Breg near Šembije and the Zgornja Pivka valley during the Bronze Age
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3986/AV.77.07Keywords:
Middle Bronze Age, Late Bronze Age, settlements, hoards, hillforts, settlement, Zgornja Pivka valleyAbstract
The recent archaeological fieldwork at Breg near Šembije has brought to light the remains of a hillfort dating to the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. The modest traces of its rampart revealed a simple drywall fortification that presumably functioned in combination with a wooden superstructure. The recovered small finds have parallels in the Castellieri culture of the Kras and Istria, as well as the Oloris–Podsmreka and Rogoza–Orehova vas horizons in central and eastern Slovenia.
The stray finds of pottery and bronze artefacts from a series of other hillforts show that the Zgornja Pivka valley was inhabited throughout the Late Bronze Age. Two small hoards of a mixed composition from Obroba above Bač and from Drskovče are attributed to the second hoard horizon, also of the Late Bronze Age (Ha A1). The objects from both hoards are most similar to those of the hoards from the wider Carpathian basin.
Evidence suggests that the settlement remains, as well as the stray and hoard finds documented at Breg represent the early phase of development of the prehistoric cultural landscape in the Zgornja Pivka valley. This landscape reached its peak in the Iron Age, when the hillforts boasted improved, massive and complex ramparts, as well as an organised system of agricultural land use. The boundary wall extending from Breg towards the hillfort at Obroba above Bač is seen as part of the effort of organising the Iron Age landscape and the land between hillforts, and its construction may have relied on earlier settlement points serving as symbolic references.
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