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were excavated by R. Battaglia, also of the Trieste Museum, after World War I. Test excavations were carried out in the caves of Roska Spilja and Tominceva Jama by srecko brodar and F. Leben after World War II.
Archaeological evidence from the late Upper Paleolithic to the Bronze Age was documented in the cave sites of Roska Spilja, Tominceva Jama, and Pecina v Sapendolu. The most important late prehistoric settlement is the hill fort of Škocjan, occupied from the late Bronze Age to the Roman period. There are four recorded cemeteries from this period, the largest (containing some 325 graves) being the flat cremation cemetery at Brezec dated to the late Bronze Age (twelfth–eighth centuries b.c.) Some very rich burials from the tenth–eighth centuries b.c., comprising sword graves, the earliest presence of iron from the tenth century, have been discovered in this cemetery.
The large ritual hoard found at the bottom of the vertical cave Musja Jama belongs to the late Bronze Age. Among other things, the hoard contained 244 bronze and 10 iron spearheads, 1iron and 19 bronze swords, and many fragments of bronze helmets and vessels. The objects and ritual offerings were mostly fragmented and destroyed by fire. According to typological analysis, this ritual center functioned between the twelfth and eighth centuries b.c. Analogies for the metal finds can be found in the Pannonian Plain in central italy and on the Balkan peninsula.
The hoard and the Brezec cemetery are evidence of a well-stratified society intensively incorporated in long-distance exchange systems at the time of transition from the late Bronze Age to the early Iron Age. Iron Age graves found in three smaller cemeteries demonstrate a certain decline in comparison with the previous period, but two major exceptions should be mentioned: another ritual hoard (Tesoretto di San Canciano), found in the Škocjan hill fort, and a rich burial with a situla with an inscription in the Venetic language found in Skeletna Jama. Both examples are dated in the fifth century b.c.
See also
References
Ruaro Loseri L., G. Steffe de Piero, and S. Vitri. 1977. La necropoli di Brezec. Monografie di Preistoria no. 1 Trieste.
Szombathy J. “Altertumsfunde aus Hohlen bei St. Kanzian im osterreichischen Kustenlande.” Mittheilungen der Prahistorischen Kommission 2, no. 2: 127–190.
The term Slovenian archaeology in the sense of a national institutional framework can only be fully applied for the period after 1918. In that year parts of the former Austrian provinces of Carniola, Styria, and Carinthia and the region of Prekmurje were united and joined the newly established Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929). Prior to that period, archaeology in Slovenian lands (i.e., Austrian provinces) was part of the Austrian institutional framework organized on the provincial level and governed by central institutions and scholarly societies in Vienna.
The beginnings of studies on ancient history and antiquities in Slovenian lands can be traced to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries a.d. The first such attempts developed in the coastal towns of northern Istria (Koper/Capodistria, Izola/Isola, and Piran/Pirano—Slovenian/Italian names respectively), which were under Venetian rule and predominantly settled by a population that spoke a Romance language. The first known text on local ancient history is De situ urbis Iustinopolitanae [About Ancient Aegida/Koper] by Pier Paolo Vergerio the Elder (1370–1444). Another important early work is a topographic essay entitled Del sito de Listria (The Ships of Listria), published in Venice 1540 and written by the famous cartographer and geographer Pietro Coppo (1469/ 1470–1555/1556).
The establishment of the bishop’s court in Ljubljana in the late fifteenth century gave a strong boost to the development of the Austrian province of Carniola (the central Slovene province) and to Ljubljana, the provincial capital. The central figure in this regard was August Prygl (also known as Tyffernus) (1470–1535), a
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