K. Palágyi Sylvia szerk.: Balácai Közlemények 1997/5. (Veszprém, 1997)

STRMCNIK GULIC, MIRA: Roman Use of Area in prehistoric Space - Őskori lelőhelykörzet római kori igénybevétele

MIRA STRMCNIK GULIC ROMAN USE OF AREA IN PREHISTORIC SPACE Despite various conjectures the origin of the Norico-Pannonian tumuli is still rather unclear. With great distribution of this kind of graves concerning different settlement conditions in individual areas it seems there cannot be a single solution to this problem. It should therefore be tackled by individual areas and only then common points should be determined. This paper deals with the problem in a wider Maribor area, as it is described in the recent literature.

1 Let us point out that the area in question encompasses the southern edge of the Norico-Pannonian tumulus area

2 which also in the prehistoric time shared its destiny with the neighbouring areas. To clear up the question of continuty betwen the Hallstatt and Roman tumuli we must take a look at the situation in this area at the end of the Early Iron Age. In the East-Noricum area this period was followed by a settlement vacuum of several hundred years. There is as yet no final explanation for this phenomenon. This means that the tumulus burials in the Maribor area ceased as early as the 6th century.

3 To our knowledge, there are no settlement or grave finds in this area from this period. So this is the first discontinuity as regards the hillfort settlements and the Celtic ones. This discontinuity shows first in the location of the sites though hardly anything is known about Celtic sites. After the Hallstatt period with mostly elevated hillforts the first Celtic settlements appear again on the plains by the Drava river. These two worlds did not find a geographic contact until the second half of the 2nd century when the Celts - probably retreating from the Cimbri and Teutons - moved back to the long ago deserted elevated hillforts - in the Maribor area to Postela: The re-settlement of this and other hillforts must have brought a new mode of burial. This still remains a mystery, since late Celtic graves at Postela and elsewhere have so far not been found. The Hallstatt tumulus cemetery on the shelf Lepa ravna just under the hillfort of Postela remained in the period of Celtic settlement undamaged. This is true also of the groups of tumuli at the foot of Pohorje at Razvanje and Pivola. The Celts set up the hillfort in their own way, but left the tumuli as they were and found other burial places for their deceased, since so far in the tumuli of Postela no Celtic burials have been found. The long ago omitted tumuli did not influence their mode of burial, therefore it can be justifiedly maintained that in the Maribor area the Celts were not a link between prehistoric and Norico-Pannonian tumuli, they were consequently not the upholders of continuity. The change of the mode of burial with the Celts in the first decades of the Roman occupation has still no connection with the tumuli. But it is also true that in this area not even the last Celtic graves and the first Roman burials from the pre-Claudius period are known. If - according to the above facts - the transfer of tradition of the Hallstatt tumuli to the Norico-Pannonian tumulus burials as a continuation of the prehistoric burial cult in the Maribor area was not possible, we may still assume that the new mode of burial did not mean the omission of the old tumulus cemeteries. This indirect revival of the tumulus burial could be possible in the tumulus area at Pivola and Razvanje. First, however, it ought to be archeologically proven. On the basis of the hitherto excavations of these tumuli no later Celtic or Roman burials took place in this area.

4 The graves found here are rather unusual for the