A roughly four-metre-high barrow at Žale in Bled was removed in 1888 in advance of preparing the area for a modern cemetery. The barrow revealed several skeletons and an iron single-bladed sword (sax) from the 8th century. Single-bladed swords are a typical Germanic weapon and their long variants, such as the one found at Žale, were in use across Europe after 680, in the northern and eastern parts of the Frankish state to the end of the 8th century. In the 8th century, they were also wielded by the peoples living along the Frankish border and subjected to the Avars, and in the first half of the 9th century by the Slavs connected with the Frankish state.

Numerous winged spearheads have been recovered from the River Ljubljanica. In the 8th century, spears with such heads appeared in Frankish lands and spread to Scandinavia, the Carpathian Basin and the northern parts of the Balkan Peninsula, particularly to the border areas of the Carolingian state. Some of the spearheads from the Ljubljanica, with or without wings and with typical grooves on the socket, date to the late 8th and early 9th centuries. Such spears were also the weapons of the Franks in their military campaigns against the Avars (791–796) and the Slavs in the Sava Valley (819–822).

Spearhead, iron, l. 46.2 cm, late 8th–9th c., the River Ljubljanica at Ljubljana, Inv. No. V 1350.

Spearhead, iron, l. 45.5 cm, late 8th–9th c., the River Ljubljanica, Inv. No. V 1380.

Spearhead, iron and wood, l. 63 cm, late 8th–9th c., the River Ljubljanica at Rakova jelša, Inv. No. V 327.

Sword, iron, l. 68.5 cm, 8th c., Žale in Bled, Inv. No. S 2367.

Knific, Timotej in Nabergoj, Tomaž, 2016: Medieval Stories from the Crossroads, Ljubljana, Fig. 85, pp. 66-75.