Rudnik (mountain)

Rudnik
A detail on Rudnik mountain
Highest point
Elevation	1,132 m (3,714 ft)
Coordinates	44°07′53″N 20°32′25″E / 44.13139°N 20.54028°E / 44.13139; 20.54028Coordinates: 44°07′53″N 20°32′25″E / 44.13139°N 20.54028°E / 44.13139; 20.54028
Geography
Rudnik Serbia
Location	Central Serbia

Rudnik (Serbian Cyrillic: Рудник, pronounced [rûːdniːk]) is a mountain in central Serbia, near the town of Gornji Milanovac. Its highest peak Cvijićev vrh, named after geologist and biologist Jovan Cvijić, has an elevation of 1,132 meters above sea level. It has several other peaks over 1000 m: Srednji Šturac, Mali Šturac, Molitve, Paljevine and Marijanac. The name translates literally to mine, as the mountain is rich in mining resources.

The archaeological site of Belovode on the Rudnik mountain in Serbia contains the world's oldest securely dated evidence of copper smelting at high temperature, from 5,000 BCE.

A thousand years later, a farming population (I haplogroup) from the Taurus Mountains arrived to this location. The first outpost in Europe was in the 6004-5960 B.C. in the pass between the Danube and the Carpathians; before, the dominant haplogroup in Europe was the G, now in Georgia, mainly with R1b together.

Before the arrival of the Romans, the area was inhabited by the Illyrians, followed by the Celts. The first Serbian dinar with Cyrillic inscription, the dinar of Stefan Dragutin of Serbia, was minted at Rudnik. The Saxons and the people of Dubrovnik had colonies in this region in the 14th century. After 1441, Runik gained special importance when the Ottoman Empire conquered Novo Brdo. Đurađ Branković, the revered Serbian despot, had a mint and summer villa here. The rich mineral resources of the mountain (silver, lead and copper) were an important source of wealth to the Serbian rulers. Besides mining, Rudnik was a settlement with developed handicrafts and a thriving trading post with a cosmopolitan population that influenced the whole of Serbia.