Archaeology

The foundations of this unique and comprehensive public archaeological collection in Slovakia were laid already with the establishment of the museum. The core of the collection is made up of objects created approximately prior to 1500 with marginal occurrences in the 19th century.

What does the collection document?

• Human activity and environment: human economic activities and their impact on the environment with the aim to document its presence in the Devínska brána area in the course of Holocene and Anthropocene in a comprehensive way.

• Settlement and development of places: it documents the settlement of the Devín castle hill from the prehistory to the beginning of the 20th century, the historical and architectural development of Devín Castle in the Middle Ages and Modern Era as well as the settlement of the city districts Devín, Rusovce and other Bratislava locations from the prehistory to the Modern Era.

• Life and society: the collection comprises military items, remains of structures, items documenting the presence of civilian population and funerary monuments.

Valuable items with supra-regional significance:

• extremely valuable finds from the Roman period from the area of former Gerulata castellum as part of the Roman border, the Limes Romanus,

• an artefact of European significance in the form of carbonised bread from the 4th–5th centuries AD found in the grounds of Devín Castle,

• Athena Alkis type of stater from the 1st century BC from the grounds of Devín Castle,

• a discovery of a bronze dog pendant from the Late La Tène Period, also from the grounds of Devín Castle.