Reflection of actions: The Late Bronze Age hoard from Moravička Sela, north-western Croatia

Martina Blečić Kavur,Ranko Starac,Boris Kavur

doi:10.35686/ar.20120.14

Abstract

The hoard from Moravička Sela in Gorski Kotar (Croatia), discovered thirty years ago, is a medium-sized hoard with a mixed composition, containing typologically different and differently preserved objects. With its defined, most likely reduced inventory, we have acquired a smaller number of tools and weapons, half products and items of symbolic importance. Its place of discovery could be included in the distribution of the hoards of the II Late Bronze Age horizon on the broader territory of Caput Adriae and its hinterland in the 13th and early 12th century BC. Its composition reflects, in particular, the cultural connections ranging from the south-eastern Alpine region to the wider Pannonian and Carpathian area. Therefore, the hoard from Moravička Sela can be interpreted as a materialized act of precisely determined cultural knowledge from a broader but contemporary cultural network of meaning.

Highlights

The hoard of bronze items from Moravička Sela, discovered near Brod Moravice on the northern part of Gorski Kotar in north-western Croatia, was an accidental discovery
The biography of its assemblage is complex – 30 years after its discovery it is presented for the first time as an integral archaeological find. It was unearthed in the mid-eighties in a protected valley of Moravička Sela during ploughing on the field of Ferderber family (c.p. 5339)
Benjamin and Marija Ferderber, confirmed that all the items originated from a single location. It was for decades kept in private property and following the initiative of Emil Crnković and Ethno Association Turan from Brod Moravice, the items were again assembled and in 2017 transmitted to the Maritime and Historical Museum of the Croatian Littoral in Rijeka

Summary

Place and things

The hoard of bronze items from Moravička Sela, discovered near Brod Moravice on the northern part of Gorski Kotar in north-western Croatia, was an accidental discovery (fig. 1). Discoveries from hoards in Peggau and Moravička Sela profoundly changed their distribution and moved the borders of their un derstanding within the broader cultural territory towards the south According to their form and decoration look most of miniature double picks similar – especially due to the oval disc on top of the body, which generally has a central oval profile, lowered “arms” of square cross-section and oval, an irregular perforated body of the pick. The only decoration, present on these miniatures, was a smaller knob on the central part of the body positioned between “arms” or one, sometimes, two ribs near the upper or/and the lower part of the body We are not able to determine a rule or pattern of weapon depositions in hoards of the core and periphery of the cultural area under discussion

Catalogue

The formula of time

Praxis and gnosis

The final act