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During the mid-3rd millennium BC central Slovenia, north-eastern Italy and the eastern Adriatic coast developed similar cultural traditions in pottery production which have been ascribed to the so-called Ljubljana culture. Among the investigated sites of this period, the Deschmann’s pile dwellings near Ig, in the Ljubljansko barje in central Slovenia, in their younger phase of existence (c. 2600-2400 B.C.), are probably the most famous. As many scholars already pointed out, numerous finds attributed to the Ljubljana culture suggest a potential interaction between this culture and the Bell Beaker one: among them, ceramic vessels with a specific ornamentation technique (the so-called barbed-wire decoration), flint daggers, boar’s tusks, metal daggers and awls, and so on. Nevertheless, a small pear-shaped vessel from the Deschmann’s pile dwellings, decorated with a linear band incised motif reminiscent of the Bell Beaker metope decoration, is the only artefact of this type known from central Slovenia. Despite its similarity with the typical beakers of the Bell Beaker culture, no precise typological analogies have been found in the literature. For these reasons, technological and chemical analysis have been carried out on it and comparative pottery materials attributed to the Ljubljana Culture with the purpose to understand if such beaker was locally produced or imported to central Slovenia. Since thefinds from the Deschmann’s pile dwellings cannot be sampled for destructive analysis, we have adopted a non-destructive approach combining X-ray Computed Microtomography (microCT) and Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis (PGAA) to explore their average structural and compositional (elemental) features, respectively. The results obtained so far will be presented at the Conference.

A few sparse vessels typologically attributed to the Gàta-Wieselburg Culture are known from Friuli Venezia Giulia region in north-eastern Italy. Such Culture developed between nowadays western Austria and Hungary during the Early-Middle Bronze Age (Reinecke Br A1b and A2, 2100–1700/1600 BC). Single artefacts, generally biconical double-handled jugs with well burnished surfaces, were discovered in caves of the Trieste Karst (Ciclami, Tartaruga, Teresiana and Ossa) and the Natisone valley (Velika jama). Most of them and a similar vessel from a Gàta-Wieselburg site in Hungary (Bük) have been investigated using several destructive and non-destructive techniques. X-ray computed microtomography, portable X-ray fluorescence, optical microscopy and absorbed lipid residue analyses by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry have been applied in order to study their vessel-forming technique, provenance and probable use. According to the preliminary results the Karst vessels were probably imported and the identification of rather uncommon lipids, whose precise identification is still ongoing, opens interesting questions about their possible function.

A long-term project has allowed the provenance identification of the main groups of Neolithic and Copper Age stone axes from Caput Adriae. Stone artefacts can indeed be scientifically analysed to detect the geological origin of the raw materials and thus try to recognize ancient exchange networks. This contribution summarizes the lithology, typology, distribution and origin of the main groups of Copper Age shaft-hole axes, using their geological signature, together with other available archaeological indicators of medium- and long-distance connections, to reconstruct the main cultural developments that occurred in the investigated area. The main groups of Copper Age shaft-hole axes - Ljubljana type, serpentinite and metadolerite artefacts - were produced from raw materials outcropping in the Eisenkappler Diabaszug complex (Austria), the Hohe Tauern (Austria) and probably the Banija Ophiolite Complex (Croatia) respectively, all areas rich in copper ore deposits. These data demonstrate that since the 4th millennium BC, the exchange network responsible for the distribution of stone axes in the Caput Adriae changed from long-distance Neolithic connection systems based mainly on Italian jades and eclogites to a more complex one, characterized by a new interest for the eastern Alpine and northern Balkan world. The association of lithic raw materials used for axe production and copper minerals shows that the changes in raw material exploitation strategies between the Neolithic and Copper Age are probably related to the development of the first metallurgy. Archaeological evidence, including the distribution of Ljubljana type stone axes, S. Antonino/Kozarac copper axes, and Vučedol and Ljubljana style pottery, shows that the coastal belt of Caput Adriae, from the Friuli plain to the Istrian peninsula and beyond, was strongly connected with nowadays central Slovenia at least since the last centuries of the 4th millennium BC to the mid 3rd millennium BC.

The Deschmann’s pile-dwellings near Ig (Dežmanova kolišča pri Igu), close to Ljubljana, are probably one of the most famous pile-dwellings of the 3rd millennium BC in the Alpine region: the first excavations were carried out in the 1870s and resumed only c. 90 years later in the same and adjacent areas of the Ljubljana Marshes (Ljubljansko barje). The publication of the materials by J. and P. Korošec in 1969 opened the way to various cultural interpretations, the most recent of which is that by E. Leghissa in 2017: according to her the older phase (28th – 26th century BC), is characterised by pottery of the so-called Ljubljansko barje variant of the Vučedol Culture (redefinition of Phase Ig I after Korošec 1959 and of Late Vučedol period-Vučedol C after Dimitrijević 1979), while the younger one (26th century BC to 25th century BC) has been named Ljubljana Culture (redefinition of Phase Ig II of Korošec 1959 and of Alpine variant of the Ljubljana Culture of Dimitrijević 1979 and of Classical Ljubljana Culture of Govedarica 1989). This study stresses numerous similarities of the Slovenian materials with the pottery of contemporary central European cultures, especially of Somogyvár-Vinkovci and Makó-Kosihy-Čaka cultures, but also with the closer Italian Karst, as indicated already before by other scholars. To check hypotheses based on typological comparisons and try to determine the mechanisms of cultural interactions that connected more or less distant regions, destructive – X-ray diffraction and optical microscopy – and non-destructive analyses – Xray computed microtomography and prompt gamma activation analysis – have been carried out thanks to the collaboration of an interdisciplinary international team. The results obtained so far for the pottery materials attributed to the Ljubljana Culture will be presented at the EAA Conference in Budapest.

About 20 Late Copper Age bowls with cross-shaped foots from Deschmann’s pile dwellings (Ljubljansko barje, central Slovenia) and Trieste Karst (North-Eastern Italy) have been investigated using X-ray computed microtomography (microCT) in order to study the vessel-forming technique, to characterise their pastes and to test the hypothesis that some Karst bowls could have been imported from nowadays central Slovenia or even more distant regions. In three selected virtual slices per sample, clay, lithic inclusions and pores have been segmented and quantified. In addition, the area, maximum length and width of each lithic inclusion have been calculated. Then, the microCT-derived results have been statistically analysed by principal component analysis (PCA). The orientation of pores and disjunctions in microCT volumes show that the basins of the bowls were built using mainly the coiling technique, while the base was shaped starting from a central piece, to which a layer of clay was added and then reshaped in order to produce the foots. The Slovenian bowls include both medium/coarse-grained and very fine- or fine-grained vessels mainly tempered with carbonate inclusions. The pastes of the Karst bowls are considerably heterogeneous. One bowl was most likely imported to the Karst but not from central Slovenia as it shows peculiar components, shape and decoration. The other two imported vessels show a very fine-grained paste comparable to the one of several samples from Deschmann’s pile dwellings. Such technological similarity is confirmed by PCA of microCT data and petrographic observations. Our study confirms the existence of strong cultural connections between central Slovenia and the northernmost Adriatic coast during the Late Copper Age.