Archaeologists Find Grave with Jewelery from 7th Century B.C.
Archaeologists have unearthed a grave containing bronze jewelery and ceramics from the late 7th century B.C. at a site near Novo Mesto in what is deemed one of the most important archaeological finds in Slovenia in recent years.
According to Borut Kriz, the head of the archaeological team from the Novo mesto-based Dolenjsko regional museum, the jewelry was found at the burial site of what is believed to be a priestess who lived around 600 B.C.
The archaeologists gather that the bones belong to a woman from the jewelery found in the grave. The site also contains standard finds from the Early Iron Age, such as a ceramic pot with a decorated lid and a clay yarn spindle, Kriz said in Novo mesto on Thursday.
Her wrists were decorated with hollow bronze bracelets, while the middle section of the grave contains six bronze brooches, called fibulae. The woman had bronze pins in her hair and a necklace of bone and amber beads around her neck.
An exceptional find is a bronze sceptre, which denotes a high social position of the woman. According to Kriz, the sceptre is a kind of mace and is believed to have been used in rituals.
The grave was found at the Kapitelj Field, which is considered to be one of the main European prehistoric archaeological sites, where excavations have been under way for nearly three decades.
During this time archaeologists have found 30 prehistoric barrows, typical of the Early Iron Age (8-4th century B.C.) and a number of Late Bronze Age and Celtic graves.
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