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The paper covers 26 small Roman seal boxes, of which four have been preserved in their entirety and the rest only partially. They were used to protect the wax seals that secured sent packages, such that with the help of wax the box was affixed to the knot (bond) of the string with which the package was tied. The seal was protected in this way. Any damage to it, whether intentional or not, diminished the inviolability of the package. All of the items analysed in this work are held in the Archaeological Museum in Split. Most of them were obtained by the Museum through purchases, so no precise data on the discovery circumstances have been preserved. Only data on the find sites and the year and method of procurement are known. Only three of the boxes analysed in this paper were found in archaeological excavations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the archaeological find of a medieval sword recovered from the riverbank deposits of the Voglajna near Bežigrad, northeast of Celje (Slovenia). The relatively well-preserved sword with a length of 95.2 cm and a mass of 765 g is part of the original collection of the Celje Regional Museum, to which it came before 1889. The shape and metric characteristics of the blade with a relatively wide fuller (Oakeshott’s Type X or Geibig’s Variant 5b) and the hilt with a short, straight crossguard and almond-shaped/lenticular pommel (Geibig’s combination Type 16 / Var. I (16-15-9-12)) show it to be an early example of swords with pommels of Oakeshott’s Type A, dating to the 11th or the first half of the 12th century. One side of the blade bears the remains of a 20 cm long sequence of inlaid iron marks, which remain indecipherable due to corrosion. The harmony of the parts seems to indicate a preserved original design, presumably produced by one of the sword workshops on the Middle Rhine. The findspot of the sword in the vicinity of Bežigrad, a topographically exposed and strategically important promontory near the intersection of the routes connecting Styria and Carniola, alerts to the possible existence of a military post that supplemented the control functions of the presumed early stronghold of the Margraves of the Savinja March on Zgornji (Stari) Grad in Celje. The find context of the sword places it in the predominant category of water finds, but the internal evidence (condition after conservation) of the weapon and the available data on the particular circumstances of the find do not provide sufficient support to explain the background of its sinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of the analysis of a portion of movable finds gathered during the archaeological research of the manor house near Orahovica in 2017 and 2019. Likewise, this paper brings results of the study of the manor house compared to similar residences in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary. The medieval manor house near Orahovica is situated at the foot of the Ružica grad, one of the biggest castles in Croatia. The estate was ruled by numerous prominent individuals, among others, Nicholas of Ilok, who was one of its most notable owners and one of the biggest magnates of the late medieval Kingdom of Hungary. Very few sources mention the manor house, and the ones that do, do not offer any additional information about it. Archaeological excavations began in 2017 and continued in 2019 and 2020. Movable finds discovered mostly include typical late medieval and early modern ceramic finds. Sigismund of Luxembourg, Holy Roman Emperor’s coin minted between 1430 and 1437 is a significant find. Thus far, there are three recognized phases of additions to the main three-room building. The excavations conducted in 2020 revealed structures in the vicinity of the manor house, which point to the existence of a larger complex. In continental Croatia, there are no similar late medieval manor houses known and excavated so far. Research of manor houses in the area of the late medieval Kingdom of Hungary similar to the one near Orahovica enabled the detection of a group of residential and economic complexes which could play an important role in understanding and interpreting the results of further archaeological research of this site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During rescue archaeological excavations conducted in Solin in 1986-1987 on the expansion of a section on the Trogir-Split road (the so-called Solin bypass), among the finds 561 graves were discovered and examined. In this paper, I shall describe the method employed to clean the coins from grave 207, a skeletal burial without architecture in sector III (Hortus). The grave contained a ceramic oil lamp (its stamp reading VIBIANI), approximately 30 poorly preserved iron nails and 20 Roman provincial coins. The coins were cleaned and, with the help of an XRF device, a metal analysis was conducted and the results thereof are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Movable archaeological finds bearing inscriptions from the area of the Roman legionary fortress at Tilurium (today the village of Gardun near Trilj) are presented in this paper. The scholarly analysis encompassed the so-called instrumenta inscripta, i.e., the ceramic, glass, bone and metallic finds which have an inscription and/or stamp on them. These are finds yielded by systematic archaeological excavations, as well as finds today stored in the Trilj Regional Museum in Trilj, the Cetina Territorial Museum in Sinj, the Franciscan Monastery Archaeological Collection in Sinj, the Archaeological Museum in Split or finds recorded in the older scholarly literature. Most of the finds date to the period from the first half of the 1st century AD, while individual finds can be dated to the very end of the 1st century BC. Their dating thereby largely overlaps with the dating of Tilurium as a Roman legionary fortress and then a fort used by auxiliary contingents. A small number of finds can be dated to the period prior to the time when Tilurium became the fortress of Legio VII at the beginning of the 1st century AD. By the same token, a small number of finds testifies to the continuity of life in Tilurium once it ceased being a Roman military base after the mid-3rd century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of rescue archaeological excavations conducted around the church of the Birth of St. John the Baptist in Ivankovo near Vinkovci during which 55 graves were excavated. Based on the stratigraphic relationships between the graves and archaeological finds of material culture, this Roman Catholic parish cemetery can be dated to the period from the end of the 13th to the 18th century, i.e. to the late Middle Ages and the early modern period. The archaeological finds are scarce and usually include parts of costumes and jewelry (rings, belts, belt buckles, hook-and-eye fasteners, pins, knives), which is common for this period. Aside from the archaeological finds, historical sources also attest to the existence of the parish and the cemetery during the Ottoman rule. The deceased were laid in grave pits, which were usually oriented in the west-east direction. Most graves were damaged by later burials and the skeletons themselves are also relatively poorly (partially) preserved. A detailed bioarchaeological analysis of skeletal remains from Ivankovo could be conducted on 53 people (10 children, 13 women, and 30 men). Dentoalveolar disease analysis showed a high frequency of caries and ante mortem tooth loss, which suggest poor oral health, but also a diet based on carbohydrates, i.e. grains. High rate of physiological stress indicators (cribra orbitalia and linear enamel hypoplasia), periostitis, and the presence of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis indicate that most residents were in poor health condition. The distribution and morphology of skeletal injuries from Ivankovo assemblage suggest that they were caused by accidents that probably occurred during everyday activities within the community, such as working in the field, with cattle, or in the house. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]