The History of Slovenia: Archaeological Evidence from Prehistory to the Slavs

Abstract

A brief overview of the history of Slovenia as told by archaeology runs from prehistory to the Slavs, from the earliest human traces some 300,000 years ago, through the momentous discovery of a purported Neanderthal musical instrument in Divje babe I Cave, the Eneolithic pile-dwellers in the Ljubljansko barje that used two-wheeled carts, the hoards and hillforts of the Bronze Age, and the prosperity of the Hallstatt period with a peak in artistic expression in situla art, to the arrival of the Celts, who mark the end of prehistory. In the last decades of the first century BC, the territory of what is now Slovenia was incorporated into the Roman Empire. Newcomers and indigenous inhabitants lived side by side in a number of flourishing towns, used newly constructed roads, and urbanized the countryside. The period of prosperity ended in late Antiquity with the decline of the Roman Empire. In the face of danger, the population either migrated to safer regions outside the borders of what is now Slovenia or retreated to naturally well-protected peaks that were additionally fortified. The early Slavs entered such a world but left little evidence in the archaeological record.