Geographical Location
Kumane is situated in the central part of Banat, in the alluvial plain of the Tisa River, at 20° 14’ eastern longitude and 45° 33’ northern latitude. The territory of Kumane borders Novi Bečej to the northwest, the Tisa River to the west, Melenci to the northeast, and Taraš to the east. The village’s name originates from the Cumans, a Turkic people from Asia who reached Hungary in the 11th century.
In terms of elevation, the territory is in the alluvial plain of the Tisa, at an altitude of 78-82 meters above sea level. Moving southward, the elevation decreases, ranging between 76-80 meters in the southern part. The alluvial plain was formed by accumulation and erosion and represents the Tisa’s most recent geological creation. The Tisa has carved its bed into it, but during high water levels, it overflows and floods the surrounding land. Among the accumulative forms, the Tisa has created in the territory of Kumane are river banks, mounds, and limans (marshes).
Around the village, there are marshes, and throughout the alluvial plain, there are remnants of old Tisa riverbeds. These include gullies north of the village and depressions like Ostrvo, Tošan’s Gully, and Baba Mida’s Gully. Ostrvo covers about 100 acres and lacks a drainage channel, so water remains in it throughout the year, and it is overgrown with reeds. Tošan’s Gully covers around 50 acres and is also overgrown with reeds, as well as bulrushes and sedges.
There are more depressions, covering significant areas. The largest is Trifunagić’s Depression, which covers about 150 acres, followed by Karlica (100 acres), Aranga (80 acres), Sinatrova (60 acres), Kapamadžija’s (60 acres), Mutljača (60 acres), and Prokina’s Gully (20 acres).
All the depressions fill with water in spring due to snowmelt, and the water remains until July. They are covered with marsh vegetation. All the depressions are connected by a network of canals, so in the spring, when the water level is highest and threatens surrounding arable land, the excess water can be drained. The canals are evenly distributed in the territory, with a total length of 115 kilometers. Two pump stations have been built to move water from the canals into the Tisa River.
The Kumane territory covers 17,666 acres and contains various soil types. Degraded chernozem (57%), river black soil (around 23%), and saline soil (about 20%) are predominant. The degraded chernozem is associated with the coastal strip of the former Tisa Riverbed, where the water table was quite high, enabling soil degradation. The areas around the village represent the lowest part of the territory, with the water table close to the surface, resulting in soil salinization and the formation of salt flats. Along the Tisa, there is river black soil, which is moist and sticky, and very hard to cultivate during dry periods.
The names of areas in the territory include Veliki rit, Mali rit, Mlake, Parlozi, Široke slatine, Kopova, Blizanca, Petkovača, Vakant, Livade, Selište, Prečka, Borđoš, Vanj, Ketuš, Kornjačara, Podbreg, Jaruge, and Kućine.
Kumane until the Establishment of the Great Kikinda District
The territory of this village was inhabited as early as prehistoric times, evidenced by artifacts discovered in 1883 in the old cemetery. Excavations revealed two parallel cemeteries. Based on the types of objects found in the lower, older graves, it was established that they originated from the Neolithic – New Stone Age, while the upper graves date to the 6th–7th centuries and likely belong to the Avars and Slavs.
Kumane is first mentioned in historical records during Turkish rule, in the well-known Peć Catastich, a list of contributions to the Peć Patriarchate from 1660 and 1661, when it existed as a Serbian community in Banat. The settlement Senkral is also mentioned in the list, which later merged with Kumane.
Due to frequent wars during Turkish rule, Kumane was often burned and devastated. It stretched along the left bank of the Tisa River, which frequently flooded the settlement and fields, taking crops and livestock. The people lived in dugouts, facing difficult economic conditions, battling diseases, and hunger. They engaged minimally in agriculture, despite fertile land, and focused more on livestock breeding, raising cattle and pigs. Due to frequent wars and devastation, the residents had to leave their homes and hide in forests and swamps.
Long wars against the Turks and various diseases, especially the plague, significantly reduced the population of Kumane. This situation was similar throughout Banat. During the Austro-Turkish War, up until 1699, Kumane's population suffered particularly from Turkish raids and the plague. Out of fear of the Turks, the Austrian imperial army, and bandits, people fled to the surrounding marshes and swamps or escaped across the Tisa into Bačka. Some families from Kumane remained in exile for more than three months that year.
After the liberation from the Turks in 1716, the new Tamiš Banat administration invested much effort and resources to increase the population who would cultivate empty fields and pay taxes. The first governor of Banat, Count Claudius Florimund Mercy, carried out a colonization of Germans, Italians, and Spaniards in Banat from 1718 to 1727 for political and economic reasons.
This colonization had no impact on the population growth in Kumane, as no colonists settled there. This is evident from the official census of the Banat population from 1717, which recorded 13 houses in Kumane, part of the Bečkerek district. According to the Banat map from 1723/1725 (created by Mercy’s order), Kumane is marked as a sparsely populated place. The 1727 census of the Timișoara Diocese also records Kumane as sparsely populated. The 1736 census shows that Kumane had 28 tax-paying residents who paid a war tax contribution. During a plague epidemic, 22 residents died, the Turks took 11 into slavery, and 19 people fled. In the next census from 1740, the disaster in Kumane following the war with the Turks and the plague epidemic is evident. It had 26 residents, as 8 died from the plague, and 11 fled across the Tisa. There were only four "tax heads" (taxpayers) and one livestock trader. Residents owned 12 horses, 13 oxen, 7 cows, 10 sheep, 8 pigs, and 15 beehives. The census notes the names of the elder Mihajlo Mikolić and residents: Budnik Krajnov, Nikola Nenin, Miloš Keraz, and Vasa Raškov.
The abolition of the Tisa-Mureș Military Frontier in 1750 was crucial for Kumane, as many Serbian frontier guards settled there afterward. These were mostly poor peasant families, as the officers emigrated to Russia.
"Therefore, they had no leaders or educated people to represent them before the authorities. The most resourceful were merchants and non-commissioned officers, who were more familiar with military matters than with rational agriculture, so they made little use of the land."
Delegates of the settlers, Gavra Novaković, an oberkapetan from Kikinda, and Laza Popović, a viceoberknez from Vranjevo, signed an agreement in Vienna on October 28, 1750, to accept Serbs into the newly established Banat Territorial Militia. Novaković and Popović supervised the militia.
In 1753, Baron Engelshofen, the military governor of Banat, divided the Banat Territorial Militia into six companies. One company included the villages of Kumane, Karlovo, and Vranjevo under Captain Laza Popović, with a total of 587 people. Kumane was the headquarters of the company. The following "military" officers are mentioned: Captain-Lieutenant Marko Milosavljević, whose descendants are known as the Kapetanovi family, sergeant Jovan Nosić, whose descendants are called Nosonjin, and stražmešter Zarije Plačković, whose surname no longer exists in the village.
To advance livestock farming, Engelshofen allocated Kumane the pastures of Senkral and Old Kumane and brought in experts to regulate the Tisa River and marshes. This led to the rapid construction of houses and the village's development. By 1758, Kumane had 142 households.
Life normalized. Alongside agriculture and livestock farming, crafts and trade developed, especially livestock trade, mostly for export to Austria. Greeks and Aromanians, who had migrated from Serbia, primarily engaged in trade. In 1763, Dimo Greco, a livestock trader and member of the Trade Company in Timișoara, traded in Kumane.
The oldest written record preserved by the church in Kumane is the Baptism Register from 1757. In it, the village is recorded as Šanac Kuman, and in the description of the Timișoara Diocese from 1758, it is called Šanac-Kumani. This name has been preserved among the people, although the official name of the village is Kumane.
At that time, Kumane had a church made of sod, plastered and whitewashed, with three windows and two simple doors, with a wooden ceiling painted blue. The church roof was covered with pine shingles, the tower was wooden, and the bell and courtyard were fenced with reeds. Two priests served there, paying a tax to support the school.
There is no information on when the first school was established in Kumane. The 1774 census of schoolchildren shows that Kumane had 353 students: 311 boys and 32 girls. That year, 90 boys and 14 girls completed school. These data clearly indicate that few girls attended school, as they were primarily used for domestic tasks and livestock herding. The school was funded by the local church, school funds, and tuition fees paid by parents. Teacher salaries were low, typically 3 florins per child and some payment in kind, usually grain. The children learned only reading, writing, and religious studies.
The separation of the Banat Territorial Militia in northern Banat from military administration and its inclusion in civilian administration marked a significant turning point in the lives of Kumane’s residents. At that time, the military privileges they had enjoyed were abolished, and the economic and political conditions of life deteriorated. As a result, from 1775 to 1778, 36 families left Kumane and moved to southern Banat, where a military frontier was established along the Danube. New families soon settled in their place from the former Tisa-Mureș Frontier.
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