Archaeological Finds in Slovakia
I had always been interested in archaeology. I took an archaeology class in high school and dreamed about traveling someday to work on a dig, searching for King Arthur’s castle.
I grew up in southern California, a place where development and growth didn’t really begin in earnest until the early 20th century, thus, locations of archaeological sites or of finds were not very common in my neck of the woods.
When I moved to Slovakia as an adult, I had forgotten my interest in archaeology but was quickly reminded. I thought it was the coolest thing when I heard on the Slovak news, or read in a paper of new archaeological finds of the Celts or Romans that were discovered, usually by chance, while doing road work or construction. I was more amazed when I realized these rare finds happen sometimes several times in a year. It became a source of amusement to me to hear about “another” find, and to realize that the number of archaeological discoveries across the country must be very high!
The finding of a Tomb of 5th century Germanic leader last year in the Poprad area, as read in the Slovak Spectator, is an example of the irony of a rare find and life moving on: construction on an industrial park is halted after uncovering what is first thought to be a World War II bunker. After the archaeologists are called in, they discover they are looking at one of the best-preserved tombs in Europe, of a “small king” from sometime around the 4th and 5th centuries. The archaeologists had to hurry, however, because they had approximately three weeks to collect everything before construction was to resume on the industrial park.
At the time when I was living in central Slovakia, a large Co-op Jednota grocery store was being built in my town. The supermarket was going to be the first of its kind in town and people were anxious to see it complete. At some point during construction, wouldn’t you know it, building had to be stopped because artifacts had been discovered while digging the foundation. I remember being excited about the news. A real archaeological find and possible site was less than a half mile from where I lived! I also remember being surprised because it seemed I was the only person excited; everyone else just wanted the new supermarket store done.
The Slovak soil holds thousands of years of fascinating history and is constantly revealing its treasures bit by bit. I’m pleased to know that I can look forward to the news of all kinds of discoveries in the years to come.
