Stećak (plural stećci; Cyrillic стећак, стећци) is the name for monumental medieval tombstones, that lie scattered across Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the border parts of Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia.

Stećci are also inscribed into World Heritage List by UNESCO since 2016, with a selection of some 4,000 individual monoliths, grouped in necropolises at 28 locations, of which 20 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, two in Croatia, three in Montenegro, and three in Serbia.

[18] Until the very early 20th century there was wandering in terminology, and some scholars proposed general terms like nadgrobni biljezi (gravestone markers) and mramorje (marble) to be more appropriate.

[9] The term stećak is uncommon in regional dialects and without etiological value,[10] and semantically incorrect and contradicting as it derives from the verb "to stand", while the chest-type to which it refers predominantly is laid down, while another sub-type of pillars and crosses is the one predominantly upright; this upright or standing sub-type does not amount to even 5% of the overall number of stećci; in the original stećci inscriptions they are most often called as kami (meaning "stone" regardless of the form), thus some scholars proposed the term kamik (pl.

[13] The chronology established by Marian Wenzel assumes they developed from the plate headstones, the oldest one dating back to 1220 (the first were probably erected sometime in the mid-12th century[1]), the monumental ones emerged somewhere around 1360, those with visual representations around 1435–1477, and that total production ended circa 1505.

The slabs were typical for a kind of burial in the West Mediterranean world of the 14th and 15th centuries, which had a special method of production and ornamentation in the Balkans, customized according to the stonemasonry skills and microenvironment.

[35][36][37] They were initially made by the feudal nobility who wanted to affirm individual prestige and power, sometimes also decorated with their coat of arms,[37] while later this tradition was embraced and adopted by other social classes like the Vlachs who experienced socioeconomic growth and almost exclusively built them from the mid-15th century on.

[46] Many of them remain enigmatic to this day; spirals, arcades, rosettes, vine leaves and grapes, lilium, stars (often six-pointed) and crescent Moons are among the images that appear.

In 1979, historian Hadžijahić noted that the horsemen are not riding with reins, yet (if they are not hunting) their hands are free and pointed to the sky, implying possible cult significance.

[51] The vast regional, but scarce (usually only one) in-graveyard distribution mostly in the center or some notable position of cross-type stećci (križine), and their almost exclusive ornament of the crescent Moon and stars, could indicate a cemetery label for specific (pagan) religious affiliation.

[66] They were carved by a kovač / klesar (smith, mason; in Latin faber, "master"[46]), while the inscriptions, probably as a template, were compiled by dijak / pisar (pupil, scribe).

[77] Some scholars like Milovan Gavazzi (1978) examined a much broader context, and considered their connection to megalithic tradition of the region and Eurasia from the prehistoric and contemporary periods.

[79] It is established that they are mainly related to mountainous places which became deserted over a period of time because of migrations caused by new social events and the Ottoman occupation.

[79] Since the middle of the 19th century, specifically the 1875 thesis by Arthur Evans,[80][81] many scholars including Alexander Soloviev, Kosta Hörmann and Ćiro Truhelka have initially argued that they were related to the origin of the Bosnian Church i.e. Bogomils or other dualist groups.

[87] Since the mid-20th century many scholars like Marian Wenzel,[88] once the world's leading authority on the art and artifacts of medieval Bosnia and Herzegovina,[89] concluded that the stećci tombstones were a common tradition amongst Catholic, Orthodox and Bosnian Church followers alike.

Đuro Basler saw some parallels in the artistic expression of late Romanesque art, while symbolic motifs are divided into three components; pre-Christian, Christian and Manichaean (i.e.

[31][97][98] Criticism of the theory argues that the monuments in original form weren't specific to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and were initially made by the feudal nobility and only in later stages embraced by the Vlachs.

[104] Vaso Glušac ideologically argued Serbian-Orthodox origin of both the Bosnian Church and stećci,[105] while Vladislav Skarić considered they have represented the Old Slavic "eternal home", and that they initially were built from wood.

[16] While doing research with Felix von Luschan on stećak graves around Konavle he estimated that a large number of skulls weren't of Slavic origin yet similar to older "Illyrian" peoples, as well noted that Dubrovnik memorials recorded those parts to be inhabited by the Vlachs until the 15th century.

[16] A study of inscriptions on the tombstones showed that individuals from Vlach tribes (like Vlahovići, Pliščići, Predojevići, Bobani, and Drobnjaci) were also buried beneath stećak graves.

[16][39] Wenzel related the end of stećak production to the Ottoman invasion and new social circumstances, with the transition of Vlachs and near Slavs to Islam resulting with the loss of tribal organization and characteristics of specific ethnic identity.

[114] The ridge stećci of Dalmatian type can be found only in regions of Dalmatia and Southwestern Bosnia, parts ruled by the Kosača noble family.

[36] The anthropological research in 1991 on the 40 skeletons from 28 burials (dating back to 1440-1450s) beneath stećci at the Poljanice plateau near the village of Bisko showed that the vast majority of the population belonged to the presumably autochthonous Dinaric type and are of non-Slavic origin.

[117] Although autochthonous Vlach origin has been argued since Illyrian times it rather shows the continuation of the process of Dinarization and assimilation of Slavs, a characteristic which could be general and not ethnic.

[127] Alberto Fortis in his work Travels into Dalmatia (1774) recorded them in the Romanticist spirit of that time, describing the tombstones in Cetina as warrior graves of giants.

[128][80] They also attracted attention by Aleksander Antoni Sapieha, Ami Boué, Otto Blau, John Gardner Wilkinson and Heinrich Sterneck.

[127] Since the second half of the 19th century, stećci are seen as a symbol of Bosnia and Herzegovina,[85] being objects of South Slavic ideological ethno-national building myths and ownership,[129] as well as different opinions on their archaeological, artistic and historical interpretation.

[131] According to Marian Wenzel one of the three pervasive ethno-national ideological constructs, specifically the thesis about the Bogomil origin of stećci, dates as far back as the last decade of the 19th century when it had been put forward by the Austria-Hungarian bureaucracy, namely by a member of the Hungarian parliament Janos von Asboth, in correlation to a similar thesis on the origin of Muslim inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina as descendants of the Bogomils.

[132][133] Such distortion of history will later attract criticism by scholars like Wenzel, who stated that through this particular example Austria-Hungarian authority practically delivered stećci "as a gift to Muslims, emphasizing their inheritance rights to the land and implying that the later Christians, comparatively, were the 'newcomers'".

[133][134] During the war of the 1990s this theory would again have its resurgence in media and public discourse, seeking the historical-political legitimacy in which Islamization of the local Bosnian and Herzegovinan populace was not only caused by the Ottoman occupation but also by ingrained religious idiosyncrasy, epitomized in Bogomilsm, thus affirming the ethnic and confessional differences between the Bogomil, Catholic and Orthodox populations.