Page 43 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 12(1) (2024)

Lazar, and Breščak, forthcoming, cat. no. 57).
This urn from Ribnica near Brežice is the only
known example of a two-part house urn (Fig-
ure 10).
The house urns from Ribnica near Brežice
are made of finely refined clay without any visi-
ble inclusions. In all cases, they are wheel-thrown
and fired in an oxidizing atmosphere. The colour
of the surface and its inner layer is reddish yel-
low. They have a soft surface, which may be coat-
ed with a dark red (Tomaž, Lazar, and Breščak,
forthcoming, cat. no. 55 and 157), red (Tomaž,
Lazar, and Breščak, forthcoming, cat. no. 476– 43
477), orange-red (Tomaž, Lazar, and Breščak,
forthcoming, cat. no. 56), light brown-orange
(Tomaž, Lazar, and Breščak, forthcoming, cat.
no. 78) or red-orange slip (Tomaž, Lazar, and
Breščak, forthcoming, cat. no. 57). The slip may
be applied on the outer surface, inner and outer
Figure 10: House urn from grave 1 (12)
(photo: Aleš Ogorelec) surfaces, or on part of the outer surface (Tomaž,
Lazar, and Breščak, forthcoming, cat. no. 476).
H 2.1. The roofs of these urns are conical, and In one case, there was no coating (Tomaž, La-
the knobs are large and roof-shaped. Urns of this zar, and Breščak, forthcoming, cat. no. 156), and
shape were found in Grave 2 (Tomaž, Lazar, and in most cases, the coating is preserved only in
Breščak, forthcoming, cat. no. 78) and Grave 30 traces.
(Tomaž, Lazar, and Breščak, forthcoming, cat. In several cases, house urns from Ribnica
no. 476). Another variant of the biconical house near Brežice are decorated with horizontal inci-
urn is one with a cylindrical central part that ta- sions highlighting individual sections of the urn, House Urns in the Burial Practices of the Western Necropolis of Romula
pers slightly towards the top (shape H 2.2). The such as the urns from Grave 1 (Tomaž, Lazar,
central part of the urn has a trapezoidal door. and Breščak, forthcoming, cat. no. 55) and Grave
The upper part unfortunately is not preserved in 30 (Tomaž, Lazar, and Breščak, forthcoming,
this variant. An urn of this shape was found in cat. no. 477), which both belong to the urn form
Grave 7 (Tomaž, Lazar, and Breščak, forthcom- H 1.1. They may also be decorated with horizon-
ing, cat. no. 157). tal grooves, such as the urn of form H 1.2 from
The most exciting form, however, is the house Grave 1 (Tomaž, Lazar, and Breščak, forthcom-
urn of the form H 3. This urn, composed of two ing, cat. no. 56) or the urn of form H2.2 from
parts, has the lower part made of a simple serv- Grave 7 (Tomaž, Lazar, and Breščak, forthcom-
ing bowl (type Drag. 25) with a subsequent cut- ing, cat. no. 157). The house urn of form H 1.3 is a
out door of a regular rectangular shape. For the richly decorated urn with segmented plastic ribs
upper part of the urn, a simple conical lid with and impressions in the upper part of the body
a horn-shaped rim was used (the handle is miss- (Tomaž, Lazar, and Breščak, forthcoming, cat.
ing). An example of a two-part house urn of the no. 156). However, the only decoration on the
form H 3, which ingeniously joined two piec- two-part house urn from Grave 1 is the original
es of regular serving vessels to achieve or recre- decoration of the serving bowl, which was used
ate this very characteristic and specific form of to create the urn’s lower part (Tomaž, Lazar, and
the vessel, was discovered in Grave 1 (Tomaž, Breščak, forthcoming, cat. no. 57).