Page 17 - Kavur, Boris. Everything counts (in small amounts) … Koper: University of Primorska Press, 2015.
P. 17
any case the fibula from Ptuj is an item which was most probably produced in workshops located in Posočje the end of the old era 17
or northern Italy. It came to the territory of Štajerska as a trade good or personal attire of a newcomer arriving
to the region across central Slovenia or even more likely down the valley of river Drava from Koroška. This tiny
item confirms the existence of contact networks spanning across hundreds of kilometers, it confirms mutual
acquaintance of prehistoric communities and even more – it demonstrates the widened connoissoeurship of
the latest fashions which, produced in centers of northern Italy were worn simultaneously on the coasts of Med-
iterranean as well as on the promenade of Ptuj.
Not far away, on the territory of Turnirski prostor on the Grajski grič along the medieval granary, a complex of
several kilns was discovered during the second half of the eighties. They were, due to the discovered fragments
of pottery, dated in to the final part of Late Iron Age. They were dug into layers of sediment which included frag-
ments of pottery demonstrating an older settlement of this place. Among them stands out a fragment of a pot
with a concave shoulder, vertical neck and slightly thickened mouth, decorated with impressed circles on the
shoulder. It is a form characteristic for the end of Early Iron Age on the territory of eastern part of Central Eu-
rope – from the Bohemian Mountains across southern Austria and western Hungary to eastern Slovenia – all
the way to Ptuj. It is one of the last examples of free-handmade pottery. It was made with a technology which
will still persist in centuries to come, but the primacy will be taken by pottery produced on a fast spinning pot-
ter’s wheel. At the same time this fragment presents a technology which will mark the next centuries – the add-
ing of graphite in to pottery.
These described modest finds demonstrate the course of cultural contacts in the period spanning from the mid-
dle of the 5th to the middle of the 4th century BC. Considering the broader cultural history of the 5th century BC it
seems that kettledrum fibulae represent a specific jewelry form which developed on the southern Pre-Alpine ter-
ritory under the influences of new technological innovations and esthetical elements from the Western Hallstatt
circle of Central Europe. They were mostly spread in the “melting pot” of cultures where influences from Greek,
Etruscan and northern Adriatic, Alpine and south-eastern Pre-Alpine cultural circles amalgamated.
The fibula from Ptuj indicates, as one of the most western discoveries of its kind, cultural influences coming
from the west. However, only a few decades younger pottery demonstrates the spread of cultural influences,
procurement with raw materials and technologies from the east. These two finds clearly demonstrate that, de-
spite small number of finds, the area of Ptuj was still acting as a crossroad of cultures – the most eastern border
of western and the most western border of eastern cultural elements and technologies.
or northern Italy. It came to the territory of Štajerska as a trade good or personal attire of a newcomer arriving
to the region across central Slovenia or even more likely down the valley of river Drava from Koroška. This tiny
item confirms the existence of contact networks spanning across hundreds of kilometers, it confirms mutual
acquaintance of prehistoric communities and even more – it demonstrates the widened connoissoeurship of
the latest fashions which, produced in centers of northern Italy were worn simultaneously on the coasts of Med-
iterranean as well as on the promenade of Ptuj.
Not far away, on the territory of Turnirski prostor on the Grajski grič along the medieval granary, a complex of
several kilns was discovered during the second half of the eighties. They were, due to the discovered fragments
of pottery, dated in to the final part of Late Iron Age. They were dug into layers of sediment which included frag-
ments of pottery demonstrating an older settlement of this place. Among them stands out a fragment of a pot
with a concave shoulder, vertical neck and slightly thickened mouth, decorated with impressed circles on the
shoulder. It is a form characteristic for the end of Early Iron Age on the territory of eastern part of Central Eu-
rope – from the Bohemian Mountains across southern Austria and western Hungary to eastern Slovenia – all
the way to Ptuj. It is one of the last examples of free-handmade pottery. It was made with a technology which
will still persist in centuries to come, but the primacy will be taken by pottery produced on a fast spinning pot-
ter’s wheel. At the same time this fragment presents a technology which will mark the next centuries – the add-
ing of graphite in to pottery.
These described modest finds demonstrate the course of cultural contacts in the period spanning from the mid-
dle of the 5th to the middle of the 4th century BC. Considering the broader cultural history of the 5th century BC it
seems that kettledrum fibulae represent a specific jewelry form which developed on the southern Pre-Alpine ter-
ritory under the influences of new technological innovations and esthetical elements from the Western Hallstatt
circle of Central Europe. They were mostly spread in the “melting pot” of cultures where influences from Greek,
Etruscan and northern Adriatic, Alpine and south-eastern Pre-Alpine cultural circles amalgamated.
The fibula from Ptuj indicates, as one of the most western discoveries of its kind, cultural influences coming
from the west. However, only a few decades younger pottery demonstrates the spread of cultural influences,
procurement with raw materials and technologies from the east. These two finds clearly demonstrate that, de-
spite small number of finds, the area of Ptuj was still acting as a crossroad of cultures – the most eastern border
of western and the most western border of eastern cultural elements and technologies.
