VUČEDOL CULTURE (3000.-2500. B.C.) & GREEK MYTHOLOGY “The metallurgist did divine deeds by changing the structure of nature, and thus he became closer to the deity than to the ordinary mortal.” We can locate the beginnings of the Vučedol culture in the area of eastern Slavonia and Srijem. This climatically ideal area on the 45th parallel, with an annual abundance of sunshine, is located on the richest land for agriculture and livestock in southeast Europe. Vučedol is separated from the previous cultures by a great technological leap in metallurgy. The first mass production of metals, the first saws and the world's first true bronze all came about in Vučedol settlements. Ancient Greek records and myths testify to a long tradition stemming from Vučedol. The amazing technology of changing the structure of nature – transforming ore first into liquid and then into hard metal of a chosen shape – could only be explained with the aid of myths. In this way the metal caster, who changed the structure of nature, became something closer to a deity than to ordinary mortals. He became the one who communicates with the supernatural. Myths originating from all parts of the world relate that metals come from the other world and that only the metallurgist knows how to get them. He must cross the border between the worlds in order to obtain metal, just as a shaman crosses the border to the other world, and so this becomes the metal caster’s greatest secret, as much as it is the greatest secret of the shaman. After metallurgy was adopted by the Vučedol population, they began to spread out towards the necessary deposits of raw materials and ores in Hungary, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia in the north, as well as to the Adriatic, through Croatia and Bosnia to Albania, and through western Serbia to the Aegean Sea in eastern Greece. They reached or crossed through the territories of what today are 13 European countries.