The Illyrian tribes were the oldest inhabitants of the north-western part of the Balkans, and the forming of their state, after the colonization of the Balkans began during the Bronze Age (1800-800 BC). After the settling down and the stabilization of their tribes, there was soon a strengthening of the aristocratic nobility, the formation of larger and smaller tribal alliances, which grew to become new forms of social communities in 800 BC.
The Illyrian tribes used to have a settlement of their own where Old Bar stands today. Archeological finds discovered in recent years have shown that the settlement was rather spacious.
A large amount of prehistoric pottery was found, which is estimated to date from the period between the 8th and the 5th century BC. There are parts of large vessels, shallow dishes with handles and other types of pottery.
The diverse types of pottery, which were mostly used to store and prepare food, demonstrate the existence of the hearth during prehistoric times. These hearths were probably made of wood and stone. They spread from the most prodruding plateau and followed the slope of the terrain, all the way to today`s main entrance.
The strategic advantages enabled the town to become a central fort for a wider area, which existed side by side with a settlement located closer to the sea.
The proximity of the sea, the fertile plain, along with the very good defensive points in the hinterland enabled further development of the smaller settlement along the Volujica rim during the time of the consolidation and stabilization of the local population with a new element from the steppe which ended around the 6th - 5th century BC, when the Illyrian people werre finally shaped. Archeological finds from the "Kapljeva" site around 1 km from the sea prove the existence of an Illyrian settlement on the Bar plain.
Primitive forts which were built using the dry-stone wall technique as well as larege grave-mounds from Ravnja near Bar, where the aristocrats were buried, provide evidence of the insecure times which were inevitably caused ba these typical war-waging cultures waith a patriarchal hierarchy of tribes and relations.
The town defensive forts are visible on the high ground which encircles the Bar plain. Their defensive system was used for the control over the transport roads which lead into the city, but the forts could also have been used as camps for refuges from the closest settlements, smaller or larger villages, in the event of a crisis.
At the location of the Old Town Bar, there probably used to a central fort for the region, its defensive qualities and a very good layout enabled the control over a greater part of the Bar plain. It is possible to assume, in the vasis of numerous findings, that at the plateau of the medieval town there once was a seat of the local aristocrac who used to run the entire area. Numerous examples of pottery, the position of the settlement and its continuity in the later times all provide proof for this claim.
The prehistoric material discovered in Old Bar (picture...) belongs to a broad cultural-ethnic are, which stretches from south-eastern Bosnia,eastern Herzegovina, parts of south-western Serbia, Metohija, Montenegro and a wider area in Albania. 'The findings are characteristic for the Glasinac culture, which is chronologigally connected with the timespan between 725 and 250 BC.
Findings from the grave-mound village near Bar,
Iron Age (5th-2nd century BC)
