Brinjeva gora Near Slovenske Konjice, Excavation 1953

Abstract

The earliest proof of a settlement on Brinjeva gora is the presence of Litzen pottery.75 We must presuppose a Middle Bronze Age settlement because of the existence of a mound with skeleton graves from Brezje below Brinjeva gora, which S. Pahič, on the basis of needles found, dated to Bronze Age B-l76 according to Willvonseder. Several pottery fragments from the village, predominantly a small pot with a wart on the widest part of the circumference, 77 are proof of settlement at this time, according to S. Pahič.78 On the basis of village pottery excavated in 1953 it is obvious that the village enjoyed its greatest period of growth in Ha A-B. If the settlement in Ha A kept more to the edge of the ridge, then the village in Ha B covered all the upper slope.79 By the end of Ha B however, the settlement had almost ceased to exist. That it was not completely deserted is borne out by modest finds from the Early Iron Age, such as a boat-shaped fibula72 and some pottery fragments. Late La-Tène graphite-covered pottery, decorated with brush ornamentation, indicates that the settlement revived in the late La-Tène period, but did not achieve such an expansion as in Ha A-B. We have no tangible proof for settlement in the early classical period, but Brinjeva gora appears again finally as a fairly thriving village in the late Roman period.