Page 33 - Kavur, Boris. Everything counts (in small amounts) … Koper: University of Primorska Press, 2015.
P. 33
Everything counts 33
Finds from the destroyed cemetery
in Formin
Finds from the cemetery from Formin are of crucial importance for the understanding of the Middle La
Tène artistic expressions of Celts on the territory of eastern Slovenia. It is a site from which we know the
most heterogeneous collection of decorated sword scabbards. Unfortunately the majority does not orig-
inate from preserved graves but were collected between 1935 and 1939 during works in a gravel pit. Systematic ex-
cavations at the beginning of the seventies discovered only mostly Roman graves.
Despite the bad preservation of iron finds we can recognize, reconstruct and link the stylistic characteristics of
their decoration in a broader cultural context. According to its formal elements represents the decoration of a
scabbard with a narrow rib in the middle a further evolution of the Early La Tène traditions. The mouth of the
scabbard was reinforced with a decorated clamp which widened on the front side on to two, this time already
pushed aside, ornamental discs. The edge of the mouth was decorated with an incised decoration in the form of
a meander or actually from the older formal traditions developed linked uninterrupted spiral.
An exceptional find, preserved only on a fragment of an extremely corroded scabbard, is a symmetrically placed
in a combination of high relief and incision made symmetrical decoration. Preserved is only the end of the orna-
ment in the form of a semicircular expansion in which are two spirals. Above are located two medallions deco-
rated with a triskele. The decoration could be included in the group of scabbards with symmetrically placed net
like ornament known only from central Alps and the territory of the Eastern Celts.
Also an exceptional find is the fragment of a scabbard decorated with an asymmetrical decoration using sym-
metrical copying of parts of the motive. Styllistically it could be associated with the beginning of development
of the so-called Hungarian Sword Style of decorations. One of the most beautiful products of its style, it in-
Finds from the destroyed cemetery
in Formin
Finds from the cemetery from Formin are of crucial importance for the understanding of the Middle La
Tène artistic expressions of Celts on the territory of eastern Slovenia. It is a site from which we know the
most heterogeneous collection of decorated sword scabbards. Unfortunately the majority does not orig-
inate from preserved graves but were collected between 1935 and 1939 during works in a gravel pit. Systematic ex-
cavations at the beginning of the seventies discovered only mostly Roman graves.
Despite the bad preservation of iron finds we can recognize, reconstruct and link the stylistic characteristics of
their decoration in a broader cultural context. According to its formal elements represents the decoration of a
scabbard with a narrow rib in the middle a further evolution of the Early La Tène traditions. The mouth of the
scabbard was reinforced with a decorated clamp which widened on the front side on to two, this time already
pushed aside, ornamental discs. The edge of the mouth was decorated with an incised decoration in the form of
a meander or actually from the older formal traditions developed linked uninterrupted spiral.
An exceptional find, preserved only on a fragment of an extremely corroded scabbard, is a symmetrically placed
in a combination of high relief and incision made symmetrical decoration. Preserved is only the end of the orna-
ment in the form of a semicircular expansion in which are two spirals. Above are located two medallions deco-
rated with a triskele. The decoration could be included in the group of scabbards with symmetrically placed net
like ornament known only from central Alps and the territory of the Eastern Celts.
Also an exceptional find is the fragment of a scabbard decorated with an asymmetrical decoration using sym-
metrical copying of parts of the motive. Styllistically it could be associated with the beginning of development
of the so-called Hungarian Sword Style of decorations. One of the most beautiful products of its style, it in-
