Page 40 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 12(1) (2024)

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Figure 6: Ribnica near Brežice, western necropolis, Grave
7 within the grave plot B (photo: Franci Aš)
studia universitatis hereditati, letnik 12 (2024), številka 1 / volume 12 (2024), number 1
tangular built tomb. Skeleton graves were docu-
mented as: 1 – simple grave pits; 2 – burials with
tile construction; and 3 – burials with stone slabs
construction.

Figure 5: Ribnica near Brežice, western necropolis, draw- House Urns from the Western Necropolis
ing of Grave 1 (prepared by: Aleš Ogorelec) of Romula
Eight house urns were discovered in four differ-
inhumations, and 6 contained inhumation bur- ent graves at the Western cemetery of Romula :
3
ials and cremation residues. Four graves con- Grave 1 (Figures 4 and 5, Tables 1–6), Grave 2,
tained no human remains or grave goods and Grave 7 (Figure 6) and Grave 30. The proportion
were interpreted as either epitaphs or pre-pre- of graves with house urns is small, representing
pared graves (Tomaž, Lazar, and Breščak, forth- only three percent. Three were added to Grave
coming). In more than twelve instances, graves 1 (Tomaž, Lazar, and Breščak, forthcoming, cat.
2
also contained several burials. no. 55–57), one was added to Grave 2 (Tomaž,
Apart from individual or group graves, four Lazar, and Breščak, forthcoming, cat. no. 78),
larger grave plots (A, B, C, D) (Figures 2 and two were added to Grave 7 of rectangular built
3) with several individual graves and two built Tomb 1 (Tomaž, Lazar, and Breščak, forthcom-
tombs were also explored. One of the latter lay ing, cat. no. 156–157), and two were also added
within grave plot B, and the other was built indi- to Grave 30 (Tomaž, Lazar, and Breščak, forth-
vidually in the far western part of the necropolis. coming, cat. no. 476–477).
The documented forms of cremation graves are Based on the urn shape, the so-called ‘door open-
pretty diverse, and we can divide them into six ing’, the shape of the roof, and the button or fini-
more significant groups: 1 – a burial in a simple al, house urns can be grouped into three primary
grave pit and a bustum; 2 – a burial in an urn; 3 – forms with several variations (Figure 7). House
a grave with tiles structure; 4 – a burial in a stone 3 Petru mentions several fragments of House urns from the
walled grave pit; 5 – a burial in a square chest-like eastern necropolis of Romula in his study (Petru 1971, 50),
grave made of stone slabs (Figure 4); 6 – a rec- although they were not documented by drawing. He also
mentions an indication that a house urn from grave 35
2 The data is based on a partially completed anthropologi- from Ribnica near Brežice was supposed to be in the muse-
cal analysis and the interpretation is therefore only prelim- um collection in Samobor. However, this information lat-
inary. er proved to be inaccurate (Petru 1971, 50).