Carinthia and its south-western connections in the Early Iron Age.

Abstract

The south-western part of the Carinthian (or Frög) group of the Early Iron Age, located between the valley of the Gail/Zilja and Villach/Beljak (Rosegg/Rožek), bordered the Veneti in northern Italy and the Sveta Lucija group in western Slovenia. The relationships with these neighbours, alongside the trade in amber from the Baltic Sea, salt from Hallstatt and Dürrnberg, as well as iron and lead from the Alps, brought to the eastern Alpine areas not only foreign luxury goods, but also people and ideas. One communication with the southern neighbours led across the Predel/Predil Pass, evidence of which can be found in a pin with a moulded neck from Napoleonwiese at Villach that has parallels in Tolmin. Further along the Soča/Isonzo, contacts between Caput Adriae and Carinthia/Kärnten may be reflected in the pottery with lead appliqués. Evidence of such contacts and circulations of ideas can also be seen in the use and development of the Unec type pendants, in the boat fibulae (Kahnfibeln) of the Villach type and the Paularo type of east Alpine animal-headed fibulae (ostalpine Tierkopffibel) that indicate a common artisanal tradition in Posočje and Kärnten in the 5th/4th century BC, as well as in the commonalities that the tumulus from Schmeißer Boden at Gurina shows with the tumuli in Mel near Belluno.