Situated at significant global crossroads, the Vojvodina region has undergone multiple changes in both its population and rulers over the centuries. The area where Novi Bečej stands today belonged to ancient Dacia. Dacians resisted Roman attacks for a long time until Trajan (101-107 AD) succeeded in turning their land into the Roman province of Dacia. Given that the region of Novi Bečej has always been suitable for connecting the left and right banks of the Tisza River, it is likely that Bečej existed as a town or province, perhaps under a different name, even during the rule of the Roman emperors.
This is confirmed by the remains of the Novi Bečej fortress, whose foundations were built on the remains of a former Roman fortification. Evidence of a settlement or Roman military camp near the Tisza River in the Novi Bečej area during Roman times is supported by vaulted brick tunnels discovered during the excavation of the foundations for the construction of the Workers' Home in 1975, and later during the excavation for the Tiski cvet hotel, as well as in the foundations of the new Health Center. The assumption is that the same tunnel extending from the Health Center to the Tiski cvet hotel indicates the need for archaeologists to explore a portion of it in the area of Liberation Square, which is devoid of buildings. Roman traces near Novi Bečej were also found over the railway track at Garevac hill, where the Ceramic Industry Polet is now located.
During the excavation of clay exploitation terrain, human skeletons, Roman coins, and various other items, including a military helmet, were found. These items were not professionally excavated or preserved later, except that the late Vranjevac Catholic parish priest, Mr. Švarc, managed to collect and preserve some through workers. If nothing else is done, it would be worthwhile to examine where these items collected by Mr. Švarc are located, so that experts can provide all the necessary assessments. The Goths flooded Dacia-Riparia around 268 AD. The Banat region, or more precisely the Torontal Plain, became a battlefield for Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Gepids, and Vandals, who alternated in devastating these areas. In 376 AD, the Huns appeared, quickly seizing control of all of Dacia. After the fall of the Hunnic Empire in 425 AD, the Lombards scattered throughout these regions.
They withdrew to the inner regions of Pannonia. After the Huns, the Gepids lived in these regions. They were conquered by the Avars in 565 AD, seeking to make these regions their permanent settlement. For this purpose, they created strong defense lines, building the famous Avar ramparts (incorrectly still called Roman ramparts today). Parts of these can be seen, until recently, near Novi Bečej, on the other side of the Tisza, near Bačko Gradište. The Avars ruled these regions for two hundred years. Their rule was interrupted by Charlemagne in 803 AD. During the Avar rule in the mid-sixth century, the Slavs arrived, spreading across the Danube. After the migration of the South Slavs to the Balkan Peninsula, a smaller part of them remained in these regions. Many traces of them as Severins exist from the seventh and eighth centuries.
Today, in the language of the Serbs in Banat, there are elements based on which it can be noticed that part of the toponyms mentioned in Hungarian sources (before the Serbs began to migrate here from areas south of the Danube and Sava) belongs to the Slovenian linguistic area - Ekavian dialect. Upon arriving in the Pannonian Basin in 896 AD, the Hungarians found Hunic-Avar remains and Slovenes as an autochthonous element in Southern Hungary. The Slovenes were numerically stronger than the newly arrived Hungarians. They lived along the rivers Moriš and Tisza and between the Danube and Tisza. They had an organized society within some kind of cooperatives. The alliance of such families constituted a tribe, and the area in which they lived was called a župa. The arrival of the Hungarians to these regions did not change the Slovenian organization; rather, King Stephen I established administrative units similar to those of the Slovenes. During the reign of Kings Béla II and Béla IV in the thirteenth century, planned settlement of Hungarians and Cumans in the Banat region was carried out.
