Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
Rimskodobno gomilno grobišče, Osek
DatedEst. 1500–1 BCE
No licensed photograph yetWe have no photograph we may publish for this site, so the interpretive 3D view leads instead.
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Roman-period tumulus cemetery at Osek near Lenart (Rimskodobno gomilno grobišče, Osek) is the largest provincial Roman tumulus cemetery in Slovenia. It comprises 50 of about 200 mounds known to date, probably all from the first two or three centuries CE.
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Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
Rimskodobno gomilno grobišče, Osek
The mounds are among the oldest archaeological monuments in the area, and they are also mentioned in written sources, notably a forged charter of Arnulf dated 890.
HistorySources for this section
Sources for this section
The mounds are among the oldest archaeological monuments in the area, and they are also mentioned in written sources, notably a forged charter of Arnulf dated 890.
FolkloreSources for this section
Sources for this section
In popular imagination the mounds were long regarded as the graves of Attila and as Turkish hills with buried treasure. Most of them were dug up by eager treasure-seekers from the Middle Ages onward.
ContextSources for this section
Sources for this section
Central Europe has a long sequence of burial mounds, from the Unetice culture of the Early Bronze Age to the Tumulus culture of the Middle Bronze Age, about 1600 to 1300 BCE, and the Hallstatt culture of the Early Iron Age. Mounds of the Roman period belong to the later part of this tradition.
ConservationSources for this section
Sources for this section
The cemetery is a monument of local significance.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Central European tumuli
Central Europe has a long sequence of burial mounds. The Unetice culture of the Early Bronze Age came first, and the Tumulus culture of the Middle Bronze Age, about 1600 to 1300 BCE, raised mounds across Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland and neighbouring regions. The Hallstatt culture of the Early Iron Age made the mound grand again. From the Hallstatt B phase, tumulus burial becomes common, and the Hallstatt period proper, 800 to 450 BCE, produced the "princely" graves of elites who lived in fortified hilltop centres.
The largest Hallstatt-period mound in Central Europe is the Magdalenenberg near Villingen-Schwenningen. Its central tomb, of an early Celtic prince, has been dated by tree rings to 616 BCE. The mound once stood 10 to 12 metres high with a diameter of 104 metres; 126 further graves were set in concentric rings around it in the decades after the prince's death, and about 500 BCE the central chamber was plundered by robbers whose wooden spades archaeologists later found. Folklore marks it too: in the 1640s, during a series of witch trials, several women confessed under torture to dancing with the devil on the Magdalenenberg. That is evidence of a belief, not of any event.
The Atlas's records in Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are mostly tumuli of this Bronze Age and Iron Age sequence, and most are dated only by their form.
When visiting, look for mounds grouped in a cemetery rather than alone, since families and communities buried together, and for ploughed-down circular rises in fields.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Tumulus culture, Wikipedia: Hallstatt culture, Wikipedia: Magdalenenberg, Wikipedia: Unetice culture, Wikipedia: Tumulus · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 890 CE
Gomile so naši najstarejši arheološki spomeniki, ki jih omenjajo tudi viri (ponarejena Arnulfova listina iz leta 890); ljudsko domišljijo pa so od nekdaj burili kot Atilovi grobovi in kot turški griči z zakopanimi zakladi, zato so jih večino, vneti iskalci od srednjega veka naprej, razkopali.
Source - 1979
Zakladi Slovenije, Matjaž Kmecl, Cankarjeva založba Ljubljana 1979, nastisnila Mladinska knjiga 1987. »Odlok o razglasitvi kulturnih in zgodovinskih spomenikov«.
Source
See it in 3D
An interpretive reconstruction of the monument, standing on the real ground at its exact point, under the sun for that place and season. Drag to look around it.
The reconstruction is ours, not a survey: it shows what a monument of this type looks like, at the size the record gives for this one.
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 1500–1 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for megalithic mounds in Slovenia; this site has not been dated itself. The gomila of the karst are prehistoric structures built in the 2nd and 1st millennia BC from the middle Bronze Age to the end of the Iron Age; a few are Roman-period.Source for this date
Where it stands
Slovenia
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 46°34′25″ N, 15°54′03″ EFor a GPS or map app: 46.57351, 15.90084
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Rimskodobna gomila1500–1 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Rimskodobna gomila1500–1 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Gomila1500–1 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Rimskodobno gomilno grobišče1500–1 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Gomila1500–1 BCE
Rimskodobno gomilno grobišče Zorkov gozd1500–1 BCE- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Gomilno grobišče1500–1 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Rimskodobno gomilno grobišče Klobasov gozd1500–1 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q18562788wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Rimskodobna gomila0.3 km SW
- Rimskodobna gomila1.0 km SW
- Gomila1.1 km SE
- Rimskodobno gomilno grobišče1.1 km SW
- Gomila1.7 km N
- Rimskodobno gomilno grobišče Zorkov gozd2.3 km SE
- Gomilno grobišče2.4 km E
- Rimskodobno gomilno grobišče Klobasov gozd2.4 km NW
- Rimsko gomilno grobišče v Brengovi2.6 km E
- Rimska gomila3.1 km W
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Rimskodobno gomilno grobišče, Osek" (Slovene), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors