Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. A Szent István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 27. 1993-1997 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1998)
Akten der "Tagung über Periode der pätlatene/frühkaiserzeitlichen Zeit - Novšak, M – Tica, G.: Trnava and matev – newly discovered pre-roman Settlemets in the lower Savinja Valley (Slovenia). p. 25–38.
Alba Regia, XXVII, 1998 M. NOVSAK - G. TICA TRNAVA AND SMATEVZ - NEWLY DISCOVERED PRE-ROMAN SETTLEMENTS IN THE LOWER SAVINJA VALLEY (SLOVENIA) A series of intensive archaeological rescue .terventions have been carried out during the past few years in Slovenia within the framework of the construction of the motorway. Consequently, an array of new archaeological data is now available. The discovery of many yet unknown prehistoric settlements in the flat land regions are of particular interest. The majority of pre-Roman settlements known of heretofore were situated high upon naturally fortified hills. These areas usually remained covered by forest until modern times - uncultivated and thus also well preserved. Investigations of these types of sites were abundant in the century of archaeological efforts in Slovenia (Pecnik 1894, Schmid 1939, Dular 1993, etc). Conversely, prehistoric settlement structures and sites in the flat land, cultivated and urbanised regions were seldom recognised, except for the numerous Roman sites and prominent burial tumuli. As regards the La Tène period, only the most obvious finds were identified - burial grounds and hoards. Our intent is to present two recently discovered La Tène flat land settlement sites from the Lower Savinja valley - Trnava and Smatevz. Until recently, our knowledge of the Lower Savinja valley has included La Tcne burial grounds, hoards, some individual material finds and one elevated settlement site. Construction efforts on the motorway have brought to light the first flat land settlements (fig. 1). The archaeological material finds from the two newly discovered sites greatly differentiate from that known from the late La Tène hillforts. The most befitting analogies for the material finds can be sought from among the Tauriscan cemeteries (Brezice, Dobova, Roje near Moravce, Slatina in Rozna dolina). Part of the material is dated to the Late La Tène period while the majority is dated to the Middle La Tène period. The hypothesis that Middle La Tène settlements were primarily of the flat land type (Bozic 1987, 882), and thus also undiscovered as of yet, is thus confirmed. Prior to presenting a more detailed examination of the material finds, let us first accommodate a brief description of each of the settlement sites, neither of which is yet published. 1 Trnava The archaeological excavations of the sites at Trnava were carried out between 26.6.1995 and 21.10.1995. The extent of the excavations comprised cca 3600 nr. A total of 18% of the entire surface was investigated with the excavation of prolonged trenches and four extensive pits (fig- 2). The site is situated upon the highest terrace of the Savinja river, which strayed east of Trnava in the Early Pleistocene (Giinz). The current river-bed is located another kilometre further to the East. The entire excavated surface was previously cultivated and thus also levelled. Consequently, the upper layer was turned down with a plough to a depth of 35 cm. To a large degree, this layer reached all the way to the geological foundation - the sandbank or river gravel. In select locations, a layer with La Tène material finds remained preserved and intact (fig. 3). These were sections where, as a rule, the geological foundation sunk into a basin and consequently remained unscathed by the plough. Only one shallow pit was identified. The filling consisted of 97 metal finds (fig. 6: 13), which were mostly fragmented, a large number of fragments of graphite-clay and coarse pottery (fig. 7: 2,3,57) and 30 kg of slag (composing 99% of all the slag discovered at The middle La Tène material from each of the sites is examined by M. Novsak in his undergraduate thesis: M. Novsak, Smatevz in Trnava. NajdiSői srednjelatenskega casa v Spodnji Savinjski dolini. Diplomska naloga Filozofska Fakulteta, Ljubljana (1997). 25
