Roman Cemetery at Stari trg Near Slovenj Gradec

Abstract

The Roman settlement of Colatio and the cemetery belonging to it were discovered in 1909—1912 by archaeological excavations undertaken by the Slovenj Gradec lawyer, Dr Hans Winkler. The material is deposited in the Joanneum museum in Graz and the first report on it was made by R. Egger.1 The cemetery lies on slightly sloping terrain south of Stari trg on both banks of the stream »Draga«. In 1977 we carried out a rescue dig on areas no. 941/3 and 941/1 of Stari trg, representing the first systematic excavation at this cemetery, which is still far from being excavated in its entirety. The excavation came across seven of Winkler’s graves and we were able to supplement his very scanty terrain documentation. The finds from the Joanneum will be discussed in detail in a separate publication.2 Towards the west, north-west and south of the site we discovered eight graves from the period of Hadrian, with a stone foundation and grave wall, which was partly open on the northern side. Only grave 1, against the southern graveyard wall, can be counted as a richer grave, whose construction, number of grave goods and position inside the cemetery make it very similar to Winkler’s graves. Graves nos. 2 and 3 were walled with a stone surround, considerably damaged by the erosion of the terrain. Graves along the eastern wall form a group of simply dug graveholes with meagre grave goods. At sites nos. 223/1 and 226/4 of Stari trg, rescue excavations along the line of a gas main uncovered a walled grave. The profile indicated the presence of further graves but these fell outside the limits of the dig site. The grave lies at the south west edge of the cemetery and is similar, in period (Hadrian) and grave architecture, to the graves mentioned above. South-east of the grave we came across the course of the Roman road Celeia-Virunum which led through the village of Colatio. The site has revealed a very lively picture of Roman country life at the extreme south-eastern edge of Noricum. Basically we can distinguish solidly built tombs bound with mortar (graves W l, W2, W4, W7 and W8 and grave 1 on the line of the gas main) from stone lined graves with no mortar (W3, graves nos. 1, 2, 3), stone foundation and grave wall (Fig. 3) and simple, dug graves (graves nos. 4—8). The variety of walled grave froms is surprising: from square, rectangular, oval with elongated sides (grave at the gas main) to round and shaft-like. The simple graves are oval in shape or rectangular with rounded edges (Fig. 7). The majority were covered with slates and, except for two, none of them had internal divisions (W2 and W3). The walled graves, which represent the Italic style in origin, were all larger and more opulent and undoubtedly belonged to the wealthier classes of the population. The construction of a ground plan showed the alignment of the graves in an east-west direction, during the 1st and 2nd centuries. The simplest graves were all located outside the line of the richer tombs; from the eastern wall of the graveyard they stretched further eastwards and all, except grave 7, date from the post-Marcomanni period. In the majority of examples the evaluation of the grave material depends on the coins found and on elements of Noricum-Pannonian female costume. The typological composition of the pottery vessels in the cemetery is varied, stretching over a wide span of time. The major part of the Stari trg pottery is made of fine, cleaned, brownish-yellow fired clay, although grey to blackish fired products, mixed with sand and with a rough surface, are also fairly numerous. Among the local pottery form the La Tène tradition is well represented, while the better pieces are linked with ale northern Italic production centres. The Italic form of the small jug with yellow colourig (Table 2:5) from grave l 20 falls outside the standard typological framework, as does the two handled, thin walled beaker (Table 4:7) ornamented with wheels in bands round the handles, which is seldom seen in Slovenia but which appears frequently in the sub-Alpine region in the necropolises of the Ticino complex25. Worthy of mention is the pot from grave 8 (Table 7:7), to which it has as yet not been possible to establish direct analogies; on the basis of very similar examples from Brinjeva gora and Dobrteša vas30 we have placed it in the mid 3rd century. Among the glass objects the small bottle stamped on the base (Table 18:8) is noteworthy and for this too there is no parallel. The most common metal objects are fibulae (Table 3:1—10), of which the most unusual in form and workmanship is the fibula in Table 3: 3, 4, adorned with inset anamel on the bow, which on each side ends in the stylised form of an animal head. On the basis of accompanying finds this fibula adds new data to the chronology of this kind of jewellery. The chronological survey presented of the graves excavated so far points to a large migration into the area during the first two centuries, with emphasis on the final period of the first century and the first half of the second. Graves 5 and 8, probably also no. 6, belong to the post-Marcomanni period. At the present time grave 7 represents the earliest limit of the graveyeard, with firm chronological support from the Claudius I coin and thus falls into the period of the internal organisation of Noricum. Within individual periods we can detect a more lively life style (Vespasian and Hadrian eras) as a consequence of economic and political reforms and the prominent role of the settlement along the main traffic route43.