Pre-Roman Basketry Design from Batuje

Abstract

At B atuje in the Valley of V ipava (Slovene Littoral) tw o fragm ents of stone w ith basketry design originating from the destroyed church of St. George in the surroundings of B atuje w ere discovered. Iconographically, the first one is a fragm ent of a plate decorated by a cross w ith birds a t its sides; a special attention is to be paid to th e 8 loop interlacing w hich is rem iniscent of Coptic patterns. The second stone represents only a fram e m otive composed of snail[1]like curves, a corded b elt and a plait underneath. The loosened organization of the ornam ent, the' lack of sym m etry and rhythm , and the rusticized tech[1]nique are the proof of its late origin, so th a t we m ust range the two fragm ents probably into 11th century w hen this »Carolingian-Itailian a rt w ith popular tendency« (F. Stelè) has already passed its classical stage. The church of St. G eorge was situated n ear the form er Rom an highw ay A quileia—Pons Sontii (M ajnica)—Sovodnje—V olčja draga—Vogrsko—passing B atuje—A jdovščina. T herefore w e m ay conclude that, w hile th at church was being built, there was a continuity of the antique population.