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Weapons in Late Antique and Barbarised Graves in Istria

General archaeological investigations conducted in Istria in the second half of the 20th century have resulted in discoveries which speak of the particular social and ethnic situation of the late antique population. This has also been confirmed by archaeological evidence recovered from Istrian graves. The end of the antique period in Istria has been dated in the 4th to 6th centuries AD. However, the antique tradition is present in the post-antique barbarised necropolises of the Romanised indigenous population, and in those of the refugees who had arrived from Pannonia. No weapons have been recovered from the period of the short rule of the Visigoths (403 AD). The significant presence of the Ostrogoths (493 – 538) has been detected. Of particular importance are the funerary gifts of the Lombards in northern Istria. The Lombards, together with the Slavic peoples, plundered and burned the peninsula of Istria. Of great relevance is the grave of a Lombardic prince interring a horseman with weapons and horse equipment. The grave has been dated to approximately 600 AD. Due to their favourable geographic position and a well-developed economy, mentioned by Cassiodorus in the period of Ostrogoth rule, the Roman and the Romanised indigenous population left a fundamental mark on the civilisation of the 5th and the 6th centuries and on its specific achievements, and also in the period up to 778 AD, when Istria was included in the Frankish Empire. The Roman and the Romanised indigenous population was the main workforce which was also included in the auxiliary Byzantine military units whose task was, apart from providing manpower, to protect the peninsula by safeguarding the interior, the Istrian limes characterised by late antique, closely built settlements, and which was linked to the Alpine limes to the north. A sword sheath was found at the castrum at Sipar, and a long military knife has been recovered on the Brijuni islands. The graves of the Romanised indigenous inhabitants differ from those belonging to the barbarised immigrants who came in waves. The latter have been dated as early as the 6th century. The continuous presence of the Slavic peoples in the north-eastern part of the peninsula and the vicinity of the Lombards were the main reasons for the inhabitants of the peninsula to be organised militarily. They created a network with cavalry detachments and infantry units armed with bows and arrows and long combat knifes, along which information could flow rapidly. For this reason, weapons and parts of military equipment (long and short military knifes, belt buckles, small iron arrows) have been discovered in graves in the north and the north-west of Istria (Mejice, Veliki Mlun, Vižinada, Kaštel near Buje, Grožnjan, Roč). It is very significant that military knifes have also been observed in female graves. Weapons have not been found in the late antique and Byzantine graves in the south of Istria, including in the surroundings of Pula. This territory was the main agricultural area until Frankish rule.

Weapons; Late Antique; Barbarised Graves; Istria

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