New finds of Roman period fibulae from Všechlapy, Nymburk District. The microregion in the catchment basin of the Klobuš Brook and the Lower Mrlina River during the Roman period
Abstract
This contribution presents the discovery of part of a sunken hut dating from the Early Roman period which was made at Všechlapy, Nymburk District, in 2016. The sunken hut contained a remarkable and, within the Czech Republic, unique specimen of a Roman provincial fibula - a late variant of the Aucissa.
The ceramic finds in the grave only enable dating to the second half of the 1st century AD. A nearby site yielded a large assemblage of pottery fragments obtained through surface prospecting.
The finds also include a Kostrzewski N-b type fibula which can be dated to the first half of the 1st century AD. Judging from the analyzed potsherds, the site used to be a multi-period settlement with the predominance of early Roman period finds.
Another nearby location yielded a fragment of a two-piece fibula from the late or final Roman period which is difficult to identify more closely. Roman period finds are an integral part of all recent excavations in the north of the present day Nymburk region, which was an attractive area in many prehistoric periods, from the viewpoint of human occupation.
A combination of archival records, earlier isolated finds and results of recent, partly so far unpublished scholarly activities have created a surprisingly colourful map of human occupation in the catchment basin of the Klobuš Brook, north of Nymburk, during the Roman period. Especially materials from stages B1 and B2 can be found in almost all sites occupied during the Roman period, so this chronological horizon seems to be present in the whole region.
In contrast to this, the very beginnings of the Roman period in stage A and the continuation of settlement activities during stages C1, C2 and possibly also C3 are little known. This is especially due to the fact that pottery dating from later Roman periods is less often decorated and therefore underrepresented in finds from fieldwalking surveys.
These stages are only better known thanks to metal detectors surveys and field excavations.