Archaeological site krvavec

Krvavec has an interesting name. Two folk tales elucidate it. According to the first tale, the locals enticed the Turkish assaulters through thick fog into the precipice of the Kokrške stene, where the blood flowed in streams. The second tale, more widely known in the valley, tells of two pagan Ajda girls, beautiful giant girls who were being chased by wild cynocephals, when they ran ahead of them high up into the mountains. The cynocephals killed their father and destroyed their castle in the Komendski boršt. The two girls cried bitterly that a stream of bloody tears was gushing in the lowlands. This is the source of the name Krvavec (Krvavec means bloody).

Most tales about giant pagan Ajda people reach back to the time when during the 6th, 7th and 8th centuries new inhabitants, who spoke a Slavic language, were settling in Slovenia. These newcomers apprehended the traces of settlement, left behind by inhabitants in former times, as the work of giant pagan Ajda people. The newcomers referred to the inhabitants that they did happen upon as the Vlachs. With time the newcomers made connections with the Vlachs and gradually they assimilated into one people known today as the Slovenes.

A chance find in 2003 disclosed material culture from the period between the 8th and 10th centuries, the first time in the Slovenian high mountain area. We were given the opportunity to learn more about a fascinating time that helped form the foundations for modern times. Furthermore, it would seem that the tale about the giant pagan girls now finally attained factual, graspable content. Thus, archaeological investigations are now underway. Upon their completion, our goal is to present the new findings concerning life on Krvavec a thousand years ago in an Open Air Museum.

Before the mountain pasture became overgrown in the 10th century, a people anew built their homes here. This time the dwellings were built upon a relatively level area, which consequently prescribed for a different form of building than the earlier ones built to the right. The exact form of these newer dwellings has yet to be investigated. This settlement was inhabited through to the 14th century. Later, the dwellings were positioned higher up on the ridge of Krvavec. The old waterbasin

in the vicinity was recently filled with rocks.

The sun rays traverse the steep slope to the right with full force; this is why the snow melts there first. The people living here in the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries took advantage of this and built several dwellings there. These were dwellings for the shepherds who tended to their flocks of sheep and bred pigs. One side of the dwelling was built into the slope, while the other was supported on beams. This also created dry space beneath the dwelling where the sheep could be milked. The inhabitants abandoned the settlement in the 10th century and never returned.

The wooden buckets used to carry water from the spring 8 minutes away, are not preserved.

The remains of an iron strainer indicate that the inhabitants made cheese.

There were also women up in the mountain pasture, and one of them lost her ring.

A sheeps bell fell between the rocks and was preserved all until today.