The article looks at a group of swords and associated scabbards from the transition of the Late La Tène to the Roman period. Werner (1977) put forward the hypothesis of their Norican origin, while in later publications their production on the territory of the Treveri is also presumed. Our research has shown that parts of all four items from Slovenia, for which the composition of the metals has been determined, are of pure brass. This allows the assumption that they were made in a Roman milieu; their distribution seems to suggest Northern Italy as the area of their production.
COBISS.SI-ID: 32025645
The article examines a gilded bronze portrait statue of a man in a toga, excavated in 1836 in Ljubljana (Roman Emona), and other parts of the monument, found next to it, i.e. a marble base and a marble Corinthian capital. According to the archives, they were discovered in the north-western corner of the construction pit for the Kazina building, i.e. in the area where the northern Emona necropolis began, directly beside the main Roman road. The stylistic features of the statue and the capital suggest it belonged to the first half of the 2nd century. The iron supports, tenons and lead fillings, which survive on the statue and the capital, clearly suggest that the statue was originally attached to the base, which in turn was attached to the capital atop a column shaft. The Roman portrait statues on column monuments from the Principate that we know of to date are exclusively memorials to emperors and are related to their posthumous worship: they marked the site of their cremation, stood as monuments to their apotheosis and could also be grave monuments; in two cases, they also served as memorials of their victories. We assume that the statue from Emona, its base and its capital are parts of a thus-far unique example of a grave column monument with a full-figure statue erected for a person outside the imperial family. There were possibly more such monuments, which either did not survive or survived only in part, so the parts have
COBISS.SI-ID: 36334893
We analysed Roman lead slingshots from the territory of Slovenia. We presented conclusions regarding their shape, method of manufacture and distribution. Our in-depth study of several assemblages from Slovenian sites indicates Roman military activities (engagements, military stores, outposts) during different periods of Roman conquest.
COBISS.SI-ID: 33420077
The method of proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) was applied for the analysis of late 1st century BC swords and associated scabbards with openwork copper-alloy plates from the River Ljubljanica, Strmec above Bela Cerkev, Verdun grave 37 and Verdun grave 131. The results indicate that iron and pure brass were used in the manufacture of these objects.
COBISS.SI-ID: 32025901
Glass beads from graves excavated in Slovenia and dated archaeologically between the 7th and the beginning of the 11th century AD were analysed by the combined PIXE-PIGE method. The results indicate two groups of glass: natron glass made in the Roman tradition (57 beads) and glass made from the alkalis of halophytic plants that gradually replaced natron glass after about 800 AD (40 beads). The new glass production technology developed in the Islamic and/or Byzantine world. The results have important implications for dating archaeologically established cultural groups. The cemeteries in eastern Slovenia contained several glass beads made of halophytic plant-ash, i.e. from glass, which did not occur in central and Western Europe before the beginning of the 9th century. This is well in accordance with the archaeological dating of the graves in eastern Slovenia to the end of the 8th an to the 9th century. The situation regarding the Köttlach cultural group in central Slovenia is different. Beads made of halophytic plant ash originate from several graves assigned to the earliest subgroup of this cultural group, which Slovenian archaeolgists dated to the 7th and 8th century, but are dated later, to the first half of the 9th century by central-European archaeologists. The identification of halophytic plant-ash beads in these grave makes a strong argument in favour of the later dating.
COBISS.SI-ID: 25673511