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Trial Excavations at the Blaževo pole 6 site in Torčec near Koprivnica
Tajana Sekelj Ivančan
Abstract
The Blaževo pole 6 archaeological site represents a micro-region of a broader area, extending to the south of the village of Torčec in the Drnje Municipality, north of Koprivnica (County of Koprivnica - Križevci), (Appendix 1). In trial excavations, conducted in 2004 by the Institute for Archaeology from Zagreb, the existence of medieval cultural layers was determined.
In finds collected from the excavated area, as well as in the fillings of facilities, we noted on the one hand the prevalence of early medieval pottery decorated with comb-like wavy lines and horizontally scratched comb-like patterns, while the surface of the inner side was subsequently smoothed by hand. This suggests that the pottery was produced on a slowly revolving wheel, and the inner sides were given their finishing touches manually. The second, much smaller group of collected fragments is composed of fragments of more recent pottery with thin sides and with partly glazed surfaces, mostly coated with greenish glaze. The third, also smaller group of collected ceramic fragments is composed of prehistoric pieces with straight and smoothed sides, without marked margins or characteristic decorations, which could preliminarily be dated to the Bronze Age, or the La Téne period. The pottery probably came here from the nearby southern part of Blaæevo pole, where the concentration of prehistoric pottery is larger.
All registered and excavated pit and fillings larger in size probably represent the remains of the bottoms of medieval above-ground dwelling facilities (SU 004/005, SU 006/007, SU 026/027, SU 028/029, SU 032/033). Future excavations shall hopefully clarify the relationship between the finds of hole remains of several differently arranged wooden pillars (SU 008/009, SU 010/011, SU 012/013, SU 014/015, SU 016/017, SU 018/019, SU 020/021, SU 022/023, SU 024/025, SU 030/031, SU 034/035) (Appendix 2), which suggest that the buildings were partly or entirely constructed of wood, and numerous early medieval pottery finds. In one filling a large collection of burned daub and soot was unearthed, suggesting that it might be a part of the hearth of the building (Fig. 1). The analysis conducted applying the method of radioactive carbon-dating (C14) on a sample of carbon collected in a supposed hearth in the facility SU 004/005 did not bring about the expected result, since the sample was probably contaminated, so that probably only future typological-chronological analysis of pottery will provide a more complete picture of the site.
Keywords
Blaževo pole 6; settlement; early medieval pottery
Hrčak ID:
654
URI
Publication date:
23.3.2005.
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