Die spätrömischen Hortfundevon der Gora oberhalb von Polhov Gradec

Abstract

In the late Roman hill-top fortification on the Gora abovePolhov  Gradec  to  the  west  of  Ljubljana  three  hoards  werediscovered  in  the  years  1868,  1883  and  1935,  composed  ofobjects datable to the second half of the 4th or the beginningof  the  5th  centuries  AD.The first hoard contained seven bronze bells, two iron sawblades  and  five  iron  axes.Apart from an iron steelyard, an iron hoe and some leath-er ropes, the second hoard contained mainly bronze objects:three bells, a hollow cylinder, a balance with a set of weightsand  at  least  seven  bronze  vessels.The third hoard was composed of iron objects: three tyres,seventeen small rings, probably nave hoops and linings, a steelyardlacking its weight, two four-tined hoes, four hoes, two chains,a  ploughshare,  four  ingots,  a  tripod,  about  fifty  strong  pins,and  probably  also  a  gridiron  and  a  bill-hook.The majority of the bells from the first hoard and almostall the objects from the second are kept in the National Museumof  Slovenia  in  Ljubljana,  while  five  finds  from  the  third  one(a steelyard, a four-tined hoe, a hoe, a tripod and a pin) makepart  of  the  museum  collection  at  Polhov  Gradec.The history of research and the reconstruction of three hoardsfrom  the  Gora  are  followed  by  an  exhaustive  typological  andchronological analysis of the finds, represented in these hoards.In  addition,  a  late  Roman  hoard  of  agricultural  tools  is  pre-sented,  which  was  discovered  in  1886  under  the  hill-top  forti-fication  on  the  Kincelj  hill  above  Trbinc  in  the  Mirna  valleyand  which  contained  two  four-tined  hoes  and  four  hoes.In connection with the study of the Roman kitchen equip-ment an iron tripod and a gridiron are published, discoveredin  1888  at  Gorica  near  Drnovo  in  a  chamber  built  of  stonetogether  with  glass  vessels,  jewelry,  a  66,5  cm  high  red  urnand  a  coin  of  the  emperor  Probus.Two chapters are devoted to the dating of the hoards fromthe  Gora  and  their  comparison  with  the  other  late  Romanironwork  hoards  from  Slovenia.  Although  three  hoards  (thesecond  one  from  the  Gora,  the  one  from  Tinje  above  Lokapri Žusmu and the first one from the Ljubična above Zbelovs-ka Gora) have been dated by other authors rather late, to the6th  or  even  7th  century,  the  analysis  of  the  finds  has  shownthat all hoards from Slovenia probably pre-date the middle ofthe  5th  century.