Vucedol Culture Museum opens in Croatia

A museum of the Vucedol culture, back to 3,000 BC, was opened on Tuesday near its archaeological site, 5 km downstream from Croatian eastern city Vukovar.

The Vucedol culture was created 5,000 years ago and could be considered the cradle of civilized Europe. It in importance stood alongside Egypt, Mesopotamia and ancient China, said Aleksandar Durman, an archaeologist and professor from Zagreb University.

Mirela Hutinec, the director of the Museum, said the museum, extending over 1,200 square meters, consists of 19 units, including 3 Vucedol houses of wicker and mud, some boats and transportations made of trunk of oak and several graves.

"The museum shows the accomplishments of a civilization and living standards several millennia ago, when the Vucedol culture spread out from this region between the Danube, the Drava and the Sava to 13 present-day European countries," Hutinec said.

The museum, cost near 400 million kuna (about 70 million U.S. dollars), financed by loan from the Council of Europe Development Bank and investment from Croatia government.

A Vucedol archaeological park, basis of the museum, with a planetarium, a port on the Danube, hotels, archaeological workshops, archaeological schools and other supporting facilities would be constructed and scheduled to be completed by 2018, according to Croatian Cultural Minister Berislav Sipus, who attended Tuesday's opening ceremony.

The Archaeological excavations in Vucedol area started in the 19 century and in 1938 German archaeologist Robert Rudolf Schmidt excavated the largest objects -- the famous Vucedol Dove vessel, Megaron copper smelters, the tomb of a married couple. Endit