The exhibition “Lojanik: Prehistoric Jasper and Opal Quarry” was officially opened at the Gallery of the National Museum Kraljevo, on Friday, February 13th, 2026, starting at 6 p.m. At the beginning, the audience was greeted by Darko Gučanin, director of the National Museum Kraljevo, who expressed his pleasure that the museum has the honor of hosting the exhibition “Lojanik: Prehistoric Jasper and Opal Quarry” authored by Vera Bogosavljević Petrović, PhD, a prominent archaeologist and retired museum advisor of the National Museum of Serbia. He emphasized that the past of the Kraljevo region is most often associated with the Middle Ages – the Žiča Monastery, the Maglič fortress, and the remains of younger settlements – and that it was long difficult to imagine that life existed in this area in much earlier epochs. Thanks to decades of archaeological research by the National Museum Kraljevo, the boundaries of knowledge have gradually shifted, and discoveries have confirmed that this region was inhabited already in the Early Iron Age.
Decisive significance was held by the discoveries of the sites Lojanik and Crkvine, which showed that the area around the confluence of the Ibar and West Morava rivers was inhabited as early as the Mesolithic. Although the first professional visit to Lojanik was recorded back in 1988, systematic research began only in 2016 through a joint project of the National Museum of Serbia and the National Museum Kraljevo. The goal of the project was to clarify the connection between Lojanik as a site of prehistoric mining and Crkvine as a space for the use of jasper and opal.
During six research seasons, under the leadership of Vera Bogosavljević Petrović, PhD extremely valuable archaeological finds were collected and scientifically processed. As a result of that work, the public now has a monograph and an exhibition, which institutions and the professional public can rightly be proud of.
Then the audience was greeted by Vera Krstić, museum advisor and head of the Archaeology Department of the National Museum of Serbia, who emphasized that the site of Lojanik has been known to the professional public for decades, primarily as an important palaeobotanical site. However, thanks to systematic archaeological research conducted from 2016 to 2022, organized by the National Museum Kraljevo and the National Museum of Serbia, we now more clearly understand its exceptional importance as a center for stone exploitation and processing in prehistory. From the earliest periods of human history, people knew how to recognize the special significance of stone. It did not serve only as a natural raw material, but represented one of the key conditions for survival, technological progress, and the development of entire communities.
It often happens that the results of archaeological research wait a long time to be presented to the academic community, and even more often remain unknown to the general public. To our great satisfaction, colleague Vera Bogosavljević Petrović and her associates have changed that.
As editor and one of the authors of the monograph “Lojanik: Prehistoric Quarry in Central Serbia” she showed that archaeology can and should be practiced responsibly, with public involvement and dialogue with the community. She stated that the exhibition is the result of years of research work, professional dedication, and successful cooperation between institutions and individuals. She thanked the archaeologists, researchers, and collaborators who contributed to bringing this exhibition to light. In conclusion, she emphasized that she believes this exhibition will be an incentive for further research and new interpretations, as well as a lasting reminder of the richness of our heritage.
The exhibition was opened by Professor Dušan Mihailović, PhD, professor at the Department of Archaeology of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade, who stated that the exhibition “Lojanik: Prehistoric Jasper and Opal Quarry” is part of a broader project and that the exhibition and the recently published monograph together form a whole – a package of presentation and research. He especially emphasized the effort of colleague Vera Bogosavljević Petrović, PhD, because Lojanik is not a favorable site for research. It is not an open settlement, nor a cave, but terrain covered with thousands and thousands of stone fragments. Researching such a site is extremely demanding. Thanks to her persistence and the work of her team, we now have the opportunity to see the results of systematic research. It is especially important that we now know with certainty that traces of settlement in this territory reach back at least 144,000 years, to the penultimate Ice Age, when people first inhabited these areas.
It has also been confirmed that near primary and secondary raw material deposits we can expect rich Paleolithic sites, not only in the territory of Lojanik, but in the wider area from Čačak to Kraljevo, Vrnjačka Banja, and Kruševac. The results of Lojanik research will become the basis and guide for future research in this region.
Finally, the author of the exhibition, Vera Bogosavljević Petrović, PhD, addressed the audience, first thanking Professor Dušan Mihailović, PhD,who was an inspiration and support from the beginning of her work. The author emphasized that it was extremely important to her that the research work, started more than two decades ago, was finally reached completion and properly presented to the public. In her opinion, it is neither good nor responsible for collected archaeological material to be merely archived and set aside, in the hope that some future generation will study it fifty or sixty years from now. On the contrary, she stresses the need for research results to be processed, interpreted, and shared in a timely manner, so that they immediately become part of the scientific and cultural knowledge of the community.
She expressed special and sincere gratitude to all colleagues and employees of the National Museum Kraljevo, who throughout all those years continuously participated in the research. Their engagement exceeded usual professional obligations; they worked with great enthusiasm, dedication, and a personal sense of responsibility, as if it were part of their own lives and identities. She also expressed gratitude to colleagues from the National Museum of Serbia, who throughout the entire duration of the project showed understanding, support, and trust. Their willingness to support the research and recognize its importance was, according to the author, of crucial significance for the successful realization of the entire endeavour.