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Material Culture Section

Department: Ethnology

Material Culture Section encompasses the following systematic collections:

  • Traditional costumes (ensembles) 
  • Traditional costumes (individual garments)
  • Textile furniture
  • Textile processing utensils
  • Traditional modes of production
  • Urban furniture
  • Rural furniture
  • Pottery
  • Traditional crafts
  • Models of traditional buildings
  • Weapons
  • Jewellery
  • Toys
  • Personal items

The inventory book contains 17,450 inventory units, including 288 costume ensembles.

Exhibition The Life and Culture of the Urban Populace in 19th Century Bosnia and Herzegovina is located on the upper level of the Ethnology Pavilion. Visitors can experience domestic scenes of bygone eras in the six authentic rooms displayed here.

The ground floor houses scale-model dioramas of historical industries and communities: water wheel-powered trip hammer smithy; tannery; fulling mill (textiles); mine and village in the town of Vareš; stilt-house community near Bosanska Gradiška.

Temporary exhibitions are organised on the ground floor from time to time on a variety of themes.

Staff: 
Lebiba Džeko, MSc
Ethnologist specialising in urban and rural crafts
Museum advisor
Samir Avdić
Head of Department
Ethnologist specializing in traditional crafts, trades and transport

Exhibitions

Odjeljenje za etnologiju, pokućstvo, vrata

Engraved armoire door

This built-in armoire door is made in woodcut technique. Armoires of this type had several similarly decorated doors mounted side by side, and were a common part of the interior of wealthy urban households.

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Odjeljenje za etnologiju, pokućstvo, tronožac

Chair with three legs and ornamented back

This item is a common piece of country furniture, built using rudimentary tools. These chairs were not built by craftsmen, but by talented semiskilled villagers, in their spare time between tilling the fields and taking care of their livestock.

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Odjeljenje za etnologiju, narodna nošnja, zmijanjski vez

Shirt sleeves (Zmijanje embroidery)

These sleeves feature an example of Zmijanje embroidery, a technique used by women in the village of Zmijanje, near Banja Luka, to decorate women’s garments and household items (wedding gowns, shawls, dresses, bedding).

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Odjeljenje za etnologiju, narodna nošnja, pregača

Apron

This is an article of Croat woman’s clothing characteristic of the whole region of Bosanska Posavina.

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Odjeljenje za etnologiju, kutija za nakit, 19. stoljeće, 19. vijek, filigran

Jewellery box

This is a silver box made using the filigree technique – a very delicate and demanding method of working silver or gold wire into different shapes. The art of filigree was practised by master goldsmiths and silversmiths specialised in filigree work.

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