Late antique graves

In this paper I discuss two gold pendants, from the Late Antique
or Early Medieval Period, which are somewhat unique finds for
Slovenian territory. The first pendant is from the Late Antique site
of Kranj-Lajh (Carnium); it is leaf-shaped, and the chronologically
older pendant of the two. The child grave in which this pendant
was found is interpreted as belonging to an individual of the local
Late Antique elite. The grave is notable also because some of
the grave goods were made in the middle of the 5th century AD,
even though the burial presumably dates to the first half of the
6th century AD. On the basis of a single-sided comb with low handle, I assume that the individual did not belong to the Gothic cultural
milieu. The second pendant, a tear-shaped specimen, was
found in one of the oldest settlement layers of Early Mediaeval
Koper (Iustinopolis), at the site of Kapucinski vrt. I argue that it
was worn not as a pendant on a necklace or earring, but rather
as an integral part of an earring. This interpretation is based on
earrings from another time (the second half of the 3rd century AD
and the 4th century AD) and place (south-western Crimea), with
which the pendant from Koper shares many features.

During systematic archaeological researches which, with minor and major interruptions, have been conducted for 80 years in the area of the late antiquity necropolis of Nais, at today’s city district of Jagodin mala, on the right bank of the river Nisava, a large number of tombs of different shapes and structures has been registered, which belong to the period from IV to the end of VI or early VII century. The tombs are in most cases oriented west- east, with heads of the deceased on the west side, except in the four examples of north-south direction. One of those tombs is the subject of this paper. It is the tomb with the field number II F-47/1961 registered in the yard of today’s kindergarten “Bubamara” in the medium part of the late antiquity necropolis. The tomb was built in the shape of a sarcophagus, from cut and broken bricks, laid in five rows, connected with mortar. The bottom of the grave was paved with six bricks, the cover was also made of brick, laid in the form of a double pitch roof construction.
A mail individual of unknown age was buried into the tomb, who in his left hand had an attached bronze compass - divider (circinus). The compass consists of four parts - two arms, axle and a hinge. Arms of 16 cm length on the outer surfaces were richly ornamented with geometric and figural motifs, divided into six zones, and massive axle head was decorated with radial lines that form eight disparate fields. On the compass arms there are motifs, aligned from the end with circular perforation towards the peak: presentation of the cross type crux imissa, two lines crossed in the letter X shape, presentation of an oblong object with rectangular ends and three circular perforations in the middle (possibly a grater or ascia were presented), two pairs of smaller crossed lines in the letter X shape, presentation of leaf- shaped objects, with one extended and another spiky end, with a central perforation (probably a mattock - pickaxe) and carved leaf-shaped object, of a funnel shape at the top and narrow at the bottom in the shape of a peak (possibly a chisel ). Based on these presentations, it is possible to assume that the compass-divider was used for measures transferring and drawing in relation to a carpentry, eventually stone cutting craft.
According to the place of find, as well as on the basis of parallels, a compass from Jagodin mala was placed in IV century. The owner of that beautiful object had probably worked in one of the craft workshops, or maybe owned one, in Naissus, at the times when the city experienced its greatest rise of economy, that is, craft and artistic life.