Trebeništa

Trebeništa is an ancient necropolis from the Iron Age (around the 7th century BC) southeast Illyria, near the northern shore of Lake Ohrid. The site is located near Trebeništa in modern-day North Macedonia. It is believed that the necropolis was used by the people from the nearby Illyrian town of Lychnidos. They are considered to have been the product of the local Illyrian population, which were attested in later historical sources and Hellenistic epigraphic material to have been the Dassaretii, also identified with the earlier Enchelei, who constituted the oldest known Illyrian kingdom. Some have hypothecised a Thracian influence, or a mixed Balkano-Aegean cultural expression. Archaeological material with gold-riches from the burials at Trebeništa, Aiani on the middle valley of the Haliacmon, and Sindos on the Thermaic Gulf, indicates substantial cultural continuity throughout the wider region, despite the fact that different tribes lived in the various areas of the whole region.