The stone mound (tumulus) of Milovići (Milojev vrh) is situated 600 m from the nearby Gradina prehistoric hillfort. It is likely that it was the burial site for the élite of the fortified settlement.
The remains of five graves were excavated at Milovići in 2019 and 2020, each one including one or more inhumated individuals; one of these was dated to the Early Bronze Age (2100-1700 BC). There were probably two more graves that were destroyed in more recent times. Most graves are “boxes” made of large stone slabs, accurately shaped and fixed in place with drywall of roughly shaped blocks built around the box. Some graves were also covered with large stone slabs. Some other graves were built by drystone walls rather than stone slabs. All the graves share the same orientation along northeast-southwest). Jewellery including amber beads, fragments of spiral bronze necklaces and rings were also recovered in the graves, along with the skeletal remains of the deceased (young and middle-aged adults and children aged 5 to 14). In grave 4, multiple individuals were laid on a layer of pebbles covering the bottom of the grave, together with the richest jewellery. The deceased buried in the stone mounds probably played an important role in the Bronze Age communities of Istria, i.e. they represented the élite of that prehistoric society. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that the mounds are located in strategic positions, on hilltops that represented prominent points in the landscape.
Early Neolithic Cardium (impresso ware) pottery fragments were recovered from beneath the tumuli, mostly in cracks and fissures in the bedrock, confirming that the location had been used since early as the 6th millennium BC, although the original function of the site remains unknown due to lack of evidence.
