Abstract
The data about staroverstvo, i.e. about the pre-Christian religion in three regions in Slovenia are reviewed. The most archaic of them is the Posoško staroverstvo - the Old Religion around the upper Soča River valley. For it is characteristic the single, female god, the Great Mother, a number of spirits, importance of triangular features, rocks, caves, stone and wood, way of life in peace, reincarnation of souls. The Kraško staroverstvo - the Old Religion in the Karst region is intermediate between it and the East Slavic pre-Christian religion. The influence of the arrival of agriculture about 7,500 years ago is indicated in it. The Dolenjsko staroverstvo - the Old Religion in Western Lower Carniola reflects the Iron Age situation. Characteristic for it is the revering of waters as well as the neighboring hill-forts and bird-hills. The hill-forts started to be erected on the intrusion from east of the Y chromosome haplogroup R1b people about 6,500 years ago. The bird-hills served the birds, which would carry the soul of the deceased into the other world, possibly onto the other side of the moon. All these Old Religions indicate that the ancestors of Slovenes did not arrive in the 6th Century AD from east of the Carpathian Mountains but were aboriginal in Slovenia.
Highlights
The state Slovenia is in Europe, "between Venice and Vienna"
The Dolenjsko staroverstvo - the Old Religion in Western Lower Carniola reflects the Iron Age situation. Characteristic for it is the revering of waters as well as the bird-hills close to hill-forts
The bird-hills served the birds, which would carry the soul of the deceased into the other world, possibly onto the other side of the moon. All these Old Religions indicate that the ancestors of Slovenes did not arrive in the 6th Century AD from east of the Carpathian Mountains but were aboriginal in Slovenia
Summary
The state Slovenia is in Europe, "between Venice and Vienna". The Slovenes have a rich and diverse folk tradition. Sever (2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2017) presented the remnants of the pre-Christian way of life and religion in the region of Dolenjska [Lower Carniola], i.e. in the central and southeastern Slovenia - the yellow part on the Map 1. The people were using the healing abilities of the holy waters well into the 20th Century AD Another characteristic was the believing that the birds, especially the cranes, carry the souls of the deceased into the sky, for example onto the other side of the moon. Sever's (2013) map of gradišča [hill-forts] (blue circles) and tičnice [bird-hills] (red circles) in the historical Slovene regions in Slovenia and southern Austria. About the hill-forts in Slovenia there exist other reports, for example those collected in the publication Gradišča v zahodni in osrednji Sloveniji [Hill-forts in the Western and Central Slovenia], and in it i.a. that by Turk (2018)
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