During two decades of field research in mountain areas, field walks and test excavations revealed about 80 archaeological sites, spanning from the 4th millennium BC to the end of the 1st millennium AD. This contribution presents their chronology and typology in relation to altitude. On the basis of radiocarbon dates, the earliest human activity in mountain areas can be dated to the end of the 4th and the first half of the 3rd millennium BC. Population first peaked in the Middle and Late Bronze Age, especially in the early Urnfield period (13th –11th centuries BC). Sites from the Roman (1st–4th centuries AD), Late Antique (5th–6th centuries), and Early Medieval (7th–10th centuries) periods are relatively common. In the Kamnik-Savinja Alps and the Karavanke regions, the number of sites decreases significantly in the Late Antique period and there is discontinuity between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. In the Julian Alps, however, there was no significant hiatus between the Late Antique and Early Medieval periods.
COBISS.SI-ID: 45761581