Papers by Dimitrij Mlekuz Vrhovnik
International Journal of Heritage Studies 31(2), 2025
The paper traces the role of a prominent archaeological object, Vače situla in the formation of t... more The paper traces the role of a prominent archaeological object, Vače situla in the formation of the modern Slovenian state. It examines the material properties of the situla and the – often implausible and counterintuitive – ways it entered into heterogeneous networks that emerged and led to the formation of the Republic of Slovenia. Although the situla was mobilised by different groups and initiatives with different goals and ideas, the paper argues that the situla, with its own powers, was able to align these coalitions towards a common goal.
Environmental Histories of the DInaric Karst, 2024
The chapter explores the longue durée perspective of transformations of the Kras landscapes from ... more The chapter explores the longue durée perspective of transformations of the Kras landscapes from prehistory to the present, viewing the Kras landscape as a result and medium of a longstanding and complex interplay between the history, social and economic developments and ecological dynamics. The landscape is treated as a matter of history; the chapter focuses on the series of its transformations and modifications. We introduce new datasets in the discussion of the long-term history of the Kras landscape by confronting two complementary lines of evidence. First, we examine the elements of past landscapes that are still preserved in the modern landscape seen on airborne laser scanning imagery and face it with the data from doline infills, which provide a diachronic view of the development of prehistoric landscapes. The history of landscape transformation from prehistory to the present is not a smooth, unbroken development; instead, it is marked by qualitative remakings and reorderings. Our concern here is with two significant episodes of modification. The second and third millennium BC is the period of large-scale clearance and formation of the cultural landscape of the Kras plateau, structured around the rearing of domestic animals. The subsequent major landscape reorganization occurred since Middle Ages, but especially after 1500 AD. These accumulations can be associated with the historically documented process of formation of the modern Kras cultural landscape, with the time of intensive deforestation, overgrazing and farming, which turned some parts of the Kras into a stone desert.
Svetovi: revija za etnologijo, antropologijo in folkloristiko, 2023
Mleko je izhodišče raziskovanja intenzivnih sonastajanj različnih teles, vrst in stvari; tega, ka... more Mleko je izhodišče raziskovanja intenzivnih sonastajanj različnih teles, vrst in stvari; tega, kar običajno imenujejo udomačitev. Mleko je del skupka, ki povezuje živali, hormone, encime, bakterije, hrano, gene, tehnologije in materialno kulturo. Ta kompleksna sonastajanja producirajo nove, nepričakovane rezultate in učinke ter spreminjajo vse komponente v skupku udomačitve.
It was Sigmund Freud who recognised the significance of the concept of prehistory as a radical ch... more It was Sigmund Freud who recognised the significance of the concept of prehistory as a radical change in framework. No longer is the history entire past; beneath this discursive past lays, buried in the earth, a vast physical memory bearing witness to a different, alien, strange past that had, for the most part, escaped our historical conscience. And all this stuff, the stuff of which prehistory is made, is obscure; it is dark. It is like taking a look at something that can never be fully seized, that can never be brought to the clarity and light of understanding.
Petrification Processes in Matter and Society, 2021
Landscapes are not given but constituted. Things are brought together or assembled to give shape ... more Landscapes are not given but constituted. Things are brought together or assembled to give shape to a landscape with its own coherence and identity. They provide the context for social interactions, a material world where people, animals, and plants were born into; they fix the way people, animals, and plants interact; they reduce the number of possible outcomes of face-to-face interactions. Matter, by definition, is durable. People can delegate some of their skills to durable, material things and extend their presence even when they are not physically present in the social interaction. The nature of social interaction is stabilized by the use of durable, material resources and symbols. Material things-employed in the process of social complication-enable more durable social relations between humans and other things. Together, they amount to a certain custom, habit, or symbolic order which defines the behaviour of components in a landscape. Based on a case study from the prehistory of the Karst, the limestone landscape in western Slovenia, I want to explore how engagement with the landscape 'petrified', stabilized, and structured specfic social relations and created new landscapes of prehistoric Karst.
Academia Letters, 2021
Why were caves, dark, uncomfortable, damp places, so appealing to the people in the past? Somethi... more Why were caves, dark, uncomfortable, damp places, so appealing to the people in the past? Something special, something mysterious and something weird went on in caves. Which discipline should we turn to explain why people do (and did) weird things?
L. Büster, E. Warmenbol and D. Mlekuž (eds), Between Worlds: Understanding Ritual Cave Use in Later Prehistory. New York: Springer., 2019
The landscape is full of force, energy and process. These qualities come especially into being in... more The landscape is full of force, energy and process. These qualities come especially into being in places such as caves. Caves are places where landscape is folded into itself and where innards are exposed. Caves are places in a landscape where people can come into direct contact with alien, inhuman nature, and where the weirdness, power and horror of nature can be felt. Caves are places where non-human meaning bubbles forth in chaotic affective atmospheres that can best be described as spectral and haunting. Caves are places where this excess of non-human meaning must be brought under control. It is dangerous; it comes too close; it can break, dissolve or negate existing concepts, representations and ideas. It can shatter the symbolic order. It requires significant effort to contain. But if we are successful, it is an unlimited source of creativity, vitality and power; it offers all sorts of alien wisdom, insight and imagination. Human interaction with caves can be seen as attempts at domestication of this alien power. This relationship between caves and landscape is explored using a case study from the Škocjan Caves, Slovenia.
Archaeologia aerea, 2017
The high-resolution aerial datasets acquired using aerial and satellite platforms have been expan... more The high-resolution aerial datasets acquired using aerial and satellite platforms have been expanding exponentially both in volume, velocity and variety. This brings complex challenges to aerial archaeology. Massive, variable and complex datasets challenge traditional ways of doing aerial archaeology, this includes historically established practices of managing, processing, analysing and interpreting data. How to manage, process and analyse this huge loads of data? But even more critical, what potential new insights can this massive quantity of data provide? What new quality can emerge from the sheer quantity of data? What new conceptual frameworks do we need to accommodate Big Data? The paper addresses the challenge of Big Data in aerial archaeology data and argues that it opens a way towards new understandings of landscapes, archaeology and history.
Taking milk as a point of departure, we set out on a journey to explore the ‘mutual becomings’ of... more Taking milk as a point of departure, we set out on a journey to explore the ‘mutual becomings’ of different bodies, species, and things. We argue that milk should be understood as a component in an assemblage that connects animals, humans, hormones, enzymes, bacteria, food, genes, technologies and material culture. These complex entanglements produced new, unexpected results and effects. Since they form part of this assemblage, all its components are profoundly changed. Focusing on this diversity of relations between humans, other creatures, things and substances is a key to an archaeology that does not radically separate humans and non humans.
Society & Animals, 2013
One of the most significant contributions of archaeology to the studies of human-animal relations... more One of the most significant contributions of archaeology to the studies of human-animal relations is the concept of the “domestication” of non-human animals. Domestication is often seen as a specific human-animal relation that explains the ways people and animals interact. However, I argue, that “domestication” does not explain anything but has to be explained or “reassembled” by focusing on the many historically specific ways human and animals live together. Thus, the paper tackles the emergence of a “herd”, an assembly of animals, humans and things that appeared in the Neolithic, by following the ways the different agencies—human, animal, material and composite—are involved in the creation of new sociality. Living with animals is always already a material practice. It includes material culture, bodies, gestures, actions, habits, and body skills. It requires new practices and skills of flocking, herding, closing, observing, separating, amassing, and forming a queue; skills to be learned and employed by the participants. However, numerous resistances and translations are encountered and employed along the way, changing everybody in the process. In this way new bodies and persons—human and animal—are created, ultimately leading to the “herd”, a new way of association of animals, people, and things. From this perspective the agency and power is distributed and not confined to one species or group. There is no single locus of power and agency and no hegemony or “domination” but power and resistance that works from everywhere. Living with animals is not a matter of management, control or domination, but it is about making hybrid society work, a matter of politics, for all the parties involved.
The Oxford handbook of Neolithic Europe, 2014
This paper is concerned with the way in which the rhythmic temporality of the seasonal course was... more This paper is concerned with the way in which the rhythmic temporality of the seasonal course was woven into the way European Neolithic people lived, experienced, and transformed their worlds. It focuses on Neolithic gardens as chronotopes, places where the seasonal temporality of the agrarian year is woven into the material fabric of the garden, making it clearly visible and palapable. Chronotope mediates the transfer of meanings and creates temporal relationships between routine seasonal practices of attending the gardens, and the life-courses of people and objects. But this rhythm of seasonal tasks has a breaking point—carnival, which implies a change from stability to new possibilities. It is a time when substances acquire new forms and where carnivalesque forces of laughter and parody provide the potential for renewal, new growth, and change.
By practice of landscape archaeology we are also involved in the making of landscape. Our practic... more By practice of landscape archaeology we are also involved in the making of landscape. Our practices are intertwined with the practices of past people that left traces in the landscape. Thus practice of landscape archaeology is necessary a messy job. We are not dealing with discrete features, but a landscapes, a continuum of the traces. And there is no chronological succession, but a mess of temporaries. Landscapes are not palimpsest, but messy, and we should change our practice and politics in order to deal with the mess. That is the real challenge.
Documenta praehistorica, 2019
The paper tackles the spatio-temporal patterns of Neolithic and Copper Age settlement dynamics in... more The paper tackles the spatio-temporal patterns of Neolithic and Copper Age settlement dynamics in the Western Carpathian Basin and Eastern Alps with spatially-explicit use of radiocarbon dates. It focuses on the spatial process of spread, movement, aggregation and segregation in the time frame between 8500 and 5000 cal BP. The distribution of Neolithic and Copper Age sites in the study area is clustered and patchy. The first Neolithic settlements appear as isolated islands or enclaves which then slowly expand to fill neighbouring regions. After 6300 cal BP the study area experienced a significant reduction in the extent of settlement systems associated with the Late Neolithic
to Copper Age transition.
Caves are not only unique sedimentary environments with good preservation of archaeological mater... more Caves are not only unique sedimentary environments with good preservation of archaeological material, but as archaeological record from caves testify – also special places where distinct activities were performed. What makes caves special? What makes them different from open air locales? How do caves act back on humans? How do humans and caves mutually constitute each other and create a sense of self and belonging in the world? This chapter touches these themes using examples from the archaeological record of the Karst in northeast Italy and western Slovenia. By exploring the ‘affordances’ that caves provide we can focus on the social and contextual role they played in the practical tasks of past people. Caves are not passive backdrops for the activities that people perform, they are not natural places, and they do not satisfy the generic needs of people such as ‘shelter’. We can understand caves as material culture where dwelling occurs. And, by focusing on the process of dwelling that they enable through the affordances they provide, they help us to challenge the dichotomies of the natural and built environment, or of the mundane and the sacred.
Good Practice in Archaeological Diagnostics, 2013
LiDAR—like photography and other visual technologies—not only produces pictures but extends our p... more LiDAR—like photography and other visual technologies—not only produces pictures but extends our power to detect, record, and imagine landscapes. It allows very precise three-dimensional mapping of the surface of the earth, generating as it does high-resolution topographic data even where surface is obscured by forest and vegetation. Interpretation of LiDAR data poses much more than just technical challenges. What makes LiDAR different from other topographic techniques is absence of selectiveness: data are typically gathered across complete landscape blocks recording landscape in an indiscriminate way. This allows us to address complex sites as integral parts of landscapes and as landscapes in themselves. In this way we can analyze complex sites as palimpsests, created through processes and practices that accumulated and inscribed new traces or erased old ones. Study of complex sites is thus part of the study of landscapes, landscape archaeology.
This paper discuses ways in which bodies – human and animal – were produced in the Neolithic of t... more This paper discuses ways in which bodies – human and animal – were produced in the Neolithic of the Karst. Bodies are seen as cumulative processes shaped by forces of encounters with the material world, rather than as biological givens. Thus, the paper focuses on the process of embo- diment mediated with other bodies and landscape, especially important places such as caves. It ex- plores the unique ways in which caves affect bodies, and how these affected bodies created new socie- ties. In the Neolithic Karst, everyday contacts and interactions between humans, animals, the land- scape and caves and rock shelters profoundly changed all the participants. A new hybrid society emerged, consisting of human and non-human bodies.
Making Journeys, 2021
Holloways are paths and tracks that were eroded and hollowed out by the flow of people, animals—p... more Holloways are paths and tracks that were eroded and hollowed out by the flow of people, animals—perhaps carts—and water. They usually run along ridges and avoid marshy valleys. This paper aims to think about landscape as something woven from those movements. Holloways do not represent fragments of primitive transportation networks, but traces of daily life in a landscape. As such, they can lead us into past landscapes. People moved from place to place and, moving along the tracks, they passed barrows, hillforts, limekilns and so forth. They related to these features in the same way they related to...
Documenta Praehistorica, 2003
The paper discusses the evidence for the presence of sheep and goats on east Adriatic coast durin... more The paper discusses the evidence for the presence of sheep and goats on east Adriatic coast during the Mesolithic and Neolithic, and possible routes of transformation from hunter-gathering to pastoral societies.
Arheo, 2016
Preventivna arheologija je konceptualna novost, ki
arheološke raziskave umesti v sam postopek nač... more Preventivna arheologija je konceptualna novost, ki
arheološke raziskave umesti v sam postopek načrtovanja posegov
v prostor. Ključna inovacija preventivne arheologije je faza
predhodnih raziskav, pri katerih se ne ukvarjamo s posameznimi
najdišči, temveč ugotavljamo arheološki potencial prostora. Ideja
arheološkega potenciala tako preusmerja pozornost iz izoliranih
najdišč na celoten prostor. Arheološki potencial lahko razumemo
kot potencialno, še ne-aktualizirano arheološko dediščino, ki se
mora šele aktualizirati skozi raziskave. V prispevku pretresemo
idejo arheološkega potenciala in na primeru raziskav na trasi
prenosnega plinovoda Rogaška Slatina–Trojane analiziramo
proces identifikacije in valoriziranja arheološke dediščine v loku
od predhodnih raziskav za ugotavljanja arheološkega potenciala do
izkopavanja. Analiziramo razmerje med ugotovljenim povišanim
arheološkim potencialom in aktualiziranimi arheološkimi sledovi.
Sklenemo, da je ugotavljanje arheološkega potenciala s pomočjo
ekstenzivnega vzorčenja površinskega zapisa učinkovito. Od 23
območij s povišanim arheološkim potencialom, ki smo jih zaznali
z ekstenzivnimi terenskimi pregledi, so se 4 izkazala za najdišča,
arheološke ostaline pa so bile prisotne tudi na štirih drugih lokacijah.
Le v enem primeru so se sledovi izmuznili metodam ugotavljanja
potenciala in smo jih zaznali šele pri nadzoru ob gradnji. /
Preventive archaeology is a recent concept in
archaeological heritage protection that renders archaeological
research a constituent part of the spatial planning process. The key
innovation is the phase of preliminary archaeological research,
which shifts attention from localised archaeological sites to the
archaeological potential of the area, i.e. from isolated sites to a
wider landscape. Archaeological potential can be understood as
potential archaeological heritage yet to become actualised through
the research process. In the contribution, we examine the concept of
archaeological potential and analyse the process of its actualisation
using the archaeological research on the Rogaška Slatina–Trojane
pipeline project as the case study. We examine the relations between
the areas of high archaeological potential and the actualised
archaeological traces. The examination showed that archaeological
potential assessment using artefact surveys proved very successful,
revealing 23 areas of high archaeological potential. These were
actualised into 4 sites and 4 off-site traces through further research.
Only in one case were archaeological traces not detected during the
archaeological potential assessment phase.
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Papers by Dimitrij Mlekuz Vrhovnik
to Copper Age transition.
arheološke raziskave umesti v sam postopek načrtovanja posegov
v prostor. Ključna inovacija preventivne arheologije je faza
predhodnih raziskav, pri katerih se ne ukvarjamo s posameznimi
najdišči, temveč ugotavljamo arheološki potencial prostora. Ideja
arheološkega potenciala tako preusmerja pozornost iz izoliranih
najdišč na celoten prostor. Arheološki potencial lahko razumemo
kot potencialno, še ne-aktualizirano arheološko dediščino, ki se
mora šele aktualizirati skozi raziskave. V prispevku pretresemo
idejo arheološkega potenciala in na primeru raziskav na trasi
prenosnega plinovoda Rogaška Slatina–Trojane analiziramo
proces identifikacije in valoriziranja arheološke dediščine v loku
od predhodnih raziskav za ugotavljanja arheološkega potenciala do
izkopavanja. Analiziramo razmerje med ugotovljenim povišanim
arheološkim potencialom in aktualiziranimi arheološkimi sledovi.
Sklenemo, da je ugotavljanje arheološkega potenciala s pomočjo
ekstenzivnega vzorčenja površinskega zapisa učinkovito. Od 23
območij s povišanim arheološkim potencialom, ki smo jih zaznali
z ekstenzivnimi terenskimi pregledi, so se 4 izkazala za najdišča,
arheološke ostaline pa so bile prisotne tudi na štirih drugih lokacijah.
Le v enem primeru so se sledovi izmuznili metodam ugotavljanja
potenciala in smo jih zaznali šele pri nadzoru ob gradnji. /
Preventive archaeology is a recent concept in
archaeological heritage protection that renders archaeological
research a constituent part of the spatial planning process. The key
innovation is the phase of preliminary archaeological research,
which shifts attention from localised archaeological sites to the
archaeological potential of the area, i.e. from isolated sites to a
wider landscape. Archaeological potential can be understood as
potential archaeological heritage yet to become actualised through
the research process. In the contribution, we examine the concept of
archaeological potential and analyse the process of its actualisation
using the archaeological research on the Rogaška Slatina–Trojane
pipeline project as the case study. We examine the relations between
the areas of high archaeological potential and the actualised
archaeological traces. The examination showed that archaeological
potential assessment using artefact surveys proved very successful,
revealing 23 areas of high archaeological potential. These were
actualised into 4 sites and 4 off-site traces through further research.
Only in one case were archaeological traces not detected during the
archaeological potential assessment phase.