Protected archaeological excavations at the Grublje site near Vipava took place in 2008. The work covered the western edge of the Roman settlement area, which was probably inhabited from the end of the 1st to the end of the 4th century. It is assumed based on the discovered structures that a small rural settlement, built on the edge of the Vipava Plain near the Aquileia-Emona itinerary road, stood at that time in Grublje. The collection of small finds is diverse and similar to that found in settlement layers in western Slovenia from the same era. Fragments of imported table ceramics and wine amphorae indicate that the residents of the examined settlement were well off.
The site is located on the northern edge of Vipava, in the fields separated from the Old Caste hill by the present-day bed of the Bela torrent. The area around the torrent is called Ob Beli, and the area west of the Vipava-Vrhpolje road used to be called Grublje.
Archaeological excavations in Grublje near Vipava covered the western edge of the Roman-era settlement, which was discovered in the 1980s.
Remains of allegedly three masonry buildings, a large number of pile pits interpreted as traces of wooden structures, two waste pits and a narrow path were discovered there. The results of analyses suggest that the small finds and money can be placed in the time frame between the end of the 1st and the end of the 4th century.
Based on the range of finds, it is assumed that the site was continuously inhabited from the second half of the 1st to the end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th century. The settlement is certainly expanding further north and south, in the direction of present-day Vipava.
In the Roman period, a part of a small rural settlement with wooden and some masonry buildings is said to have stood in the examined area. Similar items were discovered in the previous research also in the Ob Beli area.
Also worth mentioning is the cemetery in the immediate vicinity of Grublje, in Laurinova Street in Vipava, which was partially examined in 2005. Eight cremated, urn graves and one tomb with at least four graves were discovered. The examined graves date from the first half of the 1st to the end of the 2nd century, so at least part of them can be connected with the settlement in Grublje.
Individual finds from the late Roman period were also discovered nearby, in the Old Castle above Vipava. It is worth mentioning that the examined area is located at the site of the Battle of the Frigidus at the end of the 4th century. The found bronze shackles of Avar origin testify that this area was continuously settled.
