Rescue Archaeological Excavations of the Early Mediaeval Settlement Slatina-Turbina 1

Tijekom provedbe arheološkog nadzora, na blagom uzvišenju uz potok Javoricu sjeverozapadno od središta Slatine, pronađeni su ostaci ranosrednjovjekovnog naselja na kojem su potom provedena i zaštitna istraživanja. Veličina istražene površine nalazišta Turbina 1 omogućila je prepoznavanje infrastrukture naselja s kućama kao osnovnim nastambama, uz koje se nalaze i drugi tipovi objekata, koji svjedoče o obiteljski strukturiranoj organizaciji manjeg i kratkotrajnog naselja. Od pokretnih nalaza u najvećem su broju pronađeni ulomci keramičkih posuda te nalazi kućnog lijepa. Među funkcionalnim oblicima prepoznaju se različiti oblici lonaca S-profi lacije koji datiraju naselje 10. – 12. st. Rezultati zaštitnih istraživanja nalazišta Slatina-Turbina 1 omogućili su znatno bolje poznavanje naseljenosti slatinskog područja u ranom srednjem vijeku te materijalne ostavštine za šire područje srednje Podravine.During archaeological supervision, at the mild elevation along the Javorica stream (Fig. 1) north-west of the centre of Slatina, at the Turbina 1 site (Map 1), remains of a smaller, until then unknown early mediaeval settlement were found, and consequently rescue excavations were conducted. In the first stage of the excavations, archaeological supervision was carried out in the entire construction area covering a surface of approximately 5 ha by making 1.20 m wide trial trenches. In the rescue excavations, various structure types were classified: – remains of houses with preserved sunken pillars; – larger shallowly sunken oval pits – probably working areas; – so-called waste pits (Fig. 3, 4); – sunken pillars. The largest part of the excavated surface of the Turbina 1 site enabled the recognition of the settlement’s structure with rectangular houses, oriented N-S, along which there were also other types of structures, suggesting that the settlement was possibly family structured. The majority of moveable goods are made out of pottery fragments and house daub finds. Among functional forms, various shapes of pots with an S profile can be recognized, produced on a hand-turned tournette. Their shoulders are decorated with horizontal wavy lines or series of parallel lines. On the basis of their shapes, ornaments and technological characteristics, the described fragments can be dated in the Early Middle Ages period (10th–12th centuries). Considering the number of discovered archaeological structures, the Slatina-Turbina 1 site represents the remains of a smaller and shortlasting settlement, stretching along the Javorica stream, and consisting of at least two family units. These included smaller houses with plots (working areas, waste pits etc.). The plots are situated on the south-eastern side of the mild elevation which was hardly evident, since the surface of the site was significantly damaged by intensive agriculture. Until now, similar sites have rarely been explored since they are hard to locate because they do not contain as many characteristic pottery fragments. Processing the rescue excavations results along with the unearthed structures will contribute to solving the conundrum of the settlement’s infrastructure representing the Early Middle Ages material heritage of the wider central Podravina Area