This paper provides a detailed study of five Late Bronze and Early Iron Age cremation graves discovered in 2020 in the Matavun near Skocjan, in the Karst. This discovery is significant not only because of its proximity to an established burial site, but also due to modern research and associated interdisciplinary analyses.The graves have been dated to between the 11th and 9th/8th centuries BC through a typological and chronological analysis of the ceramic and metal artefacts, as well as radiocarbon dating. The deliberately damaged artefacts provide insight into the funerary ritual. The cremated skeletal remains were placed either directly in the burial pits or in an urn. Their low weight suggests that only small parts of the remains were buried. In three of the five graves, the remains of children were also identified. Strontium isotope analysis (Sr-87/Sr-86) indicates that they consumed a local diet. Only the adult from grave 5 shows slight deviation.
This article presents the results of a test excavation at the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age settlement of Gradec above Vratno in the Gorjanci Hills. In a trench measuring 8 & times; 3 metres, more than 7,000 pottery fragments were unearthed. The excavation revealed two construction phases. In the first phase (the first two-thirds of the 9th century BC), the settlement was unfortified, and most pottery fragments date from this period. Most likely in the final third of the 9th century BC, the settlement was fortified with a 1.5-metre-wide stone wall. The radiocarbon analysis suggests that the fortified settlement remained inhabited for at least another decade or two, but was abandoned shortly after 800 BC. The absence of iron finds and iron slag indicates that the site was deserted before the beginning of the Iron Age.
The article discusses the stray find of a Celtic sword in the Ljubljansko barje. The sword was found by chance in 1989, in a layer of peat while excavating a ditch on the marshland northeast of I & scaron;ka Loka, a few hundred meters north of a complex of Copper Age pile-dwelling settlements. It has a rapier-like blade stamped with a fairly realistic depiction of a male head in profile, oriented toward the bearer, reminiscent of the representations on roughly contemporary Celtic silver coins. Given the specific and rare shape of the high campanulate guard and the presence of the stamp, the sword most likely dates to the final part of the Middle La T & egrave;ne period (LT C2), i.e. the middle or beginning of the second half of the 2nd century BC. The find indicates the existence of high marshes in the Late Iron Age and complements the known complexes of undamaged weapons found in the riverbed of the Ljubljanica at Blatna Brezovica and Bevke that we associate with ritual practices. The deposition of the sword in this remote marshy environment may, albeit with reservation, be linked to the knowledge of an ancient settlement existing nearby.
The paper examines the formation of the Bronze Age cultural landscape in the Karst region. We introduce new data on the long-term history of the Karst landscape by combining two complementary sources. First, we analyse data from sediment infills in dolines, which provide a diachronic view of past landscape development, and confront these with data from airborne laser scanning. The focus is on the transformation episode in the second and third millennia BCE, when extensive clearing and the formation of a cultural landscape centred on livestock herding took place. The next major transformation occurred only in the last millennium, particularly after 1500 CE.
The paper presents an early Christian marble funerary plaque discovered in 2022 in the streambed of the Ozeljan & scaron;& ccaron;ek near & Scaron;mihel. The fragment preserves part of a Latin inscription and a relief depicting an orans accompanied by Christian symbols such as the Chi Rho and birds. The inscription records a woman 'buried on the fourth day before the September Nones' (i. e. 2nd September). Stylistic and iconographic features link the plaque to early Christian workshops of Aquileia, active in the 4th-5th century. The find represents the earliest securely attested Christian funerary monument from the region of & Scaron;mihel and suggests a nearby late Roman rural settlement with its own cemetery. Comparative material from Solkan, Kosoveli and Sv. Pavel above Vrtovin indicates a broader Christian presence in the northern Vipava Valley during the late 4th and the early 5th century.
