An Attempt to Reconstruct the Size of the Lajh Late Antiquity Cemetery in Kranj

Varstvo spomenikov, 44

Judita Lux, Jurij Ravnik*

Key words: archaeology, Late Antiquity, Kranj – Lajh, cemetery, research history, map of the cemetery

Introduction

Due to the planned construction of three blocks of flats in the Sotočje area of Kranj (at the site of the buildings of the Sava tyre factory), in 2007 the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slove- nia, Kranj Regional Unit, carried out preservative archaeological research in the area of the well-known Lajh Late Antiquity cemetery in Kranj, led by Milan Sagadin and Judita Lux. The cemetery is entered in the register of cultural heritage kept by the Ministry of Culture under number EŠD 5145. Since 1983 it has also been protected as a locally significant cultural monument under the Decree on the proclamation of the old town core of Kranj as a cultural and historical monument.1 The first findings from the Lajh cemetery were discovered at the end of the 19th century. By 1905 excavations were being performed by several researchers from various institutions. Numerous articles were published which are now fundamental to the understanding of the significance of the cemetery and which will be cited in greater detail below. 1980 was a turning point, as the collected materials excavated between 1898 and 1905 were publicised for the first time. At that time they also publicised the findings excavated by Tomaž Pavšlar, which were acquired in 1937 by the present-day National Museum of Slo- venia. After 1982, individual preservative archaeological excavations were once again started in the area of the Late Antiquity cemetery. One of the more significant digs was the excavation conducted in 2004, which will be discussed further below. In the summer of 2007 the Institute took over the implementa- tion of preservative archaeological research on the parcel, which was known to have been excavated in the past. However, it turned out that the past excavations had not completely destroyed the site. This was also the reason for carrying out more thorough corrections to the known reconstructions of the cemetery, in which all of the available sources were taken into consideration.

Research history

The first accidental findings at the Late Antiquity cemetery in Kranj were discovered (after 1800) during the construction of the cellar of the Vidmar house in the eastern part of parc. no 407 (today no 407/1, Figure 1). The artefacts, a brooch (fibula?) and earrings, were defined as lost already in 1899.2 In 1890 and 1891, landholder and mill owner Tomaž Pavšlar built a new mill on parc. no 395 (today no 396/5). There is no data that any graves were found at that time. However, human bones are supposed to have been found before that in the south-eastern part of parcel no 397 (today parc. no 398/7). At the same time, graves with bronze accessories were found while planting trees on parcel no 423/1 (today 423/5).3 A few years later, in 1896, sixteen graves were found when removing tree roots from Pavšlar’s land on parc. no 407 (today 407/1). A gold ring was apparently found.4

Judita Lux, Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, Kranj Regional Unit Jurij Ravnik, Kranj, Slovenia * Jurij Ravnik assisted in the writing of the section The problem of past reconstructions of the maps of the cemetery.

59 Varstvo spomenikov, 44

According to the writings of Simon Rutar, various human bones were found on 17 August 1898, during the construction of a new barn on parc. no 407 (today 407/1) in front of Vidmar’s former cellar towards the Sava River.5 However, a few years later Jozef Szombathy wrote that according to witnesses there were no more graves on the land where the barn lay (today parc. no 404) and in the western corner of the yard, on parc. no 406 (today 406 and 407/1).˛6 The findings discovered before 1898 were probably the inducement for T. Pavšlar’s decision in Novem- ber of that year to excavate the western part of parc. no 407 (today 406 and 407/1). Approximately thirty gravesites were discovered. The deepest grave held a woman buried with very fine accessories. The objects were so exceptional that an article was written about them in the same year in the journal Izvestja Muzejskega društva za Kranjsko (Report of the Museum Society of Carniola),7 and a brief notice was published in the weekly Slovenski list (Slovenian Gazette).8 A smaller number of graves were also supposed to have been excavated during the construction of the new Pavšlar house in 1899 in the northern part of parc. no 404 (today 403) and the western part of parc. no 397 (today 396/7 and the central 9 part of 398/7). Also in the same year, on 23 October, Pavšlar began to dig on the western side of the new house and south of the regional road, on parc. no 406 (today 407/1), where he intended to plant an orchard. The work was completed in the year 1900 and the surface of the land had been lowered by one metre. Some 150 gravesites are supposed to have been discovered,10 but according to contemporary accounts this figure fluctuated from as low as 100 to as high as 500.11 Another opulent gravesite was unearthed at Lajh between 1897 and 1900. The artefacts were sold to the Imperial Natural History Museum in Vienna in 1903 by their owner, Pavšlar’s chief miller Ignac Wergles.12 The exceptional finds found at the cemetery in Kranj aroused the interest of well-known self-taught ar- chaeologist Jernej Pečnik. On the twenty-sixth of June 1900, with the approval of the town council, two test trenches were dug, at a length of five metres and a width of one metre. Three gravesites were found, two without accessories, and the third containing the remains of a soldier. He had been buried with an iron sword, with two iron knives and 23 arrow points by his head.13 Owing to the positive results, in 1901 an excavation was begun by Joseph Szombathy, curator of the Museum of Natural History in Vienna, with J. Pečnik as the field director. The costs of the research were borne by the Anthropology Society in Vienna. From 12 June to the end of July, 61 gravesites were excavated on a surface area of around 415 m² (on parc. no 409/1; today 409/1, 409/2, 409/4 and 410/1). In order to determine whether the cemetery extended north of the road, Szombathy and Pečnik also dug two test trenches in the south part of parc. no 423/1 (today 423/5 and 992) measuring 20 and 10 m². In the larger trench they found three and in the smaller two gravesites with skeletal remains. As Szombathy writes, together with Pečnik they discovered a total of 66 graves.14 The preliminary results from the excavations were published in 1902. All of the documentation, together with the findings and skeletal remains, are today kept at the Museum of Natural History in Vienna. At that time, Szombathy drew a map of the cemetery at a scale of 1 : 200, which was published only in 2006.15 All of the gravesites were oriented and numbered, and the ground plan is set into a cadastral map with numbered parcels. During the first excavations the events were followed by the public media, and Szombathy and Pečnik’s digs, as well as further work at the cemetery, were described in the journals Gorenjec (The Upper Carniolan), Slovenec (The Slovenian), Slovenski list (Slovenian Gazette) and Slovenski narod (Slovenian Nation).16 From 15 July to 25 October 1901, Dr. Jakob Žmavc, a teacher at a gymnasium, began excavations on Pavšlar’s land (north of the new barn on parc. no 406, today 407/1). Ten gravesites were excavated, and precisely documented by Žmavc, but the results of the excavations were never published. The gravesites were drawn at a scale of 1 : 300 and numbered, but they were not oriented. They were described accurately, including measurements of the graves and the positions of the accessories, and sketches were made of some of the artefacts (Figure 2). The artefacts and selected parts of the skeletons were kept by T. Pavšlar.17 By the time of Pavšlar’s excavation of Late Antiquity gravesites, the level of the land (today parc. no 406 and 407/1) which bordered the road had dropped by nearly a metre, and it became urgently necessary to shore up the regional road. The archaeological excavations were taken over by the former Provincial Museum in Ljubljana under the leadership of preparator Ferdinand Schulz.18 In October of 1901, 58 gravesites were excavated (today parc. no 992 and 407/2). The preserved documentation includes a brief

60 Varstvo spomenikov, 44 description of the gravesites and a map of the gravesites, which are numbered but not oriented.19 The plan together with the accessories from the gravesites was first published only in 1980 in a monograph about the Lajh cemetery.20 A short list of the findings was issued as early as 1901,21 and selected artefacts were first published in 1903 in a text by Alois Riegl about the findings in Kranj.22 In 1903, Pavšlar decided to extend the search for gravesites to parc. no 398/2 (today 398/4, 398/5, 398/6, 398/7, 992 and 994). This was a garden to the north of the section excavated by F. Schulz in 1901. The work under the leadership of J. Žmavc was begun on 4 July 1903 in the southern part of the garden and completed on 11 July 1904. 112 gravesites were discovered during that time. In the same year the results were published in the series Jahrbuch der k.k. Zentral-Kommission für Erforschung und Erhaltung der Kunst- und Historischen Denkmale. 23 In addition to a map of numbered gravesites at a scale of 1 : 200, a catalogue of the gravesites was issued with descriptions of the accessories and their positions, and the more beautiful artefacts were drawn or photographed, and schematics were drawn of some of the gravesites, with the position of the accessories indicated. The artefacts were given to the former Provincial Museum in Ljubljana. In 1947, Jakob Žmavc gave his handwritten documentation24 connected with the excavations in 1903 and 1904, together with the records of the excavations in front of Pavšlar’s barn in 1901, to the National Museum of Slovenia in Ljubljana.25 In 1905 the regional road had to be repaired. Archaeological excavations were performed in parallel with the road repairs (today parc. no 407/2, 423/5 and 992), under the leadership of Dr Walter Schmid, curator of the Provincial Museum. From 11 May to 28 July 1905 some 213 gravesites were excavated in a strip 80 metres long and at most 20 metres wide, and were first presented by W. Schmid at an anthropology conference in Salzburg in the same year.26 A comprehensive publication was prepared in 1907.27 A map of the cemetery with numbered gravesites which are all oriented in the same direction was produced at a scale of 1 : 250. The catalogue of the gravesites gave the dimensions of the graves, and the positions of the skeletons and the accessories were described. Some of the more beautiful artefacts were also photographed. After the completion of the excavations the artefacts were received by the present-day National Museum of Slovenia. This was the last major excavation of the Lajh Late Antiquity cemetery in the 20th century. The collection of artefacts acquired by T. Pavšlar between 1898 and 1904 were purchased in 1937 by the royal provincial administration of the Drava Banovina and given to the National Museum of Slovenia.28 Nearly 80 years passed before the gravesites at Lajh were mentioned again in the literature. A short notice in the journal Varstvo spomenikov (Monument Conservation)29 stated that during the renovation of the Standard factory in the nineteen seventies, “quite well-preserved human bones, including skulls” were found in the interior. Not until 1982 was any new archaeological research performed at the Lajh cemetery. Owing to the planned asphalting at Sejmišče, archaeological monitoring was prescribed, as part of which three soundings were taken across the road in front of the building at Sejmišče 4. In the third and highest-lying sounding, measuring 4 × 4 metres, two skeletons were found at a depth of nearly two metres. The ab- dominal area of the adult skeleton was damaged. A lining of large stones surrounded the skull, which was lying on a stone. The skeleton was oriented W–E (head–feet) and had no accessories. The second, nearly perfectly preserved skeleton lay more than a metre to the north and half a metre higher than the first. The grave was also lined with stones. The skeleton of a child lay parallel to the first skeleton and was also without accessories. Both skeletons lay in the prehistorical cultural layer. Based on their orientation and the burial method they were ascribed to Romanised aborigines from the 6th and 7th centuries.30 In 2004 the discoveries at the Lajh cemetery once again attracted the attention of the general public. Two gravesites were discovered during archaeological monitoring of work with heavy machinery. Upon the extension of the excavation area thirteen gravesites were discovered, of which twelve were excavated. Since the thirteenth gravesite was not threatened by the construction work, it was documented and covered. All of the skeletons had their heads oriented towards the east, except one which was oriented west-east. Eight of the skeletons had accessories. Two of the women’s gravesites were exceptionally opulent, and we would like to mention just a few of these artefacts. In the first of the gravesites a few round golden fibulae were found, decorated using the cloisonné technique, a few separate gold-plated silver fibulae, a gold-plated silver bracelet, a gold ring and several necklace beads, and in the second a few round fibulae, also decorated in cloisonné, several glass beads and a large amber bead. As was established

61 Varstvo spomenikov, 44

at the time, this group of gravesites fills a gap in the layout of the cemetery, between the work of Schmid, Žmavc and Schulz. 31 In the next year, monitoring was once again performed in this area in Kranj, and three more gravesites were discovered to the southeast of the building at Sejmišče 4, along Sava street. A woman’s grave with two gold-plated silver S-fibulae and a necklace was preserved in its entirety, while the other two were partially damaged.32 Three years later, large-scale archaeological research was carried out once again at the Lajh Late Antiq- uity cemetery. Owing to the planned construction of three blocks of flats in the area of the cemetery, or more precisely at the location of the Sava tyre factory buildings, mandatory preliminary archaeological research was prescribed pursuant to the then-current legislation. From sources it is known that gravesites were excavated in this area at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, but we do not know how many gravesites there were and the extent of the damage to the gravesites during the construction of the factory. Therefore in May 2007 the Kranj Regional Unit of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia took preliminary archaeological soundings. The results were presented in a preliminary report in May 2007.33 Owing to the positive results on parc. no 404, 406 and 407/1, preservative archaeological research was performed from 19 June to 4 September 2007. It was found that T. Pavšlar excavated around one hundred gravesites at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. His work methods could also be reconstructed from the remains of the gravesites. We imme- diately became aware of the fact that only the gravesites had been excavated, and the area around them had not been destroyed. The skeletons had been removed from the graves and the findings collected. The excavators had saved only the apparently more valuable artefacts, as we found various metal artefacts as well as horn combs in the grave fill. The grave fill also contained human bones. The anthropological analysis is not yet done, but in view of the number of bones per individual grave, we assume that the skeletons were not mixed, but the remains were thrown back into the original gravesites. During this time we discovered 145 gravesites, of which 49 had not been excavated (Figure 3). Among this group we counted seven double burials (two skeletons in a single grave) and one triple burial (three skeletons in a single grave). Also of interest is the fact that only a small percentage of the gravesites (counting only those that had not been excavated) were without accessories. In order to determine the precise number of gravesites excavated in the past, we also had to perform anthropological assessments of the bone remains found in the fill of trenches which could not to a high degree of certainty be defined as graves. The preservative archaeological research performed in the former parking lot of the Sava factory gave us new insights into the Lajh Late Antiquity cemetery. In particular we cleared up numerous questions which had arisen as early as during the first excavations at the end of the 19th century. The presence of the Longobards in Kranj in the 6th century CE was additionally confirmed, and the presence of the Eastern Goths became clearer. Once again Byzantine elements appeared, giving rise to speculation about the presence of a Byzantine encampment. We were finally able to establish the southern boundary of the Late Antiquity cemetery, and we are also inferring its eastern boundary. Further excavations on Sava street (in front of the former Pavšlar house) would of course show how far the cemetery extended to the east.

The problem of past reconstructions of the maps of the cemetery

Due to the archaeological excavations in 2007 and the planned construction work (repairing of Sava street) in 2008, the question of the cemetery,s extent became crucially important. During the preservative archaeological research in 2007 were checked the maps in order to ascertain the size of the cemetery. It turned out that one of the maps, published in 2006, was incorrect; in particular it did not include the excavations performed by the Provincial Museum under the auspices of Ferdinand Schulz.34 We decided to make a new reconstruction of the layout of the cemetery based on the existing publications (Figure 4). We overlaid a map of that part of Kranj from the times of the first excavations at the Lajh cemetery in electronic form onto a modern cadastral map. The map was made by Simon Rutar and sent to the Central Commission in Vienna in 1899 together with a report.35 By comparing that map to the modern

62 Varstvo spomenikov, 44 cadastre we wanted to determine the extent to which the parcel boundaries had changed, and we were particularly interested in whether differences had appeared between the various maps made at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century and how many there were. Only a few of the parcel boundaries which have been preserved to the present day match those on the modern cadastre. This includes most of the boundaries of the orchard, the boundary between Pavšlar’s land (today parc. no 406 and 407/1) and the land on which a slaughterhouse was later built (today parc. no 409/1 and 410/1), certain contours of the regional road (today parc. no 992) and the bank of the Sava River. The Church of Sts. Fabian, Se- bastian and Rok in Pungart (Ger. Baumgarten, also Pungert and Pungrat) is marked incorrectly on this map, but in this context its location is not very important. In view of the older finds, Pavšlar’s excavations and his first finds, S. Rutar drew a hypothetical boundary of the cemetery as well as the location of an opulent woman’s grave excavated in 1898 (marked on his map with the letter e). Rutar examined the location of the grave, but only after it had already been dug up. The marking of the site of the excavation is thus based only on eyewitness accounts.36 In 1901, J. Szombathy ordered the production of a map, as he had established that the existing ones were obsolete.37 When we overlay that map onto the modern cadastre we can see that the parcel boundaries have remained more or less up to the present, for instance the Pungart panhandle, the boundary of the orchard, the boundaries of the main and also the side roads, the lines of Pavšlar’s house and the barn, and part of the bank of the Sava River (and considerably less of the Kokra River). The position of Pavšlar’s new house and the barn, as well as various boundary lines, was corrected several times on this map. The new map was Szombathy’s basis for his further sketches, and he also used it later in his publication in 1902.38 He marked the hypothetical boundary of the cemetery on the map, including the extreme northern point, marked with the letter D, where according to oral sources there were more gravesites to be found. The old Vidmar cellar and house on Szombathy’s cadastral map match the position of these structures on Rutar’s map. We can conclude that these two maps almost entirely match. Some minor differences appear due to Szombathy’s hand drawing and various corrections he made. In comparing Rutar’s map with the one Szombathy published in 1902, we find that the latter is more accurate. The boundaries of the Mlinski potok stream (parc. no 403, today 407/1) and the bank of the Sava are completely accurate, as is the northern boundary of Pavšlar’s orchard (parc. no 398/2, today 398/5) and various other parcel boundaries and the boundary of the regional road (parc. no 992). Despite the fairly accurate map he had with respect to the parcel boundaries on the sketch of the layout of the cemetery, Szombathy was fairly inconsistent (the width of the road is not correct, nor is the angle at the crossroads, the locations of structures), and therefore the placement of the layout of the cemetery on the modern cadastral map is not completely accurate. The boundaries of parc. 992 (regional road), the boundary between parc. no 409/1 and 410/1 (Szombathy’s excavation), and parc. no 406 or 407/1 (Pavšlar’s land) were selected as the main points of dispute with regard to placement, as well as the marking of the archaeological dig which Szombathy marked on the map published in 1902. The graves drawn on the map are oriented. Skeletons are drawn into the majority of them. As Szombathy writes, he himself is supposed to have excavated 58 gravesites on parc. no 409/1 (today 409/1, 409/2 and 410/1), while the other three were excavated by J Pečnik.39 At the crossroads, on parc. no 423/1 (today 423/5 and 992), five more gravesites were found where they dug the two test trenches. We can thus conclude that J. Szombathy and J. Pečnik excavated 66 gravesites, but there are 68 graves drawn on the map, in which there could be at least 70 skeletons, since two of the graves were double. On the map, skeletons and not graves are marked with numbers 12 and 14 and 23 and 24. One grave is marked as 1a, and nine skeletons do not have marked graves (graves no 6-11 and 14-16), while graves 56-58 do not have skeletons drawn in them. On parc. no 409/1 there are three other graves (two on the eastern part of his excavation, marked as P (“2 Graeber P’s”), and a grave on the western side) which are not numbered. On the basis of Szombathy’s text we can ascribe these gravesites to Pečnik, who took two soundings at this location in 1900.40 Szombathy also drew three unnumbered graves in the extreme NW corner of parc. no 407 (today 406, 407/1 and 992), on Pavšlar’s land, for which we have no data on who excavated them and when. In 1901 excavations were also performed by the Provincial Museum under the leadership of F. Schulz. A map was drawn from which it can be deduced together with the writings of contemporaries that Schulz dug on the street (today parc. no 407/2 and 992) and finished somewhere in front of Pavšlar’s new

63 Varstvo spomenikov, 44

house.41 The graves were numbered, and owing to this it was possible to locate 58 gravesites. Their positions can be inferred from the sketched skeletons at the edge of the sketch. The three graves between the two roads were inserted more for informative purposes, although all three are marked with one number, 25. It is not clear, however, whether the number refers to the number of gravesites discovered on present-day parc. no 423/5. There are no written data that excavations were performed on this parcel, except for the test sounding done by Szombathy and Pečnik in 1901, when only five gravesites were discovered. The locations of the excavations by Szombathy and Pavšlar are also marked on the map, with the numbers of the excavated graves. Owing to the inaccurate drawing of the layout, it is very difficult to overlay it onto either Szombathy’s map or the modern cadastre. Certain angles between the roads and rivers indicate that they are not merely errors in scale or orientation, but that the sketch was drawn without a suitable cadastral basis, despite its accuracy. The points selected as disputed points for the placement of Schulz’s map onto the modern cadastre are mainly those closest to the excavated gravesites, since the probability of error is lower than that for more distant points. Also selected were the road boundaries, and for comparison we also used the placement of Schulz’s graves in the 198042 publication on the Lajh cemetery and the reconstruction of the cemetery from 1995.43 We have to point out, however, that the road boundaries do not correspond with Rutar’s cadastre, or with Szombathy’s, which was made in the same year as F. Schulz’s excavations. The excavated gravesites were therefore placed so that they lie within the road boundaries, as on Szombathy’s cadastre. In 1903 and 1904, J. Žmavc carried out excavations on parc. no 398/2 (today 398/4, 398/5, 398/6, 398/7, 992 and 994). In the publication on the excavations from 1904 a map of the confluence of the Sava and Kokra rivers was presented with the hypothetical size of the cemetery.44 The map is very similar to Szombathy’s or is probably a combination of both of his maps. In comparison with Szombathy’s published map, Žmavc’s contains smaller errors, for example in the deviation of the lines of the barn and various other structures. The parcels on which Žmavc’s excavations were carried out, both rivers (the Sava and the Kokra) and the roads match well. The modern cadastre matches this map at the same points as Szombathy’s map, which is further evidence that Žmavc used Szombathy’s map as a starting point. The part of the cadastral map or parcel where the excavations were carried out in 1903 and 1904 is drawn relatively accurately. The lines and certain boundaries in the orchard, which are not marked on the other maps, are important for the placement onto the map of the layout of the gravesites which Žmavc excavated. The hypothetical southern and eastern boundaries of the cemetery are also drawn on the map, probably taken from Szombathy. A layout of the excavated gravesites is also presented in the same publication.45 It is a relatively accurate sketch of the cemetery which however lacks clear reference points for placing the overlay. It does however include some of the boundaries of the orchard, trenches and fences, with the help of which it is possible to place it. Žmavc’s cadastre, on which the orchard is best defined, was in fact of great help here. The sketch can be overlaid on the north end using these boundaries. To the south runs a garden wall, marked “Gartenmauer”, along the line of the parcel in the modern cadastre, and a second or an older garden wall, “frühere Gartenmauer”, runs along the line of the road on Szombathy’s (and of course on Žmavc’s) cadastre. 115 oriented skeletons are drawn on the map. According to Žmavc, he excavated a total of 107 (+ 5) gravesites. In the list, three of the gravesites have additional letter designations a and b along with the numerical designations. These are gravesites 24a and 24b, 33a and 33b, and 36a and 36b. From the description it is not clear why Žmavc did not assign them sequential numbers but added the letter designations. The last major excavations at the Lajh cemetery under the leadership of Walter Schmid were conducted in 1905. In a publication in 1907 both a map of the cemetery in Kranj and a layout of the excavated gravesites were presented.46 Schmid also drew the hypothetical boundary of the cemetery on the map of the cemetery. The northern boundary runs further to the south, and the southern boundary is approximately the same as in Szombathy’s map. Schmid’s map matches Szombathy’s cadastre and also matches the modern cadastre at the same points as it corresponds with Szombathy’s. The lines of the Sava and Kokra rivers and the roads, buildings and parcels are quite similar. As on all other maps also on this one the road towards Čirče winds slightly along the boundary of present-day parc. no 407/2 and 992. However, Schmid did not include the gentle curves in his layout of the gravesites. In that layout the

64 Varstvo spomenikov, 44 road is straight, so it was difficult to overlay it onto his map and also onto the modern cadastre. Another problem is the fact that the sketch includes almost no reference points which could assist us in overlaying it onto the cadastral map. Therefore we were only able to use the boundary wall to Pavšlar’s yard (today parc. no 406 and 407/1) marked with the letter b, the entrance to the yard marked with the letter a and the corner wall, which is marked on the map with the letter c (today parc. no 406 and 410/1). If the road was straightened in this section, then the western side of the cemetery would no longer run below the road, but considerably farther to the south. Therefore we decided to split the map about in the middle of the layout and thus adjust it to the course of the road. In this way we managed to make it so that none of the gravesites lay south of the road, but ran along the southern boundary of the roadbed. We based this on the north indicator and on the sketches on which Schmid and Szombathy marked the size of the cemetery. In any case, some of the gravesites on the southeast side unavoidably overlap with those discovered in 1901 under the supervision of F. Schulz. In the layout the gravesites are numbered, and all of them are oriented in the same direction except one or are not oriented. We were able to determine the general orientation of some of the gravesites on the basis of their descriptions in the publication. The gravesites numbered 53, 98, 119, 134 and 135 should be oriented east – southeast, gravesites 65, 70, 72, 77, 123, 141, 142/II, 166, 183 and 204 east – northeast, gravesites 81 and 142/I east, and gravesite 202 should be oriented towards the north. The only gravesite which has a unique orientation, also on Schmid’s layout, is gravesite 202. Taking the sketch into account we were able to conclude that his indication of the orientation means the cardinal direction towards which the skeleton’s head points. In any case it is not logical for the skeletons to have their heads toward the E or E-NE, as this would represent an excessive discrepancy with respect to the known situation at the Lajh cemetery, so we decided not to take this into account for these cases. The gravesites which were supposed to be oriented E-SE were not corrected, as they were already oriented in that direction. According to the publication, 212 gravesites were supposed to have been excavated.47 The length of the graves or skeletons is marked on the map by the length of the marking of the gravesite. The layout also includes sixteen gravesites with special markings, some of which had already been excavated by Schmid and not included in the total number of discovered gravesites, and gravesites which held multiple skeletons, which were marked with a number and letter and counted as single graves. Schmid marked three burials in one grave as 11a, 11b and 11c, while 79 and 79a refer to two burials in one grave, as do gravesites 142 and 142a. Gravesites 54a and 60a are sites which were excavated in the past, which Schmid assumed had been excavated by Szombathy in 1901. Gravesite 95b is supposed to have been excavated by Pavšlar in 1901, and gravesite 64a is supposed to have been excavated during the time the cemetery was in use, while for gravesites 89a, 64a, 91a, 95a, and 96a, Šmid did not record who excavated them or when. Gravesites 95c and 148a do not appear on the list. From a detailed review of the layout of the excavated gravesites we also determined that gravesites marked with numbers 148 and 170 appear twice, and there is also a gravesite marked 215, although Šmid mentions only 213 gravesites in the list of gravesites. It was also not possible to determine the locations of gravesites 24, 25, 70, 144, 147, 163, 188 and 205. In the record of gravesite 215 we were able to determine with near certainty that this was a mistake and that it referred to gravesite 205. Gravesite 170 is marked twice, and one of them is probably gravesite 70;48 gravesite 148 is also marked twice, but we were unable to determine which of them is erroneous. To this map we added the gravesites discovered in 1982, 2004 and 2005,49 which allows us to determine a framework size of the cemetery. The last item we used in the reconstruction of the layout of the cemetery was the result of the preventive archaeological research performed in 2007. Through these excavations we determined the south-eastern boundary of the cemetery. Through a comparison of the current boundaries with the older maps we were able to determine that the boundary line was envisaged better by Rutar50 than by Szombathy.51 By overlaying Szombathy’s layout with the layout of the gravesites excavated in 2007 and taking into account the fact that some of the points which seemed less important to Szombathy are somewhat inaccurate, there are three unnumbered gravesites within the excavation from 2007. We found three excavated gravesites close to this spot. Since we do not know of any data about who excavated them or what was found in the gravesites, it is impossible to ascertain whether these are the same gravesites. A detailed

65 Varstvo spomenikov, 44

review of all of the known archival resources was also unsuccessful. But it did produce the information that there is a sketch which to date has never been published.52 This is a sketch of the gravesites excavated in 1901 north of the barn (today parc. no 407/1, Figure 5). Žmavc, who at the time had been commis- sioned to perform excavations by Pavšlar, precisely described in his field journal all of the gravesites and their accessories, including their positions, and even sketched some of the artefacts. As can be seen from the text, he tried to follow the instructions for excavating gravesites recommended by W. A. Neumann, and wrote them down on the first page of his notebook. Although the sketch is somewhat inaccurate, it is drawn to scale, and when we overlaid it with the map of gravesites from 2007, the gravesites covered each other. The map includes the northern boundary of the barn (today parc. no 404) and the boundary of Pavšlar’s yard (today parc. no 406 and 407/1), which we used as reference points. A linden was marked on the western neighbouring parcel, which is probably the same linden indicated by Szombathy on his map, and we can also see it in the photograph53 from Szombathy’s research. The sketched gravesites were also marked from 1 to 9 on the layout, and the soldier’s grave was marked as 27 jul. A total of ten gravesites were excavated in the autumn of 1901. The sites were not oriented, but Žmavc wrote in his journal that their orientations differed by only a few degrees. Taking into account the map comparison and the sources we determined which gravesites from 1901 most likely correspond with ours. Since we found bone remains in the majority of the gravesites excavated in 2007 which were anthropologically defined,54 we were able to compare these elements. Of course we have to take into account the fact that Žmavc had sexed the skeletons himself, and not in all of the gravesites, and furthermore he had in all likelihood also relied on the accompanying artefacts in order to determine the sex. Žmavc wrote in his journal55 that a “robust skull with a low brow” had been found in gravesite 1, he did not assign a sex to the skeletons from gravesites 2 and 3, in gravesite 4 in his opinion they had excavated “a man who must have still been relatively young”, in gravesite 5 “judging from the bones, [they had] probably buried children, at least two”, in gravesite 6 “at least two had been buried side by side, but the bones were mostly already decomposed”, in gravesite 7 “ the interred was a woman, but very robust”, gravesite 8 contained “highly decomposed bones”, gravesite 9 was a “child’s grave” and the gravesite excavated on 27 July 1901 contained “robust male bones”.

J. Žmavc 1901 Sex, age Lajh 2007 Sex, age

Gravesite 1 ?, adult Gravesite 122 m., adultus Gravesite 2 / Gravesite 13 f., adultus (over 15) Gravesite 3 / Gravesite 121 ?, adultus Gravesite 4 m., adult Gravesite 12 f.?, adultus Gravesite 5 ?, child (2?) Gravesite 14 f., adultus (over 15) Gravesite 6 ?, adult? (2?) Ruins of Vidmar house / Gravesite 7 f., adult Gravesite 123 f., adultus56 Gravesite 8 ?, ? Gravesite 11 f.?, adultus Gravesite 9 ?, child Gravesite 10 m.?, juvenis (around 15) 27. Jul. m., adult Gravesite 129 ?, ?

The table presents a comparison of the ten gravesites excavated by J. Žmavc with the gravesites excavated in 2007. Some of the data match and further confirm our spatial equating of the gravesites from 1901 with those from 2007. We can thus deduce that Žmavc was a precise excavator and that we can also rely on both his maps and his records with a high degree of certainty.

66 Varstvo spomenikov, 44

Comparison of combined maps and hypothetical number of gravesites

We have presented above the maps of the individual excavators. These maps were presented together only in 1980 in a monograph by Vida Stare.57 The publication included reprints of Žmavc’s layout from 1904 and Schmid’s from 1907, and the map of Schulz’s excavations from 1901 were published for the first time. The gravesites on Žmavc’s and Schmid’s maps were renumbered and thus correspond to the numbering in the catalogue. The hypothetical boundary of the cemetery together with the boundaries of the older excavations were drawn in a map in a scale of 1 : 500; it is not however clear why the boundaries of Žmavc’s excavations were not included. When we compare our map with the one from 1980, we find that the boundaries of the individual excavations match. Although Stare had predicted that Szombathy had also made a map of the gravesites, his documentation was not available at the time, so the boundaries of Szombathy’s excavations were drawn according to the map published by Schmid in 1907. A decade and a half later, Boris Vičič made a further attempt at creating a combined map.58 This map matches our reconstruction closest of all with regard to the boundaries of the individual excavations. The greatest discrepancies appeared in overlaying the excavations of W. Schmid, which appear farther to the north in the 1995 map. His gravesites thus overlap with those excavated by F. Schulz. An attempt at composing a combined map of the burial site was made by Ursula Ibler.59 First of all, instead of taking into account the boundaries of the individual excavations, she used the individual gravesites. One major deficiency of this map was not taking Schulz’s map into account, for which there wasn’t any room, since the layout of Schmid’s excavations is set too far to the south. Szombathy’s map was also set too far south, and thus lies within present-day parc. no 406. It is not clear whether Ibler included the five gravesites excavated in the two soundings on parc. no 423/1 (today 423/5 and 992), since they are covered by the gravesites excavated by Schmid. It certainly does not include the three unnumbered gravesites which Szombathy drew into parc. no 407 (today 406, 407/1 and 992). The layout of Žmavc’s excavations is located relatively accurately on the combined map, but is also slightly too far to the south. As mentioned above, Ibler’s map was used as a basis for the layout published in 2006. The only added items are the gravesites excavated in 1982 and 2004.60 In reconstructing the map of the cemetery the question constantly arises of how many gravesites were actually excavated, since the number of gravesites by the individual excavators varies significantly in the various publications. The table below includes a few such examples, to which we have added our count of the gravesites, for which we relied mainly on the layouts of the gravesites (see above).

PUBLICATIONS EXCAVATION Szombathy (1902) Šmid (1907) Stare Bona61 Knific Ibler 2007

Pavšlar 1898–1904? 100–500 250–300 200 / 150–200 96

Szombathy, Pečnik 1901 66 66 60 66 66 66 68

Schulz 1901 over 100 58 59 58 / 59 58

Žmavc 1903–1904 / 112 115 114 112 112 115

Šmid 1905 / 213 213 213 213 215 228

According to our expectations the forecast number of gravesites differs the most in comparison with Pavšlar, since no documentation is available, and various authors have relied either solely on contemporary accounts or on their own hypotheses about the number of gravesites. It was only through the

67 Varstvo spomenikov, 44 archaeological research conducted in 2007 that we were able to determine that nearly one hundred gravesites had been excavated on parc. no 404, 406 and 407/1. The question still remains of how many gravesites were excavated during the construction of the new Pavšlar house on present-day parc. no 403 and to the west of the former Pavšlar’s Mill on parc. no 398/7. In all likelihood at least 150 gravesites were excavated on his land. Thus in a little over one hundred years at least 630 gravesites were excavated, and we can surmise that the actual number is greater and probably exceeds 700. With this the Lajh cemetery ranks among the largest Late Antiquity cemetery in central Europe.

Conclusion

In this paper we have presented an attempt to reconstruct the layout of the Lajh cemetery on the basis of new data acquired through the preventative archaeological research conducted in 2007, and also using the initial publications and even handwritten sources. Through this we were able to ascertain the location of the cemetery’s southern boundary, while the pinpointing of the eastern, northern and western boundaries will require further archaeological research. Through a comparison of various publications and maps, various inconsistencies were revealed, for example the number of excavated gravesites or the spatial placement of the layouts of the individual excavations. The Lajh cemetery thus ranks as one of the largest and most important Late Antiquity cemetery in central Europe, which has been confirmed by the research performed by the Kranj Regional Unit of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural heritage of Slovenia in 2004, 2005 and 2007. However, in the future a review of the older excavations will have to be a priority task for the archaeological profession.

Notes 1 Official Journal of Gorenjska No 19/83–195. 2 Simon RUTAR, Ein Goldschmuck der fränkischen Zeit aus Krainburg, Mittheilungen der k.k. Central-Commission für Erforschung und Erhaltung der Kunst- und Historischen Denkmale N.F. 25, Vienna 1899, 143. 3 Josef SZOMBATHY, Grabfunde der Völkerwanderungszeit vom Saveufer bei Krainburg, Mittheilungen der k.k. Central-Commission für Erforschung und Erhaltung der Kunst- und Historischen Denkmale 3. Vol. 1, Vienna 1902, 231. Marked as point D on the ground plan. 4 RUTAR 1899 (note 2), 143. 5 RUTAR 1899 (note 2), 143. 6 SZOMBATHY 1902 (note 3), 227, 228. 7 Anton KOBLAR, Starinske najdbe pod mestom Kranjem (Ancient findings below the town of Kranj), Izvestja Muzejskega društva za Kranjsko 8, Ljubljana 1898, 220, 221. 8 Slovenski list III/62, Ljubljana, 10 Dec. 1898, 367. 9 SZOMBATHY 1902 (note 3), 226, 227. 10 Simon RUTAR, Notizen 45, Mittheilungen der k.k. Central-Commission für Erforschung und Erhaltung der Kunst- und Historischen Denkmale N.F. 26, Vienna 1900, 106, 107. 11 SZOMBATHY 1902 (note 3), 226. 12 Timotej KNIFIC, Vojščaki iz mesta Karnija (Soldiers from the town of Carnium), Kranjski zbornik, Kranj 1995, 25. 13 Letter from J. Pečnik to J. Szombathy of 27 July 1900. Original kept in the Archives of the Museum of Natural History in Vienna. For a detailed treatment of the gravesite: Boštjan ODAR, The archer from Carnium, Arheološki vestnik 57, Ljubljana 2006, 243–275; cf. KNIFIC 1995 (note 12), 27. 14 SZOMBATHY 1902 (note 3), 226–230. 15 ODAR 2006 (note 13), Fig. 3. 16 KNIFIC 1995 (note 12), 23–32. 17 Handwritten journal of J. Žmavc, record of fieldwork from 1905, in which the progress of the excavations in Pavšlar’s yard from 15 July to 25 October 1901 is precisely documented. Original kept in the Archive of the Archaeology Department of the National Museum of Slovenia in Ljubljana. 18 KNIFIC (note 12) 1995, 30. 19 Manuscript of F. Schulz, list of gravesites excavated in autumn 1901 and plan of gravesites. Original kept in the Archive of the Archaeol- ogy Department of the National Museum of Slovenia, no 383. 20 Vida STARE: Kranj, nekropola iz èasa preseljevanja ljudstev (Necropolis from the times of the migration of peoples), Katalogi in mono- grafije 18, Ljubljana 1980. We have no complete graves from these gravesites, so a representative sample was exhibited at the former Provincial Museum in Ljubljana. 21 Alfons MÜLLNER, Die "Frankengräber" bei Krainburg, Argo 9/1, Ljubljana 1901, 156. 22 Alois RIEGL, Die Krainburger Funde, Jahrbuch der k.k. Zentral-Kommission für Erforschung und Erhaltung der Kunst- und Histo-

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rischen Denkmale N.F. 1, Vienna 1903, 218–250. 23 Jakob ŽMAVC, Das Gräberfeld im Lajh bei Krainburg, Jahrbuch der k.k. Zentral-Kommission für Erforschung und Erhaltung der Kunst- und Historischen Denkmale N.F. 2, Vienna 1904, 235–274. 24 Handwritten field journal of J. Žmavc, which contains precise documentation of the progress of the excavations on parcel no 398/2 in 1903 and 1904. The original is kept in the Archive of the Archaeology Department of the National Museum of Slovenia in Ljubljana, no 85–88. 25 KNIFIC 1995 (note 12), 31. 26 Walter ŠMID, Das Gräberfeld von Krainburg, Mittheilungen des Musealvereines für Krain 18, Ljubljana 1905, 6–96. 27 Walter ŠMID, Die Reihengräber von Krainburg, Jahrbuch für Altertumskunde 1, Vienna 1907, 55–77. 28 A detailed history of the research and the history of the purchasing of the artefacts acquired by T. Pavšlar is given in: Helena BRAS KERNEL: Ženski grob z zlatim nakitom iz Lajha v Kranju (Woman’s Grave with Golden Jewellery from Lajh in Kranj), diploma thesis, typewritten manuscript kept by the Archaeology Department, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana 2002, 4–75. 29 Draško JOSIPOVIČ, Kranj, Varstvo spomenikov 24, Ljubljana 1982, 184, 185. 30 Milan SAGADIN, Kranj, Lajh, Varstvo spomenikov 25, Ljubljana 1983, 252. 31 Milan SAGADIN, Kranj – Grobišče Lajh (The Lajh Burial Ground), Varstvo spomenikov, Poročila 39–41 (2000–2004), Ljubljana 2006, 77, 78. 32 Zlata doba Kranija (The Golden Age of Carnium), Arheološka raziskovanja ZVKDS OE Kranj v Lajhu leta 2004 in 2005 (Archaeological Research by the IPCHS, Kranj RU in Lajh in 2004 and 2005), pamphlet published for an exhibition by the Gorenjska Museum and the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, Kranj Regional Unit (no listing of author or year published). 33 Judita Lux, Poročilo o sondiranju na najdišču Kranj – grobišče Lajh (EŠD 5145) (Report on soundings at the Lajh cemetry in Kranj), Kranj 2007, typed manuscript. Kept in the Archive of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, Kranj Regional Unit. 34 SAGADIN 2006 (note 31), 78. This reconstruction of the layout of the cemetery was probably taken from the layout published in 2001 by Ursula IBLER, Krainburg, Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde 17, Berlin, New York 2001, Abb. 35. The map of the cemetery additionally includes only the gravesites discovered through the soundings taken in 1982 and the gravesites discovered during the archaeological research conducted in 2004. 35 Handwritten report and map by S. Rutar. Original kept in the Szombathy Collection in the Archive of the Museum of National History in Vienna. Report published by RUTAR 1899 (note 2), but without the map. 36 RUTAR 1899 (note 2), 143. 37 Map published in: ODAR (note 13), Fig. 2. 38 SZOMBATHY 1902 (note 3), 226, 227. 39 SZOMBATHY 1902 (note 3), 229. 40 Cf. ODAR 2006 (note 13), 268. 41 SCHULZ 1901 (note 19). 42 STARE 1980 (note 20), Fig. 5. 43 KNIFIC 1995 (note 12), Fig. 3. 44 ŽMAVC 1904 (note 23), Fig. 185. 45 ŽMAVC 1904 (note 23), Fig. 186. 46 ŠMID 1907 (note 27), M. 2: 2, 3. 47 ŠMID 1907 (note 27). 48 One of the graves marked 170 appears on Schmid’s map of gravesites which was reprinted in STARE 1980 (note 20), Fig. 4, already marked with the number 70. 49 Maps kept in the Archive of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, Kranj Regional Unit. 50 RUTAR 1899 (note 2), 143. 51 According to the account of T. Pavšlar there should not be any more gravesites beneath the barn, so the line of the hypothetical southern boundary was drawn too far to the north; SZOMBATHY 1902 (note 3), 227, 228. 52 ŽMAVC 1905 (note 17). 53 ODAR 2006 (note 13), Fig. 4 and 7. 54 The anthropological study was performed by Dr Petra Leben Seljak, 25 February 2008, at the headquarters of the IPCHS, Kranj RU. 55 ŽMAVC 1905 (note 17). 56 A fragment of a child’s skull was also found in the fill. 57 STARE 1980 (note 20), 8, 12, Fig. 2–5. 58 Map published in KNIFIC, 1995 (note 12), Fig. 3. 59 IBLER 2001 (note 33), Abb. 35. 60 SAGADIN 2006 (note 31), 78. 61 Istvan BÓNA, Vida Stare, Kranj, nekropola iz časa preseljevanja ljudstev (Kranj, necropolis from the time of the migrations of peoples), Archaeologiai értesitõ 108, Budapest 1981, 294–299. This critique of the work of V. Stare from 1980 was used due to the different counting of the gravesites. 62 SZOMBATHY 1902 (note 3), 226, 227.