Page 44 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 12(1) (2024)

Discussion ing protective excavations in 1962. As many as
Comparisons to the house urns found at Ribni- nine house urns were discovered in four graves.
ca near Brežice can be found at several Roman In Grave 1, a single house urn was added; how-
sites in south-eastern Slovenia and north-west- ever, in Grave 3, there were four of them, and
ern Croatia. The closest to Ribnica finds were in Graves 2 and 5, two house urns were placed
the house urns discovered during the excava- (Uršič 1985, 21–25).
tions of the necropolis at Dvorce near Čatež in A Roman-period burial site and parts of a
the 1990s. Five house urns are known from the road station (probably Crucium) were discov-
site, but unfortunately, they have not yet been ered in Draga near Bela Cerkev on the Ljublja-
fully published. At this site, urns were buried in na–Obrežje motorway route and excavated in
rectangular, stone slab-lined graves and circular 2002 (Križ 2003; Udovč 2022). At this burial
walled tombs (Bavec 2016). site a burial plot, eleven walled tombs, ten cre-
44 Many house urns were also discovered mation and five inhumation graves were found
during the recent excavations of Roman cem- (Udovč 2022, 23). There were also house urns in
seven graves among the elaborate grave goods.
studia universitatis hereditati, letnik 12 (2024), številka 1 / volume 12 (2024), number 1
eteries in the Drnovo area. In total, nine house In three graves, only one house urn was placed
urns were discovered in six rectangular stone-
built tombs, with one house urn added to four (Graves 3, 20, and 21); three graves contained
tombs (tombs 1, 16, 17, 18), two house urns added up to two urns (Graves 7, 10, and 14); and three
house urns were added in Grave 1 (Udovč 2022).
to tomb 14, and three house urns added to tomb To the southeast of Romula, we should also
7. The graves from the Drnovo 2 site are dated mention the site of Gornja vas near Žumberk in
to the second and third centuries (Vojaković and neighbouring Croatia, where seven stone tombs
Novšak 2022, 107). However, researchers assume were found to contain various forms of house
that some of the tombs were looted in the Ro- urns. Most of them were placed to the tombs
man or semi-transitional period due to the scarce individually, but in two tombs two house urns
grave goods in the individual tombs (Vojaković were discovered in each tomb (Gregl 1997, 57).
and Novšak 2022, 105). Based on the grave finds, the authors conclude
The settlement and necropolis area of that the burial site was in use from the middle
Drnovo or Neviodunum stands out in terms of of the first century until the time of the Marco-
the number of known house urns. Sonja and Pe- mannic Wars (Gregl 1997, 79).
ter Petru published them in 1978 (Petru and Pet- In addition to the highlighted sites, where
ru 1978). Their publication is based mainly on house urns are represented in more significant
the Pečnik excavation collection from the Drno- numbers, it is worth mentioning that they are
vo area, currently held by the National Museum also found in other cemeteries in the Dolen-
of Slovenia. Due to the historical circumstances, jska and Posavje regions. However, they oc-
the museum material does not have information cur in smaller numbers, or the sites still need
on the exact archaeological context or preserved to be fully published. These include Zloganje
burial complexes. Identification and interpre- near Škocjan (Breščak 1981), Straža near Novo
tation could, therefore, be based primarily on a mesto (Knez 1965; Križ, Stipančič, and Škedelj
formal analysis of the findings. These finds were Petrič 2009, 359, cat. no. 4), the Škobernetov
also the basis for Petru's study on the Latobici vrt site (Križ, Stipančič, and Škedelj Petrič
house urns (Petru 1971). 2009, 359, cat. no. 1, 3a, 3b), the Beletov vrt site
The following nearby site, where house urns (Knez 1992) and Ljubljanska cesta site in Novo
are present in most of the discovered graves, is mesto (Božič 2008), Mačkovec near Novo mes-
Veliki Kamen (Uršič 1985, 19). Here, five round to (Mason 2012; Mason and Županek 2018), a
and square-built tombs were discovered dur- single grave from Šahovec near Dobrnič (Slabe