Page 13 - Kavur, Boris. Everything counts (in small amounts) … Koper: University of Primorska Press, 2015.
P. 13
The end of the old era 13
The 5th century BC was a period of big changes in the Mediterranean. These changes were caused by po-
litical and economic superpowers of the time. Due to the expansionist politics of Sicilian Syracuse, hav-
ing an ambition to create a maritime empire being able to contest with the Carthaginian in western
Mediterranean, Greek presence intensified in the northern Adriatic. It stimulated trade with Etruscan centers
on eastern Adriatic coast and was included in to preexisting networks of cultural and commercial connections.
These ties linked the costal zones of northern Adriatic with its hinterland – with the Pre-Alpine area.
On the territory of today’s Slovenia this was a period of immense wealth in prehistoric societies, especially those
inhabiting the territory of the Posočje region. Rich due to the deposits of iron ores in the surrounding moun-
tains, they (similarly as communities in Austrian Koroška) maintained trade contacts with the territory of cen-
tral Alps as well as northern Italy. Howewer we can see a simoltanuous slow decline in the importance of former
blooming Iron Age of Dolenjska region. Centers of southern Dolenjska, open towards the Pannonian plain,
lost their former importance and the central role was taken over by communities settled in the west.
Located far away from these events the territory of eastern Slovenia appeared almost deserted - allegedly due to
consequences of Scythian nomadic invasions from the east which affected vast territories of Eastern Europe.
Archaeological finds in Slovakia and Austria indicated traces of military irruptions, sieges of settlements and
their destructions. In Slovenia on the other hand, historians and archaeologists linked this desolation to an epi-
demic, presumably plague, which should have, according to the interpretation of observations in Roman litera-
ture, devastated the landscape. It was assumed that this fatal disease was brought to the territory of Eastern Eu-
rope by the above mentioned nomadic horsemen from the east.
The 5th century BC was a period of big changes in the Mediterranean. These changes were caused by po-
litical and economic superpowers of the time. Due to the expansionist politics of Sicilian Syracuse, hav-
ing an ambition to create a maritime empire being able to contest with the Carthaginian in western
Mediterranean, Greek presence intensified in the northern Adriatic. It stimulated trade with Etruscan centers
on eastern Adriatic coast and was included in to preexisting networks of cultural and commercial connections.
These ties linked the costal zones of northern Adriatic with its hinterland – with the Pre-Alpine area.
On the territory of today’s Slovenia this was a period of immense wealth in prehistoric societies, especially those
inhabiting the territory of the Posočje region. Rich due to the deposits of iron ores in the surrounding moun-
tains, they (similarly as communities in Austrian Koroška) maintained trade contacts with the territory of cen-
tral Alps as well as northern Italy. Howewer we can see a simoltanuous slow decline in the importance of former
blooming Iron Age of Dolenjska region. Centers of southern Dolenjska, open towards the Pannonian plain,
lost their former importance and the central role was taken over by communities settled in the west.
Located far away from these events the territory of eastern Slovenia appeared almost deserted - allegedly due to
consequences of Scythian nomadic invasions from the east which affected vast territories of Eastern Europe.
Archaeological finds in Slovakia and Austria indicated traces of military irruptions, sieges of settlements and
their destructions. In Slovenia on the other hand, historians and archaeologists linked this desolation to an epi-
demic, presumably plague, which should have, according to the interpretation of observations in Roman litera-
ture, devastated the landscape. It was assumed that this fatal disease was brought to the territory of Eastern Eu-
rope by the above mentioned nomadic horsemen from the east.
