Gradot - Tikveš Town, settlement and necropolis from the early antique, Roman and medieval periods, Resava, Kavadarci
location: 2 km west of the village of Resava, on top of a small buried hill (80 m above the Tikveška River).
the nearest roads: an important mining road led through the Dolina Crne towards the mines in the Kožufa massif, while at the Tikveška river a local road led through Tikvešija to Vardar in the east (today the Vozarci — Kavadarci — Negotino road). From the top of the city, two roads away to the north, south and east were controlled.
archaeological research: 1959-1961 and 1967-1968; Archaeological Museum in Skopje; conducting research: A. Keramitčiev
ancient horizon: During the Hellenistic era, there was a fortified settlement on the flat top, 4-5 ha in size. Finds: ceramics, coins from 3-1. BC. During the late Roman period, a large fortification measuring 140 x 155 m was built on that area. The wall around it was strengthened with at least 7 towers. In the 6th century, the wall was rebuilt in several places, and a small acropolis with an inner wall was built in the southeast corner.
Finds: coins from the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries.
medieval horizon:
the medieval fortified city of Tikveš:
Some of the mentioned restored parts of the wall may date from the late Middle Ages, while the acropolis was completely rebuilt in the Middle Ages (dimensions 56 x 30 m). Half a century ago, its walls rose up to 4 m above the ground.
sacred objects: a small church was built inside the acropolis, while another small church is located in front of the western entrance.
Finds: medieval pottery, numerous small objects minted from iron, Byzantine coins from the 13th century.
It is obvious that the acropolis was the core of the "city" of Tikveš, while the area around it and within the ancient walls (covering 2 ha) was inhabited successively later. It was used to accommodate auxiliary facilities — stables and warehouses, workshops, guard rooms, blacksmith workspace, etc., and their foundations were discovered during excavations.
suburban settlement in a later period:
In the valley of Tikveš along the river, on a large area east of the City, there are remains of a lower town settlement. With the aforementioned excavations, before the submergence of this terrain in the new Tikveš Lake, smaller churches with remains of fresco painting were excavated (Tikveš-Manastirče, a smaller church with fragments of frescoes, the transition from the 15th to the 16th century, Tikveš Gramada, with fragments of frescoes from the end of the 15th century) and cemeteries around them in 3 places. These remains date from the 13th century (coins) to the 15th and 16th centuries (frescoes).