Bozic

ARHEOLOŠKI VESTNIK

ARHEOLOŠKI VESTNIK 56, 2005

Dragan BOŽIč:

Die spätrömischen Hortfunde von der Gora oberhalb von Polhov Gradec
(The late Roman hoards from the Gora above Polhov Gradec)

Abstract

In the late Roman hill-top fortification on the Gora above Polhov Gradec to the west of Ljubljana three hoards were discovered in the years 1868, 1883 and 1935, composed of objects datable to the second half of the 4th or the beginning of the 5th centuries AD.

The first hoard contained seven bronze bells, two iron saw blades and five iron axes.

Apart from an iron steelyard, an iron hoe and some leather ropes, the second hoard contained mainly bronze objects: three bells, a hollow cylinder, a balance with a set of weights and at least seven bronze vessels.

The third hoard was composed of iron objects: three tyres, seventeen small rings, probably nave hoops and linings, a steelyard lacking its weight, two four-tined hoes, four hoes, two chains, a ploughshare, four ingots, a tripod, about fifty strong pins, and probably also a gridiron and a bill-hook.

The majority of the bells from the first hoard and almost all the objects from the second are kept in the National Museum of Slovenia in Ljubljana, while five finds from the third one (a steelyard, a four-tined hoe, a hoe, a tripod and a pin) make part of the museum collection at Polhov Gradec.

The history of research and the reconstruction of three hoards from the Gora are followed by an exhaustive typological and chronological analysis of the finds, represented in these hoards. In addition, a late Roman hoard of agricultural tools is presented, which was discovered in 1886 under the hill-top fortification on the Kincelj hill above Trbinc in the Mirna valley and which contained two four-tined hoes and four hoes.

In connection with the study of the Roman kitchen equipment an iron tripod and a gridiron are published, discovered in 1888 at Gorica near Drnovo in a chamber built of stone together with glass vessels, jewelry, a 66,5 cm high red urn and a coin of the emperor Probus.

Two chapters are devoted to the dating of the hoards from the Gora and their comparison with the other late Roman ironwork hoards from Slovenia. Although three hoards (the second one from the Gora, the one from Tinje above Loka pri Žusmu and the first one from the Ljubična above Zbelovska Gora) have been dated by other authors rather late, to the 6th or even 7th century, the analysis of the finds has shown that all hoards from Slovenia probably pre-date the middle of the 5th century.

Keywords: Slovenia, Gora above Polhov Gradec, late Roman period, hill-top fortifications, hoards, woodworking tools, agricultural tools, carts, kitchen equipment, ingots, metal vessels, bells, steelyards, balances, weights

Full text (pdf)