Catalogue of Arceological Sites

Medlog IRN 15520 Medlog- Ruins of Forsthof Castle ma nor Motorway section -Medlog Geographical coordinates x 518067 y 121682 z 241

Pri mary topographica/ map sheet TTN 5 29 Cadastral register c.c. Medlog, cadastral plot nos. 1304/ 1,27, 28, 1305, 1306 & 1308 Site type building Period Early Modern Method and date ofdis covery, site discovered by Archaeological survey 1999, Bojan Djuric Fieldwork method and date Excavation 2001 Excavation directors Matjaž Novšak and Simona Tomažič Excavated area 2,078 m2 Site archive kept by Arhej, d.o.o., ZVKDS Celje Regional Office A house used to stand at the site, perhaps the manor of nearby Forsthof Castle. It was recorded on the 1825 Franciscan cadastral register (i.e. that from the period of Emperor Franz I of Austria). The building remains were entirely destroyed by intensive cultivation over the course of time. Only truncated traces of settlement remained: the ruins of the house, small finds, e.g. coins (two silver coins from the beginning of the 18th century) and a !arg­ er amount of pottery, mostly da ted as originating from the period between the r6th and 19th century. Almost all the pottery is derived from a rubbish pit, which also con­ tained a substantial amount of animal bone. A brief overview of the excavated area is required for an interpretation of the archaeological finds from the site. The Franciscan cadastral register of 1825 records that Forsthof Castle (also called Gozdni Dvor, 'forest castle', part of it stili stands and is in use) stood to the north-east of the excavated area with the Tiergarten (re­ corded as Zverinjak, "bestiary"; present-day Tirgut topo­ nym) immediately to the north-west. Gozdni Dvor was first recorded in documents in 1469, when it was leased out to Wenko von Lustthal, commander of the garrison of Celje. A mili belonging to the court estate was located by the river Ložnica, between Gozdni Dvor and Zver­ injak. Great attention was paid to forests in the Middle Ages, not only for firewood and timber, but above all for hunting. Emperor Maximilian I was apparently especial­ ly interested in Zverinjak, which was fenced in so that game was bred there according to his orders. The woods were sold in r682 and some of the proprietors of the for­ est at Gozdni Dvor are known, among them Baron Mo­ s con in the period between 1754 and r85o. The Earth Beneath Your Feet Archaeology on the Motorways in

The above data indicate that the buildings in the vi­ cinity of the site, with the exception of Zverinjak, had been in use for at least 400 years and some of them stiH serve their purpose. The castle complex certainly includ­ ed a building that can be interpreted as a manor, where either the stewards of Zverinjak or the millers resided. The building used to stand precisely within the excavat­ ed area, but unfortunately its foundations were gradu­ ally destroyed. At least two factors contributed to that: the ftooding of the rivers and Ložnica and in ten­ sive agriculture in the area for the last hundred years. ,.------,--==-===== The building was located at the highest part of the site, which meant that it was severely damaged by agricultural activities. Part of the southem wall recorded in the Franciscan cadastral register coincides with the raised underlying gravel. The foundations of the building were entirely destroyed. They survive as rubble stretching to the south of it. The location of the building is confirmed by the finds in the ploughsoil, where a large amount of pottery appears to the north and south of it (with the greatest density of finds in the ploughsoil directly above the ruins). The layer beneath it has also been infiltrated Glazed tile bearing the coat­ by pottery and building material. The greatest density of of-arms of the Carniolan both was discovered beneath the ruins and in the area of aristocratic family of the house, or to the north of it. A considerable number Dienersperg of potsherds and glazed tiles (several thousands of them) were discovered in a pit, which was interpreted as a refuse pit. The pottery and tiles vary in type and are da ted to the period from the r6th century onwards. The til es are the most interesting finds from the Medlog site, both in their artistic quality and date. There is an outstanding find of an ochre-brown glazed tile with a coat-of-arms divided horizontally by a bar and featuring a dog in the upper right-hand comer and a horse in the lower left-hand one. The inscription above the coat-of-arms reads: DF. v. D. H. z. w. v. R. with the date r689 incised beneath it. The coat-of-arms belongs to the Dienersperg nob le family, part of the knights and landed gen try with one branch living in Camiola and the other in the vicinity of Celje. They were the owners of at least three castles there in the 17th century, includ­ ing the castle of Vojnik. A fragment of a day mould for the above-mentioned tile is very interesting at the present stage of excavation, because it indicates that the site of Medlog might include the remains of a stove­ making (and perhaps pottery) workshop. It is otherwise difficult to explain the series of deformed, repaired piec­ es of tiles and a tile mould, because it is not logical to

192 Catalogue of Arceological Sites

assume that such semi-manufactures and wasters were transported to Medlog by stovemakers. The pottery consists predominantly of fragments of kitchen ware, primarily jar and clish sherds. Another large group comprises glazed dishes with sporadic oc­ currences of fragments of glazed pitchers and flasks. Bowls make the second largest group of pottery in number as well as form. Their number is astonishingly large com pared to other sites, e.g. the castles of šalek, Otok pri Dobravi, Gutenwerth, etc., and the reason for it is probably more complex than at first it seems. The first possibility is the existence of a pottery workshop in the vicinity and the fact that a large number of artefacts consisted of deformed, discarded items. The second pos- sibility, however, indicates a specific economic activity. The closest and only analogies in Slovenia in this case, partly as to their forrns and pri­ 17th century polychrome marily as to their numbers, are found in the Kamniške glazed tile fragment Alpe mountains. The function and use of pottery here were adapted to stock-breeding and processing of milk (making cheese, sour milk, etc.). The cause of similar­ ity as to the number and form between two such diverse sites, however, is a subject of further research. Despite the fact that the building was destroyed, the causes of destruction are more or less known, and al­ low for the possibility that farmers pulled down the final remains on purpose and used the building material for levelling the min or descent of the terrain to the south of the building. It is possible to confirm its existence with certainty by means of archaeological finds, namely the ruins and small finds, i.e. pottery and tiles and, last but not !east, two silver coins from the period between 1708 and I7II- Most of the pottery dates to the r6th or r7th century, while it was possible to confirm the dating of the tiles and pottery by analogy: the tiles date to the r6th or r7th century, the bowls from the period between the r6th and r8th century, while the jars require a more de­ tailed analysis on the basis of a larger sample. The anal­ ysis of animal bones from the rubbish pit will reveal the diet of the inhabitants.

SI MONA TOMAŽIČ References

OJ URIC, BOJAN, Poroti/o o arheoloških raziskavah na najdištu Medlog, Ljubljana 1999- MUŠIČ, BRANKo; BERIČ, BOŽO, Poroti/o o geofizikalnih raziskavah na najdištu Medlog pri Celju, Ljubljana 1998. NOVŠAK, TOMAŽ; TOMAŽIČ, SIMONA, Poroti/o O arheoloških izkopa­ vanjih na lokaciji Medlog na trasi AC Hote-Alja vas, prikljutek Lopa­ ta, Celje 2002.

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