Gaspari_Bistra

ARHEOLOŠKI VESTNIK

ARHEOLOŠKI VESTNIK 59, 2008

Andrej GASPARI:

Bronze Age pile-dwelling site at Mali Otavnik near Bistra in the Ljubljansko barje

Abstract

Underwater survey of the bed of the Bistra stream on the Ljubljansko barje, in the area of the Mali Otavnik fallow, uncovered remains of a pile-dwelling settlement from the Early Bronze Age. The site revealed a layer of sand with organic detritus that had been deposited around wooden piles and contained remains of ceramic vessels, stone flakes and tools as well as unworked animal bone remains. Particularly noteworthy among the ceramic vessels are fragments of cups and a jug of fine grey pottery decorated with cord impressions as well as more numerously represented coarse belly-shaped vessels with funnel necks. The settlement is situated on the westernmost edge of the distribution area of the Litzen pottery and supplements the fragmentary knowledge of the final phase of the pile-dwelling sites on the Ljubljansko barje. It is dated, through radiocarbon analysis, between the end of 21st and beginning of the 18th century BC. Also surveyed was the deeper lying part of the stream bed parallel to the remains of the pile-dwelling site. It revealed pottery comparable to that around the piles, but also an axe made of red deer antler, a harpoon of caprine horn and some fragments of vessels with analogies in the settlement and burial contexts from the area between central Slovenia, the Kras, Istria and Lika. These finds may represent traces of a later settlement phase from the final part of the Early Bronze Age or from the Middle Bronze Age.

Keywords: Slovenia, Ljubljansko barje, Bistra, Bronze Age, Litzen pottery, pile-dwelling site

Full text (pdf)