Ostrogoths in Slovenia? Case study of a Late Antique cemetery in Miren, western Slovenia

Abstract

The archaeological investigations conducted between 2009 and 2013 at Japnišče, a site in Miren, unearthed part of a cemetery from the late 5th and early 6th century. It is a small cemetery located at a formerly major road that connected Aquileia and Emona. Nine burials have thus far been investigated, though the scattered finds of human bones in the mixed layers and fills of pits suggest the burial ground was originally larger. A particular feature of the cemetery is the East Germanic elements visible in the costume and the artificially deformed skulls. We argue that these elements indicate the presence of a Germanic population, with historical sources pointing to the Ostrogoths as the most likely people. The interpretation of the Miren cemetery relies on a meticulous typo-chronological analysis of the recovered grave goods, as well as a study of objects from the late 4th and early 5th centuries that originated from the Lower Danube Basin, and the study of East Germanic elements from the late 5th and the initial decades of the 6th century unearthed at sites in Slovenia. Finally, the site is compared with similar cemeteries in Italy and Austria.