Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.52064/vamz.54.1.18
Archaeological traces of Ancient Hungarians in Slovenian territory – small finds from various findspot contexts
Špela Karo
orcid.org/0000-0002-6530-9135
Sažetak
Only a few artefacts that can be related to the presence of ancient
Hungarians in the territory of present-day Slovenia have
been discovered so far. These finds encompass items of equestrian
equipment, as well as weapons, and a single item of attire
set or jewellery: iron stirrups of various forms, parts of belt sets
and straps, a chain with heart-shaped pendants, arrowheads and
possibly the remains of an arrow quiver. They originate from various
types of findspot: hilltop sites, settlements, cemeteries and
a river. The prevailing type, however, is hilltops (Gradišče above
Trebenče, Ljubična above Zbelovska Gora, Gradišče above Bašelj,
Veliki Gradec near Drežnica, and Zidani Gaber above Mihovo). In
the majority of cases the finds were discovered with metal detectors
and therefore come without precise location data or stratigraphic
contexts. Iron stirrups discovered at Tabor, above Tomaj,
and in the Ljubljanica river, as well as a belt buckle from Zgornji
Breg, in Ptuj, are also chance finds. In rare cases, finds of ancient-
Hungarian character have been discovered in systematically-investigated
sites, such as Ajdna above Potoki, Tonovcov Grad near
Kobarid, and Pristava in Bled. Arrowheads from debris or charred layers in these settlements likely testify to ancient-Hungarian invaders.
Ancient-Hungarian burials in Slovenian territory have not
been unambiguously confirmed yet. Only two graves of the Ptuj
Castle cemetery have been purportedly ascribed to them.
The artefacts collected from Slovenian sites have been studied
predominantly from the typological perspective and dated on
the basis of comparable sites and artefacts from neighbouring
regions, especially from graves in the Carpathian Basin. Their
presence at Slovenian sites can be explained by frequent incursions
of ancient Hungarians to the West between the end of the
9th century and the middle of the 10th, which also crossed the
territory of present-day Slovenia and are reported in historical
sources. However, we cannot exclude the possibility that some
of these items came to the findspots as a consequence of more
peaceful contacts with ancient Hungarians whose area of settlement
was not too far away.
Ključne riječi
archaeology, Early Middle Ages, ancient Hungarians, Slovenia, archaeological sites, small finds
Hrčak ID:
266429
URI
Datum izdavanja:
6.12.2021.
Posjeta: 1.047 *