Pločnik is a village in the municipality of Prokuplje

Prokuplje

Prokuplje is a town and municipality located in Serbia at 43.24° North, 21.59° East. According to 2011 census, the town has a total population of 27,163 inhabitants, while population of municipality is 43,631. It is the administrative center of the Toplica District of Serbia. It is one of the...

, Toplica District, Republic of Serbia. According to the 2002 population census, it's populated by 182, all of whom declared Serbs

Serbs

The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...

.

It was the seat of the historical notable 1386 Battle of Pločnik

Battle of Plocnik

The Battle of Pločnik was fought in 1386 , at the village of Pločnik, near Prokuplje in today's southeastern Serbia, between the Serbian forces of prince Lazar Hrebeljanović and the invading Ottoman Turks of sultan Murad I.It was the second clash between the Ottomans and forces commanded by Lazar,...

. Ottoman Sultan Murad I

Murad I

Murad I was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1361 to 1389...

 led a sizable Turkish Army in an invasion of Serbia. Moravian Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović led the Serbian Army to intercept him. The Ottoman army suffered a defeat. However though beaten, the Turkish forces were still strong enough to conquer Niš

Niš

Niš is the largest city of southern Serbia and third-largest city in Serbia . According to the data from 2011, the city of Niš has a population of 177,972 inhabitants, while the city municipality has a population of 257,867. The city covers an area of about 597 km2, including the urban area,...

 from the Prince on their return.

Not long ago, an important European-archaeology excavation site

Pločnik (archaeological site)

Pločnik is an archaeological site in the village of the same name in Toplica District, Serbia. A 120 hectare settlement belonging to the Neolithic Vinča culture existed on the site from 5500 BCE until it was destroyed by fire in 4700 BCE....

 has been founded in Pločnik. At this site, and in Belovode, archaeologists have found the earliest current evidence of copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

 smelting

Smelting

Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a metal from its ore. This includes iron extraction from iron ore, and copper extraction and other base metals from their ores...

, dating from between 5500 BCE and 5000 BCE. This shows that the Copper Age

Copper Age

The Chalcolithic |stone]]") period or Copper Age, also known as the Eneolithic/Æneolithic , is a phase of the Bronze Age in which the addition of tin to copper to form bronze during smelting remained yet unknown by the metallurgists of the times...

started 500 years earlier than previously thought, and probably somewhere near this region.