The Hallstatt Archaeological Site in Vače is an Eastern Hallstatt archaeological site in Klenik, a village near

Vače Vače (; german: Waatsch''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 96.) is a settlement in the Municipality of Litija in central Slovenia. The a ...

on the border between the

Styria Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...

and

Lower Carniola Lower Carniola ( sl, Dolenjska; german: Unterkrain) is a traditional region in Slovenia, the southeastern part of the historical Carniola region. Geography Lower Carniola is delineated by the Ljubljana Basin with the city of Ljubljana to the no ...

regions in central-eastern

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

. It is best known for the

Vače Situla Vače (; german: Waatsch''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 96.) is a settlement in the Municipality of Litija in central Slovenia. The a ...

, one of the most notable archaeological treasures of

Investigations

Archaeological investigations near

—north of Klenik and east of Slemšek Hill ()—revealed foundations of a number of houses and graves from an

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

Illyrian settlement. Local farmers found the first graves at the site in 1877,Savnik, Roman, ed. 1971. ''Krajevni leksikon Slovenije'', vol. 2. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije. and organized excavations began in 1878 under

Karel Dežman Karel Dežman, also known as Dragotin Dežman and Karl Deschmann (3 January 1821 – 11 March 1889), was a Carniolan liberal politician and natural scientist. He was one of the most prominent personalities of the political, cultural, and sc ...

, Ferdinand Schulz (1849–1936), and

Ferdinand von Hochstetter Christian Gottlieb Ferdinand Ritter von Hochstetter (30 April 1829 – 18 July 1884) was a German-Austrian geologist. Career Having received his early education at the evangelical seminary at Maulbronn, Ferdinand proceeded to the University of ...

.Cestnik, Vojka. ''Arheološka pot Vače. Grobovi na Rebri in v Dragah.'' Signboard in Klenik. Prince Ernst Windischgrätz (1827–1918) directed excavations from 1879 to 1881, followed by the Academy of Sciences in Vienna in 1881. In 1882, the

was found in the

Ronkar Ravines Klenik () is a settlement east of Vače in the Municipality of Litija in central Slovenia. The area is part of the traditional region of Upper Carniola. It is now included with the rest of the municipality in the Central Sava Statistical Region; u ...

( sl, Ronkarjeve drage, part of Klenik) by the local farmer Janez Grilc from the Pleze Farm, who sold it to Provincial Museum of Carniola. Further excavations were carried out by

Princess Marie of Windisch-Graetz Princess Marie of Windisch-Graetz (11 December 1856 – 9 August 1929) was an Austrian noblewoman and a noted archaeologist. Early life and ancestry Princess Marie Gabriele Ernestine Alexandra was born in Vienna in 1856 as the daughter of Hug ...

in 1905, 1907, and 1913, by Walter Schmid (1875–1951) from 1932 to 1935, and by France Stare (1924–1974) in 1945.

Museums

Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte Berlin 010

Most of artifacts, that were excavated at the site, are now part of the collections of the

National Museum of Slovenia The National Museum of Slovenia ( sl, Narodni muzej Slovenije) is located in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It is located in the Center district of the city near Tivoli City Park. Along with the Slovenian Museum of Natural History, located i ...

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

, and the National Museum in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. Some of them were sold to museums in

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Duchess Marie Antoinette of Mecklenburg Duchess Marie Antoinette of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, also ''Manette'' (Marie Antoinette Margarethe Mathilde; 28 May 1884 – 26 October 1944) was the second daughter of Duke Paul Frederick of Mecklenburg and the Austrian-born Princess Marie of Windi ...

, a daughter of the princess who surveyed some excavations. Those are now kept by museums in

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...

, Austria; Museum of Prehistory and Early History, Berlin, Germany;

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of ...

, UK; and Peabody Museum, Harvard, USA.Vače
''Arzenal'', online website of the ''Institute of Archeology'' at the Slovenian Academy of Art and Science, Ljubljana

Local trail

A local archaeological trail with eleven stops and explanatory signs has been set up in nature, that includes the Iron Age cemeteries and an Iron Age settlement excavated there.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hallstatt Archaeological Site in Vace Iron Age sites in Slovenia Municipality of Litija

Investigations

Museums

Local trail

Further reading

References