Objects and Prestige: Taste, Status, and Power (Researches of the Material Culture in Slovenia)

During the years 2024–2029 our efforts will be primarily directed towards the following research questions:

The above goals reflect the current research priorities both in regard to the professional challenges identified by the NMS as well as addressing critical omissions in Slovenian scholarship. In the field of the material culture of burghers and the nobility, a thorough analysis of archival sources will be carried out, particularly probate inventories and testaments of Carniolan elites from the Early Modern Period. The compiled data will be studied in relation to the surviving artefacts at the NMS and other Slovenian museums. Special emphasis will be placed on historical terminology, provenance of artefacts and cultural interchange and influences on the Slovenian territory. The findings will be published in a comprehensive monograph, providing a foundation for a future temporary exhibition.

In military history studies our main focus will be on the Late Middle Ages as a period marked by innovations of arms technology as well as methods of warfare and military organization (cf. Lazar 2015a). These topics will be explored in a scholarly monograph on the military activities of the Counts of Celje, the most prominent noble dynasty of the time in the Slovenian lands and one actively involed in international politics.

In the closely related field of history of political institutions, considerable work has been done in recent years on the study of Carniolan princely government and offices in the 15th c. Our aim is to bring this work to conclusion in the form of a comprehensive monograph first published in Slovenian and later in a German version adapted particularly for the Austrian professional public. Upon completion of the monograph, we will also prepare a temporary exhibition at the NMS dedicated to the era of Frederick III of Habsburg in Slovenia.

In studies of museum collections, the subject of arms and armour will be further explored focusing on cut-and-thrust weapons. Some pioneering research has been completed in this field in recent years already (Williams, Lazar 2018), but we intend to improve upon that foundation by publishing the entire collection of medieval swords using the same interdisciplinary methodology recently applied with success to armour (Lazar 2021; 2022a).

Our work on the systematic evaluation of metallurgical heritage (Kotar et al. 2019) will continue with the completion of the new permanent exhibition of metalwork in the Art and History Collections at Metelkova. These efforts will coincide with analyses of important segments of the museum's metalwork collection that are of particular interest from a technological viewpoint – namely, pewter and silver. Major efforts will be invested into history of ironworking. Based on G. Oitzl's doctoral dissertation Social and Economic Effect of Ironmaking in the Slovenian Territory in the Late Middle Ages (2021), a major monograph will be published presenting a new scholarly synthesis and the first major update in this field since A. Müllner's seminal Geschichte des Eisens in Inner-Österreich von der Urzeit bis zum Anfange des 19. Jahrhunderts (1909).

In addition to the study of probate inventories and testaments, our archival research will include a systematic analysis of the charters of ennoblement (SI AS 1064), a collection of 135 documents dating from the 16th to the 20th c. that was initially formed at the Carniolan Provincial Museum. Approximately one half of the documents survive in the original form while the rest are copies. Due to its historical significance, the entire collection will be transcribed and published together with charters of ennoblement kept in other institutions, including the NMS, making these documents accessible to researchers.

Thanks to the relevance and originality of its research achievements, the programme group has repeatedly affirmed itself as a top expert team in the field of historiography and interdisciplinary studies of cultural heritage. For this reason, it has assumed the lead role in the preparation of the new permanent exhibition at the NMS, ongoing since 2022. The project also involves a total of 20 top-ranking historians from the University of Ljubljana, the Milko Kos Historical Institute of the ZRC SAZU, ARS, and the Institute of Contemporary History. For the first time, the exhibition will present a modern, up-to-date historical overview of the Slovenian territory from the end of the Antiquity to the present. As the main desideratum of the Slovenian museum profession for over 50 years, this exhibition will certainly represent a ground-breaking achievement in international promotion of Slovenian scholarship and cultural heritage.

Among the development of new analytical methods, more intensive use is envisaged of recently acquired FTIR spectrometer Bruker (2020) suitable for analyses for organic materials, particularly horn, ivory, and bone, as well as the µXRF spectroscope Horriba (2022) used above all to determine the composition of base matrix and corrosion products on pewter and silver. This research will prove instrumental not only for identification of materials but also as a prerequisite for innovations in conservation-restoration techniques, where the Slovenian state-of-the-art is currently lagging behind international standards. Furthermore, the recently established collaboration in the field of synchrotron-based analytical techniques (XANES, EXAFS, FTIR imaging etc.) promises new breakthroughs especially given the current lack of established research methodology in Slovenia.

An international conference is planned towards the end of the tentative 6-year programme period, on the one hand presenting to the scholarly public a synthesis of the ongoing work performed by the programme group – with the last such overview taking place in 2017 with the exhibition The Past under the Microscope, and on the other hand emphasizing the importance of methodological innovation by promoting the introduction of modern analytical techniques. Other groups and institutions active in the field of cultural heritage studies in Slovenia will be invited to collaborate, with the publication of a major monograph planned upon the conclusion of the conference.

The programme group is actively involved in the dissemination of knowledge, taking part in educational events and workshops at the NMS and other venues as well as participating in other research projects and academic courses. Throughout the 6-year programme period, we will keep training at least one young PhD as well as providing mentorships to BA, MA, and PhD students at the University of Ljubljana.

Artefacts of movable cultural heritage will be studied by methods of historiography and art history as well as scientific analytical tools. Rather than perceiving museum artefacts as self-sufficient objects, our aim is to integrate them into a wider historical narrative supported by the study of relevant written documents and artwork depictions. Scientific analyses are used to examine the composition of raw materials and manufacturing methods in order to reveal new layers of information, invisible to the naked eye, that speak of ancient technologies and craftsmanship; the latter are often of vital importance when trying to determine the authenticity of artefacts or the presence of later interventions and restorations. All these layers of information are integrated into a comprehensive interpretation of cultural history, or, objects of material culture, as exceptionally multi-faceted, telling testimonies of past lives, knowledge, taste and wider social phenomena (Luthar et al. 2006, 521–522, 533–534). 

This approach is unique in Slovenian historiography, made possible solely thanks to the stable funding within the framework of the research programme, which helps introduce important methodological novelties into the Slovenian scholarship. Rather than merely imitating the pace with new developments abroad, we also strive to adapt them to the specific needs and challenges of our local environment, introducing entirely new, original or as yet untried research methods and scientific analytical techniques.

The core of the programme group consists of historians skilled in traditional tools of historiography, applied in the research of archival documents relevant to our research topics. Nevertheless, the main subject of our studies are objects of cultural heritage, approached in relation to the contemporary written testimonies, artwork depictions and physical analogues, art styles and technology. This approach has been refined and successfully applied over the years to a wide array of topics, e.g. seals as testimonies of former official transactions (Kotar 2019), metal artefacts of applied art (Kotar et al. 2019) or arms and armour as key sources for military history (Lazar 2021; 2022a).

Results of our research will continue to be shared with the widest segments of the professional and lay public, by means of scholarly papers and monographs as well as popular publications and above all, museum exhibitions. Our research perspective will also integrate the conservation-restoration profession in ensuring long-term survival of cultural heritage.

Considering the work accomplished since 2004, the impact of the research programme on the Slovenian historiography and museum profession has been quite considerable. Apart from the P6-0283 – the latter focusing on archaeology and earlier chronological periods – it is the only research programme currently active in Slovenian museums, providing an absolutely vital link between the NMS as the oldest national institution dedicated to the study of history and cultural heritage and the wider scholarly community, particularly specialists offering expertise in archaeometry.

This long-term collaboration is proving invaluable in various ways. On the one hand, our work is generating wider interest into the studies of material cultural heritage as a topic otherwise essentially ignored by Slovenian historiography, and treated only quite selectively by art history. To a considerable extent, the slowly increasing acceptance of topics related to medieval and early modern material heritage in history courses is due to the efforts of the P6-0282 programme group, which will stimulate further collaboration between the NMS and the University of Ljubljana (Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering) as well as the Milko Kos Historical Institute of the ZRC SAZU, strengthened in the future with the successful completion of major joint projects ranging from publications to museum exhibitions and education including BA and MA theses and PhD dissertations.

The work undertaken during the course of the research programme will be instrumental in promoting the NMS and the artefacts in its extensive collections as precious primary sources long overlooked by the majority of Slovenian historians. In some cases, our efforts will open up new venues of research, introduce new, more inclusive methodologies combining historiographical research with art history expertise, studies of historical artwork, archaeometrical analyses and experimental archaeology (in the sense of reconstructing or replicating historical artefacts and craftsmanship). This is particularly evident in the areas of arms and armour, ironworking and historical metallurgy, as well as archival research, studies of residential culture and museum history. In each of these respective fields, the results produced the P6-0282 research programme during the next 6-year period will undoubtedly prove vital to the development of Slovenian historiography and international scholarly collaboration.

Furthermore, the interdisciplinary approach of the programme group is equally stimulating to the development of natural sciences, and particularly archaeometry, in Slovenia. Our studies will boost further advances in archaeometallurgy, a formerly undeveloped field in Slovenian scholarship where the innovative methodology fostered by our programme group have led to the first consistent colaborative efforts between metallurgists and museum experts. In the future, we are striving to achieve similarly significant breakthroughs in the application of synchrontron-based methods and FTIR and µXRF spectroscopy for analyses of museum artefacts made of metals and organic materials.