Posušje (, ) is a town and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located in the West Herzegovina Canton, a federal unit of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Name
The name Posušje is derived from suša (Croatian for drought). The area of Posušje was historically a dry area with water-supply problems. The problem was solved by building an artificial lake in Tribistovo in 1989.
Demographics
Municipality
Town
According to the 2013 census, the population of Posušje town was 6,267.
Position
Posušje is 29 km from Široki Brijeg, 54 km from Mostar, 10 km from Imotski and 71 km from Makarska.
Altitude
Posušje field is located at an altitude of about 610 m, Vir field at about 520 m, Rakitno at about 900 m, Pločno (peak of Čvrsnica mountain) is at 2228 m, and the area around the lake Blidinje 1050 meters and more.
History
There has been settlement in the area since pre-Slavic times when the Illyrians inhabited the region.
Prehistoric period
Stone Age
From the older (Paleolithic) and middle (Mesolithic) periods of Stone Age, the period of primitive man hunter and wild berries collector, in the area of Posušje municipality were not found traces of human beings.
In the early period (Neolithic) stone age in southern Europe the way of human life significantly changed became a farmer and cattleman, built a permanent settlement, and was making ceramics. From this period, from his older sub-period, in the municipality Posušje, there are remains a human beings from sites Vučje Njive (Wolves fields), Iličinova Lazina, Prataruša and Žukovia cave in Vir. In the younger Neolithic in this region has dominated Hvar-lisičić culture. Its remainings in the area of the municipality Posušje were found in localities: Brig next Bagaruša, Mostina (Batin), Sridnji Brig (Gradac), Central (Gradac and Vrijovički brig (Gradac). In Copper age (2400–1800 BC ), there was prevailing "stringy ceramics" so-Herzegovina, belonging to such sites: Nečajno and Trostruka gradina (triple fort) between Posušje and Grude.
Copper Age
Dissolution of the Neolithic groups and the beginning of the new groups, the metal age in this region is, caused primarily by great migration of Indo-Europeans that took place in the last centuries of 3rd and beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. This great migration, like the other before and later, also happened in steps, and her third and last step, completed the occupation of the area between the Sava and the Adriatic Sea. From then on the immigrant culture and indigenous people mix, new types of settlements, ruins, and very closed communities are being created. As a typical example of such a Bronze Age culture, is set aside, in this region, the dominant "Cetina culture" mostly in central Dalmatia, and in some segments quite similar to her "Posušje culture", mainly by widespread Herzegovina, central and northern part of Dalmatia.
Iron Age
Iron Age (8th century BC – 9 years AD) is the genesis completion time and the time of Illyrian tribes and communities forming, their touches via trade with Apennine Peninsula, the Greeks, and a number of bloody wars with the Romans. Municipality Posušje certainly belonged to the Illyrian tribe Dalmatae. Dalmatae were very warlike and livestock people, and in a series of wars during the 2nd and 1st century BC, gave the huge resistance to the great Roman state. Neither large Gaius Julius Caesar did not succeed to defeat them. It succeeded, after great difficulty, and thousands of casualties, the first Roman emperor Octavian Augustus. Roman impression by Dalmatae caused them later to name the whole province, much higher than territory of Dalmatae, after them (Dalmatia).
From the Iron Age in the Posušje municipality area there is a huge number of ruins, the typical settlement of Dalmatae and over today Posušje and Vir field is considered to be an important trade route went from the commercial port Narona (Vid near Metković) to the town of Delminium (today Tomislavgrad in Duvno field), the main center of Illyric tribes. The money, "drachma Dyrahija", found in Vir, supports this theory. Prominent archaeologist Zdravko Marić claimed that the Vir is one of the most important cultural sites in the territory of Dalmatae. Another prominent archaeologist Borivoj Čović has classified the area of Posušje in the "central Illyrian territory."