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strictly understood would mean nothing less than renouncing part of the Slovenes’ own
history. It would mean, for example, disregarding the noble dynasties from elsewhere that
made the territory their homeland, and who did so much for its progress and prosperity. It
would mean ignoring the many western European monks who culturally and spiritually
enriched the region and whose codices Slovenes are today so proud of. It would also mean
renouncing the celebrated polymath, Johann Wiechard Valvasor, an Italian by origin, and
discounting an important section of the burgher class and culture, as well as all those who
lived here but who were not linguistically or ethnically defined as Slovenes. There is no
reason for renouncing or disregarding this heritage, so the best approach may well be to
present things as they were, and to give them their correct names.
FROM PREHISTORIC CULTURE TO CIVILISATION
The prehistoric period in Slovene territory is characterised by a wealth of
archaeological culture and social manifestations. This is due to the variety of geographical
and landscape types in the lands between the Alps and the Adriatic Sea, and between the
Pannonian Plain and Venetia. These differences were particularly noticeable in the most
ancient eras, when people were so much more dependent on their natural environment. The
archaeological material bears witness to the fact that the majority of known cultures
occupying this territory until the Early Iron Age (around the eighth century BC), when the
first clear elements of material and spiritual culture are found, were on the periphery of most
migratory and cultural centres in the Danube and Adriatic regions. The incorporation of
present Slovene territory into the Roman world was a historical turning point, comparable to
its inclusion in Carolingian western Europe almost a millennium later. Slovene territory
became part of the then civilised world, incorporated into a state with developed and
regulated public life and a state apparatus. The Roman Empire, which later provided the
model and political programme for numerous medieval kings and emperors, was very much a
supra-regional political formation, into which local identities were subsumed.
The earliest signs of human activity in Slovene territory, the two stone tools from the
Jama v Lozi site near Orehek, reach back around 250,000 years, the Lower Palaeolithic (Old
Stone Age), although one can only begin to speak of Ice Age human culture and settlement in
the Middle Palaeolithic, when Neanderthals moved across Europe. Evidence of the presence
of this ‘Mousterian culture’ has been discovered in over 15 sites in present-day Slovenia. The
remains of a human who lived at that time were discovered near Krapina, in the Croatian
region of Zagorje. The Postojna and Pivka Karst
and the Soča (Isonzo) river basin, with its
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many caves (the most archaeologically important being Betalov Spodmol and Divje Babe,
source of the oldest musical instrument ever found, a 40,000-year-old flute) was the first part
of the region that was significantly settled by prehistoric humans. Settlement was even more
intense in the Upper Palaeolithic. Modern humans came to the fore, completely displacing
Neanderthals. The temperate climate in a warm interglacial period lasting over 10,000 years
saw them settle Alpine highlands that had previously been icebound and inaccessible to the
animals they pursued for food. Evidence for this was found at the most important site from
this period in present-
day Slovenia, the Potočka Zijalka cave on Olševa, a mountain in the
eastern Savinja Alps, 1,700 m above sea level. The cave has lent its name to the entire Upper
Palaeolithic culture in the eastern Alps, which is known as ‘Olševien’. The site has been dated
to between 45,000 and 32,000 BC. Excavations found numerous stone tools and over 100
bone artefacts, mainly pointed, with a bone needle and simple flute among the most
significant finds. Bone tools appearing alongside stone tools indicate that the society was
undergoing major changes in its economics and its life. Humans did not just pursue wild
animals but became hunters; the needle indicates mastery of sewing (clothing, coverings,
bags), which also significantly improved life. The flutes and simple, ornamental carving in
numerous bones represent the first signs of human art found in Slovene territory. The last
glacial period, the most severe of all, brought the flowering of the Olševien culture to an end.
After the Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age period, for which sites are low in number
and poorly researched, indicating significant gaps and a decline in the material and spiritual
culture in prehistoric development in Slovene lands, a significant transformation occurred in
the Neolithic or New Stone Age, which is dated between the fifth and second millennia BC.
While in Palaeolithic times humans lived exclusively from hunting and gathering, in the
Neolithic growing crops and rearing domesticated animals came to the fore. At that time,
people used grinding techniques to achieve a highly-finished stone, which remained the main
source of tools for chopping and cutting. They also invented pottery, simple methods for
making fire and boring stone, looms for weaving fibres, and the bow and arrow. The
economic change that enabled people to stop continually following their prey and to create
settlements also led to major changes in the social structure. Demographic growth occurred,
and new divisions of labour, and the first forms of social stratification, probably began to
appear. The start of husbandry and agriculture in the Neolithic laid the long-term foundations
for human development, and the subsequent complex forms of human society.
The major centre of Neolithic development in Slovene territory was the Triestine
Karst. The archaeological material, mainly from cave sites, represents three separate and