Ostalo
Archaeological Excavations of the Church of St. John the Baptist in Ivanec in 2007
Juraj Belaj
orcid.org/0000-0001-8953-3820
; Institut za arheologiju, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
During autumn 2007 the Institute of Archaeology conducted the sixth phase of archaeological-conservatory explorations on the Stari grad site in Ivanec. Similarly to previous campaigns, this year also we explored the area of the sanctuary of the medieval church of St. John the Baptist and its immediate surroundings, the area south of the sanctuary and the sacristy leaning onto the church on the northern side (Figs. 1, 2). The plan of explorations on this site in the years to come, drawn up by the Town of Ivanec and the Institute of Archaeology, calls for exploration in phases, conservation, and finally the presentation of the most interesting discovered architecture in the centre of Ivanec. This year the said area has been explored all the way to sterile soil so that we gained a comprehensive chronological picture of the site during the Middle Ages.
23 graves were explored in the sanctuary, two of which were partly explored in 2004. Ten more graves were explored in the sacristy, as well as two ossuaries, while south of the sanctuary the exploration included three graves, one of which was largely explored in 2006.
All the deceased in the explored graves were laid on the back, oriented in the east – west direction (with the head facing west), which corresponds to the orientation of the church itself. The majority of graves explored this year were dug into sterile soil. A large number of graves were damaged by more recent graves, which on the other hand enables us to establish the relationships between individual graves.
On the basis of obtained results, a rough sketch of the development of the site in the Middle Ages could be drawn as follows:
Settlement. Except pottery, the existence of a settlement on this location is indicated by the remains of daub and a fragment of a whorl. The clearest trace of the settlement is the black cultural layer. It must be noted that on many places below the black layer there was a similar brown layer, but with far fewer findings. For a precise dating we must wait for the C-14 analyses. It may be that the remains of pillars and beams found on the site originate from the buildings of this presumed settlement (whose duration is as yet undetermined).
Row Cemetery. It is verifiably younger than the settlement, because some of the burials visibly cut through the black cultural layer. It seems that the oldest graves were lined with large pebbles (dug out from sterile soil). Objects characteristic of the Bijelo Brdo culture were found in some of the graves belonging to this horizon.
Church of St. John the Baptist with a square sanctuary with buttresses on eastern corners. The dating of the nave of the church is not yet reliably established, because the junction of the sanctuary and the nave has not yet been explored in detail. This is planned for the year 2008.
The sanctuary is definitely younger than the cemetery in rows, the proof being this year's finding of graves that were cut through by the foundations of the sanctuary's western wall, below the triumphal arch. The existence of these foundations, as well as the massive nature of all the foundations for the sanctuary walls (contrary to the span of the sanctuary and also the thickness of the foundations of the nave walls) point to two possibilities: either this was primarily a donjon to which the church nave was later added, or we are dealing with a sort of church-fortress. The continuity of a "holy place" speaks against the hypothesis of the donjon. It also seems that the walls are very well adapted to the cemetery rows, as they have the same, east – west orientation. Only one wall cuts through the older graves (at least this is what was visible after the exploration of the interiors of the sanctuary, Fig. 3). We expect to get more data with the exploration of the junction of the sanctuary and the nave.
Church cemetery (inside and around the church). Burials continued on the same site after the church was built, and went on almost until the end of its existence (17th century). The more recent graves are usually more shallow. Among the collected finds the majority are fragments of pottery, metal objects and pieces of house daub. Fifty-two finds in all were singled out as special. These are mainly fragments of pottery decorated by a wave-like pattern or profiled, followed by metal finds among which there is one bronze ring, bronze buckles, iron stirrups, a fragment of a bell and other. In this group of finds there are several profiled stones and an animal tooth found in the grave, probably in the function of an amulet.
At the end of the exploration the drawings were made of all the discovered sanctuary foundations and the sacristy: ground plans, side views and cross sections (drawings by Nela Kovačević, archaeologist from the company ARHEO PLAN d.o.o.).
This year all the excavated foundations of the sanctuary and the sacristy were consolidated and conserved. After a thorough cleaning, the walls were sealed.
Unexplored layers (south, north and east of the sanctuary) were covered by geotextile and filled with a layer of fine sand.
Ključne riječi
Ivanec; church of St. John the Baptist; Middle Ages; architecture; graves
Hrčak ID:
34056
URI
Datum izdavanja:
19.3.2009.
Posjeta: 2.284 *