BADANJ CAVE

This rock shelter (Pećina Badanj) is decorated with the oldest trace of art in Bosnia and Herzegovina: a rock engraving made around 12000 BC. It is located halfway up the Badanj hill (115 m above sea level), about 50 m above the bed of the Bregava River. Excavated since 1976, the site served as a refuge for hunter-gatherers in an episodic way between 18000 and 12000 B.C. They left here about a thousand objects (flints, ornaments...), preserved in the National Museum, in Sarajevo, as well as traces of rock paintings. On the spot, only remains visible a low wall created by the archaeologists and the large stone detached from the wall on which appears the engraving (approximately 60 × 35 cm). This one represents the front end of a horse or a deer hit by several arrows. This figure, common to Mediterranean Paleolithic art, is the oldest rock engraving in the Balkans. The place is relatively well equipped with railings along the access path. To get there, first follow the national road M6/M17.3 towards the medieval necropolis of Radimlja, then after 2.3 km, at the hamlet of Borojevići, turn left and continue straight south for 500 m and, at the bend (right) continue west for 600 m to a sand quarry. The road ends here. Drive around the quarry by a carriage road and a bridge over the Bregava river. Then follow the carriage road for 3.2 km to the stairs at the beginning of the cave path.