OPEN THE EARTH, DISCOVER TIME

Open the earth, discover time... Humankind and its earliest history in the Zlín area

The new archaeological exhibition presents visitors with the earliest past of the Zlín region, from the first evidence of Palaeolithic hunters and gatherers to unique finds from the Great Moravian period. All exhibits come from the collection of the Museum of South-East Moravia in Zlín, which in recent decades has been significantly enriched, above all thanks to extensive rescue excavations in the Zlín Region.

The introductory section is devoted to the Stone Age. Among the notable exhibits from its earlier phase, the Palaeolithic, is a flat-worked stone tool found in the cadastre of Tlumačov; it is more than 40,000 years old and thus represents one of the oldest human products in eastern Moravia.

The later Palaeolithic is represented by sets of typical flaked tools made of flint, chert, rock crystal and radiolarite, which come from the area of the so-called Napajedla Gate on the right bank of the Morava River. One of the hunting stations on the bank of the Dřevnice in today's Zlín-Louky, with remains of a dwelling with a hearth and flaked tools, became the basis for a model depicting the probable appearance of a dwelling of Palaeolithic hunters in the harsh climatic conditions of the last Ice Age.

Abundant finds of ceramic vessels and stone tools from the Late Stone Age (Neolithic) reflect the dense settlement of the fertile lower Dřevnice area by the first farmers from the 6th millennium BC. Long-term settled villages of the Linear Pottery culture and later of the Moravian Painted Pottery culture were uncovered during rescue archaeological excavations in the area between Zlín-Malenovice and Kvítkovice on the left bank of the Dřevnice River, , whose form is approximated by a model of an above-ground house 15 m long, discovered in 2004 near Kvítkovice.

The Late Stone Age (Eneolithic) represents a period of dynamic change in the economic and social life of the populations of the time. Besides stone products, tools and weapons made of copper also appear for the first time during this period. According to current knowledge, the Zlín area was only sparsely settled.

The next section of prehistory – the Bronze Age – was named after a new metal, a golden alloy of copper and tin. Knowledge of producing bronze as a new raw material for tools, weapons and jewellery fundamentally influenced the development of prehistoric society in the following centuries, leading to the rise of specialised crafts and long-distance trade. The metallurgical process of its production is illustrated in the exhibition by a model of a smelting furnace.

The beginning of the Bronze Age in the Zlín area is represented by finds of the Únětice and especially the Věteřov culture, whose bearers densely settled the banks of the lower course of the Dřevnice River. The first, still not very numerous bronze products include, for example, axes and a pair of spiral bracelets from a child's grave near Kvítkovice. Among the exceptional exhibits is undoubtedly a hoard of three bronze pins with decorated disc-shaped heads. The exhibition is complemented by a reconstruction of a skeletal burial: a young adult man with signs of injury to the head was laid in the traditional crouched position, with a small vessel as a grave good.

The second block of the archaeological exhibition covers the period of the Urnfield culture of the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age, the La Tène period and the early Middle Ages, when our territory was permanently settled by the Slavs.

In the landscape of the Hostýn and Vizovice Hills, a number of hoards (depots) of bronze products have been found, especially in recent decades; their deposition near springs or wells is often attributed to ritual significance. A distinctive feature of the Urnfield period is fortified hillforts. Among the most significant are Klášťov above Vysoké Pole, the highest prehistoric hillfort in Moravia, and Rysov near Provodov.

The exhibition presents visitors with a broad selection of archaeological finds from the settlements and cemeteries of the Urnfield culture, which characterise the “everyday” life as well as the spiritual ideas of its distant inhabitants. Among the prestigious objects from this period, weapons stand out above all, represented by swords with…