Original scientific paper
A Typological Analysis of Selected Prehistoric Pottery Fragments from Pećina Ispod Sela Srbani
Maja Čuka
orcid.org/0000-0002-5132-5193
; Archaeological Museum of Istria, Pula, Croatia
Abstract
Located on the northern slopes of the Mirna River
Valley is a cave that with its rich archaeological finds
attracted the attention of one of the pioneers of modern
Istrian archaeology, Boris Baćić, who in 1974 and 1975
conducted a series of excavations there. During the
exploration of the cave he collected a rather large amount
of prehistoric pottery, and the typological analysis of
some of these selected fragments forms the backbone
of this work. We endeavored to establish a more precise
stratigraphy of the cave with the help of different analogies,
because the majority of the layers were disturbed. The
discovered pottery fragments represent irrefutable proof
that life in the cave flowed continuously in the periods of
the Eneolithic and Bronze Age, whereas in the subsequent
Roman and medieval periods the cave was used only as
a temporary refuge. The most important finds that were
unearthed belong to the Ljubljana culture that is on the
territory of Istria represented by a very small number
of fragments, which in turn means that these that were
discovered in Pećina ispod sela Srbani greatly contribute
to a better understanding of the Ljubljana culture in the
Istrian region. The great amount of Bronze Age finds,
on the other hand, bear witness that alongside Bronze
Age hillforts, caves too were used as settlements on the
Istrian Peninsula. By further exploration of this important
site we would obtain a more precise stratigraphy, and
we would finally be in a position to verify whether its
beginnings really start in the Eneolithic period, or, if
there are still older finds that the cave hides amongst its
layers.
Keywords
cave; stratigraphy; typology; pottery sherds; Eneolithic; the Ljubljana culture; the Bronze Age; the Iron Age
Hrčak ID:
63403
URI
Publication date:
19.11.2010.
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