Dragan Božič Late LaTène-Roman cemetery in Novo Mesto. Ljubljanska cesta and Okrajno glavarstvo. Katalogi in Monografije 39, Ljubljana 2008, 238 pages

The cemeteries of the First and the Second Iron Age, as well as the funerary manifestations of the early Roman period, from Novo mesto are significant discoveries of the European archaeology. Previously, they were included in a series of monographs published by Tone Knez and Borut Križ, as well as in several specialist studies, and brought into the scientific world a wealth of archaeological information.

   The recent book of Dragan Božič continues in an outstanding manner these contributions, comprehensively analysing and interpreting in a wider context a series of older funerary discoveries belonging to the late La Tène and early imperial periods.

   The author not only recovers several old and little known archaeological data, but he also brings into discussion important scientific elements concerning the discoveries of the late 19th and early 20th centuries from the area of burials at “Beletov vrt with its surroundings”.

   At the same time, the author produces a detailed analysis of several types of brooches, in connection with other specific artefacts discovered in closed archaeological contexts.They include a series of types of brooches coming from the southern and eastern Alpine areas and Central Europe, but also known from other neighbouring regions: brooches of Nauheim type,Nova vas type, Idrija Ia type etc. In this way,Dragan Božič manages to design a coherent chronological framework of the evolution of the mentioned cemetery. Furthermore, continuing certain previous studies concerning the chronological evolution of some LaTène cultural groups (see Božič 1981, 1999 etc.), he also connects this chronology with the evolution of the neighbouring areas from northern Italy and Central Europe during the late La Tène period.

   The book of Dragan Božič represents a significant contribution to the scientific investigation of the mentioned aspects of the European ancient history and archaeology, as a source of reference.Thus, aside from other aspects, it is going to be very useful for the specialists interested in the analysis of brooches and also for those studying the late La Tène chronology.

   The volume contains rich and detailed illustrations and several lists of the Nova vas and Idrija Ia brooches, accompanied by distribution maps.The scientific value of this volume is also enhanced by the top quality of the publication, matching the outstanding reputation of the series Katalogi in Monografije in which it was included.

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