History of Prokuplje

found in Pločnik in 2007 dating to 5500 BC making the Copper Age several centuries older than previously thought. Those agricultural settlements were replaced by the emerging Thracians and then the invading Celtic Scordisci in 279 BC. Pieces of ceramics found by the Latin church are traces of those tribes movement on their way to Greece.

Between 73-75 B.C., after the Romans subjugated the tribes of the region, this part of Serbia became a part of the Roman province of Moesia. It was part of the Roman „via militaris“ (connecting the central Balkans with the Adriatic) from Niš, the town was known as Hammeum, or Hameo; the first known name of the settlement. At the end of 4th century A.D., when the Roman empire was divided, all settlements in Toplica region belonged to (Byzantine Empire). The name of the place was Komplos or Komblos (village-town). Some historians believed that Komplos was rebuilt by Emperor Justinian.

When South Slavic tribes first settled in this area in the 6th century, Komplos was rendered as the Slavic Prokuplje.

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