Other
Continued archaeological investigations at the positions of Volarski Breg and Sušine near Virje in 2012
Tajana Sekelj Ivančan
orcid.org/0000-0001-5992-8434
; Institute of Archaeology, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
In spring 2012 rescue archaeological excavations were resumed at the site of a smelting workshop at Volarski breg in Virje, discovered in 2010. The western part of the excavation trench was the area where the refuse from the workshop was deposited, while the eastern part yielded (refuse) pits similar to those discovered in 2008.
When the owner of a meadow at the nearby site of Sušine recently ploughed there, abundant remains of daub and smelting slag came to the surface. This prompted a salvage archaeological excavation at that part of the ploughing field. The finds discovered there corroborate the existence of the remains of a smelting workshop also at that lowland site north of Virje. Other small pits with the remains of iron lumps were discovered there, too, probably belonging to the (deposited) iron ore in the natural plain of the Drava river.
Taking into consideration the stratification of the highest elevation of Volarski breg and the distance of the position of the smelting workshop at Sušine, it is possible that the time of operation of the newly-discovered smelting workshops should be sought in a wider chronological period than the date obtained in the 2008 investigations – a period during which no significant changes in the technology of iron ore smelting took place.
Keywords
Virje; Volarski breg site; Sušine site; salvage archaeological excavation; remains of a smelting workshop
Hrčak ID:
112033
URI
Publication date:
13.12.2013.
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