Elementary iron is relatively rare in nature and is of native and meteoric origin. The metal is obtained from high-quality iron minerals, deposits of which are widely distributed throughout the world, very often even on the surface. Iron was therefore already available to the majority of cultures in archaeological periods, in contrast to coloured metals, deposits of which were often distant and their supply strictly controlled in the Bronze Age. However, the route to the discovery of usable iron was longer and, technologically, incomparably more demanding than obtaining copper and making alloys. Because of its favourable geographic location between the ore-bearing Alps and the northern Adriatic and the abundance of local surface ore, Slovenia was among the first regions in Europe to be familiar with iron. There is evidence of contacts between the local population and prospectors and metallurgists from the eastern Mediterranean and participation in the copper trade dating back to between the 12th and 10th centuries BC. It can be concluded on this basis that they were acquainted relatively early with the demanding process of slagging sulphide types of copper, which was used three centuries later in the 7th century BC with advantage also in the technologically demanding production of iron and the manufacture of usable iron products.
COBISS.SI-ID: 35006765
Typical of an as yet unidentified group of daggers with a semicircular pommel are distinctive brass rivets with heads decorated with a raised edge and a small raised circle in the center. Such rivets, together with brass suspension loops, are also characteristic of the associated sheaths constructed of metal shells (Scott Type A). The largest number of these daggers and sheaths come from the fortress of Dangstetten, therefore we suggest they be called after this site. The described daggers and sheaths come from sites and contexts that indicate a dating from the end of the early or the beginning of the middle Augustan Period to the end of the Augustan Period. Two daggers of the Dangstetten type are known from Slovenia, both of them form the River Ljubljanica.
COBISS.SI-ID: 35010605
Roman coins from the fortifications of the Claustra Alpium Iuliarum defence system were collected and analysed. Fluctuations in the intensity of monetary circulation were identified and interpreted. Coin finds from archaeological contexts that can be associated to building activities on defensive structures are also presented. An overview of the latest coins from individual fortresses is also included. The numismatic evidence indicates that the building activities at the Castra (Ajdovščina) fort walls started in the 80-ies of the 3rd centuy. The 3rd and 4th century coins from Ad Pirum (Hrušica) show a similar picture as the coins from Castra, bur for Ad pirum there is a less reliable numismatic evidence regarding the question when its fort walls were built (perhaps at the beginning of the 4th century). Rare finds of coins in the towers southeast and southwest of Hrušica show they were built in the middle of the fourth century. The fortlets Lanišče and Martinj hrib show an increased coin flow in the second half of the 4th century and especially in the period of reign of the emperor Valentinian (364-375); both fortlets were destroyed in 388 or shortly afterwards and were no longer renewed. In the fort Ad Pirum the regular influx of money ended at the end of the 4th or at the beginning of the 5th century, while in the fort of Castra coins of the first three decades of the 5th century are present.
COBISS.SI-ID: 34950701
Dynamics of different types of hoarding as well as hoards' distribution during the Bronze Age in the area between Po and Danube rivers is presented (372 hoards were considered). Characteristics of hoards' composition and their distribution attest several conclusions: 1. Composition of hoards is regionally conditioned, especially during Early and Middle Bronze Age. Hoards with axes are mostly limited to the south of the Alps, hoards with torcs are exclusively an Austrian Danube phenomenon, and mixed hoards with weapons and attire seem to be an almost exclusively Pannonian phenomenon. 2. To the contrary, big hoards of mixed composition in the earlier Urnfield Culture (UC) are much more evenly spread across the area under consideration and they are also much more numerous. In later UC individual hoard regions reappear. They are additionally characterized through important settlement centres with many hoards (ex. Frattesina in northern Italy, Saghegy and Velem-St. Vid in western Hungary). 3. Appearance of hoards in contemporaneous settlements attests that from the Early and Middle Bronze Age until earlier UC their share in settlements lessens (from 15% to 7%), and it rises again in later UC (20%). It is true that this information is heavily conditioned due to poor discovery data of great majority of Bronze Age hoards, but nevertheless it seems to suggest that complex Pannonian settlements of the Middle Bronze Age Koszider horizon, as well as the mentioned settlement centres of the later UC attest greater affinity to hoarding.
COBISS.SI-ID: 8340064
Glass beads from graves excavated in Slovenia and dated archaeologically to the 7th- 10th century AD were analyzed by the combined PIXE-PIGE method. The results indicate two groups of glass: natron glass made in the Roman tradition and glass made from the alkalis of halophytic plants that gradually replaced natron glass after 800 AD. The alkalis used in the second group of glass seem to be in close relation to a variant of the Venetian white glass that appeared several centuries later. The origin of this glass may be traced to glass production in Mesopotamia and around Aral Sea. Mosaic beads with eye decoration, as well as most of the drawn segmented and drawn-cut beads analyzed are of plant-ash glass, which confirms their supposed oriental origin suggested by stylistic analysis in the heart of the Arab caliphate. The results have important implications for dating archaeologically established cultural groups. In eastern Slovenia, cemeteries contained several glass beads made of plant-ash glass, which in central and western Europe did not occur before the beginning of the 9th century - in agreement with the archaeological dating of the graves to the end of the 8th and to the 9th century. The cemeteries in central Slovenia graves were traditionally 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 plant-ash beads in these graves strongly supports the later dating.
COBISS.SI-ID: 25673511