many villages. History Human activity in the Cem basin has been recorded since the late Copper Age. The tumulus of Rakića Kuće in Tuzi contained nine skeletons and clay figurines with some anthropomorphic attributes. The area of Tuzi remained settled in the Bronze Age. Tumuli and burial artifacts have been found around Dinosha and Lopari in the period that ranges from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic Period. Illyrian tribes lived in the Cem river basin in classical antiquity. The best known in recorded history are the Labeatae and Docleatae. Artefacts from this era have been excavated in Selcë, where a hoard of coins that were minted by king Gentius (181-168 BC) was found. Reports on these findings were first published by the archaeologist Arthur Evans in 1880. During the Roman period, the Cem region served as a route between the urbanized centers of the Roman Balkans in the province of Praevalitana. Water from the river was transported to Doclea to supply local Roman townships from the 1st to the 6th century AD. Some traces of fortifications from this era remain. The 6th century historian Procopius mentions the fort Clementiana which may be connected to modern-day Kelmend. The fort system was created after the Ostrogothic invasion of Dalmatia in the late 5th century, which turned former Praevalitana into a border area of the Eastern Roman Empire. Justinian secured the area in the Gothic War in 535. Avar-Slavic raids and incursions caused the destruction of many post-Roman routes and urban centers. The Slavic state of Duklja emerged in the 11th century in the region and later became part of Raška and the Serbian Empire. The Venetian Republic appeared as the dominant force in the late 14th century. Until the consolidation of Ottoman rule in the 15th century, the Zeta plain and the Cem were a borderland between Venice, the Principality of Zeta and local Albanian tribes (fise) and rulers. The Albanian fis pattern of settlements on the banks of the Cem continued in the Ottoman period and even after the division of the river between Montenegro and Albania in the Balkan Wars. The Ottomans placed the Cem area under the jurisdiction of the Sanjak of Scutari to control the Catholic clans of Malësia. Nevertheless, in practice local communities were semi-autonomous throughout the era. The Selcë Cem and the Vukël Cem formed part of the territory of the Kelmendi tribe. As Cem