I am flicking through the great paper "Podobe zivljenja in mita" This is an Illyrian situla from Novo Mesto, Slovenia dated to 5th century BC...
And there is something really really weird abut it...
This is the drawing of the decorative frieze from the situla...A row of horned animals...Which ones?
If you look at the horns, you will see that these are undoubtedly gazelles.
Either Goitered gazelles...Which is found in Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran, parts of Iraq and Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia...Not in Slovenia...
Or mountain gazelles...Which are found in Levant and Anatolia...Not in Slovenia...
I can't believe that no one before me saw this and wandered: how the fuck did this animal from Central Asia end up on an a ritual vessel buried in an Iron Age grave in Slovenia???
Was this situla an import? In which case were all Illyrian situlas imports? And if so from where?
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