Ostalo
Archaeological Excavations of St. Martin’s Church in Prozorje in 2008
Juraj Belaj
orcid.org/0000-0001-8953-3820
; Institut za arheologiju, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Filomena Sirovica
orcid.org/0000-0001-6662-8915
Sažetak
In the fall of 2008, the seventh stage of archaeological rescue excavations of St. Martin’s Church in Prozorje near Dugo Selo (Martin-Breg) was conducted. The sanctuary of the church was excavated down to sterile soil, and for the purpose of drainage the area around the sanctuary was dug out, as well as the laterally joined Chapel of St. Barbara. The site’s stratigraphy is rather complex due to numerous and long-lasting burials in and around the church. The remains of architecture demonstrate similar complexity due to numerous reconstructions. A new understanding of the cemetery and the structures found on the site was gained. In 2008, a total of 95 graves and 448 stratigraphic units were excavated. According to their stratigraphic relations, the excavated graves were assigned relative chronological relations. The graves excavated in 2008 in the central eastern part of the sanctuary, in the area where there was a massive altar base, are older than most other graves excavated in the sanctuary before. This is due to the fact that the altar base prevented burials in the latest periods. It is interesting that a rather large number of graves were cross-cut when the Gothic apse was constructed. The full extent of the Romanesque apse is still not known with complete certainty – the situation is extremely complex due to numerous reconstructions – but the finds seem to confirm the assumption of a slightly different orientation for the first (probably Romanesque) church, which is visible near the end of the northern foundations of the sanctuary. It seems therefore that the eastern foundations of the sanctuary have two construction stages: an older stage, of which maybe only the northernmost part of the presently preserved foundations remain, and a younger stage, to which the southern and the central parts of the foundations belong. The area east of the sanctuary of the church was excavated as well, from the southern to the northern sacristy, along with the drainage trench east of the supporting masonry. In this area, 51 graves were excavated. At the bottom of the burials of some excavated graves, grey-blue imprints were identified, made by a coffin or planks upon which skeletons were laid; at times they were obvious, and at times they were preserved only as in the barest contours. The age of the north-eastern support was confirmed as younger than the oldest burial level. The newly opened trench also contained older supportive masonry around the plateau on which the church is situated. In the 2008 campaign, six graves were excavated in the northern sacristy, of which one is younger than the sacristy, and all other graves are cross-cut by digs for its foundations. In St. Barbara’s Chapel, ten graves and several layers were excavated. The burning horizon deserves particular attention: a layer of red, burned, mostly friable soil, containing many nails (from the wooden roof structure?) and numerous fragments of stove tiles. The appearance of these ceramic stove tile fragments without glaze indicates that in this layer, probably in the fifteenth century, a structure connected to the church – perhaps the domus of Ivanec – was destroyed by fire. It is important to point out that the foundations of the structure found within the Chapel of St. Barbara do not belong to this burned structure, since it was ascertained that they are younger than the fire: these foundations cross through grave 149, which was already sunken in said layers of burned soil and charcoal. During the excavations, some interesting small finds were collected as well. Some were found in graves, i.e. in their fill, others in the layers. Worth mentioning are the finds of rings, S-loop, belt buckles, probably traces of headgear and a walking stick, fragments of lithics and two iron arrow points. Several coin specimens were found as well. Some of them are shabby to such an extent that they were entirely illegible before cleansing, but among the better preserved specimens, the most outstanding are a silver denarius of King Sigismund and particularly the wellpreserved copper coin of Constantine II, melted as he was still a Caesar, between 330 and 337, and found near the scull of the skeleton in grave 177.
Ključne riječi
St. Martin’s Church; sacral architecture; Middle Ages; modern age; Prozorje; Dugo Selo
Hrčak ID:
50397
URI
Datum izdavanja:
21.12.2009.
Posjeta: 2.358 *