - eastern borders of the Empire stabilized on the Drava and the Danube rivers. The golden age of the Roman Empire and conditioned peace, that had been held during the Augustus' reign (27 BC - 14 AC), ended in the second century, in the time Antonine dynasty ruled the Empire. Invasion of the German tribes, in 166. which laid Pannonia wasted, announced the beginning of the Empire's end. Civil wars and economic instability calmed down for a little while during the rule of Diocletianus (Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus Iovius, 284 - 305) who was trying to reform the Empire, economically as well as juridically. Konstantin the Great (306 - 337)  continued implementing those reforms and became one and the only Emperor. His successors divided the Empire in Western and Eastern, but they were not  capable to stop invasions of barbarian tribes and stabilize the Empire which led to the political and military crash of the Western Roman Empire in 476. 
The territory between the Sava and the Kupa rivers was first urbanized with the arrival of Romans. Urbanization was carried out by building up the main settlement by the Sava river, by construction of roads, paths and bridges with aim to improve the connection among those parts. A new style and organization of life and territory began thanks to the Roman cultural and political development. On this territory, Romans also built two national main roads: one going from Akvilea across Emona (Ljubljana) for Siscia (Sisak) and the other from Dalmatia across Siscia and Andautonia for Petovio (Ptuj) and further up north. Its route was: Sisak, Sela, Dužica, Ogulinec, Bučevec, Vukovina, Staro Čiče, Novo Čiče, Bapče, Ščitarjevo, Ivanja Reka, Jelkovec and , as already said, further up north. The one from Emona was coming from the west and passing through Gornja Lomnica, Petrovina, Okuje, Mraclin and Bučevec. Apart from these two roads, in Andautonia existed some local ones, as well, that were connecting Andautonia and some surrounding colonies. These colonies (rural architecture) were, or at least, there are indications that were located on the grounds of Veleševec, the Turopolje's grove, Bučevec, Novo Čiče, Velika Gorica, Odra and etc. In these colonies lived aborigines and colonized population.. Andautonia was, as the Sava river's port, a place where many roads were in conjunction and had therefore a real strategical importance from the very beginning. 

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