Prehistoric Stone Disks from Entrances and Cemeteries of North-Eastern Adriatic Hillforts

Abstract

The paper presents a group of four, approximately 0.5m large, stone disks from entrances or cemeteries of two protohistoric hillforts of north-eastern Adriatic. The disks, having a sparse chronology with the exception of one dated to the Middle Bronze Age, show flat and plain surfaces or covered with sub-circular depressions. One disk shows two larger cup-marks at the centre of both faces. They are interpreted as ritual artefacts based on the association with sacred settlement locations and comparisons with similar coeval stones found mainly close to citadel entrances, burials and thresholds in the Aegean area and Anatolia.

Possible stellar asterisms carved on a protohistoric stone

“…On the back of the disk stone there are 5 additional chisel marks located in a rather central position; see the back view of the stone in fig. 2 of Bernardini et al (2022). The stone surface on this side is less flat and it could be that marks were created by the flattening process.…”

“…Two stone disks have been found close to each other next to the south-eastern entrance of the castelliere of Rupinpiccolo (Bernardini et al 2022). They are made by the same material and were carved from the local limestone with roundish shape (Jurkovšek et al 2016).…”

“…The hill fort was in use from about 1800/1650 to 400 BCE with no traces of a later Roman occupation of the site (Bernardini et al 2022;Cannarella 1975). However, after the work of Bernardini et al (2022), round stone artefacts of similar shape and dimensions were identified in the collection of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Aquileia. Probably they are roughed-out blocks for lids for circular tombstones.…”

“…Their diameter is of about 50 cm and the thickness is of 30 cm. The former stone shows a flat frontal surface without any chisel marks and it was suggested to represent the Sun (Bernardini et al 2022). To produce it, a rock with a very regular bedding plane was selected, extracted, and carefully retouched by using a hammer to obtain a round shape and a flat frontal surface.…”

“…The pottery assemblage from this castelliere shows that the hill fort was in use from about 1800/1650 to 400 BCE and the stone disks can be safely referred only to this long time-span. However, Bernardini et al (2022) link them to the earlier building phase of the hill fort. The wedge-holes and chisel marks on the stone disks suggest they are coeval with the construction of the rampart.…”