Scenes of stag hunts, chivalry duels and circular group kolo funerary dances all offer fascinating glimpses of daily life in medieval Bosnia. Others show weapons, which could indicate the social status and profession of the deceased. Stećci were made from the 12th to the 16th Centuries, and like gravestones elsewhere in the world, they are sometimes decorated with religious crosses and rosettes. Emerging from the greenery of the Bosnian hills and meadows, their vividly rendered designs have been puzzling historians and travellers for centuries, but continue to serve as a symbol of national pride and identity among Bosnia's multi-ethnic population. Some 60,000 of these medieval stone monuments lie scattered across the nation's countryside (with a much smaller number found in neighbouring Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro), and are commonly grouped together in necropolises. This isn't just any cemetery it jealously guards hundreds of years of my country's history.Ĭalled stećci (pronounced' 'stech-tsee'), these monolithic tombstones are some of Bosnia and Herzegovina's most recognisable – if enigmatic – landmarks. As I marvel at the geometric patterns, moons, stars and people seemingly greeting me with outstretched hands etched onto the white stones, I wonder who is buried there and how they lived. There, I come face to face with 135 medieval tombstones arranged in densely concentrated rows. Whenever I travel through Herzegovina, the southern part of my homeland Bosnia and Herzegovina, I go to a large field 3km west of the town of Stolac called the Radimlja necropolis.

Reawakened series in order