Tumuli Graves – Status Symbol of the Dead in the Bronze and Iron Ages in Europe / Les tombes tumulaires – symboles du statut des défunts dans les âges du Bronze et du Fer en Europe 9781407309897, 9781407339672

Table of contents :
Front Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Table of Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Introductory note
Session 47: TUMULI GRAVES – STATUS SYMBOL OF THE DEAD IN BRONZE AND IRON AGES IN EUROPE
Session 47: LES TOMBES TUMULAIRES – SYMBOLES DU STATUT DES DEFUNTS DANS LES AGES DU BRONZE ET DU FER EN EUROPE
RITUALS AND DEATH CULTS IN RECENT PREHISTORY IN CENTRAL PORTUGAL (ALTO RIBATEJO)
THE CAVE OF SA OMU AND TZIU GIOVANNI MURGIA, FUNTANA ARRUBIA, NURALLAO (SOUTH-CENTRAL SARDINIA – ITALY): FIRST CONCLUSIONS
THE YAMNAYA BURIALS FROM SULTANA, IN THE CONTEXT OF THE SIMILAR FINDS ON THE TERRITORY OF ROMANIA
EARLY BRONZE AGE BURIAL MOUNDS IN SOUTH ROMANIA
IN SEARCH FOR PRESTIGE: BRONZE AGE TUMULAR GRAVES IN WEST SERBIA
CRITERIA FOR A SOCIAL STATUS TYPOLOGY IN PREHISTORY (OPEN MODEL FOR DISCUSSION)
“ARMED” FEMALES OF IRON AGE TRANS-URALIAN FOREST-STEPPE: SOCIAL REALITY OR STATUS IDENTITY?
FUNERARY MONUMENTS OF THE SCYTHIAN AMAZONS (SOCIAL ASPECT)
BETWEEN ETRUSCAN, GREEKS AND CELTS: CHANGEMENT IN THE GOOD GRAVES OF THE LIGURIAN IRON AGE NECROPOLIS
5TH-4TH C. BC THRACIAN ORPHIC TUMULAR BURIALS IN SLIVEN REGION (SOUTHEASTERN BULGARIA)
AGIGHIOL AND PERETU – GRAVES OF GETAE BASILEI (350-300 BC) AT THE LOWER DANUBE

Citation preview

BAR S2396 2012

UNION INTERNATIONALE DES SCIENCES PRÉHISTORIQUES ET PROTOHISTORIQUES INTERNATIONAL UNION OF PREHISTORIC AND PROTOHISTORIC SCIENCES PROCEEDINGS OF THE XVI WORLD CONGRESS (FLORIANÓPOLIS, 4-10 SEPTEMER 2011) ACTES DU XVI CONGRÈS MONDIAL (FLORIANÓPOLIS, 4-10 SEPTEMBRE 2011) VOL. 2 Actes de la session 47 Proceedings of session 47

SIRBU & SCHUSTER (Eds) TUMULI GRAVES

B A R

Tumuli Graves – Status Symbol of the Dead in the Bronze and Iron Ages in Europe Les tombes tumulaires – symboles du statut des défunts dans les âges du Bronze et du Fer en Europe Edited by

Valeriu Sîrbu Cristian Schuster

BAR International Series 2396 2012

UNION INTERNATIONALE DES SCIENCES PRÉHISTORIQUES ET PROTOHISTORIQUES INTERNATIONAL UNION OF PREHISTORIC AND PROTOHISTORIC SCIENCES PROCEEDINGS OF THE XVI WORLD CONGRESS (FLORIANÓPOLIS, 4-10 SEPTEMER 2011) ACTES DU XVI CONGRÈS MONDIAL (FLORIANÓPOLIS, 4-10 SEPTEMBRE 2011) VOL. 2 Actes de la session 47 Proceedings of session 47

Tumuli Graves – Status Symbol of the Dead in the Bronze and Iron Ages in Europe Les tombes tumulaires – symboles du statut des défunts dans les âges du Bronze et du Fer en Europe Edited by

Valeriu Sîrbu Cristian Schuster

BAR International Series 2396 2012

ISBN 9781407309897 paperback ISBN 9781407339672 e-format DOI https://doi.org/10.30861/9781407309897 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

BAR

PUBLISHING

Contents Contents .................................................................................................................................. i List of Figures ........................................................................................................................ii List of Tables ......................................................................................................................... v Introductory note ................................................................................................................... vi Tumuli Graves – Status symbol of the dead in Bronze and Iron Ages in Europe .................. 1 Organizers: Valeriu Sîrbu, Cristian Schuster Rituals and death cults in recent prehistory in Central Portugal (Alto Ribatejo) ................... 3 Alexandra Figueiredo The cave of Sa Omu and Tziu Giovanni Murgia, Funtana Arrubia, Nurallao (south-central Sardinia – Italy): First conclusions .......................................................... 17 Alexandra Figueiredo, Giuseppina Gradoli, Rosalba Floris, Cláudio Monteiro, Irene Sanna and Emanuele Pittoni The Yamnaya burials from Sultana, in the context of the similar finds on the territory of Romania ............................................................................................ 23 Done Şerbanescu, Alexandra Comşa Early Bronze Age burial mounds in South Romania. .......................................................... 29 Cristian Schuster In Search for Prestige: Bronze Age Tumular Graves in West Serbia. .................................. 35 Marija Ljuština, Katarina Dmitrović Criteria for a social status typology in prehistory (Open model for discussion) .................. 43 Lolita Nikolova “Armed” Females of Iron Age Trans-Uralian Forest-Steppe: Social Reality or Status Identity? ........................................................................................................... 53 Natalia Berseneva Funerary Monuments of the Scythian Amazons (Social Aspect) ......................................... 61 Elena Fialko Between Etruscan, Greeks and Celts: changement in the good graves of the Ligurian Iron Age necropolis ............................................................................... 69 Davide Delfino 5th-4th c. BC Thracian Orphic Tumular Burials in Sliven Region (Southeastern Bulgaria)... 77 Diana Dimitrova Agighiol and Peretu – Graves at Getae Basilei (350-300 BC) at Lower Danube................. 85 Valeriu Sirbu

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List of Figures Alexandra Figueiredo – Rituals and Death Cults in Recent Prehistory in Central Portugal (Alto Ribatejo) Figure 1 – The megalithic Complex of Rego da Murta is situated in the inner centre of the Portuguese territory, in south of alvaiázee country. In the image we can see a view from the landscape and some monuments that compose the complex ............ 4 Figure 2 – Distribution of the monuments. nº 2 Dolmén I of rego da murta; nº 3 Dolmen II of Rego da Murta; nº 4 Dolmén III of Rego da Murta; nº 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 36 – Menhires; nº 37 – monolith with roman and prehitoric depositions ................................. 4 Figure 3 – Two small menhirs d) and f), made of limestone, that surronded the Dolmen II of Rego da Murta. They are connected and made a perfect circle in the model presented above ................................................................... 4 Figure 4 – Draws of ceramic material and its distribution in Dolmen II of Rego da Murta. At rigth image we can see one of the condened structures above one pits deposition .......................................................................................................... 10 Figure 5 – Dolmen I of Rego da Murta with the distribution of type of faun remains in side of monument. We can easly see that they are connected with the central chamber structure and close to the ortostats ................................................................... 11 Figure 6 – The dolmen II of Rego da Murta and bones remains. In the inferior rigth conner we can see some exeamples of osteological remains with sigs of men-made cuts ........................................................................................................... 11 Figure 7 – Dolmen I of Rego da Murta. In up we see the distribution of chips, pottery and arrowhans. In donw image we can see all the structures founded and an image of the hall .................................................................................... 12 Figure 8 – Distribution of fauna remains in the Dolmen II of Rego da Murta ..................... 13 Ilustration 1 – Material draws from Dolmen II of Rego da Murta: colar beads and hanging ornament ...................................................................................................... 6 Ilustration 2 – Material draws from Dolmen II of Rego da Murta: bones artifacts and schist plaques ............................................................................................................. 6 Ilustration 3 – Material draws from Dolmen II of Rego da Murta: pottery ............................ 6 Ilustration 4 – Material draws from Dolmen II of Rego da Murta: arrowheads ..................... 7 Ilustration 5 – Material draws from Dolmen II of Rego da Murta: Flints .............................. 7 Ilustration 6 – Material draws from Dolmen II of Rego da Murta: Polish axes and other artifacts ............................................................................................................. 7 Ilustration 7 – Material draws from Dolmen II of Rego da Murta: halberds.......................... 8 Ilustration 8 – Material draws from Dolmen I of Rego da Murta: Pottery ............................. 8 ii

Ilustration 9 – Material draws from Dolmen I of Rego da Murta: Arrowhands and flints ...................................................................................................... 9 Ilustration 10 – Material draws from Dolmen I of Rego da Murta: microliths and chips .......................................................................................................... 9 Ilustration 11 – Material draws from Dolmen I of Rego da Murta: Polish axe and some adornment material ......................................................................... 9 Alexandra Figueiredo, Giuseppina Gradoli, Rosalba Floris, Cláudio Monteiro, Irene Sanna and Emanuele Pittoni – The cave of Sa Omu and Tziu Giovanni Murgia, Funtana Arrubia, Nurallao (south-central Sardinia – Italy): First conclusions Figure 1 – Region of Nurallao and image of the Cava Sa Omu and Tziu Giovanni Murgia .................................................................................................... 18 Figure 2 – Archaeological remains in Nurallao region (Sardinia) ....................................... 18 Figure 3 – Photo of the cave................................................................................................. 19 Figure 4 – View from the cave to the landscape – direction W-SW .................................... 19 Figure 5 – Plant of the cave with representation of rock blocks and materials remains ..................................................................................................... 20 Figure 6 – Plant of the cave with representation of material and osteological remains ................................................................................................ 20 Figure 7 – Image of the three skulls ..................................................................................... 21 Done Şerbanescu, Alexandra Comşa – The Yamnaya burials from Sultana, in the context of the similar finds on the territory of Romania Figure 1 – Lateral view of the skull – skeleton 3 ................................................................. 26 Figure 2 – Sacral bone of the skeleton 4 with hiaturs sacralis.............................................. 26 Cristian Schuster – Early Bronze Age burial mounds in south Romania Figure 1 – Medgidia, Tumulus no. 3 .................................................................................... 30 Figure 2 – Medgidia, Tumulus no. 3, Burials 1-2 ................................................................ 31 Figure 3 – Medgidia, Tumulus no. 3, Burial 7 ..................................................................... 32 Figure 4 – Medgidia, Tumulus no. 3, Burial 14 ................................................................... 32 Marija Ljustina, Katarina Dmitrović – In Search for Prestige: Bronze Age Tumular Graves in West Serbia Figure 1 – Map of Serbia with encircled region of West Serbia .......................................... 36 Figure 2 – The Bronze Age mounds from West Serbia ....................................................... 38 Figure 3 – Bronze weapons and pins from the Bronze Age graves in West Serbia ............. 40 Lolita Nikolova – Criteria for a social status typology in prehistory (Open model for discussion) Figure 1 – A graphic presentation of the secure and unsecure social status with different scales of security/insecurity ..................................................................... 44 Natalia Berseneva – “Armed” Females of Iron Age Trans-Uralian Forest-Steppe: Social Reality or Status Identity? Figure 1 – Map of the Sargat cemeteries localization. ......................................................... 54 iii

Elena Fialko – Funerary Monuments of the Scythian Amazons (Social Aspect) Figure 1 – Burial complexes of Scythian Amazons (plans of tombs and sets of things)...... 64 Figure 2 – Burial complexes of Scythian Amazons (plans of tombs and sets of things)...... 65 Davide Delfino – Between Etruscan, Greeks and Celts: changement in the good graves of the Ligurian Iron Age necropolis Figure 1 – Liguria in the Tyrrhenian Sea; the ancient Liguria with ligurian tribes .............. 70 Figure 2 – First Iron Age graves. A) Chiavari cemetery; B) female grave in Chiavari cemetery; C) male grave in Chiavari cemetery; D) male grave of Savignone................ 70 Figure 3 – Medium and Late Iron Age graves. A) Genoa cemetery; B) Cafaggio cemetery, male grave; C) Cafaggio cemetery, female grave .......................................... 72 Figure 4 – Example of foreign grave element in Iron Age. A) Orientalizing urn, Chiavari cemetery (First Iron Age); B) Italic geometric ware, Chiavari cemetery (First Iron Age); C) Hallstattian short sword, Rocca delle Fene grave (First Iron Age); D and E) Attic red figures kraters, Genoa cemetery (Medium Iron Age); F) Etruscan schnabelkanne, Genoa cemetery (Medium Iron Age); G) Amber necklace, Genoa cemetery (Medium Iron Age); H) La Téne’s swords, Cafaggio cemetery (Late Iron Age) ............................................................................................................... 74 Diana Dimitrova – 5th-4th c. BC Thracian Orphic Tumular Burials in Sliven Region (Southeastern Bulgaria) Figure 1 – Map with locations of the villages Krushare and Topolchane (Sliven region)...................................................................................................................... 78 Figure 2 – The grave pit in Yakimova tumulus .................................................................... 78 Figure 3 – Gold pectoral from Yakimova tumulus before restoration ................................. 78 Figure 4 – The grave in Dalakova tumulus .......................................................................... 79 Figure 5 – Gold signet-ring from Dalakova tumulus ........................................................... 80 Figure 6 – Gold mask from Dalakova tumulus .................................................................... 80 Figure 7 – Unfolded scene on rhyton from Dalakova tumulus ............................................ 81 Figure 8 – Grave No. 1 in Taneva tumulus .......................................................................... 81 Figure 9 – Small-size cult objects from Taneva tumulus ..................................................... 82 Figure 10 – Grave No. 2 in Taneva tumulus ........................................................................ 82 Figure 11 – Clay rhyton from Taneva tumulus .................................................................... 83 Valeriu Sîrbu – Agighiol and Peretu – Graves at Getae Basilei (350-300 BC) at Lower Danube Figure 1 – Inventory of the tumular grave from Agighiol .................................................... 86 Figure 2 – Inventory of the tumular grave from Peretu ........................................................ 88 Figure 3 – Helmet (1) and human head (3) from Peretu, helmet (2), greaves (5-6) and goblet no. 1 (4) from Agighiol ........................................................... 90

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List of Tables Natalia Berseneva – “Armed” Females of Iron Age Trans-Uralian Forest-Steppe: Social Reality or Status Identity? Table 1 – Sargat undisturbed adult burials (with anthropological identification) ................ 54 Table 2 – “Assemblages of artefacts” of Sargat female burials ........................................... 55

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Introductory note The International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences (Union Internationale des Sciences Préhistoriques et Protohistoriques – UISPP) was founded on May 28th, 1931, in Berne, and integrates all sciences related to prehistoric and protohistoric development: archaeology, anthropology, palaeontology, geology, zoology, botany, environment, physics, chemistry, geography, history, numismatics, epigraphy, mathematics and other. Research on adaptation mechanisms and human societies’ behaviour dynamics are ate the centre of the scientific interest of UISPP. For this aim, UISPP periodically organises a world congress of prehistoric and protohistoric sciences, on which occasion the progress of knowledge is presented and common research goals are set. For these, UISPP creates scientific commissions devoted to specialised research themes. The increasing specialisation of disciplines, of organisations and of scientific events requires a particular effort for their integration and communication, UISPP taking such responsibility. It secures the promotion of pluri-disciplinary and inter-institutional collaborations through the regional and thematic scientific commissions and affiliated organisations, sharing similar objectives, as well as with other scientific institutions. UISPP is a member of the UNESCO associate International Council of Philosophy and Human Sciences, since September 29th, 1955. As an international association of scholars, its aim is the collaboration of scholars from all countries through initiatives that may contribute for the advancement of prehistoric and protohistoric sciences, based on full academic freedom and refusing any sort of discrimination based on race, philosophical or ideological judgement, ethnic or geographic affiliation, nationality, sex, language or other, since discrimination is, by definition, the negation of the scientific approach. It also rejects any attempts of fictional rewriting of the past or of negationism, and it doesn’t exclude any bona fide scholar from its scientific activities. The XVI congress of UISPP was held in Florianópolis, Brazil, in 2011, with over 1.000 researchers, mainly from Latin America. In this occasion, the permanent council decided to organise the next two congresses with intervals of 3 years. The XVII congress will be organised in Burgos (Spain) in 2014 (August 31st-September 7th), and the XVIII congress will be organised in Melbourne (Australia) in 2017. Information on the membership of UISPP, its scientific commissions, the next congress and other activities is available contacting [email protected]. The Bureau of UISPP

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Session 47 TUMULI GRAVES – STATUS SYMBOL OF THE DEAD IN BRONZE AND IRON AGES IN EUROPE Organizers: Valeriu SÎRBU, Cristian SCHUSTER (Romania)

the symbolism of colors, d) battle and parade equipment and weaponry, e) clothes and jewelry, f) animal sacrifices (and human as well?), g) after-burial rituals.

INTRODUCTION The funerary buildings and the artifacts put in the grave express not only “the identity” of the deceased, but also a part of the moral and religious values of that community.

By analyzing these aspects on large territories and long periods, we tried to identify the common and particular elements of the tumuli tombs of the different prehistoric and protohistoric populations in Europe, which could reflect the status of the individual in those societies.

Certainly, we do not consider from the beginning that the funerary inventory and the tumulus building are the direct expression of the dead status because the classification of the graves in “rich” and “poor”, in “aristocratic” or “of the common people” may be the expression of a certain subjectivity of the scholar. Still, when it comes to impressive funerary buildings with funerary chambers underneath, some of them sculpted or painted, items made of precious metals, weapons and jewelry, rich offerings or the traces of long rituals, one can conclude that an important member of the aristocracy was buried there.

As one can see, the lectures were diverse, in terms of geography, chronology and topic. Thus, lectures covered a large area, both in terms of geography – from the Urals, to the east, all the way to the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal), to the west, and from the Ukrainian steppes, to the north, all the way to Sardinia, to the south – and of chronology, from the late Neolithic/early Bronze Age all the way to the end of the Second Iron Age.

At the same time, the categories of offerings and objects deposed in the grave give us useful information concerning the gender, the profession and the place of the deceased in the society, as well as the conceptions of the community about “the other world”.

We can say that the lectures and the heated debates that took place mean that the session reached its targets, and their rapid publication will make sure that they will enter the scientific circuit.

The lectures held analyzed the following aspects concerning the tumuli graves of the Bronze and Iron Ages in Europe: a) the funerary buildings and the inside fittings, b) the place of the deceased and the position of the funerary inventory (by gender, age, hierarchy), c) the figurative representations in the funerary chambers and

We would like to follow all the colleagues that undertook outstanding efforts – financially and scientifically – to participate in the session organized in Florianopolis and to complete the lectures in view of publication. Valeriu Sîrbu, Cristian Schuster

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Session 47 LES TOMBES TUMULAIRES – SYMBOLES DU STATUT DES DEFUNTS DANS LES AGES DU BRONZE ET DU FER EN EUROPE Organisateurs: Valeriu SÎRBU, Cristian SCHUSTER (Romania)

de parade, e) les vêtements et les parures, f) les sacrifices d’animaux (et d’hommes ?), g) les rituels après l’enterrement.

INTRODUCTION La construction funéraire et les artefacts déposés dans la tombe expriment non seulement « l’identité » du défunt, mais aussi une partie des valeurs morales et religieuses de la communauté respective.

A travers l’analyse de ces aspects sur des espaces vastes et dans une période éloignée, on a essayé d’identifier les éléments communs et particuliers des tombes tumulaires chez les différentes populations préhistoriques et protohistoriques en Europe, qui peuvent réfléchir le statut de l’individu dans les sociétés respectives.

Certes, nous ne partons pas de la prémisse que le mobilier funéraire et la construction du tumulus reflètent directement le statut du défunt, car classifier les tombes en « riches » et « pauvres », en « aristocratiques » et « du bas peuple », peut contenir un certain subjectivisme de la part du chercheur. Néanmoins, lorsqu’il s’agit de bâtiments funéraires impressionnants sous lesquels se trouvent des chambres funéraires, parfois sculptées ou peintes, des pièces en métaux précieux, sets de parures et armes, offrandes abondantes ou traces de longs rituels, alors nous pouvons conclure qu’un membre important de l’aristocratie y a été enterré.

Comme l’on peut observer, les communications ont été variées, autant du point de vue géographique et chronologique, que thématique. L’aire géographique en discussion est étendue – depuis les Monts Oural, à l’est, jusque dans la Péninsule Ibérique, à l’ouest (Portugal), depuis les steppes de l’Ukraine, au nord, jusqu’en Sardaigne, au sud, ainsi que la chronologie, depuis le Néolithique final/Bronze ancien, jusqu’à la fin du second âge du Fer.

Par ailleurs, les catégories de pièces et d’offrandes déposées dans la tombe nous fournissent des informations utiles sur les professions, le sexe, la place du défunt dans la société, ainsi que les conceptions de la communauté respective sur le « monde de l’au-delà ».

Nous pouvons affirmer que, par les communications présentées, ainsi que par les vives discussions qui ont suivi, la session a atteint les buts proposés, et la publication rapide des travaux assurera leur entrée dans le circuit scientifique international.

Les auteurs ont analysé, à travers les communications présentées les aspects suivants concernant les tombes tumulaires des âges du Bronze et du Fer en Europe a) les constructions funéraires et les aménagements intérieurs, b) la place des défunts et la position du mobilier funéraire (par sexe, âge, hiérarchie), c) les représentations figuratives dans les chambres funéraires et le symbolisme des couleurs, d) l’équipement et l’armement de combat et

Nous tenons à remercier tous les collègues qui ont fait de grands efforts – financiers et scientifiques – pour participer à la session organisée à Florianópolis et pour achever les communications en vue de leur publication. Valeriu Sîrbu, Cristian Schuster

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RITUALS AND DEATH CULTS IN RECENT PREHISTORY IN CENTRAL PORTUGAL (ALTO RIBATEJO) Alexandra FIGUEIREDO Instituto Politécnico de Tomar Centro de Geociências (ID FCT) [email protected]

Resumo: O artigo que se segue pretende apresentar de forma resumida os novos dados existentes para a compreensão dos cultos e rituais registados na zona do Alto Ribatejo, Central-Portugal, durante a pré-história recente. O Complexo Megalítico de Rego da Murta é o único conjunto de monumentos megalíticos conhecidos até agora, na zona do Alto Nabão, sendo extraordinariamente importante para a percepção das dinâmicas das populações que habitaram nesta região. A excelente preservação dos contextos de deposição, sobretudo ocorridos na Anta II de Rego da Murta, e a sua proximidade relativa com os contextos de gruta, caracterizam-no como a opção perfeita para a percepção das acções fúnebres e dos rituais desenvolvidos nesta época. Palavras-chave: Rituais funerários, Megalitismo, Pré-história recente Abstract: The present paper aims to give a general outline of the new data contributing to a better understanding of cults and rituals in Alto Ribatejo, central Portugal, during recent prehistory. The Megalithic Complex of Rego da Murta is the only megalithic set known so far in the Upper Nabão region, therefore being of crucial significance to understanding the evolutionary population dynamics that inhabited this region. The excellent preservation of deposition contexts, specially those occurred in Dolmen II of Rego da Murta, and its relative proximity with the cave contexts, makes it the perfect case study for understanding a perception of action and the burial rites performed in those ancient times. Keywords: Burial Rituals, Megalithism, Recent Prehistory

chronology from later Neolithic to early Bronze Age periods, within an area of about 1 km2, on the right bank of the Rego da Murta stream.

INTRODUCTION Until the late twentieth-century, the whole Alto Ribatejo region was considered part of a different cultural world, whose population descended from the cardinal and only performed their burial rituals inside caves; characterized as diverse as deposition from those in megalithic monuments recorded in the neighboring regions. The lack of knowledge of megalithic monuments in this area, as well as the records of artifacts found in cave burials and its apparent dissimilarity with the monuments observed further south such as Dolmen I at Val da Lage (Oosterbeek, 1997) led the researchers to divide the Alto Ribatejo region into two “worlds” – the one of caves and the one of megalithic monuments (Cruz, 1997; Oosterbeek, 1997). It was only after the first Rego da Murta monuments have been found – presently a set of 11 megalithic monuments – that the reformulation of this theory has been proposed in a doctoral dissertation, 2006 (Figueiredo, 2006a).

It stands on the Mesozoic limestone terrains (Cunha, L. 1990), which form the whole mountain range of Alto Nabão, in the plain between the Zêzere and Nabão rivers. From the administrative point of view, it is situated in the inner centre of the Portuguese territory, in the parish of Ramalhal, Alvaiázere county, Leiria District (see figure 1). Among the monuments marked (fig. 2) two dolmens – Dolmen I and Dolmen II of Rego da Murta – stand out (the last one is in an excellent state of preservation) and several small monoliths in which lithics material remains have also been exhumed.

THE MEGALITHIC COMPLEX OF REGO DA MURTA

Morphologically, the dolmens are different from each other; however they fit in the typologies established for the ones observed in the Portuguese central/southern territory. Both have a medium-size chamber and corridor and are built with limestone ortostats from outcrops in the region. However, in Dolmen I of Rego da Murta the chamber has a separate corridor, its ortostats are larger and there are two in the head. Dolmen II of Rego da Murta is an allée couverte type structure; there is no clear distinction between chamber and corridor.

The Megalithic Complex of Rego da Murta is comprised of a set of stone monuments which fits in with the

The several papers already published on these monuments (Velho, A. 2002; 2003; Figueiredo, A. 2003;

As well as being located in the occupied area of the caves, these monuments reveal well-preserved contexts, particularly as far as bone remains is concerned.

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TUMULI GRAVES – STATUS SYMBOL OF THE DEAD IN BRONZE AND IRON AGES IN EUROPE

Figure 1 – The megalithic Complex of Rego da Murta is situated in the inner centre of the Portuguese territory, in south of alvaiázee country. In the image we can see a view from the landscape and some monuments that compose the complex

Figure 2 – Distribution of the monuments. nº2 Dolmén I of rego da murta; nº 3 Dolmen II of Rego da Murta; nº 4 Dolmén III of Rego da Murta; nº 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 36 – Menhires; nº 37 – monolith with roman and prehitoric depositions

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A. FIGUEIREDO: RITUALS AND DEATH CULTS IN RECENT PREHISTORY IN CENTRAL PORTUGAL (ALTO RIBATEJO)

Figure 3 – Two small menhirs d) and f), made of limestone, that surronded the Dolmen II of Rego da Murta. They are connected and made a perfect circle in the model presented above

them identified as being made of crisoprase (raw material which can’t be found in the Portuguese territory) (Gonçalves, H, 2006). Associated with lithic and pottery materials, there is an interesting and significant bone industry which contributes to understanding the Portuguese archaeographic contexts (illustration 1 to 7). Dolmen I of Rego da Murta, not so well preserved, evidences occupations characterised by larger pots and a lithic record, consisting of big blades and flints of different types (illustration 8 to 11). We believe that this apparent dissimilarity between Dolmen I and Dolmen II of Rego da Murta is due to the differences in occupation chronologies: Dolmen I evidencing occupations from late Neolithic and early Bronze and Dolmen II from the medium/late Calcolithic.

2004 a-h; 2005 a,b; 2006 a,b; 2007 a,b) include them, as far as burial rituals and materials recorded is concerned, in a similar cultural context to that of contemporary occupations observed in identified caves of the region which can be paralleled with Gruta dos Ossos and Gruta do Cadaval (Figueiredo, 2006a). The small menhirs, also made of limestone, are small belly-shaped monoliths (rounded on one side and flat on the other) resulting from natural polishing of the surface of limestone rocks and the cutting of rock outcrops. These are distributed in circle around Dolmen II, delimiting a symbolic space, with the megalithic monument in its middle (fig. 3).

Absolute datings have been obtained through AMS bone dating techniques.

As well as the menhirs, silex artifacts made of chert – a material found in the region – were found. These are mainly flints and cores, most of them without retouches or traces of usage. Near of Menhir II a small deposition consisting of a great number of seeds (still to be identified), silex materials and a small ceramic fragment was ex-humed. These depositions differ from the dolmens. These contain silex materials stemming from external areas to known mineral beds in the vicinity of the monuments, presenting a type of flint of better quality, more characteristic of south areas, near of the River Tagus, as is the case of deposits of Rio Maior. Materials exhumed from Dolmen II include numerous arrowheads of differrent types and halberds, as well as collar beads, some of

Dolmen I of Rego da Murta (first occupation phase): Beta – 190001 Cal BC 3360 to 3090 (Cal BP 5310 to 5040); 4520 +/- 40 BP. Beta – 189998 Cal BC 3360 to 2930 (Cal BP 5310 to 4880); 4490+/-60 BP. Beta – 190003 Cal BC 3270 to 3240 (Cal BP 5220 to 5190); 4400 +/- 40 BP. Beta – 190002 Cal BC 3090 to 2900 (Cal BP 5040 to 4850); 4370 +/- 40 BP. 5

TUMULI GRAVES – STATUS SYMBOL OF THE DEAD IN BRONZE AND IRON AGES IN EUROPE

Ilustration 1 – Material draws from Dolmen II of Rego da Murta: colar beads and hanging ornament

Ilustration 2 – Material draws from Dolmen II of Rego da Murta: bones artifacts and schist plaques

Ilustration 3 – Material draws from Dolmen II of Rego da Murta: pottery

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A. FIGUEIREDO: RITUALS AND DEATH CULTS IN RECENT PREHISTORY IN CENTRAL PORTUGAL (ALTO RIBATEJO)

Ilustration 4 – Material draws from Dolmen II of Rego da Murta: arrowheads

Ilustration 5 – Material draws from Dolmen II of Rego da Murta: Flints

Ilustration 6 – Material draws from Dolmen II of Rego da Murta: Polish axes and other artifacts 7

TUMULI GRAVES – STATUS SYMBOL OF THE DEAD IN BRONZE AND IRON AGES IN EUROPE

Ilustration 7 – Material draws from Dolmen II of Rego da Murta: halberds

Ilustration 8 – Material draws from Dolmen I of Rego da Murta: Pottery Dolmen I of Rego da Murta (second occupation phase):

Beta – 190004 Cal BC 2930 to 2880 (Cal BP 4880 to 4830); 4290 +/- 40 BP.

Beta – 190000 Cal BC 2130 to 1900 (Cal BP 4080 to 3850); 3640 +/- 40 BP.Beta – 189999 Cal BC 1940 to 1730 (Cal BP 3880 to 3680); 3510 +/- 40 BP.

Beta – 190008 Cal BC 2860 to 2810 (Cal BP 4810 to 4760) or Cal BC 2750 to 2720 (Cal BP 4700 to 4670) or Cal BC 2700 to 2470 (Cal BP 4650 a 4420); 4060 +/- 50 BP.

Dolmen II of Rego da Murta: Beta – 190007 Cal BC 2890 to 2630 (Cal BP 4840 to 4580); 4190 +/- 40 BP. 8

A. FIGUEIREDO: RITUALS AND DEATH CULTS IN RECENT PREHISTORY IN CENTRAL PORTUGAL (ALTO RIBATEJO)

Ilustration 9 – Material draws from Dolmen I of Rego da Murta: Arrowhands and flints

Ilustration 10 – Material draws from Dolmen I of Rego da Murta: microliths and chips

Ilustration 11 – Material draws from Dolmen I of Rego da Murta: Polish axe and some adornment material 9

TUMULI GRAVES – STATUS SYMBOL OF THE DEAD IN BRONZE AND IRON AGES IN EUROPE

Figure 4 – Draws of ceramic material and its distribution in Dolmen II of Rego da Murta. At rigth image we can see one of the condened structures above one pits deposition

which allowed the detection of a humus soil layer inside the monument but not in the outside, which leads us to consider it an export layer. This layer covers the whole burial assemblage, some isolated pottery fragments have been found which don’t match with any of the other elements found in the monument or in similar sites where the relatively complete pottery vessels have been found. This leads us to consider the possibility of materials and sediments having been transported from a previous burial location and its disposal inside the dolmens. In addition to the archaeological interpretation, some of the bones examined by the anthropology team (Silva et alli 2005, 2006; Silva, A. 2005, 2006; Pinto, 2008) reveal traces of manipulation which indicates the presence of previous rituals (fig. 6). Also we found non-cremated bones and small amounts of bones cremated in different degrees, but without direct connection with the assemblages identified. It is worth noting that the number of complete long bones is very scarce and almost all of them are fractured. In addition, the data obtained enable us to sustain that there has been no selection of individuals; each ossuary consists of bones of different age and sex in an amalgam as if they came from a sort of common trench or collective burial site. Even if this possibility is considered new studies will be needed to confirm these data.

THE BURIAL RITUALS A significant point in the study of Rego da Murta megalithic monuments relates with the rituals performed and the different deposition contexts observed. Although not so obvious in Dolmen I due to its relative destruction, bone remains in Dolmen II are concentrated in pits crowned at the top by a pile of stones (fig. 4). Most artifacts are deposited inside the pit together with the bone remains; the pottery items being upside down at the top of the mound near the first layer of stones, topping each context. Similarly, the skulls also seem to be at the top of bone remains, dominating the cluster, followed by long bones. Around the bone deposition other artifacts can be seen in a somewhat random arrangement. However, some of the remains examined suggest that the deposition followed an overall scheme. For example, so far all polished artifacts (axes and adzes) were found close to the prop walls, both on the right and the left-hand side. Also the fauna found in Dolmen I has been collected close to the prop walls or in the central area of the monument near the rounded structure sustained by us (Figueiredo, A. 2006a) as a support structure for any symbolic object (possibly a wooden monolith) which can be connected with the late Neolithic (fig. 5), in Dolmen II, the depositions of the fauna also have connection with the big groups of human bones (fig. 9).

This procedure of transporting materials, sediments and bones from a primary burial area to a secondary area is described in other studies on archaeological sites of the region (Oosterbeek, 1997) and may be the possibility considered for pit burials in the Nabão caves. Gruta dos Ossos (Tomar) located at a few kilometres south of the Rego da Murta complex is an example thereof

So far, no anatomic connections in any of the monuments have been detected, considering that burial rituals between the late Neolithic period and early Bronze Age evidenced in the megalithic monuments of the Alto Nabão region are associated with secondary rituals. This possibility is confirmed by the sedimentary analyses 10

A. FIGUEIREDO: RITUALS AND DEATH CULTS IN RECENT PREHISTORY IN CENTRAL PORTUGAL (ALTO RIBATEJO)

Figure 5 – Dolmen I of Rego da Murta with the distribution of type of faun remains in side of monument. We can easly see that they are connected with the central chamber structure and close to the ortostats

Figure 6 – The dolmen II of Rego da Murta and bones remains. In the inferior rigth conner we can see some exeamples of osteological remains with sigs of men-made cuts 11

TUMULI GRAVES – STATUS SYMBOL OF THE DEAD IN BRONZE AND IRON AGES IN EUROPE

Figure 7 – Dolmen I of Rego da Murta. In up we see the distribution of chips, pottery and arrowhans. In donw image we can see all the structures founded and an image of the hall

located near the entrance (just like in Gruta dos Ossos) and an individual one located in a more interior room, older than the former. The authors who studied it found evidence for 19 stratigraphic units, of which two correspond to the following burials: Layer C (collective burials) and D (single inhumation) (Oosterbeek, L. 1985). Layer C was dated Beta 189995 4550+/-40 BP / 35203350 cal BC 2 sigma and I 17241 5180+/-140 BP / 43543732 cal BC 2 sigma. This level revealed the presence of a set of “surface” burials “without or barely without a sedimentary layer” (Cruz, A. 1997: 220) associated to a lithic industry of silex and amphibolite (consisting of polished, oval- and trapezoid-section artifacts blades and bladelets without retouches and crescent-shaped microliths), incised pottery (with line and zig-zag motives), long-neck notching edges and carenated vases paralleled to the ones found in the Rego da Murta dolmens (fig. 7) and also artifacts containing weaving objects and ribbed vases similar to those found in Gruta dos Ossos and Morgado Superior (idem, 1997).

(Oosterbeek, 1987; 1993). It is a relatively small cavity extending West where five stratigraphic layers have been observed (Oosterbeek, L. 1987: 80-81; 1993: 10-27; Oosterbeek, L. e Cruz A. 1991: 280-281). Among them two anthropic levels have been identified: one located in layer IV corresponding to the inhumation by the wall of the cave and the other, possibly a more recent one, between layer I and III dated Beta 189996 4240+/-40 BP / 3020-2890 cal BC 2 sigma; ICEN 465 4630+/-80 BP / 3628-3100 cal BC 2 sigma and I 17368 4460+/-110 BP / 3400-2880 cal BC 2 sigma comprising an ossuary containing several individuals. The primary deposition was confirmed by the presence of connected bones. This cave has revealed a series of successive burials characterised by the initial presence of decontextualised bones of the lower limbs from several individuals followed by burials of the upper limbs and finally the skulls – arrangements similar to those in Dolmen II at Rego da Murta. Between these deposition earth layers levels could be observed. The artifacts have been disposed around, close to the entrance cave (Cruz, A. e Oosterbeek, L. 1988); similar artifacts having been found in Dolmen I at Rego da Murta. In the vicinity of this cave there is the Gruta do Cadaval (Tomar) which also shows some consistencies with the data already provided. It is a cavity which can be divided into two separate spaces marked, not only by the cave's internal morphology, but also by the two burial types observed: a collective one

Layer D was dated ICEN 803 5390+/-50 BP / 4350-4045 cal BC 2 sigma and ICEN 464 5160+/-50 BP / 4212-3817 cal BC 2 sigma. The single grave was observed in the second room on a block slumping which has been reset to receive it. Associated with the burial various vases have been exhumed containing decorative patterns similar to

12

A. FIGUEIREDO: RITUALS AND DEATH CULTS IN RECENT PREHISTORY IN CENTRAL PORTUGAL (ALTO RIBATEJO)

Figure 8 – Distribution of fauna remains in the Dolmen II of Rego da Murta

those of early Neolithic (sac-shaped and “acacia leaf” print decorations), holed shells (Theodoxus fluviatilis), round- or oval-section artifacts made of polished stone, unretouched blades and bladelets and trapezes.

CONCLUSION In order to understand cults and rituals in Alto Ribatejo (Central Portugal) we can conclude that dolmens, specially those with corridor, are the most numerous and the ones having the richest artifact and bone deposition. Although no consistent bone remains have been obtained in Zêzere and Tejo sites, due to soil acidity, the amount of material observed in these monuments is very similar to those located in limestone areas such as Rego da Murta; Anta I at Val da Laje, Abrantes, by the Zêzere river containing about 100 individuals Oosterbeek, 1997). As for caves, and in line with the chronological table observed in megalithic monuments, this number appears to be around 30 (Schalling, M. 1995).

Although authors have considered that, with the initial datings (ICEN 464, ICEN 803 e I17241) the layers would not be able to be identified (Oosterbeek, 1997), the last dating obtained in 2003 (Beta 189995) of layer C enables us to match it with the earliest phase of Dolmen I of Rego da Murta. Despite the scarcity of osteological data of other contexts, in the region, from which we can draw conclusions on the nature of the rituals practised during the early occupation stages of the megalithic monuments, it is possible to consider for the Calcolithic period the use of rituals based on pit depositions. Further south, by the river Tagus other pit structures can be seen, either associated with atypical stone structures such as the Monumento dos Colos (Baptista, 2006), or separately such as the pits in Quinta do Paço (Caron, et alli, 2005) or connected with great natural rock blocks standing out from the landscape and overlooking the river Zêzere such as the Monument 5 at Jogada (Abrantes) Cruz, 2003; 2004; 2006; 2007).

In a prior period to these constructions, the number of individuals is quite lower as a result of single burials observed in the first cave depositions. This situation observed in the Alto Ribatejo region during the early Neolithic has been also observed in the protomegalithic monuments recognised throughout the whole peninsular territory: single burials accompanied by a very limited number of artifacts (Leisner V. 1965; 1998; Silva e Soares, 2000: 128) conjugated with animals, ochre and, in some cases, the use of fire.

Anyway, all data that we have to interpret rituals practised in the region lead us to consider the hypothesis of a behavioural change during the middle Neolithic, characterised by the transition from primary burials to transfer rituals and secondary pit burials, both in caves or in structures such as megalithic monuments. These depositions would be in some cases covered by a stone structure, crowned at the top by the skulls and some significant artifacts, within a global symbolic process.

As we go through the Neolithic in Alto Ribatejo, we can observe the presence of other burials, of a more collective nature, structured in more or less organised ossuaries related with rituals involving the deburial of old depositions. This transfer ritual might have had numerous symbolic-sacred or even socio-cultural meanings which from a given point in time started to be included in cult practices of these populations. It is by this time that these

13

TUMULI GRAVES – STATUS SYMBOL OF THE DEAD IN BRONZE AND IRON AGES IN EUROPE

puzzle (first large-size architectural structures requiring vast human resources, location in circulation or spacedelimiting areas, rapid adoption by several communities, association with symbolic and mostly external artifacts with a relatively small number of individuals, the long occupation period of these monuments, precise deposition procedures, among others) suggest collective, occasional contexts perceived by the surrounding environment. In the words of Debra Gold (2000) “a secondary burial operates at a number of different levels and may create or transform the social environment as much as it reflects it” also requires a bigger “collaborative work” and it is a process that “involves multiple corpses requiring specific physical treatment and thus brings together the living and the dead in a powerful and protracted way” (idem, 2000, 197).

cults started to be performed outdoors, both in the dolmens and in relatively atypical structures. As far as cults and rituals in menhirs are concerned, most of the cases observed in the Alto Ribatejo region relate with areas containing burial monuments such as dolmens or pits. The same applies to other regions of the Portuguese territory where they are also considered as boundaries of demarcation or identification of these areas (Jorge, V. 1977; Silva, F. e Silva, A. 1994; Leisner, G. 1944; Almeida, C. 1979:14; Bénéteau, G. 2000), having only a marginal role in the understanding of the spatialsymbolic assemblage. In Rego da Murta, procedures related with the menhirs are still far from being understood; however, there is no doubt that they are limited to a certain area where certain symbolic rituals and practices occurred including debitage processes. The same happens with the set of menhirs at Quinta do Paço located further south at a few kilometres’ distance (Caron et alli, 2005).

Apparently the social aspect is obvious – the message passed on is acknowledged and perceived by local as well as external communities. Adoption is only accomplished if it is perceived and considered by the populations as necessary or effective for the purposes intended. Be it for sacred or profane motives, it must be respected and integrated in the population’s habits and this is only possible within a society that confers meaning to it. Innovations could be assimilated and practised for the purpose of social integration in a wide contact network adapting symbolisms and concepts from neighbouring communities which, on their turn, had already adapted them from others by means of a sort of universal language. In addition, fashions would emerge that would change the practices adopted eventually leading to entire communities adopting new habits. The practice of these innovations (activities, rituals and objects) would thus be shared by neighbouring communities in order to establish social agreements for integration into a wide community.

The remains observed (set of menhirs and tombstonesmenhirs associated with megalithic pits and artifacts such as schist plates spread across a relatively small area grouped in clusters and associated with vestiges of fire) lead us to connect them with symbolic rituals and concepts in the Rego da Murta set. The artifacts recovered in the vicinity of the menhirs are also consisted of flints and cores mainly from the debitage of small nodes with a significant percentage of cortex and barely any retouched artifacts. If we consider menhirs and dolmens as part of the same spatial set we can say that there has been a clear intention in the choice of each object as well as its structure and manufacturing material. The rituals performed, such as the mere activity of making the artifacts or its deposition in the outer area of the monument as well as inside the dolmens or even related architectural constructions, followed very concrete rules. These depositions perpetuated across time and new structures and practices were added according to needs or rituals.

Megalithic monuments would then become a means of conveying that message thus justifying the time and effort dedicated to the constructions and surrounding area. The symbols (materialised in artworks and artifacts) – ideological conveyors – would be deposited in the interiors together with the ancestors (which would reinforce the intention and legitimate the action). In fact, these were not usual burials but symbolic practices with socio-religious meanings shared by the whole community.

An in-depth analysis of the data makes us conclude that, specially for Dolmen II at Rego da Murta, the different deposition moments (based on the absolute datings obtained) occurred within short periods of time (20 years in average) reveal contexts containing artifacts of a wide range of typologies – a clear reflection of these intentions and lifestyles of those ancient times. As far as we observed, these depositions show unique characteristics that allow us to distinguish between each of them within the monument. Although this is not the main focus of this research, we recognise that this will only be possible if we consider that the choice of the artifacts deposited by the communities has been intentional and they wanted to convey a clear message.

These “innovations" are not really new; some concepts applied to dolmens might have already been used in previous cult situations in cave burials, but around the 5th millennium have been transferred and adapted to the first monuments without having totally abandoned cave burials. After its exteriorisation, new structural elements have been added, with the use in the Calcolithic of natural elements such as big outcrops, small discrete architectural structures undistinguishable in the landscape or single pit depositions whether or not associated with wider spaces containing menhirs. It was a phase of Man’s conceptualisation of nature (Guilaine e Zammit, 1998: 120-125) which reflected itself at economical and cultural levels but specially in the socio-religious system.

Considering that the adoption of megalithism might have emerged from favourable structures, the causes may be related with social aspects, because the basic parts of the

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FIGUEIREDO, A. (2004d) – A Anta II do Rego da Murta (Alvaiázere) – Resultados da 1ª campanha de escavações, Techne, vol 9, Tomar, Arqueojovem, pp. 127-138. FIGUEIREDO, A. (2004e) – Relatório das escavações de 2003 da Anta II do Rego da Murta/Ramalhal, Alvaiázere. Instituto Português de Arqueologia. Torres Novas (policopiado).

Biblliography ALMEIDA, C.A.B. (1979) – O menhir de S. Paio de Antas (Esposende). Antas-Esposende: Associação Recreativa e Cultural de Antas-ARCA. BAPTISTA, A. (2006) – Vestígios Arqueológicos, Rio de Moinhos II. Boletim Informativo, O Riomoinhense, Junho, nº9, pp. 4-5.

FIGUEIREDO, A. (2004f) – Relatório das escavações do Monumento Romano de Rego da Murta/Ramalhal, Alvaiázere. Instituto Português de Arqueologia. Torres Novas (policopiado).

BENETEAU, G. (2000) – Les alignements de menhirs du Sud de la Vendée. Toulouse: Éditions Anthropologica. CARON, L., FREITAS, A. (2005) – Relatório de Escavação Arqueológica, Quinta do Paço I, II e III, Variante à E.N. 238 entre (IC3) e Proximidades de Ferreira do Zêzere. Coord. Luíz Oosterbeek, IPA, Tomar.

FIGUEIREDO, A. (2004g) – Relatório das prospecções de 2003 da zona limitrofe ao complexo megalítico de Rego da Murta/Ramalhal, Alvaiázere. Instituto Português de Arqueologia. Torres Novas (policopiado).

CRUZ, A. (2006) – “Pedra da Encavalada”. Monumento Megalítico 5 da Jogada, Revista digital ângulo, edição 2005-2006, Centro de Pré-história, Instituto Politécnico de Tomar.

FIGUEIREDO, A. (2004h) – Relatório do restauro da Anta I do Rego da Murta/Ramalhal, Alvaiázere. Instituto Português de Arqueologia. Torres Novas (policopiado).

CRUZ, A. (2007) – “A pedra da encavalada”, Revista digital ângulo, edição 2006-2007, Centro de Préhistória, Instituto Politécnico de Tomar.

FIGUEIREDO, A. (2005a) – Contributo para a análise do megalitismo no Alto Ribatejo. O complexo megalítico do Rego da Murta, Alvaiázere, Al-madan, Almada. 2ª Série: 13, pp. 134-136. FIGUEIREDO, A. (2005b) – Relatório das escavações de 2004 da Anta II e do Menir I do Rego da Murta/Ramalhal, Alvaiázere. Instituto Português de Arqueologia. Torres Novas (policopiado).

CRUZ, A.R. (1997) – Vale do Nabão: do Neolítico à Idade do Bronze, ARKEOS 3, Perspectivas em diálogo, CEIPHAR, Tomar. CRUZ, A.R. (2003) – Monumento 5 da Jogada, TECHNE 8, ed. Arqueojovem, Tomar, pp. 9-21. CRUZ, A.R. (2004) – Monumento 5 da JogadaCampanha Arqueológica – 2003, TECHNE, vol. 9 Arqueojovem, Tomar, pp. 89-114.

FIGUEIREDO, A. (2006a) – Complexo Megalítico de Rego da Murta. Pré-História recente do Alto Ribatejo (IV-IIº milénio a.C.): Problemáticas e Interrogações, dissertação de doutoramento em Arqueologia e PréHistória, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Letras.

CRUZ, A.R., OOSTERBEEK, L. (1988) – Relatório da Campanha da Gruta dos Ossos (Além da Ribeira, Tomar), Laboratório de pré-História da E.S.T.T. Tomar. CUNHA, L. (1990) – As Serras Calcárias de CondeixaSicó-Alvaiázere: estudo de geomorfologia, Instituto Nacional de Investigação Cientifica, Lisboa.

FIGUEIREDO, A. (2006b) – Relatório das escavações de 2005 da Anta II e do Menir II do Rego da Murta/Ramalhal, Alvaiázere. Instituto Português de Arqueologia. Torres Novas (policopiado).

FIGUEIREDO, A. (2002) – Relatório das escavações de 2001 da Anta I do Rego da Murta/Ramalhal, Alvaiázere. Instituto Português de Arqueologia. Torres Novas (policopiado).

FIGUEIREDO, A. (2007a) – Entre as grutas e os monumentos megalíticos: Problemáticas e interrogações na pré-história recente do Alto Ribatejo, Al-madan, versão digital.

FIGUEIREDO, A. (2003) – Relatório das escavações de 2002 da Anta I do Rego da Murta/Ramalhal, Alvaiázere. Instituto Português de Arqueologia. Torres Novas (policopiado).

FIGUEIREDO, A. (2007b) – Walking in a Way: Some conclusions of the recent Pre-history in Alto Ribatejo region. of the XXXIII Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology Conference (March 2005 – Tomar, Portugal), CAAPortugal, pp. 353-358. GUILAINE, J. (1998) – Néolithique et société. Discours antropologiques et donnés archéologiques. Annuaire du College de France, 1997-1998. Résumé des cours et travaux, pp. 687.97.

FIGUEIREDO, A. (2004) – O monumento romano do Rego da Murta/Ramalhal”, Techne, vol 9, Tomar, Arqueojovem, pp. 139-150. FIGUEIREDO, A. (2004a) – A Anta I do Rego da Murta – Descrição sumária dos trabalhos efectuados em 2003, Techne, vol 9, Tomar, Arqueojovem, pp. 115126.

JORGE, V.O. (1977) – Menhirs du Portugal. Colloque du 150 Anniversaire de la Société Polymathique du Morbihan. Vannes: Société Polymathique du Morbihan, pp. 99-124. LEISNER, G. (1944) – O Dolmen de falsa cúpula de Vale-de-Rodrigo Biblos, vol. XX. pp. 1-30.

FIGUEIREDO, A. (2004b) – Contributo para o estudo e compreensão do megalitismo no Alto Ribatejo: A Anta I do Rego da Murta, Alvaiázere, Leiria, Actas do IV congresso Peninsular de Arqueologia, in prelo. 15

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LEISNER, V. (1965) – Die megalithgraber der Iberischen Halbinsel. Der Westen. Madrider Forschungen, Band 1,3. Lieferung, Berlim.

SILVA, A.M. (2005) – Restos odontológicos da Anta II do Rego da Murta: resultados preliminares. Novembro.

LEISNER, V. (1998) – Die Megalithgraber der Iberischen Halbinse/. Deutsches Archaologisches Institut, Abteilung Madrid. – Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, (Madrider Forschungen, 1).

SILVA, A.M. (2006) – Anta II do Rego da Murta Relatório Antropológico dos restos odontológicos exumados em 2003, 2004 e 2005. IPA, 11 pp. SILVA, A.M., FERREIRA, M.T. 2005. Anta I do Rego da Murta.:relatório antropológico dos restos dentários da Campanha de 2003. Coimbra, Departamento de Antropologia da Universidade de Coimbra Relatório Técnico-científico. Agosto, 17pp.

OOSTERBEEK, L., CRUZ, A.R. (1988) – Neolitização do Vale do Nabão. E.S.T.T. Tomar. OOSTERBEEK, L. (1985) – A facies megalítca da Gruta do Cadaval (Tomar), Actas da Reunião do Quaternário Ibérico, nº 1, Vol. II, G.E.T.C. e G.T.P.E.Q., Lisboa, pp. 147-159.

SILVA, A.M., FERREIRA, M.T. (2006) – Anta II do Rego da Murta: relatório antropológico dos restos osteológicos. Coimbra, Departamento de Antropologia da Universidade de Coimbra Relatório Técnico-científico. Agosto.

OOSTERBEEK, L. (1987) – Gruta dos Ossos, Informação Arqueológica (1986), nº 8, Departamento de Arqueologia do IPPC, lisboa, pp. 80-81.

SILVA, C.T., SOARES, J. (2000) – Protomegalitismo no Sul de Portugal: inauguração das paisagens megalíticas in Muitas antas, pouca gente?, Actas do I Colóquio Internacional Sobre o Megalitismo, pp. 117-134.

OOSTERBEEK, L. (1993) – Gruta dos Ossos – Tomar – Um ossário do Neolítico Final, Boletim Cultural, nº 18, Câmara Municipal de Tomar, pp. 10-27. OOSTERBEEK, L. (1997) – Echoes from the East: The western network. North Ribatejo (Portugal): an insight to unequal and combined development, 7000 – 2000 B.C., ARKEOS 2, Tomar.

SILVA, F., SILVA, A. (1994) – Menires de Alvarenga e da serra da Freita (Arouca, Aveiro). Breve notícia. Actas das V Jornadas Arqueológicas. Lisboa, pp. 109123.

OOSTERBEEK, L., CRUZ, A. (1991) – Arqueologia da Morte. Boletim Cultural da Câmara Municipal de Tomar, 15, pp. 280-281.

VELHO, A. (2002b) – O monumento megalitico de Rego da Murta, relatório das campanhas de escavação de 1999 a 2001, Techne, vol 5, Tomar, Arqueojovem.

SCHALLING, M.C. (1995) – The Canteirões Cemetery, Neolithic cave burials in the Nabão valley in Central Portugal, Dissertação de Doutoramento apresentada na Universidade de Leiden, Holanda (policopiada) – trancrita na base de dados ARQSOFT.

VELHO, A. (2003) – A Anta I do Rego da Murta – Campanha de 2001, Techne, vol 8, Tomar, Arqueojovem, pp. 23-28.

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THE CAVE OF SA OMU AND TZIU GIOVANNI MURGIA, FUNTANA ARRUBIA, NURALLAO (SOUTH-CENTRAL SARDINIA – ITALY): FIRST CONCLUSIONS Alexandra FIGUEIREDO Unidade Departamental Arqueologia, Conservação e Restauro e Património, Instituto Politécnico de Tomar, Centro de Geociencias (UD), [email protected]

Giuseppina GRADOLI COMET – Valorizzazione Territoriale e ISSEP

Rosalba FLORIS Cagliary Museum

Cláudio MONTEIRO Phd student, Quaternário, Materiais e Culturas, Universidade Traz-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Centro do Geociencias (UD), [email protected]

Irene SANNA and Emanuele PITTONI Freelance Archaeologist (Irene Sanna) and Freelance Anthropologist (Emanuele Pittoni)

Resumo: Os dados que aqui apresentamos são o resultado das primeiras intervenções no sítio Gruta Sa Omu and Tziu Giovanni Murgia, localizada em Funtana Arrubia, região de Nurallao (Sardenha). Estes trabalhos integram-se no projecto “Death materialization and life cicle (south-central Sardinia): Technologies and interdisciplinary studies in the detection and preservation of archaeological remains”, coordenado pelo Instituto Politécnico de Tomar. Este projecto interdisciplinar revelou-se necessário para a compreensão da ocupação humana no território de Nurallao, focando o período cronológico da pré-história ao período romano. Entre os diferentes objectivos, pretende-se compreender os cultos e rituais, as continuidades e descontinuidades, as relações entre os povos indígenas e os grupos ou civilizações que, a determinado momento, ocuparam estas regiões, bem como percepcionar as diferentes arquitecturas, ideologias e actos registados. Abstract: With this paper we intend to present the first data of the archaeological works undertaken at the Cave Sa Omu and Tziu Giovanni Murgia, located in Funtana Arrubia area, Nurallao region (Sardinia). These works are integrated in the project “Death materialization and life cicle (south-central Sardinia): Technologies and interdisciplinary studies in the detection and preservation of archaeological remains”. This project stemmed from the need to investigate the human occupation of the Nurallao landscape, starting from prehistoric times until the Roman period. Some of our aims were to understand the rituals and cults, the changes and continuities, the relations between the indigenous and the cultures that, at certain time, start to occupy this regions, the architectures, ideologies and actions. Key words: Bronze Age, cave, burials, trepanation, Sardinia region

especially those associated with death (these data are usually more resistant to), noting the influences, the differences and similarities observed in this type of deposition and their associated material culture.

INTRODUCTION Sardinia as an island has elements that make easy to detect phenomena that differentiate themselves from other parts of Prehistoric Europe. However, it also reveals extraordinary situations that resemble the cultures and traditions of continental regions, due to the strengthening of contacts by sea routes that have occurred in the Mediterranean. But, at what level have they occurred? What is it that really characterizes the ancient’s prehistoric Sardinia groups? What is the relationship between them and the people who circulated at some point in the Mediterranean? We believe that to understand this issue we have to recognize and comprehend the perception of particular rituals,

Nurallao as a region is also presented as the perfect area for the study of this problem, since it is situated in the inner parts of the island (fig. 1), where traditional elements can easily survived and, in addition, large number of traces of this type are reported. In fact, throughout the Nurallao landscape several findings were recorded: several menhir statues, ten Nuraghi monuments (often in bad condition), the megalithic tomb of Aiodda, the sacred well of Nieddiu, two Giants tombs, three Roman graves and one from High Medieval age (fig. 2). 17

TUMULI GRAVES – STATUS SYMBOL OF THE DEAD IN BRONZE AND IRON AGES IN EUROPE

Figure 1 – Region of Nurallao and image of the Cava Sa Omu and Tziu Giovanni Murgia

Figure 2 – Archaeological remains in Nurallao region (Sardinia)

In addition to these monuments, some natural cavities with presence of archaeological remains, are present in

the countryside as well as is the case of the example we will now present.

18

A. FIGUEIREDO ET AL.: THE CAVE OF SA OMU AND TZIU GIOVANNI MURGIA, FUNTANA ARRUBIA, NURALLAO…

the cave entrance, once used as shelter for grazing animals.

The Cave of Sa Omu and Tziu Giovanni Murgia is a natural cavity where it was possible to detect a set of deposition and burial rituals associated with a material culture that we assign by comparison to the Bronze Age. The cave was first recognized as a potential archaeological site by Giusi Gradoli, in 2010. In October of that year, an intervention project was proposed under the direction of the archaeological works of the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar (Portugal) of which we will present now the first results.

RITUALS DEPOSITIONS With regard to the archaeological remains exhumed it was concluded that the cave was used primarily in the entrance area where the bodies were buried, while the gallery d) was specifically used for the deposition of the skulls. Here we collected three skulls, well preserved, one covered by carbonate re deposition, completed separated from their bodies, placed together near the south wall of the gallery. Separated from their bodies and skulls, three mandibles were found together in the input raster E2. However, during the anthropological analysis no exhumed skulls seems to belong to the gallery d). In addition to these three skulls other two were recovered, more damaged, during the first visit to the site, on the entrance of the cave, in the surface, and some fragments of skull and jaw, especially of children, retrieved from the heap of bones recorded in input. In the c) gallery we could see some animals bones on the surface, but they are intrusive. From what we could observe due to the narrowing of the opening, there are no human traces of anthropogenic deposition. The same happens in the cavity that gives us access to a) gallery, where only a small piece of prehistoric pottery was recorded. The b) area has some human bones and pottery fragments maybe resulting from the dispersal of the remains deposited near the cave entrance. In front of cave we found a pile of bones, disconnected, due to soil movement caused either by later occupations of the cave (including the present owner’s one) either by roots of two holly trees that grew nearby there. However, it is evident the presence of some very small bones and some similar elements of the same body parts that allowed us to hypothesize a previous primary burials (fig. 6). The analysis of the skulls (fig. 7) and of some bones revealed that individuals of both sexes were buried there, with a minimal number of 7 adults and 2 children, one of which around 4 years old. In the adults bones, a great physical effort was reveled by some morphological

GEOMORPHOLOGY AND MORPHOLOGY The cave opens at the foot of a limestone formation, rich in organic remains, which is about 7.5 meters tall. At the top of the plateau a cascade leading to deposition of carbonate on the rituals depositions fell down. This natural waterfall lasted until 1968, were after the stream was deviated, leading to the extinction of the water fall. The blocks of rock on which the cascade fell, collapsed from the ceiling during the last decades, reducing the platform under which the initial ritual depositions were deposited. Thus, during pre-history, the cavity was different in shape, even if we do not know exactly how the access could look like, nor the proximity of the waterfall to the entrance of the cave. From a morphological viewpoint, it is a 4 meters long and 2 meters width small cave, semi-oval in shape, oriented to the west, controlling visually an extensive landscaping (figs. 3 and 4). The deepest area of the cavity is slightly towards the area that gives access to about 50 cm and closes in a small room which gives access, laterally, to one very narrow gallery (fig. 5), which extends to the southeast. The same is true further west, in the area b). From what we could see, they do not seem linked. Its entrance opens onto a descending area that gives access to the nearby fields. Near the entrance it is possible to verify the presence of some large boulders coming from the fractured wall, already cited above, on which the cascade ran. They were in part recovered by the owner to build a drystone wall limiting the area of

Figure 3 – Photo of the cave

Figure 4 – View from the cave to the landscape – direction W-SW 19

TUMULI GRAVES – STATUS SYMBOL OF THE DEAD IN BRONZE AND IRON AGES IN EUROPE

Figure 5 – Plant of the cave with representation of rock blocks and materials remains

Figure 6 – Plant of the cave with representation of material and osteological remains 20

A. FIGUEIREDO ET AL.: THE CAVE OF SA OMU AND TZIU GIOVANNI MURGIA, FUNTANA ARRUBIA, NURALLAO…

CONCLUSION In the cave Sa Omu and Tziu Giovanni Murgia a set of artifacts, relatively low and simple, characteristic of the pre-funeral rituals recent prehistory, in the northern Sardinia were found. Fragments of pottery vessels were recovered point to an open, curved bodies with diameters of medium size, compact and homogeneous with folders, a minimum of seven units. The presence of ceramic decoration in fishbone, very similar to the type Cogotas Iberian element is an interesting development study. The same has been recognized elsewhere in Sardinia, mostly in residential sites, dating from the Late Bronze Age. Rituals similar to those seen here were recorded in other parts and are characteristic of the Bronze Age.

Figure 7 – Image of the three skulls

There are burials of at least two children and seven adults of both sexes, aged up to 35 years. Although the remains are raked enough, it seems it is some primary burials, by the presence of tiny bones and a connection of some anatomical parts of the body. A more careful analysis of the spatial position of osteological elements make us raise the hypothesis of deposition in the fetal position, facing north, lying on the left side. This type of position is very common in Monte Claro culture, especially in the southern parts of the island, having been noted, among other sites, in the hypogea and cysts at Sarroch and San Gemiliano – Sestu, as well as Corti-Becca Sanluri (Moravetti, 2009, pp. 101). The same is recorded in other parts of the island, as in La tomba I di Via Basilicata, Cagliari, (idem, 2009, pp. 103). Also the rituals of a trepanation of skulls recovered this (female, 20 years) are well documented during the Early Bronze Age, as is the case of Su Crucifissu Mannu and Sisa (Santoni, 2009, pp. 113).

characteristics of the humerus, ulna, phalanges or even of the insertion of the Achilles tendon (enthesopathy) (indicator of a major effort in walking, probably on rough terrain) and even in the head, justified by transportation of weights, as shown by arthritic changes on the occipital condyle. One of the skulls, an adult male, also have spicules on the front line of the frontal-temporal on both sides and another skull (adult male) showed two traumatic injuries during life. Another important point refers to a female skull (20 years old more or less) that revealed the presence of one single hole on the left supraorbital region. This is a trepanation, a practice that was relatively common in the populations of that time, in this region. The study also revealed, from a humerus, that the male buried have a 1.65 m tall. In association with the osteological depositions, animal bones depositions were recorded too showing us how, in the preliminary study, hunted animals (wild boar, rabbit) in association with domestic animals (sheep, goat) were deposited as well. Some bones of prolagus sardus, a sort of little rabbit, now extinct were also discovered.

With regard to the ritual separation of the skulls from their bodies and voluntary deposit elsewhere, the understanding is more complex. We know rituals of scarnification involving symbolic acts and their deposition in ceramic containers, such as the example of Grotta Tanì di Carbonia (Lille 1988) and the Domus di Scab 'and Arriu-Siddi (Moravetti, 2009, pp. 101), and we have also a similary type of ritual of separation skulls from their bodys in the cave of Su Longu Fresu, in the mountain region of the Barbagia di Seulo (Central Sardinia), dated by AMS Radiocarbon of 4259-4042 cal BC (95.1% probability, OxA-X-2236-5315±36 BP), where there was found “at the far end of the cave, and facing the cave entrance, a heap of human skulls’ pieces with half a human skull at the base, now anchored in calcite flowstone” (Gradoli, 2011, 221), for this ritual deposition it was dug a pit and at its base in the floor where putted the human skulls. Also the authors found in association with the humans remains wild animals such deer, boar, mouflon and Prologus Sardus and domesticated sheep, goat and cattle. The material culture founded are characterized by tripod vessels like that ones that we found in cave Sa Omu and Tziu Giovanni Murgia. Although there are a few regional bibliographies were we could compare this remains and understand better this rituals actions, it is possible to understand how

As material culture recovered we can cite a large number of ring-shaped shell beads making some necklaces, a small set of various types of pendants, characteristic from Sardinia megalithic contexts, some ceramic fragments common to so-called Monte Claro culture (Lilliu, 1999), including fragments of three feet tripod vessels, as well as fragments of a decorated vase, with fishbone prints and three horizontal parallel lines along the edge, between each vertical segment registers a print dotted near of the last linear incision. This type of decoration is associated with the Final Bronze Age, like some few copies found at Castello-Lipari (Bernabo and Cavalier 1979; Cavalier e Depalmas 2008, pp. 294-298, Depalmas, 2009, pp. 146). There was also the presence of obsidian, including two blades and a flap element, and a blade flint too. In total there were 24 chips but mostly with no trace of use or retouch. From later period some pottery were found too, which could be assigned, for the type of ceramic, to classical times. 21

TUMULI GRAVES – STATUS SYMBOL OF THE DEAD IN BRONZE AND IRON AGES IN EUROPE

BARUMINI, Sassari 23-28 novembre 2009, Volume I – Relazioni generali, pp. 141-160.

complex is this social and ritual acts, only explained by sacred meanings and fait believes. To understand this acts we have also to understand the concept that are connected with the places where they are and the landscape that surround it. This restrict areas, connected with water (an important element for the life and probably because this a sacred element also important for the dead meaning rituals), hidden in the landscapes could represent the way or the form for materialize the message or the belives giving the sacredness needed and the required intent.

GRADOLI, M.G., MEADEN, T. (2011) – Underworld and Neolithic Rituality: The Rock Art of the Su Longu Fresu Cave in Central Sardinia, in XXIV Valcamonica Symposium. LILLIU, Giovanni (1988) – La civiltà dei Sardi dal Paleolitico all’età dei nuraghi, Torino. LILLIU, Giovanni (1999) – La Civiltà Nuragica, Sardegna Archeologica, Studi e Monumenti 2, Carlo Delfino Editore. MORAVETTI, Alberto (2009) – La cultura di Monte Claro e il Vaso Campaniforme, Atti della XLIV reunione scientifica, La preistoria e la protostoria della Sardegna, Cagliari, Barumini, Sassari 23-28 novembre 2009, Volume I – Relazioni generali, pp. 97 a 109.

Bibliography BERNABÒ BREA, L., CAVALIER, M. (1979) – Il Castello di Lipari e il Museo Archeologico Eoliano, Palermo. CAVALIER, M., DEPALMAS, A. (2008) – Materiali sardi nel villaggio di Lipari. I frammenti ceramici e le correlazioni, RSP LVIII, pp. 281-300.

SANTONI, Vincenzo (2009) – La cultura del Bronzo Antico I – II in Sardegna, Atti della XLIV reunione scientifica, La preistoria e la protostoria della Sardegna, Cagliari, Barumini, Sassari 23-28 novembre 2009, Volume I – Relazioni generali, pp. 113 a 121.

DEPALMAS, Anna (2009) – Il Bronzo finale della Sardegna, Atti della XLIV Riunione scientifica, La preistoria e la protostoria della Sardegna, Cagliari,

22

THE YAMNAYA BURIALS FROM SULTANA, IN THE CONTEXT OF THE SIMILAR FINDS ON THE TERRITORY OF ROMANIA Done ŞERBǍNESCU Museum of the Gumelniţa Civilisation, Olteniţa, Romania

Alexandra COMŞA Institute of Archaeology “Vasile Parvan” – Center of Thracology, Bucharest, Romania [email protected]

Abstract: The paper renders the archaeological context, as well as the anthropological study of the skeletons discovered in the “Big Mound” and belonging to the so-called category of “the tumular ochre burials”. Both archaeologically and anthropologically speaking, they display features specific to the steppic communities of the shepherd semi-nomadic tribes to whom they have belonged. Keywords: tumular ochre burials, Yamnaya Culture, Sultana, Romania Résumé: L’ouvrage porte sur le contexte archéologique et l’analyse anthropologique faite sur les cinq squelettes de « Movila Mare » qui font partie de la soi-disant catégorie des « tombes tumulaires à ocre ». Du point de vue archéologique et anthropologique, celles-ci présentent des caractéristiques spécifiques aux populations de steppe des tribus semi-nomades de bergers auxquelles elles appartiennent. Mots-clés: tombes tumulaires à ocre, culture Yamnaya, Sultana, Roumanie

height 6 m. In order to investigate this mound, two sections have been carried out: Section I, central, with a north-south orientation, having a length of 60 m, a width of 3 m and section II, perpendicular upon section I, with an east-west orientation, having a length of 30 m and a width of 8 m. During the research, five burials could be unearthed, out of which 4 were main ones (B. 1-B. 4), placed in the center of the mound. Above each main burial it was added a mantle of the tumulus, so that, finally, it contained 3 mantles, with a thicknesses of about 2 m each.

GENERAL ASPECTS During the transitional period from the Eneolithic to the Bronze Age and even in the Early and Middle Bronze Age, on almost the entire territory of Romania, various “classical” material cultures have evolved. At the same time, in the Republic of Moldova, as well as in some of the Romanian provinces, like Southern Moldova, Dobroudja and South-Eastern Muntenia, after the disappearance of the Usatovo-Folteşti I and Cernavoda III cultures, the entire space was occupied by the bearers of the “tumular ochre burials” who came in successive waves from the steppe north of the Black Sea. The only existing proofs, that would attest the habitation of the semi-nomadic shepherds on the mentioned territory are the tumuli that are still preserved, scattered in the floodable meadows of the rivers, on terraces, on promontories etc.

DESCRIPTION OF THE BURIALS Burial no. 1 was discovered in the central section, in the center of the tumulus. Beneath the vegetal soil, the funerary pit was intercepted. It had a length of 3.10 m and a width of 1.90 m. At the depth of 0.60 m it had a step, with a width of 45-80 cm, that was paved with logs in a longitudinal position from the space of the pit, that was covered with reed and rush. In the proximity of the pit there were detected the remains of a pyre, that was fired for purifying the space, during the process of funerary construction. Underneath the logs it was found the funerary chamber, with rectangular corners. This had a length of 1.50 m, a width of 1 m and a depth of 0.60 m. The pit was dug from above, namely from the mantle of the tumulus and reached up to its base, at -1.60 m, several centimeters above Burial no. 2. The skeleton found in the first interment had the skull with a V 2700 orientation, was flexed on the back side, with the arms bent from their elbows and placed on the abdomen. The legs, bent from their knees, were fallen with their tibiae in the funerary

INFORMATION ABOUT THE TUMULUS FROM SULTANA Such a mount, named by the locals “Movila Mare” (“The Big Mound”) was partly investigated in the summer of 1990, on the territory of the Sultana village, Călăraşi County. The locality is settled on the bank of the Mostiştea lake, that creates a natural border between the steppe of the Bărăgan and Mostiştea plains, as parts of the larger Romanian Plain. The tumulus was situated on a plateau of the high terrace of the lake, bordered to the south by the “Valea Chirnogeanului” (“Chirnogeanului Valley”) and to the north by the “Valea Sârbilor” (“Serbians Valley”). Its diameter measured 50 m and its 23

TUMULI GRAVES – STATUS SYMBOL OF THE DEAD IN BRONZE AND IRON AGES IN EUROPE

vertically placed sticks. On the bottom of the pit, beneath the skeleton, there were two transversally arranged sticks that probably served for binding the arms and legs of the deceased. Underneath the skeleton there were remains of a textile with a dense warp. A thin layer of ochre had covered the bottom of the entire pit, while under it, a layer of chalk dust could be found. Under the legs it was found a thin layer of rush. The vertical walls of the funerary chamber were covered with interweaved thin twigs that closed above the skeleton, like a carcass, supported in its upper part by four sticks transversally placed. This was a “funerary house” frequently found in the burials belonging to the Yamnaya Culture.

pit of burial no. 2 that was beneath, as the wooden cover of its funerary chamber was rotten. The skeleton was laid on a layer of white chalk. Around the skull and legs of the individual, a lot of ochre was sprinkled and the bones were strongly reddened. Beneath the skeleton there were remains of a mat, while on the walls of the pit there were traces of textile with red and black stripes. The funerary inventory comprised two copper lock rings, with sharp ends, discovered in the region of the ears. Burial no. 2. The funerary pit was dug from the upper level of mantle no. 2, having above a layer of yellow clay that ensured the waterproofing. The funerary pit was rectangular, with straight corners, had a length of 1.70, a width of 1.10 m and a depth of 0.80 m. It was covered with oak lugs with a length of 2.45 m, with diameters that varied between 15-18 cm. Seven of them were placed above the space of the pit. In the corners and at the half of the long sides of the funerary pit, there were vertical sticks, with a a diameter of 5 cm, while, beneath the skeleton there were other transversal sticks that probably served for binding the arms and legs of the deceased. Above the beam cover of the pit, there was a thick layer of reef and rush, but also chalk dust. The skeleton discovered in the funerary chamber was set in a flexed position on his back, with the skull having a south-west 2200 orientation, with his arms along the body, with opened palms placed on the ground. The legs were bent from their knees and fallen on the right side. Close to the right arm there were charcoals found. The skeleton was placed upon a vegetal textile and sprinkled with red ochre, while in the left side of the skull, a red ochre clump was placed. North of the funerary pit was a hearth with strong burning traces, having a diameter of 1.60 m The same like the first one, it played the role of purification and commemoration of the dead. Above the cover of this burial, the third mantle of the tumulus was raised.

Burial no. 4. This was the main burial, for which the initial tumulus had been raised. The funerary pit had a rectangular shape of 1.89 m in length, 1 m in width and 0.97 m in depth. This was situated in the center of the mound and was dug into the prehistoric soil. The cover of the funerary pit was made of seven oak trunks with their bark, all in good condition, with diameters of 0.25-30 cm. Above this, it was also placed a thick layer of vegetation and beside, on the soil, it was a hearth with an oval shape and a diameter of 1.40 m, upon which, during the funerary ceremonials a purifying and commemorative fire used to be lighted. The skeleton from the funerary chamber was laid in a flexed position on his back, with the skull having a SW 2250 orientation. The legs were bent from their knees and than fallen on the left side. The arms were slightly bent from the elbows and then placed along the body, with their palms on the ground. In the region of the elbows, the arms were bond from a stick transversally placed beneath the skeleton. Another transversally placed stick from the bottom of the pit was situated in the region of the legs. Other stick, vertically placed, had probably a determined role in the architecture of the “funerary house”. They were placed in the corners of the pit and also in the middle of the long sides. Beneath the skeleton there were traces of a mat, while on the pit walls and above there were thin twigs, remainders from the interweaved twigs of the “funerary house”. On the bottom of the pit there was a layer of red ochre. Strong traces of red ochre were also on the bones of the skeleton, but also close to his left shoulder. On the walls of the pit could be also observed traces of the hoe used for digging the pit, having an oval edge, with a width of 5 cm.

Burial no. 3. The funerary pit was dug into the first mantle of the tumulus and was situated also in the center of the mound, 1.40 m lower than Burial no. 2 and its depth from the surface of the tumulus on the vertical was of -4.70 m. Above the beam covering, with an oval shape, having a diameter of 4-6 m, that was found above the burial, it was discovered a pile of reed or rush. Above, it was placed a thin layer of pebbles and shells. The covering of the pit comprised 10 oak trunks with the bark upon them and with a diameter of 15-18 cm. They measured 3 m in length and they were set in a longitudinal position above the funerary chamber, out of which seven had covered the space of the pit. The wooden beams overpassed with about 0.60 m of their ends the space of the pit. The pit had a rectangular shape. Its length was of 1.60 m, the width of 1.30 m, while the depth reached 0.70 m. The skeleton found within the funerary chamber was laid on its back, with the skull having a south-west 2150 orientation, with the arms bent from the elbows and brought along the body, but also with the palms on the ground. At the corners of the pit, as well as in the middle of the long sides, there were

Burial no. 5. This is a secondary interment. It was discovered in the northern part of the central section I, in the western profile. The funerary pit was rectangular, with the long side having a NNV-SSE orientation and dimensions of 3.40 x 2.50 m. It was dug into the mantle of the tumulus up to the depth of -2.90 m, then it was spared a step with a width of 0.75 m. Afterwards, the pit was continued with smaller dimensions, of 1 m x 1.70 m and a depth of -1.05 m. On the step there were longitudinally placed seven oak logs with their bark, having a length of 3.40 m, that formed the platform used for covering the funerary chamber proper. Above them it was a vegetation layer used for waterproofing. Inside the

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D. ŞERBANESCU & A. COMŞA: THE YAMNAYA BURIALS FROM SULTANA…

Yamnaya Culture (Burtǎnescu, 2002, 214-276). The burials discovered in the tumulus from Sultana have belonged to successive generations. All of them belong to the group I – Yarovoy and belong to the first horizon of the classical period – Yamnaya Culture (Yarovoy, 1985, 38-48).

funerary chamber, the skeleton was laid in a flexed position on his back, with the skull having a NNV 3350 orientation. His arms were slightly bent from their elbows and brought along the body, with their palms on the ground and the legs bent from their knees and fallen on their left side. The funerary inventory discovered near the skeleton comprised two lock rings made of a copper wire, shaped as a spiral, found in the region of the ears. The skeleton was placed on a mat, covered with chalk dust and a layer of red ochre. A thick layer of ochre had also covered the bones of the skeleton. The corners of the pit were rectangular. Right in the corners and at the middle of the long sides there were vertical sticks and traces of boards. The walls of the pit were covered with a mat, out of which traces of white and red, or white matter could be still detected. The arms and legs of the skeleton were bond of transversal sticks, placed on the bottom of the pit. All the constructive elements discovered in this burial are proofs that the individual was protected by a “funerary house”.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSIONS The mentioned interments are subsequent to the Cernavodă III Culture, as proved by a ceramic fragment found in a domestic pit from the base of the tumulus, made prior to the funerary construction. The funerary find from Sultana is partly contemporaneous with The Cernavodă II Culture, representing the moment of the first intrusions of the cattle breeders of Yamnaya type towards the Balkans (Yarovoy, 1985, 38-48). Burials no. 1-4 from Sultana-“Movila Mare” have good analogies in the finds belonging to the phase I from Smeeni (Buzǎu County), while burial no. 5 to the phase II of the same mentioned site (Simache, Teodorescu, 1962, 272-282). Similar burials have been discovered in the tumular necropolis from Gurbăneşti, burial no. 2 in Mound no. 1, Burials no. 6, 10, 11 and 16 in Mound no. 2 and Burial no. 4 in Mound no. 3 (Rosetti, 1959, 791-812).

Therefore, the custom of reusing the tumulus from Sultana, by several successive generations resulted in raising both its dimensions and number of burials. As already described above, initially, above the first main burial (B. 4), a mound with a height of 2 m was raised In time, other two successive funerary constructions had been overlapped upon it, reaching a height of 6 m. Of course, initially, the height of the tumulus was bigger than today. The burial pits had a rectangular shape, with, or without rounded corners, while, on their bottom traces of textiles, or colored mats have been detected. The deceased were placed in the pit wrapped in a cover made of intertwined twigs (probably of osier), a kind of coffin, or more likely “a funerary house”. The individuals were flexed on their back, but heir legs were fallen aside. The cadavers were sprinkled with a lot of red ochre, that strongly reddened the bones. In two burials, in the region of the ears, lock rings made of copper were found, shaped as spirals and having sharp ends. Above the pits it was made a cover consisting of thick oak beams, in a longitudinal position, placed close to one another, having a diameter of 15-30 cm and a length of about 2.40 m. Above this covers it was made a layer of reed, or rush, that didn’t allow the water to penetrate into the funerary pit. The skeletons didn’t undergo the pressure of the ground, but, being decomposed in an airy milieu, the bones became highly friable, being very fragmented, thus, in a precarious preservation state, at the moment of their discovery. This was the reason why it was necessary to take conservation measures, by impregnation of the bones, because, otherwise, they would became farinaceous. Around the funerary pits, as already mentioned, there were purifying hearths.

The tribes of semi-nomadic shepherds that brought in the Bărăgan Plain the culture of the ochre burials of Yamnaya type came from north of the Black Sea, in fact from the interfluve of the Dniepr-Volga rivers. From that space they were displaced and pushed towards the west territories by the communities that were bearers of the catacomb burials. In their migration, these tribes have expanded their range from south of the Ural Mountains up to the Tisza Plain, while south of the Danube they reached close to the shore of the Aegean Sea. The Bǎrǎgan Plain had offered them favorable conditions for their transhumant pastoral economy, so that their presence on the Mostiştea Valley and its tributaries is marked by a large number of funerary mounds, sometimes grouped in real necropolises. Just on the territory of the Sultana village is was signaled the existence of 24 tumuli, out of which two had been investigated by Sebastian Morintz and Barbu Ionescu in 1961 (Morintz, Ionescu, 1968, 116). In 1970, alo on the territory of that village, under the coordination of the scientist Sebastian Morintz, a tumulus had been partly investigated. The main burial contained a skeleton laid in a flexed position on his back, wih up raised knees. In this burial it was found an askos vessel, specific to the Cernavoda II Culture (recent investigations by D. Şerbănescu ). The moment when the north-pontic shepherds of Yamnaya type had penetrated into the Bărăgan Plain, that also comprise the finds rendered above, was placed at the end of the transitional period from Eneolithic to the Bronze Age and the first stage of the Early Bronze Age and chronologically placed between 3.300-2.200 B.C. (Dergacev, 1994, 127: Harţuche, 2002, 135).

CULTURAL ASSIGNMENT When considering the rite, ritual, as inventory of the ochre burials found Sultana – “Movila Mare” we can group of north-pontic shepherds

well as the funerary in the tumulus from assign them to the belonging to the

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TUMULI GRAVES – STATUS SYMBOL OF THE DEAD IN BRONZE AND IRON AGES IN EUROPE

ANTHROPOLOGICAL ANALYSIS – BRIEF INFORMATION (Comşa, 2008) We have based our study upon the usual “standards” established for the anthropological analyses, considering the skeleton and teeth (Ferembach et alii, 1980, 517-549; Brothwell, 2006) of the individuals. Skeleton no. 1 The bones of this individual, as already mentioned, were in ill condition. Still, the available elements of the skull and post-cranial skeleton enabled us to establish the sex and age of the individual. The skull was very fragmentary, so that just parts of it could be reconstructed. The same happened with the long bones.

Figure 1 – Lateral view of the skull – skeleton 3

Yet, based on the fusion stage between the epiphyses and diaphyses of the long bones, but also upon the dentition, we could establish that the skeleton belonged to an individual of male sex, aged at 17-21 years. Typologically, it was a protoeuropoid, due to its stressed robustness. Skeleton no. 2 It was represented by parts of the skull, part of the teeth and some fragments of the postcranial skeleton. Yet, we took the benefit of the relevant elements in order to establish the sex and age of the individual. The strong relief emphasized on the skull and post-cranial skeleton provided the necessary details for assigning the individual to the male sex. The age was established by assessing the dental wear. Therefore, the individual was established to have belonged to the age category of 55-60 years. Typologically, it was a protoeuropoid with mediterranoid elements.

Figure 2 – Sacral bone of the skeleton 4 with hiaturs sacralis

Skeleton no. 3 This is the only individual that allowed the better reconstruction of the skull, that was brachycranian (81.4), camaecranian (56.3) and tapeinocranian (69.1) (Fig. 1).

The long bones could be partly reconstructed but, the platycnemic of the tibiae could be established. These are mezocnemic (66.67) for the right one and euricnemic for the left one (70.00).

The post-cranial skeleton was ill preserved and this is why it was not possible to reconstruct any of the long bones.

The mentioned individual was a male of of 50-55 years and belonged to the protonordoid type. Skeleton no. 5

The individual was of male sex and had the age of 30-35 years.

The skull of this individual was in a very advanced fragmentation stage. The mandible was partly preserved, as well as few of the teeth.

Typogically, it was a protoeuropoid type, mixed with some mediterranoid traits.

The post cranial-skeleton was robust, with well defined muscle insertions.

Skeleton no. 4

The individual was a male, of 45-50 years and bearing some nordoid traits.

The skull was poorly preserved, but some parts of the maxilla and mandible have been preserved. The individual has also a pathologic condition, represented by a hiatus sacralis of 3rd degree (Fig. 2) (Grimm, 1961, 349).

Given the very poor condition of the five individuals discovered, there were many difficulties when trying to

26

D. ŞERBANESCU & A. COMŞA: THE YAMNAYA BURIALS FROM SULTANA…

reconstruct them. This is why just skeleton no. 3 has the skull reconstructed, thus enabling us to obtain more anthropological data than the others.

Bibliography BROTHWELL, D.R. (2006) – Digging up bones. New York: Cornell Univ. Press, Ithaca. 196 p. BURTĂNESCU, F. (2002) – Epoca timpurie a bronzului între Carpaţi şi Prut cu unele contribuţii la problemele perioadei premergǎtoare epocii bronzului în Moldova. Bucureşti: Bibliotheca Thracologica XXXVII. 591 p.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL ANALOGIES Even if there is a small number of individual buried in the tumulus from Sultana, we could easily notice that they are characterized by a series of similar features. Four of the individuals were of mature age and just one of them was a juvenis one. Besides, all of them were of male sex. The cephalic index for skeleton no. 3 belonged to the brachycranian category (81.4). In this respect, it is similar to individual no. 26 from Ostrovul Corbului, which has an index of 81.3. Those five skeletons, typologically speaking, are: 3 protoeuropoids, 1 of them with mediterranoid influences, 1 nordoid and 1 protonordic with mediterranoid elements. That means that the respective tribes had been settled for a longer time upon that region, due to the presence in their anthropological structure of the mediterranoid traits. Yet, the series is not an exception from the general features specific to the steppe populations, which are usually comprising protoeuropoid in large number, but are also marked by the presence of the protonordic and nordic individuals. The mediterranoid elements appear just as a mixture with the protoeuropoid ones.

COMŞA, A. (2008) – Anthropological data regarding the skeletons of the tumular ochre burials from SultanaMovila Mare. Drobeta. Drobeta-Turnu Severin. 18, p. 45-56. DERGACEV, V. (1994) – Epoca Bronzului. Perioada timpurie. Thraco-Dacica Bucureşti. XV: 1-2, p. 121140. HARŢUCHE, N. (2002) – Complexul arheologic Brăiliţa. Bucureşti: Bibliotheca Thracologica XXXV. 316 p. FEREMBACH, D., SCHWIDETZKY, I., STLOUKAL M. (1980) – Recommendations for Age and Sex Diagnoses of Skeletons, Journal of Human Evolution. 9, p. 517-549. GRIMM, H. (1961) – Krankhafte Veränderungen der Wirbelsäule in vor- und frühgeschichtlichem Material. In Bersu, G. (ed.), Bericht über den V. Internationalen Kongress für Vor- und Frühgeschicht, Hamburg vom 24. bis 30. August 1958. Berlin, p. 349.

The studied skeletons have the usual features of the steppic communities. By their typology, we could say that the population buried in the tumulus from Sultana, that came from north of the Black Sea, had mingled with the local communities. This fact is pointed out by the presence of the mediterranoid characters that became manifest for two of the skeletons. Thus, we could infer that the mentioned nomadic community was established in the area for a longer time and this fact facilitated the combination appeared between two anthropological types.

MORINTZ, S., IONESCU, B. (1968) – Cercetări arheologice în împrejurimile oraşului Olteniţa (19581967). Studii şi Cercetări de Istorie Veche. Bucureşti. 19: 1, p. 99-121. ROSETTI, D.V. (1959) – Movilele funerare de la Gurbăneşti. Materiale Bucureşti. 6, p. 791-812. SIMACHE, N.I., TEODORESCU, V. (1962) – Săpăturile arheologice de salvare de la Smeieni (r. Buzău, reg. Ploieşti). Materiale. Bucureşti. 8, p. 272-282. UBELAKER, D.H. (1999) – Human skeletal remains. Excavation, Analysis, Interpretation, Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company. 172 p. YAROVOY, E.V. (1985) – Drevnejšie skotovodčeskie plemena Jugo-Zapada SSSR. Kiiev. 243 p.

27

EARLY BRONZE AGE BURIAL MOUNDS IN SOUTH ROMANIA Cristian SCHUSTER “Vasile Pârvan” Institute of Archaeology-Center of Thracology, Bucharest, Romania [email protected]

Abstract: The Yamnaya Culture in southern Romania (Oltenia, Muntenia, Dobroudja and Southern Moldova) is documented by the presence of many burial mounds. They are usually grouped, located in visible places and, very probable, on the terrestrial routes frequented during the Early Bronze Age. The tumuli had been raised above main burials, but within the mounds had been also found subsequent ones, fact that, in many cases resulted in the enlargement and raising of the funerary monuments. The burials, with rectangular pits and rounded corners have contained skeletons flexed on the left or right side, or even on their back. Their orientation varied from east-west, west-east, or north-south. Some of the burials took the benefit of wooden constructions, or stone fittings. The funerary inventories were usually poor. Key-words: Yamnaya Culture, South Romania, burial mounds Résumé: Au sud de la Roumanie (Olténie, Valachie, Dobroudja et le sud de la Moldavie), la culture Yamnaya est documentée par la présence de plusieurs tombes tumulaires. Celles-ci se constituent en général en groupes, situées dans des endroits visibles et, très probablement, sur les trajets de certaines routes terrestres, fréquentées au Bronze ancien. On avait élevé les tumuli au-dessus des tombes principales, mais dans les tertres funéraires on avait pratiqué aussi des dépôts ultérieurs, ce qui a mené, dans maints cas, à l’élargissement et l’élévation des monuments funéraires. Les tombes dans des fosses rectangulaires aux coins arrondis avaient abrité des squelettes déposés en chien de fusil, sur la gauche ou sur la droite ou bien en décubitus dorsal. On a pu observer une variété dans l’orientation, depuis l’est-ouest à l’ouest-est ou même nord-sud. Certaines tombes avaient des bâtiments en bois ou des aménagements de pierres. La plupart du mobilier funéraire était pauvre. Mots-clés: culture Yamnaya, sud de Roumanie, tertres funéraires

containing burials from that specific time. Some more or less extended archaeological research was undertaken among others at Adâncata, Ariceştii-Rahtivani, Baldovineşti, Blejoi, Ciulniţa, Coslogeni, Gorgota, Gurbăneşti, Ploieşti-Triaj, Smeeni, Sudiţi, Sultana, Preasna, Sănduliţa, Vităneşti, Vlădeni. With a poorer representation of the tumuli, compared with Dobroudja and Moldova, were Oltenia and the Romanian part of the Banat. In those provinces, we should also mention the excavations from Pleniţa, Rast, Verbiţa and Bodo.

The presence of some tumuli in southern Romania is part of the real landscape of the Early Bronze Age (Burtănescu, 2002; Schuster, 2003; Schuster et al., 2011, with lit.; Motzoi-Chicideanu, 2011, 225-279 with lit.). In Dobroudja, especially in its northern part, a large number of funerary mounds have been discovered. Thus, we render here just few examples: just on the territory of the Baia commune 24 burial mounds have been charted, at Ceamurlia de Jos 15, at Jurilovca 46, at Mihail Kogălniceanu 17, at Zebil 6 etc. It is obvious that they have been raised in different moments of the prehistory, or antiquity but, most of them belonged to the Early Bronze Age. Unfortunately, just a restrained number of them had been archaeologically studied. On the other hand, many tumuli have been plundered, some of them even from ancient times but also subsequently, during the Middle Age, or in modern times. This situation is valid for the entire Romanian space, but also beyond its borders.

Groups or real alignments of tumuli, like those in the Medgidia region, were also specific to other areas of Dobroudja. At Baia there were two alignments’, the first comprising tumuli T1-3 and 14-17, while the second comprised tumuli T4-13. Both of them were placed somehow in a parallel position with the National Road 22 Tulcea-Constanţa, but also with the western bank and partly the south-western one of the Ceamurlia Lake. Another group, north of the mentioned locality, was somehow arranged like a continuation of the valley that merges in the northern end of the same lake. North of this alignment, into the range of the Ceamurlia de Jos commune, but on the left side of the mentioned valley, another line of tumuli could be detected (T22-34 and 37). A more massif group, of 12 tumuli (T42-53), was identified north-west of Jurilovca; a second one, comprising just 4 tumuli (T68-71), west of the Sălcioara village, while a third one, with 3 tumuli (T76-78) north of the same village. At Zebil, towards Enisala, on the western bank of the Razelm Lake, an alignment of 6 tumuli has been identified. East from Lăstuni, a group of

The territory between the Oriental Carpathians and the Prut River (Moldova) is also covered with a lot of tumuli, some of them being an evidence that, even there, the Yamnaya communities have buried their dead. Archaeological investigations were carried out at the beginning of the 20th century, between the World Wars, but also afterwards. Among these excavations, we would selectively mention those from Cotârgaci, Prăjeni, Ripiceni, Corlăteni, Vlădeşti, Şerbeştii Vechi, Chercăcosu, Glăvăneştii Vechi, Galaţi-Griviţa, Vânători. Muntenia is also covered with many funerary mounds, some of them being during the Early Bronze Age, or also 29

TUMULI GRAVES – STATUS SYMBOL OF THE DEAD IN BRONZE AND IRON AGES IN EUROPE

By the aid of stratigraphy, but also of the complexes dispersion, the archaeological investigations have proved that, besides the burial mounds raised within a single phase, many others have been raised in successive phases. Thus, in Dobroudja and Moldova, to give just few examples, several construction stages had the funerary mounds from Luncaviţa-Mocuţa and Drumul Vacilor (Tumulus I), Chilia Veche-Tumuli I and II, FrecăţeiTumuli I and III, Enisala-La Băltiţă, Corlăteni-Tumulus I, Glăvăneştii Vechi-Tumuli I and II, Ripiceni-Tumulus I, Vânători, Prăjeni I-Tumulus 1, Valea Lupului II. In fact, within the range of the Yamnaya Culture, no matter if north-pontic, or coming from North-Eastern Bulgaria, such tumuli, raised in several stages, were not seldom found.

6 tumuli has been documented (T92-97), while south-east from the village, another one of 5 tumuli (T98-102) was found. Six tumuli (T86-91) were grouped south of Mihail Kogălniceanu. Eight funerary mounds were distributed between Luncaviţa and Văcăreni, in the area called Mocuţa, situated south of the first mentioned locality. Several tumuli, out of which three have been archaeologically investigated, were documented north of the Mihai Bravu village. Also three, out of four tumuli have been archaeologically studied at Frecăţei, on the spot Cabana lui Buţă, an area situated north-west of the village. In Muntenia and Oltenia have been also identified groups of funerary mounds, some of them comprising just two-three tumuli, others arranged in larger groups. Among these groups, a relatively small number have been investigated (Blejoi, Vităneşti, Caracal, Verbiţa, Seaca de Câmp, Rast). In the space between the Eastern Carpathians and the Prut River, the number of mounds is, as also pointed above, larger compared with other regions of Romania, excepting Dobroudja. There, the same like in Moldova, groups of tumuli have been charted, many of them being raised during the Early Bronze Age: Lieşti, Boloteşti, Corlăteni, Cotârgaci etc.

The analysis regarding the composition of the funerary mantles has shown that some of them contained various archaeological materials, others than those in the complexes proper. Generally, it is difficult to establish if the presence of the anorganic, organic, or hand-made products in the mantle of the funerary mounds is connected with an intentionale human intervention, or it is simply accidental, due to the tumulus raising. In Moldova, for instance, seems more likely that some artifacts recovered from the mantle of some mounds have not been put there on purpose and they come, in most of the cases from archaeological sites that preceded the Early Bronze Age that „delivered” the raw materials (earth) for raising the tumuli. In the case of Tumulus 3 from Medgidia (Fig. 1), that we investigated in 2010, we have no documentation in the area about any archaeological layer prior to the Early Bronze Age that could produce the unpolished stones and flint flakes. On the other hand, we cannot say that the latter ones could be purposely put in the mantle of the mound, by the initial constructors of the tumulus, or by those who enhanced its dimensions.

The groups of funerary mounds discovered in the Yamnaya milieu are not rare but, on the contrary, this assumption was also confirmed beyond the borders of Romania (Schuster et al. 2011, 59). In Republic of Moldova and the Ukraine and here are just few examples, groups of tumuli have been charted near the villages of Chirileni, Manta, Balaban/Bălăbani, Pererâta, Crihana Veche, Vadul lui Isac, Burlăneşti, Găvănoasa, Vasil’evka, Orechov, Vinogradnoe, Žovtnevoe, Zamožnoe, while in Crimea in the ranges Simferopol, Donskoe, Marbino, Kranaia Gorka, Beloe, Pionerskoe, Uistenîkoe. Such groups have been also charted in Bulgaria, especially in the regions of Tsarevbrod, Kalugerica, Plačidol, Belogradec, Kjulevča, Goran-Slatina, Tărnava, Trojanovo, Tărgovište, Malka Detelina, Carevdol, and Dolno Sakhrane.

Figure 1 – Medgidia, Tumulus no. 3 30

C. SCHUSTER: EARLY BRONZE AGE BURIAL MOUNDS IN SOUTH ROMANIA

Before the funerals, the ground destined to the future burial mounds was carefully prepared for the deceased deposition. During the respective activities, the pit used to be excavated, ditches used to be done, stone rings, or other funerary constructions were raised. Circular ditches, or just segments of them, dug around the central burial, or around the main group of burials, some of them with a central position, other ex-centric ones, have been also detected during the investigation of the funerary mounds belonging to the entire range of the Yamnaya Culture. Among these we could mention the ditch from the Tumulus 3 from Medgidia. Also, in the respective burial mound, near some of the pits (Burials 12), agglomerations of earth could be found. The presence of such earth agglomerations, resulting from digging the pit of the funerary monument that “flanked” the burials on one, or several sides is not rare within the Yamnaya milieu. Generally, we discuss about central burials for which, in fact, the tumuli have been raised.

Figure 2 – Medgidia, Tumulus no. 3, Burials 1-2

Regarding the skeleton position in the Yamnaya burials, some diverse specialists have created a series of groups and subgroups, most detailed being those conceived by D.Ja. Telegin, E. Jarovoj, S.V. Ivanova and, especially for Romania, namely the space between the Eastern Carpathians and the Prut river, by F. Burtănescu. Avoiding the details about the upper and lower limbs, that, in our opinion have no special relevance, we could say that part of the Yamnaya deceased from Romania, for instance those in Dobroudja (Schuster et al., 2011, 71 ff.), have been placed in a flexed position, on their right: Medgidia-Tumulus 3 (Burials 6, 11-14, 16), LuncaviţaDrumul Vacilor-Tumulus I (Burials 6-7), Mihai BravuTumulus I (Burial 8), Baia-Dumul Vacilor, Canlia-Dealul Dervent, Chilia Veche-Tumulus I (Burials 27, 70). Others, on the contrary, were laid on their left side: Luncaviţa-Mocuţa (Burials 3, 5-14), Luncaviţa-Drumul Vacilor-Tumulus I (Burials 1-2) and Tumulus II (Burials 2-4), Chilia Veche-Tumulus I (Burials 27, 73), Mihai Bravu-Tumulus I (Burials 2, 6), Medgidia-Tumulus 3 (Burials 7, 13) (Fig. 3).

The majority of the Yamnaya burials investigated in southern Romania were done in simple pits, sometimes covered in a horizontal or transversal position by wooden beams. In Dobroudja (Schuster et al., 2011, 64, 69 ff.), better preserved beams, or just their remains have been discovered at Luncaviţa-Movila Mocuţa (Burials 1, 8, 15), Ceamurlia de Jos (Burials 1-2), Mihai BravuTumulus I (Burials 3-4, 7) and Tumulus III (Burial 1), Nalbant, Sabangia, Tulcea-Sud. The same type of agglomeration has been confirmed by the finds from Glăvăneştii Vechi-Tumulus I (Burials 5, 9) and Tumulus II (Burial 8), Prăjeni II-Tumulul 3 (Burial 7) and Tumulus 4 (Burial 6), Ripiceni-Tumulus I (Burial 2), Vânători (Burial 13), Erbiceni, Bogonos, Baldovineşti (Burials 2, 13), Adâncata (Burials 8-9), Blejoi (but, it is not excluded that the wood could not come from the beams), Smeieni (burial stage I: Burials 5, 12, 14, 17 şi 29), GurbăneştiTumulus I (Burial 4) and Tumulus II (Burials 6-7 and 9), Sultana, Pleniţa-Tumulus II (Burial 1), Seaca de CâmpieTumulus II (main burial), Rast-Măgura Barbului (main burial).

A part of the Yamnaya deceased from Dobroudja have been placed in the pit on their back, having their upper limbs in different positions and the lower ones, initially with upraised knees, were laterally fallen, either on their left, or right side: Enisala-La Băltiţă (Burials 10, 11), Luncaviţa-Mocuţa (Burials 1, 8, 15), Luncaviţa-Drumul Vacilor-Tumulus I (Burial 4) and Tumulus II (Burial 1), Mihai Bravu-Tumulul I (Burials 3-4, 7) and Tumulus III (Burial 1), Chilia Veche-Tumulus I (Burials 28-29, 62, 76, 86, 88-89, 94, 100, 102) and Tumulus II (Burial 2), Frecăţei-Tumulus I (Burial 3) and Tumulus III (Burial 1), Ceamurlia de Jos-Dereaua Ceamurliei de Jos (Burial 1).

So, river boulders, some of them arranged in rings, bigger, or smaller limestone pieces/“sledges”, anthropomorphic stelae that played the walls, or covered the burial have been also found. In Dobroudja (Schuster et al., 2011, 65 f.) they were found in, close, or around the funerary complexes from Mihai Bravu-Tumulus II (Burials 2-3), Ceamurlia de Jos (Burial 2), Chilia VecheTumulus I (Burial 93), Sabangia, Frecăţei-Tumulus II, Hagieni, Dervent, Tariverde, Medgidia-Tumulus 3; in Muntenia and Moldova, at Gumelniţa, Milostea, Blejoi, Vânători (Burial 13), Chersăcosu (Burial 2), Boloteşti (Burial 14).

Within the range of the Yamnaya Culture, part of the central burials for which the mounds have been raised, contained the deceased placed on their back. Those burials belong to the earlier category. It is also true that, not in rare cases, the central burials had skeletons flexed on a side, especially the double and triple ones. This category is a more recent one.

Most of the funerary pits (funerary chambers) of the Yamnaya burials, either those for whom the mound has been raised, but also some “secondary” ones, had a rectangular shape, with more or less rounded corners (example: Medgidia, Tumulus no. 3, Burials 1-2) (Fig. 2).

The orientation of the skeletons within the Yamnaya burials was also diverse. Thus, the East-West main axis

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TUMULI GRAVES – STATUS SYMBOL OF THE DEAD IN BRONZE AND IRON AGES IN EUROPE

A limited number of Yamnaya deceased from the Dobroudja territories had an orientation with the main axis North-South: Enisala-La Băltiţă (Burial 10), Luncaviţa-Drumul Vacilor-Tumulus I (Burials 6-7) and Mihai Bravu-Tumulus I (Burial 2). Could it be the orientation of the burials/skeletons connected with a possible Sun cult, as considered by some of the specialists? The deposition on the West-East main axis of the skeletons in the main burials represent, according to E. Jaravoj, a characteristic feature of the first group of Yamnaya burials, being mostly specific to the North-West pontic territories. The East-West main axis in turn, was specific to the Eastern range of the culture. A specific characteristic of the Yamnaya funerary monuments on the entire range of the culture is the ochre presence within the burials, in many regions its percentage reaching over 80-85% of the total. In some of the funerary finds lithic items have been also discovered. For Dobroudja, the burial from Casimcea has contained a rich lithic inventory, part of it being represented by a scepter of polished stone in the shape of a horse head, as well as flint artifacts: 15 spear points, 3 blades, 5 hooks and a grattoir (Schuster et al., 2011, 73 ff.).

Figure 3 – Medgidia, Tumulus no. 3, Burial 7

has been found in Dobroudja (Schuster et al., 2011, 69 ff.) and in the case of those two burials from Ceamurlia de Jos-Dereaua Ceamurliei de Jos (Burials 1-2), Luncaviţa-Mocuţa (Burials 3, 5-14, 16), LuncaviţaDrumul Vacilor-Tumulus I (Burial 8) and Tumulus II (Burials 1-4), Mihai Bravu-Tumulus I (Burials 5-6), Frecăţei-Tumulus I (Burial 3), Canlia-Dealul Dervent, Medgidia-Tumulus 3 (Burials 6-7, 11-14, 16) (Figs. 34).

In some of the Yamnaya burials from Southern Romania (Schuster, 2003, 114 ff.) among the inventory items, objects made of metal (copper, bronze or gold) could be also identified, as well as pottery (Suharu, Vităneşti, Gurbăneşti, Ploieşti-Triaj, Verbiţa, Rast, Pleniţa etc.). In the case of metal inventory, especially lock rings have been identified. Probable animal offerings have been found in a series of Yamnaya funerary monuments from Romania. For instance, in order to mention just few of the finds, at Prăjeni II-Tumulus 3 (Burial 7), near the foot of the right leg, few unknown animal bones could be identified at Chersăcosu (Burial 2) a bird cubitus was found, at Boloteşti few sheep bones, at Coslogeni-Tumulus I (Burial 1) horse bones (as well as a bovid skull), while at Medgidia-Tumulus 3 in Burials 1-2 (Fig. 2), horse and sheep osteological remains could be identified (Schuster et al., 2011, 75-76). A hypothesis accepted by many specialists is the one considering that raising of funerary mounds would be an expression specific to the steppe zones. In fact, if we consider the initial distribution range (grosso-modo: Southern Ural and submontaneous regions of the Northern Caucasus up to the Dniester river), the respective statement has well consolidated arguments. “The fashion” of raising the tumuli at the end of the Eneolithic and up to the end of the Early Bronze Age and beginning of the Middle Bronze Age, would penetrate up to the territories of the Middle Danube and south of the river.

Figure 4 – Medgidia, Tumulus no. 3, Burial 14

On the West-East main axis have been orientated in Dobroudja Burial 1 from Luncaviţa-Mocuţa, Burials 1-4 from Tumulus I from Luncaviţa-Drumul Vacilor, Burial 11 from Enisala-La Băltiţă, Burials 3-4, 7 from Tumulus I and Burial 1 from Tumulus III from Mihai Bravu, Burial 1 from Tumulul III from Frecăţei, Burial 6 from Tumulus 3 from Medgidia.

The defining element of the Yamnaya Culture is, as already mentioned, the funerary ritual, with some specific features, among which we could enlist here the raising of

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C. SCHUSTER: EARLY BRONZE AGE BURIAL MOUNDS IN SOUTH ROMANIA

Dobroudja, according to some authors, those from Hamangia-Burial 1, Casimcea, Baia and LuncaviţaMocuţa (Burial 15). As considered by Vasiliu, these could be included in the substage Ic. To this stage would also belong, if not preceding it (considered to be part of the transitional period from the Eneolithic to the Bronze Age), the funerary monuments from Blejoi, Grădiştea Coslogeni, Adâncata, Vităneşti-Tumulus I (Burial 3), Radovanu-Gorgana întâi (Burial 1), but also those in Moldova (Burtănescu has parted this phase into two subphases) from Chersăcosu-Burial 2, Corlăteni II-Burial 1, Cotârgaci I-Tumulus 4 (Burial 1), Erbiceni-Burial 1, Glăvăneştii Vechi-Tumulus I/1949 (Burials 5-6, 9, 15), Griviţa-Tumulus 314 (Burial 2).

funerary mounds, digging, in most of the cases, rectangular pits and deposition of the deceased flexed on their back, or their lateral (left or right) side. To all these, we could add some stone structures present around the burial, as well as wooden ones, together with the ochre in distinct color nuances. Regarding the mobility type of those communities, the specialized literature has mentioned different opinions. The Yamnaya groups have been considered by specialists, depending upon the geographic zone of manifestation, nomadic, communities with a nomadic way of life, pastoral, or semi nomadic cattle breeders. It is interesting that the nomadism is in contradiction with the lack of horse osteological remains, especially for the eastern range of the manifestation. This phenomenon has been connected with the possible “ideological considerents”.

Bibliography BURTĂNESCU, F. (2002) – Epoca timpurie a bronzului între Carpaţi şi Prut. Cu unele contribuţii la problemele perioadei premergătoare epocii bronzului în Moldova. Bucureşti: Bibliotheca Thracologica XXXVII. 591 p.

Seemingly, on the territory of Romania, the tumular funerary burials of the Early Bronze Age, belonging to the Yamnaya Culture, from one province to another, has covered the entire sequence of the culture that was also specific to the region between Prut and Dniester rivers. Despite the impending difficulties (Schuster et al., 2011, 78 ff.), Ion Vasiliu has tried to put in order the finds of the Early Bronze Age from Dobroudja. To the first sequence, namely Ia, dated around 2600/2500-2400 B.C., he has assigned the funerary mounds with stone ring and, depending upon case, stones that lined the main burial, that was also covered with wooden beams. Among the finds of this subphase are being mentioned the mounds from Independenţa-Murighiol-Tumulus IV (Burial 2), Mihai Bravu-Tumulus II (Burial 2) and Tumulus III (Burial 1), but also Tariverde. It is not excluded that, to this early stage could have also belonged the Burials 1-2 in Tumulus 3 from Medgidia (Fig. 2), that took the benefit of some stone and wooden constructions, surrounded by a circular ditch.

MOTZOI-CHICIDEANU, I. (2011) – Obiceiuri funerare în epoca bronzului la Dunărea Mijlocie şi Inferioară (vol. I-II). Bucureşti: Academia Română. Institutul de Arheologie “Vasile Pârvan”. 900 p. & 472 pl. SCHUSTER, C. (2003) – Zur Bestattungsweise in Südrumänien in der Bronzezeit. In Burial Costums in the Bronze and Iron Age. Symposium, Čačak, 4-8 September 2002. Čačak: Narodni Muzej Čačak. Arheološki Institut Beograd. p. 109-138. SCHUSTER, C. (2004) – Zu der Problematik der Frühbronzezeit an der Unteren Donau (Rumänien). Acta Archaeologica Carpathica. Kraków. XXXIX: p. 87-122. SCHUSTER, C. [et al.] (2011) – Cercetările arheologice de pe tronsonul Cernavodă-Medgidia al Autostrăzii A2. Tumulul 3. Târgovişte: Editura Cetatea de Scaun. 110 p. & 65 figs.

The Yamnaya funerary mounds of the classical phase, sometimes forcedly assigned to the early phase, were in

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IN SEARCH FOR PRESTIGE: BRONZE AGE TUMULAR GRAVES IN WEST SERBIA Marija LJUŠTINA Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade, Serbia [email protected]

Katarina DMITROVIĆ National Museum, Čačak, Serbia [email protected]

Abstract: Long tradition of research on prehistoric mounds in West Serbia and well defined funerary contexts rendered the results of the excavations useful to reveal regularities specific for particular chronological and territorial units. An attempt was made to single out the elements that indicated prestige and special status of the deceased. The main indicators are mounds themselves as landmarks and central places of the graves inside the mounds. Some graves can be distinguished from the others regarding the number and type of grave goods and grave constructions, treatment of the deceased and their position inside the mounds. Key-words: Bronze Age, burials, prestige, tumuli, West Serbia Résumé: Grâce à une longue tradition des recherches sur les tumulus préhistoriques dans l’ouest de la Serbie, aussi bien qu’aux contextes funéraires bien définis, les résultats des excavations se sont avérés utiles quant à la découverte des régularités spécifiques aux certaines unités chronologiques et territoriales. Il a été fait un effort pour distinguer les éléments indiquant le prestige et le statut particulier des décédés. Les indicateurs principaux sont les tumulus eux-mêmes, en tant que points d’intérêt, et les points centraux des tombes à l'intérieur des tumulus. Certaines tombes peuvent être distinguées des autres par le nombre et type des biens et structures au sein des tombes, le traitement des décédés et leur position au sein des tumulus. Mots clés: âge du bronze, enterrements, prestige, tumulus, l’ouest de la Serbie

Serbia was deliberately chosen for being well known for its prehistoric mound burials. An attempt had already been made (Ljuština, Dmitrović 2010) to trace elements of prestige in the Iron Age graves from one of the zones in West Serbia – the West Morava valley. Having in mind that during the Iron Age one is faced with stratified chiefly societies, with princely graves as the most drastic example, it was not such a hard task. The work was performed under assumption that stratification of the Iron Age societies of the West Morava valley had its roots deep inside such processes in the Bronze Age, and that traceable elements of prestige speak in favour of it, but not much to confirm the assumption was found in the funerary practices in the transition period from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age. Consequently a question arose if we really knew how to determine elements of prestige in the Bronze Age contexts.

INTRODUCTION The territory of West Serbia geographically belongs mostly to the Dinaride system of the Central Balkans (Fig. 1). In the north there is a plain representing the borderline to the Pannonian plain. In the east the rivers Kolubara, West Morava and Ibar make a division between West and Central Serbia. In the west, the border between West Serbia and Bosnia is represented by the river Drina, while in the south there is a border with Montenegro and Kosovo. As it has already been emphasized (cf. Дмитровић 2002; Dmitrović, Ljuština 2008, with references), the territory of West Serbia is famous by a great number of tumuli. Intensive excavation of these objects has long tradition, since the end of the 19th century (Тројановић 1890; Тројановић 1892; Валтровић 1893), especially in the Čačak and Valjevo regions. A particular effort in research of the mounds can be noticed in the period after the Second World War. Based on the results of all these excavations, it can be stated that tumular burials had been practiced since the Eneolithic up to the Roman times, with significant number belonging to the Bronze Age. The main aim of the study is to give a review of characteristics of the Bronze Age mound burials in several geographical units, emphasizing general features and special characteristics, in search for any trace of prestige.

The Bronze Age is an epoch qualitatively different from both the preceding Neolithic and Eneolithic, and the following Iron Age. The third millennium BC formed a necessary historical overture to this new social and economic environment. By the later third millennium mining and metallurgy were added to the economy, which speeded up interaction and changes, which took place simultaneously over vast regions. Bronze Age funerary practices occasionally became uniform over broad areas, although burials are remarkable both for their regional and chronological diversity. The practice of single graves under tumuli is widespread during the first

The proposed title of the study was fairly binding from the beginning. The case study of the region of West 35

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Figure 1 – Map of Serbia with encircled region of West Serbia

increasingly differentiated into elites and commoners. The question of what form these differentiated societies took is still answered in more than one way. Some researchers established and followed the hypothesis that they were organised into chiefdoms (cf. Earle 1997), a form of social organisation known from pre-state societies around the world. A chiefdom is a regional polity with institutional governance and some social stratification organising a population of a few thousand to tens of thousands of people. Chiefdoms are intermediatelevel polities, bridging the evolutionary gap between small, village-based polities and large, bureaucratic states. Archaeologists use the presence and distribution of monumental constructions and prestige goods to document the evolution of chiefly societies (Earle 1997, 14). As an alternative to such a simply but strictly comprehended hierarchical social structure, other archaeologists imagined Bronze Age society as a society which had more complicated and fluid patterns of differences in authority and status (Bogucki 2004, 5). Whatever point of view is accepted, it is clear that social organisation was becoming increasingly complex throughout Europe during the Bronze Age.

half of the Bronze Age, although flat cemeteries are also found in parts of central Europe. Around 1200 BC, a drastic change in burial practices can be noted in much of central and southern Europe. Starting from that time, cremation burials in urns prevailed (Bogucki 2004, 4; Kristiansen, Larson 2005, 140). The variation in the burials has led to the very reasonable view that the Bronze Age was characterised by increasing differences in the access by individuals to status, power and wealth. Burial evidence may overemphasize such differences, but certain burials undoubtedly reflect the high status of persons who somehow earned or deserved to be buried that way. The amount of effort that was necessary to invest in the construction of some Bronze Age mortuary structures (in the case of West Serbia building up tumuli) and the high value ascribed to the goods buried with the deceased – and in this way taken out of use by the living – is in accordance with the expectations for such a stratified society (Bogucki 2004, 5). However, the displays of wealth in some Bronze Age burials are so elaborate and the practice is so widespread, that it is difficult not to conclude that society was 36

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90). These stone constructions are rare in the later periods of the Bronze Age. The Early Bronze Age burials are usually in the centre of the mound, with a stone construction (e.g. the sites Ruja in Dučalovići: Fig. 2/1, and Veliko polje in Jančići: Fig. 2/4). Characteristic for this area is skeletal burial in a stone construction resembling a coffin (Fig. 2/2). In addition to this phenomenon, another burial practice is noticed: a conical stone construction covering burnt bones of the deceased (Nikitović et al. 2002, 90). During this period, grave goods are neither numerous nor various in material or type. Typical example is a beaker with two handles. Stone arrows and mallets are rare (Дмитровић 2006, 26). During the Middle Bronze Age the situation is somewhat different. The graves from this period are usually buried into the already existing barrows, made in the previous phase. It is worth noticing that the later burials never damaged the old central graves. In general, the burial ritual is represented by incineration and use of urns along with numerous and abundant grave goods, with a significant novelty – metal, namely bronze objects. It is necessary to underline the main difference in the structure of grave inventory: bronze objects as grave goods doubtless prevail in the higher, mountainous parts, while presence of ceramic vessels is dominant in the West Morava valley (Dmitrović 2010). The Late Bronze Age of this region is poorly investigated. It seems that burial customs kept basic form from the previous phase, while the grave inventory revealed all the characteristics of the period.

The first step in determination of the reflection of the complex social organisation in archaeologically traceable elements of funerary practice was to single out the burials which were somehow special. The concept of special burials covers a wide range of meanings and content. As J. Notroff (Notroff 2011, 143-144) elaborately explained, special treatment of the deceased does not necessarily involve a negative reason; it could also indicate an increased appreciation. Special burials would mean all burials different from what is considered the normative for the funeral rite of a social group. This can be referring to spatial position of the deceased and his/her grave, grave construction, treatment of the deceased as well as grave inventory odd and conspicuous by any means. Definition of prestige is certainly to be discussed (cf. Ljuština, Dmitrović 2010 with references). In most of the general definitions, prestige is equal to the respect and admiration and a reputation for high quality that someone or something gets because of their success or important position in society. Tracing elements of prestige as estimation in people’s eyes – weight or credit in general opinion, commanding position in people’s minds inside archaeological record should be performed with extreme precaution. As for the elements of material culture which can be connected with the emergence of high-status warriors and new forms of social practices that constituted the warrior lifestyle in the Bronze Age, the work of P. Treherne (Treherne 1995) was used to define main methodological guidelines. According to this author (Treherne 1995, 108109), there are four main material categories that can be recognized from mortuary context: 1) warfare as reflected by the deposit of weaponry; 2) alcohol consumption (drinking vessels); 3) riding/driving technology (e.g. chariots, wagons and horse riding); 4) bodily ornamentation (e.g. tweezers, razors, mirrors, objects of adornment, etc.). These specific sets of material objects, and the social practices they signed, represented an accumulation of both foreign and local elements through a process of bricolage by which individuals actively constructed new forms of individual and shared identity reified through prestigious material items (regardless of their original purpose) and activities. Such practices led to the development of a ‘differentiated warrior ideology’ that widely infused and spread throughout societies and ultimately led to and increasingly prominent status group within many European communities (Treherne 1995, 109).

The Užice, Požega and Arilje regions To the west of Čačak, in the surroundings of the towns Požega, Arilje and Užice, a smaller number of the Bronze Age tumuli have been investigated. During the Early Bronze Age several ritual patterns for burying deceased were ascertained. In some of the cases, funerary context consisted of a stake (with a stake hole determined in situ) with fired bones and vessels in function of grave goods, while on the superior level there was an urn with the burnt bones. A modified ritual was determined in the cases where a stake was accompanied by remains of several individuals and ritually broken vessels. Likewise in the Čačak region, a central burial unit with burnt bones covered with a conical stone construction appeared in this area, as well as burials in a coffin solidly made of stone slabs with inhumed deceased (Zotović 1985, 33-34). It is necessary to single out a flat necropolis from Stapari near Užice, where among numerous graves from the younger prehistoric phases, there was a very early urn of the Vučedol type (Zotović 1985, 34). During the Middle Bronze Age the deceased were mainly burnt and placed usually together with bronze jewellery into urns or on the open space without any construction or sometimes with summarily prepared base. Two coffins made of stone slabs should be emphasized as a reminiscence of the previous phase. In one of them, at the site Blaškovina, there were two skeletons lying in the opposite direction, with bronze jewellery enclosed. In the other one, at the site Lokve in Duškovci, a bronze sward (Fig. 3/3) was found (Zotović 1985, 43). In this period incineration of

THE BRONZE AGE TUMULAR GRAVES IN WEST SERBIA – A REVIEW The Čačak region In the Čačak region, 26 mounds in total are attributed to the Bronze Age. The mounds usually have a radius of maximally 20 m and an average height of 1-2 m. In most of the cases the calotte is solely earthen, although in the Early Bronze Age mounds a peripheral ring and a covering made of stone are known (Nikitović et al. 2002,

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2

1

4

3

5

6

Figure 2 – The Bronze Age mounds from West Serbia: 1 – Ruja, Dučalovići: mound 12, grave 1 (Дмитровић, 2002, fig. 4); 2 – Ruja, Dučalovići: mound 12, grave 1 – stone coffin with skeleton in crouched position and grave goods (Дмитровић, 2002, fig. 5); 3 – Oborište: mound VI (Зотовић, 1991, fig. 5); 4 – Veliko polje, Jančići: mound with central grave (documentation of the National museum Čačak); 5 – Okrun, Gornji Krajčinovići: mound X (Зотовић, 1991, fig. 1); 6 – Okrun, Gornji Krajčinovići: mound XI (Зотовић, 1991, fig. 4)

the deceased prevails. Inhumation is confirmed at the already mentioned site Blaškovina, the Stapari flat necropolis, the mounds at the sites Davidovića Čair in Arilje, Kriva Reka and Ražana. In Davidovića Čair skeletal remains were placed on a surface made of bigger and smaller pebbles, with a bronze dagger enclosed (Fig. 3/2). The dagger represents a very rare find in a wider

area. Another bronze dagger came from the site Crvica near Bajina Bašta (Fig. 3/1). The graves from Kriva Reka (the grave 5 in the mound I) and Ražana seem very similar: very similar grave constructions were examined, with typical bronze jewellery enclosed (a torque in Ražana, and tutuli, bracelets, necklaces made of saltaleoni from Kriva Reka) (Zotović 1985, 41-42). 38

M. LJUŠTINA & K. DMITROVIĆ: IN SEARCH FOR PRESTIGE: BRONZE AGE TUMULAR GRAVES IN WEST SERBIA

never damaged by the later burials (Валтровић 1893; Garašanin 1983, 740). A special spatial pattern in known from Bukovičko polje, where six other mounds were placed around the central one (Garašanin 1983, 740). All the mounds were made of earth, sometimes (at Banjevci and Tolisavac) with a covering made of pebbles. Pebbled peripheral circle is known from Belotić. Belotić also revealed use of stone coffins, as it was the case at the site Joševa near Loznica (Garašanin 1983, 743). The bronze sword from Joševa (Fig. 3/4) is one of very few finds of weapons in the grave inventory on this territory (Garašanin 1983, 744, 748).

Southwest Serbia In Southwest Serbia, in the valley of the river Poblaćnica and on the Jabuka upland plateau in the Priboj region, the mounds registered so far revealed specific rituals. In the valley of the Poblaćnica, at the sites Slana Voda and Polje in Donji Krajčinovići some very early burials were examined. Central pits were excavated, whose shape and stone disposition completely simulate a grave construction, but without any trace of the deceased. In the mound II at the site Polje a skeleton in crouched position was found, placed on a bigger stone slab in the mound centre, without any grave goods. The secondary grave from the same mound is interesting because it obviously belonged to a sacrificed person, purposely thrown and covered by stones which caused numerous fractures on the skeleton (Зотовић 1991, 78). Very significant are mounds X and XI from the site Okrun in Gornji Krajčinovići (Figs. 2/5, 6). The mounds are one of a kind regarding their architecture with concentric rings made of pebbles with a central zone, ritual use of fired wood and symbolic use of stone artefacts. Traces of the burnt deceased were found only in the central pit of the mound XI (Зотовић 1991, 78-80). As for the mounds V, VI and VII from the near site Oborište, if we put aside lots of secondary Hallstatt graves, it is obvious that these objects were established during the Early Bronze Age. Presence of massive stone covering, central core and stone constructions with remains of the deceased speaks in favour of the statement. Central place and special architectonic and ritual pattern point to the special rank of the deceased (Fig. 2/3). In the mound VI a calotte oven was found, which along with the same finds from Davidovića Čair and Lučani certainly has a special ritual meaning. Above this object a specific construction was formed, which consisted of a round platform with storeyed graves. In the primary grave bronze knives and typical ceramic vessels with high cylindrical necks and two handles were found. In the secondary grave, some remains of burnt bones were lying beside the skeleton. M. Zotović (Зотовић 1991, 80-81) thought they might have represented a sacrifice. In the mound from the site Savin Lakat on the Jabuka plateau several biritual burials were found. Special attention was certainly paid to the central graves, where also a skeletal grave of a female was found in the stone construction without any grave goods. According to M. Lazić (Лазић 2007, 122-123), this is about the wife of the male buried in the central construction, or maybe another sacrifice, dedicated to the erection of the mound.

M. and D. Garašanin recognised the ritual of human sacrifice in the mound 16 in Belotić (Garašanin M., Garašanin D. 1962, 55-56; Garašanin 1983, 741). The grave goods represent typical repertory for the Bronze Age. A bronze pin, with even 115cm in length, set beside the skeleton of the deceased must be emphasized as a specific find (Fig. 3/5). D. Garašanin considered these long pins to have served purpose of fixing the canvas that had covered the deceased (Garašanin 1983, 743). Tumular necropolis on the site Paulje near Loznica shows almost the same characteristics of the excavated mounds. These mounds were established in the Middle Bronze Age and were additionally used for burials during the Iron Age (Цанић-Тешановић, Глигорић 2001; Глигорић, Цанић-Тешановић 2010). Usual ritual was incineration. In one case exclusively, in a mound of greater dimensions, a skeletal burial was covered by stone. Uneven number and disposition of the grave goods (rich grave goods vs. total absence of grave goods) are indicators of social stratification in this community (Глигорић, Цанић-Тешановић 2010, 4). Among various enclosed goods (personal belongings: bronze pins, bracelets, torques, pendants of different shape, as well as ceramic vessels), similar to the findings from the other mounds in West Serbia, a special attention must be paid to the oversized pins, dated to the Br C – D (Глигорић, Цанић-Тешановић 2010, kat. 20, 36, 59, 60, 92), as well as to the bronze sward from the central grave in the mound X (Глигорић, Цанић-Тешановић 2010, 8, kat. 30). A pin (Fig. 3/6) came from the central grave in the mound B. The place defined as the central grave in the mound comprised both the place of funeral pyre and the deposited burnt remains of the deceased. In the mound O, which represents one of the most dominant objects of the kind in this necropolis, a purposely distorted bronze pin (Fig. 3/7) was found in the lateral, additional skeletal grave, lying above the deceased. A conical stone covering was made above the skeleton, and its periphery covered even the central grave of the mound (Глигорић, ЦанићТешановић 2010, 11). All these facts clearly point to a special rank of the deceased.

Northwest Serbia The mounds excavated in Northwest Serbia reveal almost identical general picture of burial patterns as it was described in the previous examples. No matter whether the mounds are on Belotić – Bela Crkva locations or Tolisavci, Banjevac and Bukovačko polje near Valjevo, the situation they indicate is much alike. In this region, too, it was noticed that respect for the central place was paid in the manner that the number of additional burials was not numerous, as well as that the central graves were

IN SEARCH FOR PRESTIGE Having in mind all these facts from the mound burials in the West Serbia, it is possible to separate several facts that might be closely related to the objects and burial forms which indicate some special treatment of the

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1 2

3 4

6

7

5 Figure 3 – Bronze weapons and pins from the Bronze Age graves in West Serbia: 1 – Crvica, Bajina Bašta: bronze dagger (Zotović 1985, T. XI/2); 2 – Davidovića Čair: bronze dagger (Zotović 1985, T. XI/3); 3 – Lokve, Duškovci: bronze sword (Zotović 1985, T. XI/1); 4 – Joševa: bronze sword (Benac 1983, T. CII/1); 5 – Belotić: bronze pin (Benac 1983, T.CII/4, 4a); 6 – Paulje: bronze pin (Глигорић, Цанић-Тешановић 2010, kat. 2059); 7 – Paulje: bronze pin (Глигорић, Цанић-Тешановић 2010, kat. 2092)

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this one – martial equipment – can be defined as prestigious with high probability. Confirmations for the other two – consumption of alcohol and bodily ornamentation – are less solid. Presence of pottery in grave inventory, and drinking vessels in particular, can point out to the consumption of specific liquids as a sign of prestige. Bodily ornamentation, recognised through the finds such as bronze pins, bracelets, torques and pendants in the graves, can be inserted into the matrix of the warrior lifestyle. But both the pottery and the elements of dress and jewellery can be indicators of something else, and not the martial prestige. One thing is sure: elements of prestigious chariots, wagons or horse riding have not been recognised in the Bronze Age burials in West Serbia.

deceased. The most noticeable are the central place in the mound and specially formed burial construction (stone coffins from the Čačak and Požega regions) and above all the whole mound as a special aspect of respect for the deceased. The construction of monuments and the rearrangement of the landscape (cf. Ljuština, Dmitrović 2009), such as the construction of artificial barrows, require not only considerable labor and resources, but leadership and coordination. The monuments serve as the solid foundation upon which lasting institutions are constructed. Unlike events, which must be repeated on a regular basis, monuments remain permanent representations of the ideological system. They often effectively represent power even long after a state or social system has disappeared, therefore defying time and giving the impression of permanence and transcendence (Earle 1997, 156-157). For all the reasons mentioned above, it seems plausible to presume that the tumular burials were originally prestigious by themselves.

Some authors considered some graves to have belonged to sacrificed persons, probably for the sake of the centrally placed deceased, but such a concept lacks convincing evidence. On the other side, special rank of the deceased might be emphasized by the special grave architecture – several concentric rings which accentuate the central grave.

Special rank of the deceased might be emphasized by some special, unusual, and obviously rare goods enclosed, like bronze swards, knives or long pins. Burial furnishings usually can be divided into two groups – attire as well as personal items from the deceased’s property, and additional equipment for the afterlife – to which a third group of objects, with amulet character, can be added. The term “amulet” is used here to describe objects which have been assigned spiritual powers, providing salvation, protection and defence (Notroff 2011, 148). Objects understood in this way could have been of different nature and shape. They may have found their way into the grave as part of personal dress in life and it is likely that a supposed protective character of these objects in the lifetime was also exceeded into the afterlife. Another question is whether grave goods interpreted in means of amulets have to be expanded in their meaning to another facet: what if at least some of them were used as a spiritual defence mechanism, not to protect the dead from dangers in the other world, but to guard the living descendants from possibly harmful deceased relatives and actually banish them right there in the grave (Notroff 2011, 148, with references)? One of the possible interpretations of presence of the oversize pins in the grave contexts can be in accordance with this “amulet” concept. Acceptance of this interpretation does not necessarily exclude recognition of the items as prestigious.

CONCLUSIONS Long tradition of systematic research on prehistoric mounds in West Serbia provided a basis for further studies on various topics. Well defined funerary contexts rendered the results of the excavations useful to reveal regularities specific for particular chronological and territorial units. The number of the Early and Middle Bronze Age graves significantly prevails among the Bronze Age graves seen as a whole. Very few grave finds can be dated to the Late Bronze Age. Regarding general regularities for each chronological phase and in accordance with the symbolism of ritual patterns and objects, an attempt was made to single out the elements that indicated special status of the deceased. Prestigious grave inventory, despite being recognised more easily, is not always the most convenient means of indication of high rank. In the case of West Serbia, the main indicators are mounds themselves as landmarks and central places of the graves inside the mounds. The central place, occasionally associated with specific grave construction, was obviously prestigious by itself and dedicated to an important person – presumably a tribal leader or a member of rising tribal aristocracy. After the central grave had been set, mound covering started. Later graves are usually in concentric disposition, at a certain distance from the central grave. It was noticed that there were not any later destructions of the central graves, which speaks in favour of special treatment of the central place in the mound for centuries.

The spread of the Minoan/Mycenaean rapier and its imitation in east central Europe, together with other evidence, suggest that this region was a commercial meeting point between Minoan/Mycenaean traders and their counterparts from east central Europe (Kristiansen, Larson 2005, 208). Offensive weapons in the funerary contexts in West Serbia (Figs. 3/1-4) should be observed in the light of the previous statement, as well as confirmation of existence of high-status warriors and new forms of social practices that constituted the warrior lifestyle. From the four main material categories that can be recognized from mortuary context, as defined by P. Treherne (Treherne 1995) and already mentioned above,

Some graves can be distinguished from the others regarding the number and type of grave goods and grave constructions, treatment of the deceased and their position inside the mounds. If some of the elements are considered indicators of prestige, it should be taken reservedly. While trying to reach the system of values

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KRISTIANSEN, K., LARSON, T.B. (2005) The Rise of Bronze Age Society. Travels, Transmissions and Transformations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 449 p.

used by the Bronze Age people following the traces of rituals and material goods, we might come to the conclusions limited by the modern comprehension of symbols of power and the afterlife.

ЛАЗИЋ, М. (2007) – Хумка из бронзаног доба на локалитету Савин лакат код Пријепоља. Архаика. Beograd. 1, p. 109-127.

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GARAŠANIN, M. (1983) – Zapadnosrpska varijanta vatinske grupe. In Benac, A., ed. – Praistorija jugoslavenskih zemalja IV. Bronzano doba. Sarajevo: Akademija nauka i umjetnosti Bosne i Hercegovine, Centar za balkanološka ispitivanja, p. 736-759.

ТРОЈАНОВИЋ, С. (1892) – Преисторијске старине из рудничког округа. Старинар. Београд. 9, p. 123. ВАЛТРОВИЋ, M. (1893) – Преисторијске старине у ваљевском и подрињском округу. Старинар. Београд. 10, p. 75-97.

GARAŠANIN, M., GARAŠANIN, D. (1962) – Ископавања тумула у комплексу Белотић-Бела Црква 1959. и 1960. године. Зборник радова Народног Музеја. Beograd. III, p. 47-68.

ZOTOVIĆ, M. (1985) – Arheološki i etnički problemi bronzanog i gvozdenog doba zapadne Srbije. Dissertationes et monographiae, tome XXVI. Titovo Užice: Zavičajni muzej; Beograd: Savez arheoloških društava Jugoslavije. 151 p.

ГЛИГОРИЋ, Р., ЦАНИЋ-ТЕШАНОВИЋ, J. (2010) – Пауље, некропола бронзаног и гвозденог доба код Лознице, каталог. Лозница: Музеј Јадра; Горњи Милановац: Музеј рудничко-таковског краја, 36 p. Catalogue.

ЗОТОВИЋ, М. (1991) – Истраживања праисторијских хумки у долини Поблаћнице и генеза раног бронзаног доба у Западној Србији. Старинар. Београд. XL – XLI/1989-1990, p. 77-88.

HANKS, B. (2008) – The Past in Later Prehistory. In Jones, A., ed. – Prehistoric Europe: Theory and Practice. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. 255-284. 42

CRITERIA FOR A SOCIAL STATUS TYPOLOGY IN PREHISTORY (OPEN MODEL FOR DISCUSSION) Lolita NIKOLOVA International Institute of Anthropology, West Jordan, Utah, USA [email protected]

Abstract: The prehistoric burials provide ambiguous information about the social status of the buried population. Usually it is accepted that the richness of the grave is a main criterion of the so-called high social status. Such thinking equals wealth and status. However, there can be many other criteria for high social status – activity, health, natural abilities, hereditary status, gender, beliefs, and even psychopathological characteristics. Also, burials do not provide direct information about the wealth of the buried individual. Then, we need to depart from the traditional view of the social status person as a wealthy person with high status. Starting with the thesis that everybody in society has a social status, it is possible by combination of different criteria to hypothesize different social status types that may relate to prehistoric reality or may just remain a research means for further advancement in the problem. Security is chosen as a criterion for a new social status typology – from very low insecure status to high secure status. From perspectives of prehistory, five basic constructors of social status have been proposed for discussion within the security status scale: age, gender, health and wealth, and place.

INTRODUCTION

CRITERIA FOR SOCIAL STATUS

Studying of social status in prehistory is a complicated subject since the data are fragmented and there are missing written records. The long tradition of purposeful excavations of prehistoric burials for gathering scientific data has failed to prove that such goal have social, cultural and scholarly values. The information from the excavated burials is usually limited, more is lost than got during the excavations, and the human culture has been making almost an orphan without the richness of past under Mother-Earth, left by our ancestors as a wealth to be kept and transmitted from generations to generations. Many excavations of cemeteries have a character of crime against humanity (e.g. Durankulak) since neither correspond to the cotemporary world level of excavation, nor provide complete evidence or richly informative publication. The scholars in early 21st century are in similar position as their ancestors from 19th century – just looking for any information, without big expectation and without abilities to develop the methodology considerably or to obtain really rich scientific results.

One of the most popular old classifications of social status is based on imperfect application of sociology to anthropology. It includes two categories (type): achieved status and ascribed status (social status, online and references cited there). This classification may have more common with a social type (Almog, 1998). At its core, the contradicted social status understanding comes from the pairing of social status with social role – a style of thinking popular in the 20th century (Williams, 1972: 164), together with the mostly one side relation – how social status effects the material culture (see e.g. Chapman, 1955; Bascom, 1957; cp. Clunas, 2004). Social status cannot be paired either with social role or with social identity only. It has by nature a mobile character and is rooted not in the inequality, but in the variety of humankind (see also Chan, 2010). For instance, Queen Elisabeth has high secured social status as Queen because she is a healthy woman. If she was not healthy and not a woman, it is unclear what would be her destiny today. As a factor in the development of people within different social statuses (Mirowsky & Ross, 2003; Marmot, 2004), health is a just an example that in many cases even very peripheral components may influence the (mobile) social status of people and effect crucially their social life.

Then, beyond ethical, theoretical problems have become of primary importance – how to study the social status of prehistoric population? Do we need to study this status? What to expect from the prehistoric records? Since there are missing written records, and archaeology provides numerous but fragmented evidence (see e.g. Dergachov & Manzura, 1991; Parzinger 1993; Parzinger, 2006; Rassamakin, 2004), the success depends mostly on theory and on the type of analogies that will be used for construction of scholarly interpretive archaeology models and/or models for prehistoric cultural anthropology of smaller or bigger regions.

The social status of every individual is a complex issue that defines a specific achievement of the individuals at a specific moment at people’s life. You cannot have ascribed status if you do not achieve this status. In other words, both categories interrelate and interact. Also they are based on very limited criteria. Including for instance, gender as a criterion, everybody has an ascribed status as a male or woman by birth, although some may decide to develop and achieve a status of reverse gender, different 43

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High secure social status

Marginal secure social status

Low secure social status

Very low secure social status Very low unsecure social status

Low unsecure social status

Marginal unsecure social status

High unsecure social status Figure 1 – A graphic presentation of the secure and unsecure social status with different scales of security/insecurity. The criteria for the different categories would depend on the case studies. Very low secure or very low unsecure social statuses would depend on the role of the selected important criteria for classification. For instance, consecutive years of cold weather may place some households in prehistory in a position of low secure, while other in low unsecure. The families whose main income came from agriculture would fall in the latter category, while the family with existed other means for subsistence would probably stay at the level of low secure social status

criminals, dangerously corrupted but only publically punished because of weakness of the law, etc.

from their sex. Achieved-and-ascribed status theory has the shadow of the old static ideology of class division of society which in some works sounds almost like a caste division.

Secure social status would have all people at a steady subsistence level, moral, lawful and with positive achievements in society.

Social status should be a combination of gender, age, marital, economic, education, religious, and residence status, for instance. It is mobile and one and the same person have usually several (multiple) statuses (multisocial status personalities).

Difference levels can be distinguished in the scale of social status: high, marginal, low and very low (Figure 1). Accordingly, very low secure social status would be most often similar or identical with very low nonsecure social status. The key criteria that help to avoid the end-street of research, is wealth understood not only as a material wealth, but also as a symbolic wealth (education, behavior, achievements, etc.).

Because there is a huge amount of combinations of the different components of social status, it is difficult to develop a universal typology that would work for all epochs, including prehistory. Then, we can propose two main types: non-secure social status and secure social status. For instance, single, female, with three jobs and without criminal behavior would represent a person of secure social status that could be with below subsistence, subsistence, accumulating wealthy or wealthy economic status.

In addition, it should be made difference between social status as a concept and social status research. The concepts concern the theory of status, while the research is based on the means of information used to define the social status of the prehistoric people.

Non-secure social status would be a status of all people at level of risk including below economic minimum, 44

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Then, regarding prehistory, five basic criteria can be proposed for social status research – age, gender, health, wealth, and place in context. Beyond the cemetery data, the house, settlement and region provide evidence about the general social standards of the buried population. The problem is that it is difficult to impossible to correlate the settlement and cemetery data at level of specific individual (if it is not a house burial). This was clearly showed in the work by J. Chapman (1983) on the Late Copper Age in Northeast Bulgaria as a classic example of non-satisfying research design for productive research. In this work the author did not provide any certain correlation between cemetery and settlement data either at the level of individual, or at the level of household. Any research design of case studies should be fruitful, with clear conclusions, and not like a proposal for future research. To the extent of the author’s knowledge, there are still missing Balkan prehistoric records for correlation of cemetery and village data at levels of individual or household. Accordingly, other types of research designs and control data should be used for possible comparative, combined or complimentary analyses.

HOW TO DEFINE SOCIAL STATUS? The typical model of prehistoric social status is low and high social status. Such definition is limited and does not describe the society; it deforms the understanding of society. A person of high social status is usually identified with wealthy and power. The study of contemporary societies provides a series of criteria for social-economic (=social) status (e.g. Seo Yeon Jang, 2009). In sociology, the problem of social type is related to the problem of social role (Almog, 1998). However, by definition, archaeology supplies science with fragmented data. These fragmented data are additionally damaged by excavations which are not well equipped for complete research. Then, neoarchaeology becomes more a disciplines that construct theoretical models to stimulate more precise and adequate field research. It is not dependent on field data but on the opportunities the scientists to be well educated in archaeology and to offer advanced models with specific applications in archaeology. Initially, four main criteria were chosen for social status research in prehistory – age, gender, health and wealth since only the grave in prehistory is able to provide undisputable evidence about specific individuals. Later, the place in context was added as important marker using both burial and settlement data. However, absence of wealthy objects in the grave does not mean at once it belonged to non-wealthy person (Nikolova, 2010). Then, the wealth is documented in the material culture through objects but theoretically they could be indirect criteriaindicators that the grave belonged to a wealthy person. Typical sign is eventually the size of the tumulus mound. Raising a tumulus was a time-consuming work and there should have been a special reason for this activity. Conversely, one tumulus could be a work of a small or large group of people. In other words, the size may reflect the size of community, and not of the social status of the buried person. In case of multiple burials, the tumulus was consecutively raised that creates also additional research problems.

One of possibilities is together with multicriteria for individual social status, the hierarchy of study of the social status to be proposed: individual, household, place community, regional community, multiregional community… global community. There is no reason to insist that the generalizations deviate from cultural reality, since constructing a specific archaeological – historical – ethnographic model can be later tested in a specific context and updated for further theoretization. This would be the case for instance, with the problem of elderly social groups and social status. Burial data from the regions with best archaeological investigations would provide conclusions and models that can be compared in the context of region(s) with missing data for burials and with poor data for burials. Such theoretical approach also help to depart from the regionalism in research of prehistory that results in some cases in destruction of prehistoric site for “research goals” that neither can be completed not provide really considerable scholarly results; they just repeat well known picture from close region(s). Since cultural identity is one of the main targets of any anthropological research, the idea of preserving better the past of our ancestors should dominate, as a strong social identity constructor and connecting regions with similar culture as regions with common cultural identity.

Different is the problem with health status and social status. It is very reasonable to accept an assumption that healthier people were wealthier people in the prehistoric villages. Food is a main criterion for health, as well as the character of the job for living. Wealthier people may even did not work in the field being involved in social activities. Contemporary societies and traditional culture provides endless examples that clearly show that wealthier people have more spare time, some of them are not involved directly in business living on their wealth. But there is also another picture – reproducing wealth means in many cases stressful work and many health problems. With regard to prehistory, however, majority of community was at subsistence level and the social stratification concerns mostly a very small segment of society. Inside the subsistence level there was an attempt of accumulation of wealth (Nikolova, 2010) but there were missing those factors that exist today for more complex social stratification. In fact even today the

Social status can be applied to whole groups understood as a group of individuals at a similar level of social status. Group social status will be different from social class since they may not recognize themselves as such. In the social class there is a self-awareness of belonging to one or another class. For instance, white-collar criminals have a self-awareness of belonging to the middle to upper class. They may not consider themselves as unsecure status since the characteristics come from outside (reputational perspective). J. Yakar prefers the term cultural identity (1994: 290).

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G-3: female (s)

people can be divided into two major groups – at subsistence and over subsistence level, and the subsistence level is the majority. Having car for instance, may lower the economic status since the car is both expensive and requires many additional expenses. But in some places car is not beyond subsistence; it is the only possible means to go to work.

G-4: male (s) G-5: female/male (s) Traditionally, in prehistory can be easily distinguished G1 and G-2 that does not mean absence of G-3, G-4, and G-5. Ethnographic data however, show how complicate has been the understanding of gender in the traditional societies (see e.g. Meigs, 1990).

It is important to point to the psychological research of secure attachment (see e.g. Roisman, Padrón, Sroufe, & Egeland, 2002) since security is unconscious conscious and conscious cognitive process which is embedded in the human behavior and obtaining of social status is just one of the aspects of human search for stable life. Further research in this direction will be probably productive.

Health Health is most important for human life. If the person is non-healthy, its development belongs to different nonstandard types of life. There are many factors for good health including but not limited to biological preconditions, age, food, environment, family, work, etc.

Age There are different classifications of the age groups (see e.g. Erikson's stages, online; Adolescence, online; Seo Yeon Jang, 2009: Table 11).

Typically, people grow healthy and the healthy people begin to deteriorate because of aging approximately after age 70. The age of intensive aging is a historical category. In prehistory it is believed intensive aging may have started perhaps after abt 40. It is still unclear how the different prehistoric cultures responded to aging and whether there was an attempt for increasing of the lower border of intensive ageing.

A standard division of age groups for cultural anthropology may be offered as follows: Age-1: 0-1; Age-2: 1-5; Age-3: 6-12; Age-4: 13-14; Age-5: 15-18; Age-6: 19-29; Age-7: 30-39; Age-8: 40-49; Age-9: 50-70; Age-10: 70-79; Age-11: 80-89; Age-12: 90-99; Age-13: above 100.

In contemporary society there are many historical diseases like diabetes (see e.g. Seo Yeon Jang, 2009). One of the main reasons for the diseases is the food.

Archaeology depends on physical anthropological material, then, the different groups from cultural anthropology can be combined in larger clusters depending on the material.

There are several categories for food securities as regression determinants:

The contemporary development of human civilization shows that aging is a very long process and the social response to age may repress the natural aging through presumptions, traditional thinking and pattern that do not correspond to the way people feel/behavior and to their ability for active life. Using the contemporary knowledge on aging may help to understand better the prehistoric population.

High FS (Food Security) Marginal FS Low FS Very low FS (Seo Yeon Jang, 2009: table 11). It should be expected that HFS and MFS are criteria for wealthier people or for higher social status (according to the standard thinking). However, such conclusions may not be true even for considerable segments of society, since many people at subsistence level or at level of initial accumulation of wealth (Nikolova, 2010) may have a strong food health culture especially for children and the healthiest population may come from such families. In opposite, with involvement of women in the socialeconomic life, wealth may also become a factor for health deterioration especially of children left without control, who have had opportunity and access for LFS and VLFS style of life including junk non-healthy food. The school food has been recently also a subject of detailed reexamination.

Gender Gender is biological-and-cultural construct. The femalemale classification has millions of years of evolution. The reproduction of this classification has been assisted by strong family traditions probably since Early Neolithic. The decreasing of role of family and especially making the woman an active social performer instead a traditional housekeeper has increased the gender mobility and selforientation of the individuals toward male, female or bigender without direct correlation between biological and social factors. Then, it can be proposed the following classification for cultural anthropology:

In prehistory, a specific problem is the dependence of people on weather and the opportunity of malnutrition because of absence of seasonal food.

G-1: female (b/s) (biological/social) G-2: male (b/s) 46

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the prehistoric figurines from the western Pontic region to relate to general increasing of the variability of the standards for secure social status. It is possible to believe that the material culture had an active role in the dynamic process of socialization of prehistoric communities that includes obtaining more secure social status. The role of prehistoric miniature figurines as a status object is very clearly demonstrated in their function as burial goods in the area of Late Tripoli (Usatovo) culture (see e.g. Dergachov & Manzura, 1991: Ris. 8, 10,12,15,16,18 etc.). It can be applied the characteristics of the status spillover (Fisher & Shapiro, 2006) to the status material culture that explains the opportunity the prehistoric figurines to have become so popular in the Balkans (in compare to other regions). They were so strong attached to the social identity that increasing their popularity was itself a social marker of a higher secure status.

Environment influences the health of people in a variety of contexts. With respect to prehistory, cold and very hot weather may develop epidemic environment. The evidence of garbage pits next to houses indicates that cleanness was a specific problem and probably not always resolved according to standards of preventive health. Hygiene reasons would be probably one of the main reasons for burning houses and whole settlements and their renovation on the same place or migration of the whole community to another place. Such activities reflected on the social status in different ways. Renovation of settlement may have caused social status mobility including changing of property of specific households, exclusions of dome household from the village community, incorporating new households, etc. This is what connects physical health with social health, then, high social status would also mean good social health that does not equal wealthy social status. As in the contemporary world there is a big difference between wealthy and high social status, in prehistory presumably wealth was just one of the social markers that did not directly correlated with the social health. Ethnographic data confirm that wealth is not the only criterion for social status (Bascom, 1957).

According to Bailey (2005: 186), “any attempt to read Neolithic identities from Neolithic figurines is precarious at best”. This conclusion is not based on deep knowledge on Balkan figurines, his case study, since many of Vinča figurines, as well as of Hamangia, Krivodol, Cucuteni and other Balkan prehistoric cultures are exactly social identity oriented and most probably emblems of social identity. The identity meaning of Balkan prehistoric figurines is well demonstrated in the common diachronically repeated style, in the posture, and the femaleness as a leading sign of social identity in prehistory. There are cross-regional types of figurines that need a contextual analysis for identity research, but not all are with invisible or contextual identity meaning.

Wealth Wealth is a dynamic concept with multilayered meaning (Nikolova, 2010). The core of the concepts is the material wealth, although health is also wealth and knowledge is also wealth. Health and knowledge can turn at some point into material wealth, as well as the material wealth can be lost because of absence of health and knowledge.

There are also continues attempts to destructure the prehistoric material culture within imaginary schemes such as patron-client relationships at Varna cemetery (Chapman, Higham, Slavchev, Gyadarska, & Honch, 2006: 165, 173-175), in the attempt to compliment Bailey’s imaginary “group solidarity”. As it is well known, Varna I cemetery is only partially excavated and unpublished, so there is missing scientific records about its origin. Most importantly, the flat cemetery is a tradition in Balkan prehistory since Late Neolithic and there is no reason not to include Varna cemetery in the system of Copper Age burial customs of the Eastern Balkans continuing. “Group solidarity” is an old concept (see e.g. Hetcher, 1987), although Copper Age is a period of well documented social segmentation and the cemetery was not a place of solidarity, but a social norm of cohesion (interconnection, unity) followed by the residents and most probably under the threat of punishment if broken by the villagers.

From prehistoric perspectives, accumulation of wealth had been household tasks since the early stage of prehistoric development. Attempting to accumulate wealth created social differentiation, violence culture, the concepts of morality, of crime, etc. Including the wealth as a criterion of social status creates problems at level of interpretation of small body of database since neither burials nor settlements provide always direct evidence of wealthy population. Very important segment of the wealth is the symbolic capital and investment that includes beliefs, traditions, power, genealogical connections, etc. Hereditary status for instance is part of the symbolic wealth with a variety of positions at the scale of the material wealth – from 0 to highest material richness. Some beliefs may reserve the highest social status for people even with psychopathological characteristics, or with natural abilities of using human energy for curing. The opposite would be punishing for using the human energy for violence culture (e.g. witches, or Baba Yaga type from the tales).

Referring to Bailey, Chapman et al. insist that the large and diverse figurine assemblages reflect new social relations (2006: 162; cp. above). The picture becomes more dramatic from scholarly point of view if you compare Chapman et al. 2006: 162 where they wrote that in Eneolithic emerged “specialists”, with kinds of person in hunter-gatherer-fisher societies where the examples even of long-distance specialist exits at Lepenski Vir (Chapman, 2010: 7). Such authors’ contradiction is often

Part of wealth is the material culture that specifies different cultural traditions. It is possible the increasing of the individualization of the human faces (Burdo, 2010) in 47

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eventual inventory for the determination of the social status.

explained by absence of profound knowledge and a steady diachronic view on past. There is no single argument that pottery has an identity meaning in prehistory. It just creates lines of more intensive interactions. It is well documented in the earliest written records from the Balkans dated probably from later Bronze Age when Thracian appeared as numerous tribes that cannot be directly matched with the pottery style because of unification of pottery over large areas. The same is the situation in Later Copper Age – existed two big complexes in the Eastern and Central Western Balkans show intensive interactions and unification of the pottery styles probably of numerous smaller tribe communities. Then, pottery did not create identity, but in opposite – the pottery was the way to make identities interact with each other. In addition, the rich graves at Varna cemetery may have community significance or may have belonged to certain households (still is missing a full publication for more detailed analysis). Our presumption in past was that such concentration of such gold might have marked a critical moment of community life and was a way to resolve social problems by treasuring wealth in the Mother-Earth. Then, gold was not a means to integrate society, but to resolve problems of eventual social conflicts. However, the grave itself is not a book to read about prehistoric social relationships. It is a cultural complex with multimeanings and multiinterpetations. The symbolic grave would be a sacrifice, a symbolic burial of lost family member away, an anniversary festivity, a ritual pit, a gift to the mother earth, etc. It seems Varna had a core area with rich burials that might have related to certain feasting of households or small communities. However treasuring of wealth would have so many meanings. Then, the numerous crossing meanings provide a whole line of possible interpretations.

PROBLEMS OF THE COMBINATION OF THE CRITERIA AND SOCIAL STATUS TYPE DETERMINATION The real social status is a mobile category because of the dynamic nature of the social status components, and the variety of the combinations of the different criteria. As a rule, for instance, a rich child grave does not mean directly high material social status, because the wealth in the child grave could be a result of the respect to this most sensitive human category as a place in life and relation of the others to it. Sick child buried in a rich grave may indicate seasonal malnutrition, then, disease also is not a direct indicator of lower social status. Placing a deceased person in a village burial may itself indicate a high social status. For instance, two burials next to each other were discovered at Yunatsite tell from the earliest Early bronze village. They can be interpreted eventually as a possible family of high status related to the founding of the village. based on the place as a status criterion and the context – first Bronze Age village on the tell. One more factor is strong for such interpretation – the long period of nomadic development of the South Balkans and the sedentarization as an innovative strategy in later fourth millennium cal BC that required a series of rituals to be codified and to become a pattern. The transition from sedentary to mobile life and from mobile to sedentary life was a dynamic strategy for most successful social reproduction. In this social process the people with influence in formation of public opinion was of special values and probably considered as people with high social status. It is possible in such critical moment the wealthiest people even to have prevented the innovations since worried about their wealth. If we look at Balkan prehistory from the fourth millennium cal BC as a history of changing standards of mobility, it is very possible that in fact people at subsistence level were the ones who resettled the tells in the south Balkans while the wealthier continued their pastoral economic pattern. This may explain some of the paradoxes like the huge difference in the thickness of the cultural layers between Yunatsite and Dubene-Sarovka site, for instance. While at Yunatsite developed typical agricultural community with stockbreeding only as a secondary economic activity, the population of Dubene-Sarovka were semimobile who continued their style of life and left thinner cultural layers because the community at the village was also involved in a pastoral economic patterns, including trade. Logically, the wealth and connectivity resulted in extensive contacts including long-distance trade not only in Anatolia (see e.g. Bass, 1966), but also of the Balkans and Troy, well documented in the Dubene-Balinov Gorun treasure, for instance (Nikolova, online). The axe of

The variety of grave goods relates directly to the problem of secure social status. Although it is accepted that all grave good were places for the “other worlds” it is possible, the material culture to have complimented the grave as a sign of higher secure status. It is one more layer in the ambiguity of the interpretation of the grave. Wealthy person with high secure status may don’t need rich finds, while wealthy person with lower security social status would try to increase the security through material valuable objects. Place in context The case study of Varna cemetery poses generally the problem of social place in context as an important indicator of social status – from the position of the graves (in village, in tumulus, in a specific place in the cemetery) and their location within given complex, to the position of the house, village or the fortress. There are stages of social evolution, respectively of development of the idea of the place as a social marker. The construction of the grave, “the labor expenditure” (Kaizer, 2010: 109), the position of buried individual (see e.g. Ivanova, 2001: 115) could be as important as the health status and

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to an individual of high secure status. The conclusions would be different if disease is documented for this individual since presumably disease changes the status toward lower secure status.

Dubene-Sarovka was made from lead bronze, which was characteristic of the Aegean while the shape connected the Upper Stryama valley with Central Europe (Nikolova, 2002). In other words, the mobile social status, the opportunity for accumulation of wealth and development of upwardly mobile population was a result of a combination of factors and choosing of dynamic economic strategy. There is no single evidence that in Early Bronze Age the typical trade relations had a chain character as Chapman (2008) simplified and deformed the picture for Europe. Some authors even believe in Thrace were developed trade centers like Gulubovo (Leshtakov, 1995) or central places for trade together with other means of communication and alliance maintenance, like Yunatsite (Bailey, 1995: 210). More colorful is the picture of A. Sherratt who pays a special attention of the diachronic transmission of the social status while trade is embedded in the model of “opportunistic fashion for temporary goals) (2001: 201) – see also Gale, 1991 for the Mediterranean region.

CONCLUSIONS The current development of archaeology is at a stage of reevaluation of this discipline as a science. One of the main results is revealing endless pseudoscientific achievements because of inner problems of quality reproduction, or generally of science (see e.g. Feder, 1990; Fagan, 2006; Shermer, 2002; Nikolova, 2011). Then, the advance of archaeology requires not only increasing of critical research of past production, but searching for theories that assist more adequate interactions with cultural reality. Social status is one of the standard topics and a skeleton of any social research. The goal of every newborn is obtaining a high social status in contemporary society. While in past people were oppressed because of hierarchical static social structure, the globalization turned the walls almost of all dictatorships, and through Internet the people connect in a virtual humanistic global society that becomes an ideal for the real life.

The interrelation between male, women and wealth is also of importance for more adequate reconstruction of the past. It is usually accepted that the rich female graves during Early Bronze Age were a result of the ascribed status, in other words females got wealthy clothes and jewelry because of the high status of their husbands (O’Shea, 1996). However, wealth itself is not a criterion of a high social status, it just indicates rich people. As in the modern society, not all rich people really had a leading social position in prehistory. This is very clearly demonstrated in the graves of Pit Grave Culture at GoranSlatina (Early Bronze Age) (Kitov, Panayotov, & Pavlov, 1991), where the buried population had as a community higher than subsistence level life, demonstrated for instance in the popularity of the jewelry. Unfortunately, the skeleton material from Goran-Slatina cemetery was lost before its analysis, then, no physical anthropological characteristics of the buried population exists for correlation with the burial goods. Another cemetery that demonstrates average high living standards is Mokrin (Early Bronze III, later third millennium cal BCE) (Girić, 1971; O’Shea, 1996). Together with married women, it seems the wealth could have been inherited from parents to children and distributed to both genders – males and women.

Studying of social status in prehistory is benefited by the current process of globalization because the contemporary world provides more adequate comparative models and more real sensitivity toward the distant past which was a past without strong influence of the political borders and time of free interactions among close and distant communities. This project has filled a gap in theoretical archaeology as cultural anthropology attempting to expand the understanding of social status and to enrich the concept of social status by destructuring its components and constructing an open model for discussion with criteria that do not have always traces in prehistoric record. However, the goal is not to disable the prehistoric research with the limitation of the prehistoric records (often because of non-satisfying works of archaeologists), but to expand the opportunities for study of social status as a field of analysis of the social mobility of society at different periods of the social evolution.

There are many other instances that show that more detailed analyses of the combination of the different criteria of social status may paint much more colorful picture of social development of prehistoric population than the usual standard type of poor – rich, and low –high status (see e.g. Ames, 2008: 498).

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The combination of criteria would also provide a foundation for determination of the social status type. If there is a grave of a child with documented disease, without inventory, placed on the periphery of tumulus from Early Bronze Age, one would probably infer the child belonged to low secure or even unsecure social status. However, if there is a rich grave of a body without determined health status, one would conclude it belonged

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Lanham, New York, Toronto, Plymouth, UK: AltaMira Press. BAILEY, D.W. (1995) – The interpretation of settlement: an exercise from Bronze Age Thrace. In: L. Nikolova (Ed.), Early Bronze Age settlement patterns in the Balkans (ca. 3500-2000 BC, calibrated dates) (pp. 201-213). Sofia: Prehistory Foundation and Agatho Publishers.

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BASCOM, W.R. (1957) – Social status, wealth and individual differences among the Yoruba. American Anthropologist 53, 4, 1, 490-505. BASS, G.F. (1966) – Ur and Troy. Gold links between two ancient capitals. Expedition, Summer 1966, 2739.

GIRIĆ, M. (1971) – Mokrin. The Early Bronze Age necropolis. Vol. 1. Kikinda & Beograd: Smithsonian Institution, Narodnu muzej, Kikinda & Arheološko društvo Jugoslavije. HETCHER, M. (1987) – Principles of group solidarity. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press. IVANOVA, S. (2001) – Sotsial’naya struktura naseleniya Yamnoj kul’tury Severo-Zapadnogo Prichernomor’ya. Odessa: Druk.

BENOIT-SMULLYAN, E. (1944) – Status, status types, and status interrelations. American Sociological Review 9, 2, 151-161. BURDO, N.B. (2010) – Realisticheskaya plastika Tripol’ya-Kukuten’: sistematizatsiya, tipologiya, interpretatsiya. Stratum Plus 2, 123-167. CHAN, T.W. (Ed.) (2010) – Social status and cultural consumption. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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CHAPMAN, D. (1955) – The home and social status. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. CHAPMAN, J. (1983) – Meaning and illusion in the study of burial in Balkan prehistory. In: A. Poulter (Ed.), Ancient Bulgaria. Papers presented to the International Symposium on the Ancient History and Archaeology of Bulgaria (pp. 1-42). Nottingham: University of Nottingham. Part 1.

KITOV, G., PANAYOTOV, I., & PAVLOV, P. (1991) – Mogilni nekropoli v Loveshkiya kraj. Ranna bronzova epokha (nekropolut Goran-Slatina). Sofia: BAN. LESHTAKOV, K. (1995) – Trade centers from Early Bronze Age III and Middle Bronze Age in upper Thrace. In L. Nikolova (Ed.), Early Bronze Age settlement patterns in the Balkans (ca. 3500-2000 BC, calibrated dates) (pp. 239-287). Sofia: Prehistory Foundation and Agatho Publishers.

CHAPMAN, J. (2008) – Approaches to trade and exchange in earlier prehistory(Late Mesolithic – Early Bronze Age). In: Jones, A. (ed.), Prehistoric Europe. Theory and practice (pp. 333-355). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

MARMOT, M. (2004) – The status syndrome: how social standing affects our health and longevity. New York: Owl Books.

CHAPMAN, J., HIGHAM, T., SLAVCHEV, V., GAYDARSKA, B., & HONCH, N. (2006) – The social context of the emergence, development and abandonment of the Varna cemetery, Bulgaria. European Journal of Archaeology, 9, 2/3, 159183.

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MIROWSKY, J., & ROSS, C.E. (2003) – Education, social status and health. New York: Walter de Gruyter, inc.

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among Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic whites in the United States. New Jersey: New Brunswick.

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SHERMER, M. (Ed.) (2002) – The skeptic encyclopedia of pseudoscience. Altadena, CA: Skeptic society.

NIKOLOVA, L. (online) – Earlier Bronze Age prehistoric gold ornaments in the Balkans. www.iianthropology.org. Retrieved on January 4, 2012.

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O’SHEA, J.M. (1996) – Villages of the Maros: a portrait of an Early Bronze Age society. New York: Plenum.

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PARZINGER, H. (1993) – Studien zur Chronologie und Kulturgeschichte der Jungstein-, Kupfer- und Frühbronzezeit zwischen Karpaten und Mittleren Taurus. Mainz am Rhein: Phillip von Zabern.

WILLIAMS, T.R. (1972) – Introduction to socialization. Human culture transmitted. Saint Louis: The C.V. Mosby Company.

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RASSAMAKIN, J.J. (2004) – Die nordpontische Steppe in der Kupferzeit. 1-2. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern. ROISMAN, G.I., PADRÓN, E., SROUFE, L.A., & EGELAND, B. (2002) – Earned–Secure Attachment Status in Retrospect and Prospect. Child Development, 73, 4, 1204-1219.

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SEO YEON JANG, R. (2009) – Associations of food insecurity, socioeconomic status, and type 2 diabetes

51

“ARMED” FEMALES OF IRON AGE TRANS-URALIAN FOREST-STEPPE: SOCIAL REALITY OR STATUS IDENTITY? Natalia A. BERSENEVA Research fellow of South-Ural Division of Institute of History and Archaeology, Ural Branch of RAN Chelyabinsk [email protected]

Abstract: Female burials with armaments are a trans-cultural phenomenon for the steppe and forest-steppe societies of Iron Age Eurasia. This study concerns the female burials of the Sargat cultural groups (Early Iron Age of the Trans-Urals and Western Siberia). Chronologically, the sites cover the period from the 7th century BC to the 2nd – 3rd centuries AD. These people may be called semi-nomadic and their economy was based on stock-breeding. Female burials with weapons consist on average 18% of all female pit graves. Direct participation some Sargat women in the armed conflicts can be considered proven based on the paleoanthropological data and the contextual analysis of female burials. Nevertheless, the scale of their participation ought to be considered insignificant, since the evidence involves only a very small number of women. The presence of any female regular warrior units is not confirmed of archaeological sources. Judging by the grave goods, “armed women” did not occupy the top of the Sargat hierarchical pyramid. Possibly, their soldiering was more related to individual dispositions and potentialities, but not the certain social position or status of their family. Key words: Trans-Urals and Western Siberia, Early Iron Age, Sargat culture, female burials with armament

an almost flat plain, and while the river network is not of great density, this is an area of large transit rivers: the Ob, Irtysh, Ishim and Tobol. Chronologically, the sites cover the period from the 7th century BC to the 2-3rd centuries AD. Although these people are thought to have been semi-nomadic with an economy based on stock-breeding, the majority of the population inhabited permanent settlements and fortresses. Judging by paleoanthropological observations, the Sargat people, including the women, spent some time on horseback (Razhev 2009).

The burials of women with weapons always look intriguing to investigators. Although such graves can be found possibly for all archaeological periods, a peak of this phenomenon occurs in the early Iron Age of temperate Eurasia. The most attention has been focused on the dramatic evidence of early steppe nomads of Eastern Europe – Scythians, Sauromatians and Sarmatians (Smirnov 1982; Fialko 1991; Guliaev, 2003; Strizhak 2007; Bogachenko, Maksimenko 2008). On the one hand, reports of Herodotus and other ancient authors about Amazons corresponded to these archaeological sites (IV, 114). On the other hand, mass excavations and the huge volume of obtained data stimulated further interest.

Sargat cemeteries consist of burial mounds (kurgans) that are located on high river terraces. They include one or two big kurgans that are surrounded by smaller ones. One or more ditches usually surround the kurgan. Each kurgan contains from one to fifteen burials placed both in the sterile soil and in the mound. There was usually a central (primary) grave in the geometrical center of the kurgan, and the peripheral graves were grouped around it. The primary pits were much larger than those on the periphery and they contained more imposing wooden structures, including large roofed areas. Often the central grave is a paired burial. Cenotaphs are rare in Sargat mortuary practice. Flat grave cemeteries are not found.

Among the forest-steppe kurgan cultures of the TransUrals and Western Siberia, for many reasons, this question was less addressed. Plundering of the Sargat kurgans and lack of anthropological determinations for early excavations did not allow to collect a sufficient data base for investigation of such burials. As a result of intensive archaeological works in 80’s and 90’s of last century, the study of female burials with weaponry finally became possible. This paper has several purposes. The main is contextual analysis of the Sargat female weapon graves. The second is to interpret the “armed women” phenomenon on the basis of analysis of grave goods and spatial localization of burials.

The Sargat mortuary ritual was, in general, stable through time although it varied in details. The deceased was placed in a supine position and was oriented in a northerly direction. Usually pots and offerings of food were placed near the head. Clothing, ornaments and slashing weapons were placed where they would have been worn or used in life: bows were put at the side of the body. The quality and quantity of grave goods as well as energy expenditures for grave construction should all be assumed as attributes. Both shallow pit-graves with minimum grave goods and rich burials containing a great

SOURCES The Iron Age Sargat population occupied the vast area between the Ural Mountains and the Baraba lowlands (the Ural-Siberian forest-steppe zone). Western Siberia is 53

TUMULI GRAVES – STATUS SYMBOL OF THE DEAD IN BRONZE AND IRON AGES IN EUROPE

Figure 1 – Map of the Sargat cemeteries localization. 1 – Rafailovsky; 2 – Sopininsky; 3 – Ol’khovsky; 4 – Krasnogorsky, Krasnogorsky Borok; 5 – Savinovsky; 6 – Tyutrinsky; 7 – Gaevsky-1; 8 – Kokuisky-3; 9 – Abatsky-I; 10 – Abatsky-III; 11 – Okunevsky-II; 12 – Okunevsky-IIIа; 13 – Setkulovo; 14 – Artyn; 15 – Kartashovo-I; 16 – KartashovoII; 17 – Beshaul-III; 18 – Beshaul-II; 19 – Beshaul-IV; 20 – Strizhevo-I; 21 – Strizhevo-II; 22 – Isakovka-I; 23 – IsakovkaIII; 24 – Sidorovka-I; 25 – Saratovo; 26 – Bogdanovo-III; 27 – Bogdanovo-I; 28 – Bogdanovo-II; 29 – Novoobolon’; 30 – Gornaya Bitiya; 31 – Krasnoyarsky; 32 – Kokonovka-I; 33 – Kokonovka-II; Kokonovka-III; 34 – Kalachevka; 35 – Starokarasuk; 36 – Sibsargatka-I; 37 – Chepkul’-9; 38 – Staryi Sad; 39 – Vengerovo-1; 40 – Sopka 2; 41 – Vengerovo 7; 42 – Markovo 1; 43 – Markovo 6; 44 – Markovo 8; 45 – Abramovo-4; 46 – Ust’-Tartas number of gold and silver artifacts have been found in the same cemetery.1

Table 1 – Sargat undisturbed adult burials (with anthropological identification)

There are four main regions of the Sargat sites: Middle Tobol area, Ishim area, Middle Irtysh area and Baraba forest-steppe (Fig. 1). In this study I have analyzed 846 burials of all ages from these regions. The analysis included two stages. Firstly the undisturbed sex/ageidentified adult burials have been selected. In the case of intact burials, the presence or absence of a certain artifact implies its deliberate inclusion or exclusion. Because, regrettably, undisturbed burials within single burial grounds are few, these were pooled. Most are peripheral, as nearly all central graves had been looted. On the more positive side, peripheral burials are individual, which makes it possible to associate artifacts with specific individuals. The second stage included contextual analysis of all female weapon burials.

Males

Females

In total

Middle Irtysh area

47

40

87

Tobol area

7

14

21

Ishym area

8

6

14

Baraba lowland

19

20

39

In total

81

80

161

grave goods preserved. The first two assemblages never coexist, while goods from the neutral category can be found in all three assemblages. The type of assemblage was determined for each burial and then correlated with the sex of the deceased (Lucy 1997, 157). The results of this approach when applied to Sargat artifacts are suggestive. Initially, burials with a “weaponry assemblage” were singled out. All kinds of weapon (for close and distant combat, protection armor) and harness parts were attributed to this assemblage. This category includes graves containing at least one such item. Subsequently, graves containing an “ornament assemblage” containing no less than 20 beads and/or at least one pair of metal adornments were selected. The following category constitutes graves with a neutral set of artifacts that belong neither to the first nor to the second assemblage: ceramic vessels, animal bones, kitchen knives, buckles for attire, solitary decorative pieces, spindle whorls, etc. Clearly, this classification is tentative; the conclusions, however, are suggestive, demonstrating that the deviations are relatively

The Tobol and Ishim samples are very modest because most tombs were robbed. Thus at the first level of this study I analyzed 161 undisturbed burials of biologically sexed adults. S. Lucy (1997) suggested an interesting approach in his study of Anglo-Saxon cemeteries in Yorkshire. Lucy determined four types of assemblages: (1) weapons; (2) jewellery; (3) artifacts that are not attributable to the first two categories including vessels and animal bones; (4) no 1

It is necessary to note that most of the Sargat kurgans were robbed in the 17th-18th centuries AD at the time of the Russian colonization of Siberia. This problem has been exacerbated by ploughing in recent times. Many graves in general are characterized by bad preservation of bone remains and suffer from animal activity.

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N. BERSENEVA: “ARMED” FEMALES OF IRON AGE TRANS-URALIAN FOREST-STEPPE: SOCIAL REALITY OR STATUS IDENTITY?

Table 2 – “Assemblages of artefacts” of Sargat female burials Female burials

“Assemblages of artefacts” “Jewellery”

“Weapon”

“Neutral”

“Without artefacts”

In total (number/%)

Middle Irtysh (number/%)

9 (22.5)

8 (20.0)

21 (52.5)

2 (5.0)

40 (100)

Middle Tobol (number/%)

10 (71.5)

1 (7.1)

2 (14.3)

1 (7.1)

14 (100)

Ishim (number/%)

2 (33.3)

3 (50.0)

1 (16.7)

0

6 (100)

Baraba (number/%)

1 (5.0)

1 (5.0)

16 (80.0)

2 (10.0)

20 (100)

In total (number/%)

22 (27.5)

13 (16.3)

40 (50)

5 (6.2)

80 (100)

old women), and three female graves contained the laths of compound bows and quivers. In the two first cases, the remains belonged to young women (18-25 years old), in last case, a more mature woman (35-40 years old) (Matyutshenko and Tataurova 1997; Pogodin 1989).

insignificant. Graves lacking grave goods formed a separate group. Comparison of the four assemblages with skeletons identified as “female” generated some interesting results (Table 2.).

In the river Ishim area, according to N.P. Matveeva’s publication (1994) there is quite a significant number of female graves with weapons. Laths of bow and arrowheads (from 1 to 19) were found in 8 individual female burials (but both together in only one). In two cases females were buried with daggers. The grave of a female (50-60 years old) which both contained many ornaments (two bracelets, three earrings, ceramic dropshaped pendant and bronze mirror) and weapons (dagger and quiver) was discovered in Abatsky 3 cemetery. Another pit grave of the same cemetery belonged to the young woman 18 years old. Here was found an iron dagger, arrowheads and the great number of glass beads and small gold plaques. Unfortunately, this grave was robbed. Finally, one burial which was identified as female (20-25 years old) included an iron sword, dagger and arrowheads (Abatsky 3).

ANALYSIS From the beginning one needs to say a few words about the weapons found quite often in the burials of Sargat women. In general, these are arrowheads (including quiver sets), horn bow laths and, rarely, daggers but we never find swords or armor in Sargat female burials. In addition, the women were usually accompanied only some elements of armament, for example a single arrowhead or quiver hook. All such cases have been brought into consideration in the first stage of this study. The distribution of artifact “assemblages” within the female burials shows that the "weaponry assemblage" consists on average 16.3% of all intact individual burials (Table 2).

In the river Tobol area, weapons were rarely found in female burials. Arrowheads (from 1 to 10) were discovered in five female burials, two that shared the grave with children. Bow laths in female individual graves were not discovered here. Daggers occurred in two pits: firstly, there is the undisturbed burial of a woman 50−60 years old (along with a quiver) (Krasnogorsky Borok cemetery; Matveyeva 1993). Secondly, in the kurgan cemetery Tyutrinsky, an18 year old female shared the grave along with a child (age unidentified). Among the grave goods were found a dagger, arrowheads, bits and cheek-pieces. Besides, the glass beads and remains of gold embroidery were identified. The burial was looted (Matveyev, Matveyeva 1991). In the central tomb of kurgan 34 (Staro-Lybaevsky-4 cemetery) were buried six females, and grave goods included an iron sword and plaques of protective armor (Matveyeva 2001). However, the burial was heavily destroyed and the bones poorly preserved, thus the reliability of the anthropological identification is uncertain.

However, Table 2 clearly demonstrates the domination of the “neutral assemblage” among female graves of the Middle Irtysh area and Baraba forest-steppe. The “jewellery assemblage” dominates in the Tobol area, whereas in the Ishim region “weaponry” predominates. It is difficult to explain this difference. Eastern and western samples differ markedly in their sizes (see Fig. 1), therefore direct comparison is impossible. Probably, the domination of the “jewellery assemblage” in the Tobol region is related to the nearness to the Sarmatian world, where burials with ornaments prevail among the female graves (Berseneva 2009). The first part of study (analysis of intact burials) allows to unequivocally establish the existence of female burials with weaponry and to determine their proportion of those graves. Let see all female burials with weapons. If including the looted graves, weapon burials consist on average 18% of all female pit graves

In the Baraba sites, weapons are extremely rare in the female burials. Only separate arrowheads (from 1 to 6) were found in two graves (Polosmak 1987, Table I).

In the Middle Irtysh area, two female burials containing daggers have been found (18-20 year old and 50-55 year 55

TUMULI GRAVES – STATUS SYMBOL OF THE DEAD IN BRONZE AND IRON AGES IN EUROPE

(male 40-50 years old) had also a dagger, but in addition a bow and gorytus with arrowheads. Abundant gold ornaments were found with both. According to N. Kradin and his colleagues, in Hunnic cemeteries of Zabaikal’e “weapons are found nearly in 50% of all female burial clusters” (Kradin et al. 2004, 83).

Thus, we can see from 124 Sargat female individual burials (including disturbed ones) there are only 7 grave pits which contained either the complete set of distance weapons or daggers or both. This number is minimal, because many burials are plundered. Consequently, the number of females that were buried with more or less true weaponry is reduced to 5.6%.

Thus, one may conclude that female burials with weapons undoubtedly exist and constitute 10 to 25% in the “kurgan” cultures of the Early Iron Age of Eurasia. Nevertheless to interpret these burials is not easy.

DISCUSSION Female graves with weapons are not exceptional for the steppe/forest-steppe Eurasian world in the Iron Age. The fact that weapons are present in female Scythian burials is beyond doubt. Burial mound 7 at the Novozavedennoye II revealed the remains of a woman, 20-25 years of age accompanied by fragments of sword, spear, axe, battle knife, arrowheads, and horse harness parts. The grave also contained artifacts typical of female burials: two spindle whorls, numerous beads of glass, amber, cornelian and jet (Petrenko et al. 2004, 184-186). According to E.E. Fialko, generally speaking, 25 % of Scythian graves with weapons are female burials (1991, 195).

In the archaeological literature different scenarios have been examined: from the existence of the women’ militarized units to symbolic passing of weaponry to the deceased. It cannot be established that all the goods placed in a grave actually belonged to the deceased woman. Some of these objects may represent offerings made to her ancestors, deceased husbands or relatives, as well as to various deities and spirits (Bogachenko, Maksimenko 2009, 55; Polosmak 2001, 276-277; Strizhak 2007, 75). Also there is about the suggestion that some female identification is due to anthropological errors (Razhev 2009, 46-48). But the main question that still interests scholars is the following: did the women participate in true battle operations and, if so, on what basis: regular or casual?

Data concerning the quantity of “Sauromat” (6th – early 4th centuries BC) women buried with weapons have recently been revised (Strizhak, 2007). As it turns out, the “bellicosity” of early nomad women has been greatly overestimated. Among burials that have been anthropologically identified as female, few contained solitary arrowheads, and a dagger was found in just one burial.

Historians and ethnologists have established the existence of female military units as well as women-warriors and war leaders (Nelson 1997, 139-140; Jones-Bley 2008, 3550; Green 1995). Many peoples had the goddesses of war as well as gods (Green 1995, 28-45).

The Sarmatians were apparently a quite aggressive group, and in Sarmatian female burials sometimes was found some weaponry (Bogachenko, Maksimenko 2009, 4851). In the early Sarmatian sample, burials with weapons (20 out of 176) were diagnosed as female in 11% of cases according to skeletal criteria (Strizhak 2007, 75).

But what can we say about the “armed women” of steppe and forest-steppe Eurasia in the Iron Age? Is that the social reality, the existence of a class of women who directly participated in battle actions or are weapons in the female burials e rather symbols of their vertical status?

Several female burials with weapons have been reported from Pazyryk sites (Early Iron Age, 4th-2nd centuries BC) in the Altai Mountains. The grave of a 16 year old girl at Ak-Alakha-1 contained an iron chekan (battle axe), a dagger, a bow, and a gorytus (kind of quiver) with arrows. Moreover, the girl was dressed in male attire with a fur-coat and pants (Polosmak 2001, 58). According to N.V. Polosmak, this type of burial is not typical, given that Pazyryk women (including those buried in “royal” mounds) were placed in graves dressed in female clothing and the grave good set included jewelry and ceramic vessels only (Ibid. 274-276).

Physical anthropology supports direct participation of and Sarmatian women in the warrior conflicts. Based on the analysis of the Scythian (Middle Don area) anthropological data, M.V. Dobrovol’skaya has suggested that the “Amazons” were women with hormonal imbalance − “manlike”. Serious battle traumas were found on female skeletons more than 40 years old, some of whom had the traces of hyperostosis cranii. The moderate number of such cases is evidence that only a small part of women could be included in the military profession (obligation?) (Dobrovol’skaya 2009, 191). The Sargat collections also have been analyzed. D.I. Razhev divided the deceased into two “morphological types” according to skeletal markers of physical activity. In his opinion, the women of the second morphotype (more active) could “participate in battle units as ‘mounted archers’” (2009, 61, 288).

Grave goods of the female burials following the Pazyryk Bulan-kobinskaya culture of the Altai Mountains also included weapons in 16 cases (13.7%): bow and arrows, daggers and even armor plaques (Matrenin, Tishkin 2005, 163-164). Further to the East, in Tuva (Arzhan 2 burial ground, early Scythian period) the woman 30-35 years old was accompanied by a dagger (Čugunov et al. 2010, 29, Tafel 61). The second deceased in the same grave

There is a symbolic aspect of weapon burials. Clothes and various accessories, including the weapons, create the 56

N. BERSENEVA: “ARMED” FEMALES OF IRON AGE TRANS-URALIAN FOREST-STEPPE: SOCIAL REALITY OR STATUS IDENTITY?

image of a person. The specific appearance is usually used to manifest the social inequality and system of gender distinctions. In the absence of centralized direction and written laws, the behavioural stereotypes, fixed visibly, should be very firm. The huge “royal” mounds are clear evidence of high status in the hierarchy in stockbreeding societies of Eurasia in the Iron Age. In the Sargat case, the luxury goods (glass and metallic pottery, gold ornaments,as a rule the imported things) have been found equally in the graves of males and females. However the most impressive and wealthy Sargat burials (the so-called “golden tombs”) with full set of armaments are identified as male (Pogodin 1990; Matyushenko, Tataurova 1997, 11).2

scarcity of such cases, variants in sex identification and the limited nature of current knowledge a convincing explanation can hardly be supplied. INTERPRETATION On the basis of historical and ethnological data many scholars believe that “male” artifacts in female burials indicate the high social status of the women in question (McHugh 1999; Parker Pearson 1999). In Western Europe, medieval queens were buried in armor and with weapons, which pointed to the high rank of the deceased (McHugh 1999). Scythian female burials with weapons were found in elite kurgans (Petrenko et al. 2004). The Sargat weapon burials can be partly interpreted in a similar way. Certainly, the weapons in male graves marked a vertical status. The most magnificent (so-called “golden”) tombs with full sets of weaponry including the complete set of defensive and offensive weapons are identified as male. On the other hand, male individuals buried with neutral grave goods or without grave goods had burial constructions that are usually quite simple. In short, these are “poor” graves.3

But the placement of armament in the grave does not directly suggest that war was a permanent and principal business of the population that lived in Eurasian steppe and, especially, forest-steppe in the Iron Age. Weapons could be symbols of affiliation to a warrior “caste” or simply to free men and have guaranteed the same place in the afterworld. It is well known that similar ideas existed among many people of Northern Eurasia during the Iron Age and the early Middle Ages. Herodotus reported that fighting was considered the noblest business among the Scythians (Herodotus II, 167). Caesar wrote that Gauls had two main classes: Druids and warriors, the remaining people not having any significance (Cunliff 1997, 107). “Some of the early medieval Scandinavian laws call for free men to keep a set of fighting equipment always with them (even in death)” (Mortensen, 2004, p. 105). Often the weapons in the burials could rather be status symbols, not connected to the ability to fight or the actual experience of fighting (Gilchrist 1997, 47-49; Harke 2004, 203).

According to palaeoanthropological investigations, a relatively small number of cranial traumas is identified for the Sargat people. The index of skull trauma frequency in a group is traditionally interpreted as a specific marker of the aggressiveness of the social atmosphere (Buzhilova, Kamenetsky 2004, 211). D.I. Razhev in his study of Sargat collection (173 skulls) had found 9 injured craniums, 5 of which were with battle lesions (Razhev 2009, 298). Based on his analysis, D.I. Razhev defined the index of battle traumas of the Sargat people as “medium”, typical for those societies which were regularly (but not permanently) drawn into battle actions. However, such a “medium” index (close to the lower limit) of skull traumas is evidence that not all men but only that segment with injuries participated in real battle actions.4

Finally, in all these cultures, there are infrequent male burials with so-called “female” artefacts. In the Sargat kurgan cemeteries, male burials sometimes contained a great quantity of jewelry – glass and stone beads (up to several hundred) and earrings – and not weapons (Matveyeva 1993, 143). Of course, these graves were relatively small in number. Nevertheless, in this respect the Sargat culture is not unique. Similar examples can be found in cemeteries of other archaeological cultures and many ethnographic examples are known as well. Thus, in the Early Sarmatian cemetery Prokhorovka I in the South-Urals was excavated the burial of elderly man (identification of sex and age by L.T. Yablonsky) that was accompanied with bronze mirror, glass beads, spindle whorls and one bronze arrowhead, which was found near the skull (probably, it is an amulet) (Yablonsky, Mesheryakov 2008, 202).

Traces of armed conflicts are fixed on three female skulls from the Sargat kurgans (Razhev 2009, 290-295). These are injuries caused by arrows and slashing weapons. Two of those burials were discovered in the Ishim area and one in the Baraba forest-steppe. In kurgan 1 (Markovo 1 cemetery, Baraba) was excavated the skull of a woman 25-40 years old with the traces of a healing stab wound. Unfortunately, the grave is totally looted; grave goods are not preserved (Polosmak 1987, Table I). In the Ishim area (Kokuisky 3 cemetery), a woman 30-50 years old was buried in a collective tomb along with two men and a child (3 years old). An aperture done by an arrow was

The interpretations such cases suggested include a variety of possibilities from errors in sex diagnosis to ritual “transvestism” (Troitskaya 1987). However, due to the

3 Male burials without any weapons (“neutral assemblage”) exist among Scythian and Sarmatian materials (Bunyatyan 1985; Bersneva 2009, 113). It can be added that in the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon cemeteries up to 50% of all males were buried without weaponry (Lucy 1997, 157162). 4 For comparison, battle traumas are fixed on the 70% skulls of the late Sarmatians. The late Sarmatians, in the opinion of anthropologists, were an extremely aggressive group (Balabanova 2004, 187; Buzhilova, Kamenetsky 2004, 208-211).

2 It is interesting that we can see the same picture in the Scythian world: “… the more wealthy Scythian burial the greater the weapons in it and the weapons are richer and perfect. Thus armors were predominantly found in the aristocratic tombs” (Khazanov 1975, 180). Female and adolescent graves are no exception (Petrenko et al. 2004).

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Maksimenko have concluded that “apparently, armament in a grave cannot be an indicator of high or low status of dead woman” (2009, 54).

found in her cranium. The grave seems undisturbed, but the bones of woman were disarticulated. It is not clear whether she had any grave goods or not (Matveyeva 1994, 105-106). The third burial (Abatsky 3 cemetery), in N.P. Matveyeva’s opinion, belongs to the Kashino culture, not to the Sargat. The skull of this woman (25-35 years old) was artificially deformed; grave goods included two glass beads and an iron knife (Matveyeva 1994, 135).

CONCLUSION Direct participation of some Sargat women in armed conflicts can be considered proven based on the paleoanthropological data and the presence of armament in female burials. At the same time, judging by “complex of archer” in the graves, women could be not only passive victims of violence, but active fighters. Nevertheless, the scale of their participation ought to be considered as insignificant, so the mentioned above evidence concerns only very small part of women. The presence of any female regular warrior units is not confirmed by the archaeological sources. On the other hand, because of the mobile way of life and potentially dangerous situation on the steppe/forest-steppe frontier, the women should wield some weapons according to their possibilities (usually bow and arrow and dagger) to defend themselves, their children and a household as needed. Besides, they were good horsemen (horsewomen?) (Razhev 2009, 280).

Thus, the correlation between battle traumas and weaponry in the female burials is absent. But not all injuries, especially in the soft tissue, are visible on the bones. Beside this, female burials with weapons confirm the high status of women in the stockbreeding societies in the Iron Age, the great degree of their freedom and their comparable social roles with men. As is well known from ethnographical and historical sources, free nomadic women often have high status and great self-sufficiency, but leadership and certain types of decision-making usually belonged to men. However, women could completely substitute for men during their absence (Kradin 2007, 209). But are the female weapon burials most wealthy in terms of other grave goods or labor investment at the same time? Unfortunately, no undisturbed female burials in the Sargat “royal” kurgans remain. Isakovka I, kurgan 3 held a rich female grave 3 (2.25 x 4.3 m, 1.7 m deep). Unfortunately, it was robbed; nevertheless, surviving grave goods allow us to judge its initial wealth. More than 500 small gold clothing (or funeral shroud) ornaments (tiny plaques and beads) were found in the infill of the pit. Dozens of colored glass and stone beads, threads of golden embroidery, fragments of glass vessel and, as well as an iron bit and cheek piece were collected. The bone remains belong to a woman of 35-40 years old. Other burials (kurgan 5 of the same cemetery) were similarly rich (Pogodin 1990). But no weapon traces were found.

It is difficult to comment on the existence of ‘womenwarriors’ even though females were quite often buried with weapons since the overwhelming majority of these artifacts are arrowheads, sometimes only one or two. According to some interpretations these women belonged to warrior clans, and arrowheads may well have been a marker (or sign) of this. The separate arrowheads were usually found in the poor burials and it is hard to regard them as a marker of high status. In the material sense bone arrowheads are not particularly valuable. The separate arrowheads could be used in some burial rites during the interment, which symbolic sense is still not clear. The symbols of high vertical status of woman in terms of grave goods, most probably, are rather luxury goods and rich ornaments than armament. Big mounds and deep pit graves were common status marker for all genders. It seems, that “armed women” did not occupy the top of the Sargat hierarchical pyramid. Possibly, their soldiering was more related to individual dispositions and potentialities, but not the certain social position or status of a family.

In the river Tobol area wealthy female burials did not contained any weapons either. We can see the same situation in the Ishim area, with the one exception: that is the mentioned-above burial where an iron dagger was found along with a mirror, rings, bracelets and golden embroidery. In the Baraba forest-steppe – the eastern periphery of the Sargat world – big mounds are excavated only in the Ust’-Tartas cemetery and they unfortunately were totally robbed. Other investigated cemeteries of this region are very modest in terms of grave goods (Polosmak 1987, Table I).

Acknowledgements I wish to thank the editors for their invitation to publish my paper. I am very grateful to Dr. Karen Rubinson for her comments and correcting my English, and to Leonid Pogodin for the use of his not yet published materials.

In the Scythian elite female burials, as mentioned above, the presence of weaponry is well documented. Concerning of Sarmatian area, judging from publications, the most wealthy female graves did not include weaponry (Kovpanenko 1986; Skvortsov, Skripkin 2008, 98-116), whereas the males of the same status level were always accompanied by weapons (Dvornichenko, FedorovDavydov 1989, 5-13; Yablonsky, Mesheryakov 2007, 5562). Based on the location and grave goods analysis of Sarmatian female weapon burials, Bogachenko and

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FUNERARY MONUMENTS OF THE SCYTHIAN AMAZONS (SOCIAL ASPECT) Elena FIALKO Institute of Archaeology of National Academy of Science of Ukraine, Department of the Archaeology of Early Iron Age [email protected]

Abstract: In the Early Iron Age the territory of modern Ukraine was inhabited by warlike nomads. The archaeological evidence suggests that there were warrior women among the Scythians. The indicators of social status of the Scythians are their funerary monuments. In addition to size, great value had a set of accompanying funeral equipment and the presence of servants. The social differentiation existed in the environment of the Amazons. The funerary monuments indicate that the Amazons were the representatives of the middle class. The ordinary combatants were dominated amongst them, but there were also wealthy women, commanders and free mercenaries. War campaigns have contributed to the increasing of the social differentiation in a military environment. Keywords: Scythians, Amazons, tumuli, social stratification Résumé: Durant l’Âge du Fer le territoire de l’Ukraine moderne était habitée par des tribus guerrières nomades. Les vestiges archéologiques montrent qu’il y avait des femmes guerrières chez les Scythes. Les indicateurs de statut social des Scythes sont leurs monuments funéraires. La taille, mais aussi l’ensemble du matériel funéraire ainsi que la présence de serviteurs avaient une grande valeur. La différenciation sociale existait dans l’environnement des Amazones. Les monuments funéraires indiquent que les Amazones représentaient la classe moyenne. Parmis eux de simples combattants qui constituaient la majorité mais aussi de riches femmes, des commandants et des mercenaires. Les campagnes guerrières ont contribué à l’augmentation de la différenciation sociale dans un environnement militaire. Mots-clés: les Scyths, les Amazones, tumulus, la stratification sociale

level of their internal development was also rather different. It is about settled cultivators of Forest-steppe, Hellenic population, the immigrants from Ionia, who founded cities-colonies on the Black Sea coast, and finally the Iranian-speaking nomads – inhabitants of the steppe zone of Eurasia.

Nomadism as a new socio-cultural phenomenon appears in the vast of Eurasian steppe in frontier of the 2nd-1st centuries BC. One of the main factors of its formation was a natural-climatic one. We have in view a significant cooling and aridization of the steppe. The transition of the population from settled stock-raising and agricultural way of life to cattle breeding provided an opportunity to maximize the using of steppe resources. This, in turn, contributed to the development of the productive forces, the emergence of excessive product and consequently, the growth of the commodity exchange. The economic recovery of nomadic communities facilitated their property and social differentiation. This situation led to permanent armed clashes between various groups of nomads in order to gain new grazing lands for cattle and to conquer the neighboring settled Forest-steppe population. So, in the first centuries of the I millenary BC the vast expanses of steppe and forest-steppe zones of Eurasia occurred the considerable economic and demographic changes. The consequence of these events is the apparition of a new energetic and aggressive population which began to influence social and political processes of their modern society. These Iranian-speaking nomadic communities did not have their own writing. But due to the antique written tradition they were among the first in Eurasia well-known under their own name – Cimmerians, Scythians and Sarmatians.

In the historical periodization of the Early Iron Age in the territory of modern Ukraine as in Eastern Europe in general we distingue several periods. These periods are associated with the names of specific nomadic peoples who had created the original bright and at the same time related cultures. These periods sequentially replaced each other – Cimmerian (9th – middle of the 7th century BC), Scythian (middle of the 7th – beginning of the 3rd BC) and the Sarmatians (end of the 3rd – first half of the 4th century BC). There were the Scythians who left the most prominent mark in the history. Major events of the Scythian history relate to the war, because the nomadic way of life characterizes by aggression and the Scythians were a nation of warriors. Scythian lifestyle, their social organization were completely subordinated to the war, especially in the early stages of their history. Contemporaries described Scythia as the state, where every citizen was horse shooter which means all of them were warriors. Even the women of the Scythian tribes became famous as the great warriors; they represented a significant fraction of the Scythian army and were known in antiquity as the warlike Amazons.

In the early Iron Age three worlds which different by ethnicity, economic structure and way of life coexisted and interacted on the territory of modern Ukraine. The 61

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The evidence of social differentiation of the Scythians society and an indicator of social status of an individual are funerary monuments. The height of a construction and prestigious things are usually taken into account by scientists as the ranking indications in social construction (Мозолевський 1979, Генинг 1984, Бунятян 1985).The precise diagnostic system of identifying the status of the corpse was suggested by G. Kurochkin. He identified 4 key indicators to determine a place of the dead in the social pyramid: 1. laboriousness of a burial structure (a size of an embankment and parameters of the grave), 2. presence and amount of dependents (human sacrifice), 3. the presence and quantity of sacrificial horses, 4. composition (quality and quantity) accompanying inventory (Курочкин, 1980, с.106; 1991, с. 19). Y. Boltryk clarified this system. He suggested as the first and main feature to consider the volume and not the height of the embankment of the kurgan. Because this indicator most objectively reflects the costs of human labor for a construction of a concrete burial object (Болтрик, 2001; Болтрик, Фиалко, 1995).

The base of the Scythe’s economy was nomadic herding. The specificity of this form of economy was affected all spheres of life of mobile warrior horsemen. First of all it concerned housing. According to Herodotus, the Scythians did not build cities, had no fortresses. And their homes were on the carts (Herodotus IV, 46, 127). During the rest or in the case of external threat they put the carts in a circle and made a kind of a fortress-camp with them. In conditions of sedentary life the funeral customs were also specific. Over the graves of the socially significant corpses were poured huge (up to 20 m) earthen hills – kurgans. Often the kurgans stood in the steppe along the trade routes. Kurgan’s construction reached the highest peak in the 4th century BC. Thousands of burial mounds were build at this time. These earthen hills are the evidence of the veneration of the ancestors on the one hand and the rapid growth of the process of property separation on another. Kurgan’s construction was carried out with the strict canons: certain social level were deceased with the exact dimensions of the gravestones facilities. The Scythians perceived death as a transition to another world, where human existence should have continued. Therefore for more comfort the dead was placed in the grave with all his usual things, including horses and servants, which were killed specially for the funeral of the master. The chieftains and brave warriors went to the underworld in a ceremonial robe, usually decorated with gold plates. Large wooden, metallic and ceramic sets of ware, which were imported (mostly from Greece), sets of weapon: a bow with arrows, javelins and spears, axes, armor, which consisted of a metal shell, helmet, greaves, and sword belt but also jewelry made of precious metals were put with them in a tomb. Horses had to transport the corpse to Erebus. That is why the horses were bridled, with the bridles and the saddles often supplemented with wonderful decorations.

In this context we can consider the problem of social appurtenance of Scythian Amazons. Ancient authors left some interesting information about the Amazons. Among other things, some of them have reported that they had thrown up some buildings. For example, Diodorus Siculus in his work “Historical Library” reported that they had worshiped the god of war Ares and Artemis Tavropole, goddess of the hunt (Diodorus II, 46). And with the mining of their campaigns queens of the Amazons built temples for these gods in the cities they established. Relatively to the funeral rite and construction of the Amazons there is practically no information. Only in one case Diodorus Siculus in the narration of the deeds of queen Mirina referred to the fact that the dead tribeswomen of the queen have been buried under three huge kurgans, still called “kurgans of Amazons” (Diodorus III, 54). Unfortunately, the details of ancient tombs have not been preserved. We do not know the temples or their remains of Early Iron Age in the territory of modern Ukraine. Information about the location of three kurgans was not indicated by Diodorus. However this observation is very valuable for us because barrow cemeteries are a characteristic feature of the steppe and forest-steppe landscape. And exactly these hills hid the graves of the Amazons in the steppes of the Northern Pontic Area.

Women except the ceremonial clothing in the another world was supposed to have housework tools: spindles, wooden combs, bronze or iron needles for sewing, iron knives with bone handles, ceramic ware, mirrors and ornaments (colored glass beads, metal earrings, rings, bracelets, neck-ring). It was the same set for children. In addition, there were placed meat dishes and beverages in vessels and bowls of different shapes in all the graves. According to the religious world view of the Scythians, other and real worlds were led by supreme deities at the head of the goddess of fire Tabiti.

It is worth to mention here one more message that is contained in the fragment of “Panegyric” of Isocrates (promulgated, apparently in 370 BC). The author noticed that “…Even in times of weakness Hellas the Thracians came in our country with Evmolp, the son of Poseidon and the Scythians – with the Amazons, daughters of Ares, not in the same time, but when the both took control of Europe..” (Isocrates, 68). This information on the one hand proves that the Amazons were perceived as a real danger. And on the other hand captures the relationship the Amazons with the Scythians.

The most famous kurgans of the Scythians aristocracy representatives are Solokha, Chertomlyk, Oguz, Koziol, Verkhny Rogachik, Melgunoivsky, Alexandropolsky, Kul-Oba, Krasnokutsky, Melitopolsky, Berdiansky, Ryzhanovsky kurgans, Gaymanova, Tolstaia, Vishnevaia, Tatianina, Dvugorbaja graves and others. Besides, hundreds of tombs of ordinary retainers and dependents were investigated. Most of the kurgans have been ruthlessly plundered in ancient times. Despite this circumstance, these monuments are an inexhaustible treasure of information.

Relative to total number of Scythian graves with arms those of female warriors form the fourth part (Бунятян

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1985, с.184). That is every fourth warrior in Scythians of Northern Pontic Area was woman. In some cases this figures was much higher. For example, in a group of kurgans of 63 burials 10 belonged to the Amazons. In respect the robberies we can conclude that, at least every sixth dead body in the cemetery was a woman who bore a weapon (Фиалко, 2010). And in the cemetery without mounds Mamaj-Gora (Andrukh, Toschev, 1995), where it was studied 110 male and 135 female burials we can conclude that every tenth warrior was a woman and every eleventh woman wore a weapon (performed military service) (Фиалко, 2010a). So, the number of female burials with weapons in cemeteries was rather uneven. In some cemeteries such burials were represented by whole groups (Elizavetovsky cemetery, cemetery near village Ljubimovka, cemetery of Chertomlyk, cemetery Mamaj Gora). In several groups there were from one to three burials, in other there were not at all.

armor of ordinary warriors was made of leather or felt. From the above it might be assumed that females formed light armed cavalry.

About 130 female warriors’ graves (dated the 5th – middle of the 4th century BC) were found on the territory of European Scythia (Fialko, 2009; 2010). The Amazons’ anthropologic type as well as their funeral ceremonies was identical to those of the rest of Scythian population (Фиалко 1991). Warrior females were ranged from 16 to 60, still half of them were young, aged 25-35.

Archaeological sources bear testimony of a social stratification. Taking into account four main indicators – markers of a social status of a corpse, which were discussed above, the tombs of the Amazons represent several groups. Sets of associated equipment of Scythian Amazons included weapons, vessels, jewelry and toilet accessories. Quantity and quality of objects from most of the graves indicates that the Amazons were predominantly the representative of the middle class.

However female warriors were never buried with their battle horses. And only three graves contained metal fragments of horse bridle (kurgan 447 near village Zhurovka, kurgan 35 near village Bobritsa, kurgan 13 of Steblev cemetery). This situation seems rather strange and it is difficult to explain. According to Hippocrates married Savromatian women mounted horses only in the event of war. Probably after their landing the Azov sea coastal Amazons initially waged war on horsebacks. With time (since the second half of the 5th century BC according to archaeological data) amazons grew less aggressive and independent and participated in Scythian campaigns and defensive battles as needed in detachments of light infantry.

Overview of burial structures, in which armed women were buried, showed the following. The third part of all mound burials was primary, the rest were secondary ones of Bronze era. Barrows were usually 0.2-1.2 m high. For the exception of three barrows, their height accounted 1.6; 2.3 and 2.5 m (kurgan 11 near Ordzhonikidze, kurgan 11 near village L’vovo, kurgan 1 near village Soldatskoje). There were three types of burials. Undercuts dominated (over 60%), less common were catacombs (some 30%) and pits (below 10%). Women were laid extended on their back. The Western orientation of the deceased was prevalent. So, the construction of tombs and burial mounds of armed women is no different from the classical Scythian monuments.

The first group represents by the ordinary combatants. It is the most numerous group. It unites most of the burial complexes of Scythian Amazons. They are characterized by relatively small amounts of kurgans and graves, the usual modest sets of grave goods, the lack of imports and jewelry made from precious metals. All graves were single. But in four of them there were entombed woman and a baby (kurgan 16 in the group of Chertomlyk, kurgan 48 in the group of Shirokoje-2, kurgan 13 near Ordzhonikidze, kurgan 14 near village Vyshetarasovka). All these graves belonged to the representatives of the so-called middle class. Typical examples of the graves of ordinary warriors are: kurgans 5 and 8 near village Novoje, kurgans 14 and 82 near village Vyshetarasovka, kurgan 16 near village Novofilippovka (Fig. 1, 1), kurgan 7 near village Bulgakovo etc.

Grave goods included things typical for women (mirrors, ear-rings, beads, bracelets and spindles made of bronze, iron, silver and gold) as well as arms, the latter was characteristic of men. Combination of those sets identified the Amazons’ grave.

The second group is the middle link (successful warriors). This group includes several Amazons` burials with golden jewelry – ear-rings, finger rings, bracelets, beads, complex composing necklaces, elements of the gold decoration of clothes and expensive import black slip and red-figured pottery (for example kurgans 2 and 3 near village Akimovka, kurgan 16 from cemetery Mamaj Gora, kurgan 45 near village Ljubimovka, kurgan 18 near village L’vovo etc.). All these graves were single too. There is no standard in the configurations of sets of precious goods. The number and variety of objects, the version of their combination are not predictable. For example in several cases headdresses were ornamented with gold plates (kurgans 2 near village Akimovka) and in one case with golden ribbon (kurgan 18 near village

Practically every Amazon had a bow and set of arrows; many of them were armed with javelin or spear (or both). Only three graves contained iron swords (kurgan 6 near village Mar’evka, kurgan 38 near village Ljubimovka, kurgan 22 near village Vinogradnoje). They had neither protective armors nor war belts. And only three graves contained bronze war belts (kurgan 16 near village Novofilippovka, kurgan 11 near village L’vovo, kurgan 423 near village Zhurovka). Inexpressive fragments of iron armor preserved in two graves. (kurgan 30 of Chertomlyk cemetery, kurgan 5 of Mamaj Gora cemetery). The only case of finding a complete protective armor is the grave of a teenage girl in kurgan 5 near village Zelenoje. It is not included that the protective

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Figure 1 – Burial complexes of Scythian Amazons (plans of tombs and sets of things): 1. – kurgan 16 near village Novofilippovka; 2. – kurgan 5 near village Zelenoje

L’vovo). The number of rings, bracelets and even the earrings differs in various sets. These graves indicate a higher social status of the buried women.

The most interesting kurgan of this group is kurgan 2 near village Zelenoje (Fig. 2, 1). The construction is unusual for Northern Pontic Area. The grace has two 64

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Figure 2 – Burial complexes of Scythian Amazons (plans of tombs and sets of things): 1. – kurgan 2 near village Zelenoje; 2. – kurgan 9 near village Staryj Merchik

kurgan 14 near village Vyshetarasovka, kurgan 48 near village Ljubimovka and kurgan 18 near village L’vovo the Amazons were accompanied by poor girls maids. In kurgan 8 near village Volchansk the Amazon was buried with a man-servant. In kurgan 12 in the group Nosaki an Amazon was accompanied by armed female guard.

burial chambers, which are located secularly. Their construction, design and decoration are also close. It was a man in one chamber and a woman in another. The accompanying inventory of both man and woman included arms: quiver sets and spears. The difference is only in its quantity (larger with a man). This element of accompaniment marks the belonging of the both buried to the military class. And a burial ceremony obviously should be emphasized the equal and independent status of both buried. Thus in a composition of a burial inventory presented the imports, expensive jewelry and bronze cauldron. Similar situation was noted in a kurgan 51 of Elizavetovskij cemetery on Don (Копылов, 2008, с.95).

In this group the most interesting is kurgan 5 near village Zelenoje (Fig. 1, 2). Here an armed teenager girl was accompanied by two little Amazons and a man, buried in separate graves. The high status of adolescent emphasizes expensive and imported objects. The high status of adolescent emphasize expensive and imported objects. The fourth group – the commanders (leaders). There are several cases when the objects were put in the grave of an Amazon to mark her special status. Sometimes the

The third group consists of highborn (rich) Amazons. Several Amazons were accompanied by servants. In

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set of equipment included bronze cauldron (kurgan 38 near village Ljubimovka, kurgan 8 near village Volchansk, kurgan 4 near village Velika Znamenka In Ljubimovka the cauldron combined with a set of arrows, two spears, the sword, an imported lekythos and a bronze kyathos, two gold earrings, a golden neck-ring etc. In Volchansk, except the cauldron there were the arrows, an imported vessel, two gold earrings, a gold necklace and a headdress with gold plaques in the grave. In Velika Znamenka, except the cauldron, there were a spear, an amphora, a bronze vessel, a casket, nine gold plaques, a dice etc

1. The burial construction and the rite completely corresponded to those of the classic nomadic Scythians.

In other cases there was the metal neck-ring in the set of equipment (one gold instance – in kurgan 38 near village Ljubimovka and four silver ones – in kurgan 13 near Ordzhonikidze (BOF group), kurgan 38 near village Otradnoje, kurgan 16 from cemetery Mamaj Gora, kurgan 5 near village Bulgakovo). In Otradnoje besides neckring there were the arrows, an imported balsamarion, golden jewelry and a fibula. In Ordzhonikidze besides neck-ring an Amazon had arrows, one gold earring, four gold rings, two silver bracelets, a headdress with gold applications etc. In Bulgakovo a woman had a spear with arrows, a mirror, three gold rings, three wooden caskets, beads and so on.

4. Among the Amazons stands out several social groups: the ordinary combatants, the middle link (successful warriors), highborn (rich) Amazons, the commanders (leaders) and the security guards from the retinue.

In other case (kurgan 38 near village Ljubimovka) an Amazon was buried with a cauldron and a neck-ring. As usual bronze cauldron and metal neck-ring marked the burials of commanders in Scythian lands. Therefore we can consider that presence of bronze cauldron, metal neck-ring and gold jewelry in the sets of funeral equipment of several Amazon’s graves gives us a possibility to discern the commanders of military units in them.

Bibliography

2. On the basis of generally accepted system of the evaluation of burial complexes we can notice the obvious manifestations of social differentiation among the Scythian warriors. 3. The situation in a central burial of a kurgan 2 near Zelenoje village shows us clearly that Scythian Amazons had the same social status as the men.

The difficult political situation in some parts of the Northern Pontic Area in the Scythian period (especially in the 4th century BC) forced women to take up arms. The graves of the Amazons are the evidence of this fact. And the participation in the permanent military campaigns contributed to an increasing of social differentiation in a military environment.

БОЛТРИК, Ю.В. (2001) – Социальная структура Скифии 4 в. до Р.Х., отраженная в погребальных памятниках, in J. Chochorowski (ed.), Kimmerowie. Scytowie. Sarmaci. Księga poświęcona pamięci profesora Tadrusza Sulimirskiego, Kraków, 85-91. БОЛТРИК, Ю.В., ФИАЛКО, Е.Е. (1995) – Могили скіфських царів другої половини 4 ст. до н.е., Археологія, 2, 3-13.

The fifth group – security guards from the retinue. It is clear that the Amazons were the mercenaries, for example for the members of the nobility in the foreststeppe regions. It is caused by the fact, that these territories were periodically attacked by hordes of the nomads. Probably the female warriors from the kurgan 9 near Staryj Merchik village (Fig. 2, 2) and the kurgan 25 near Grishovka village (Kharkiv region) belonged to this kind of professional mercenaries. There were two burials in the kurgan near Grishovka: male and female.

БУНЯТЯН, Е.П. (1985) – Методика социальных реконструкций в археологии. На материале скифских могильников 4-3 вв. до н.э., Киев. ГЕНИНГ, В.Ф. (1984) – Проблема социальной реконструкции общества кочевых скифов 4-3 вв. до н.э. по археологическим данным, in В. Генинг (ed.), Ф. Энгельс и проблемы истории древних обществ, Киев, 124-152. КОПЫЛОВ, В.П. (2008) – Накладка со сценой амазономахии из Елизаветовского могильника, Российская археология, 4, 91-96.

Their position emphasizes the equal status of both warriors. The Amazon from Staryj Merchik was certainly connected with the representative of the local elite, which was buried in this kurgan. Place of the Amazon’s grave in this kurgan allows us to suppose that she was an armed guard. And the presence of the silver jewelry (earrings and a ring) indicates her special status of free mercenary (Фиалко, 2011, с.39). Such an assumption is equitable, given the fact that both of these cemeteries relate to the forest-steppe area of Muravskyj Way (Shliakh), which had already functioned in Scythian times.

КУРОЧКИН, Г.Н. (1980) – Гипотетическая реконструкция погребального обряда скифских царей 8-7 вв. до н.э. и курган Аржан (к проблеме происхождения скифив), in А.И. Мартынов (ed.), Скифо-сибирское культурно-историческое единство, Кемерово, 105-117. КУРОЧКИН, Г.Н. (1991) – “Царские” курганы европейской и азиатской Скифии (сравнительный анализ и возможности исторических реконструкций), in В.М. Массон (ed.), Социогенез и культурогенез в историческом аспекте, СанктПетербург, 18-22.

All of the above allows us to make following conclusions.

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ANDRUKH, S.I., TOSCHEV, G.N. (1995) – MamaiGora, a Tumulary Necropolis of Scythian Age in the Eurasian Area, Tumulary Tombs of Iron Age in the South-Eastern Europe. The 2nd International Symposium of Funerary Archaeology, Tulcea-BrailaSlobozia-Calarasi, 3.

МОЗОЛЕВСЬКИЙ, Б.М. (1979) – Товста Могила, Київ. ФИАЛКО, Е.Е. (1991) – Погребения женщин с оружием у скифов, in Ю. Болтрик (ed.), Курганы степной Скифии, Киев, 4-18. ФИАЛКО, Е.Е. (2010) – Погребения амазонок Чертомлыкского курганного поля, Боспорские исследования, 23, 166-190.

FIALKO, E. (2009) – Amazons’ burials in the lands of Steppe Scythia, Mousaios, XIV, The Necropolises and the Environment (1st mill. BC), 47-59.

ФИАЛКО, Е.Е. (2010а) – Погребения амазонок из могильника Мамай-Гора, Stratum plus Культурная антропология и археология, 3, 187-196.

FIALKO, E. (2010) – Die skythischen Amazonen, in J. Leskovar, M. Reitberger (ed.),Goldener Horizont. 40000 Jahre Nomaden der Ukraine, Linz, 106-111.

ФИАЛКО, Е.Е. (2011) – Нові поховання амазонок Дніпровського Лісостепового Лівобережжя, Наукові записки. Серія: історичні науки, 14, 34-46.

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BETWEEN ETRUSCAN, GREEKS AND CELTS: CHANGEMENT IN THE GOOD GRAVES OF THE LIGURIAN IRON AGE NECROPOLIS Davide DELFINO Instituto Politécnico de Tomar, Instituto Terra e Memória; “Quaternary and Prehistory” Group, Centro de Geociências (uID 73, Fundação Ciência e Técnologia) [email protected]

Abstract: Liguria, since Neolithic time the region had been stayed in the middle of various sea and land way, between Italian peninsula, Provence and northern Italy. In the Iron Age the region is characterized by autonomous ethnic group, Ligurians. In the early Iron Age (VIII-VI cent. BC) is surrounded by various cultural groups, Villanova and Golasecca, in the second Iron Age will create, respectively, some of the pre-Roman peoples in the 'north-central Italy (the Etruscans) or will be the other substrate (Insubres and Boi Celts). During these periods, the Ligurians in their community structures and funerary rituals, retain their identity, while showing, depending on the era, influenced by these people, and the westerns Greeks, with which it interacted until the Romanization Keyworks: Ligures, Iron Age, interaction, identity, grave goods Resumé: La Ligurie, a toujours été dans la préhistoire au milieu des différents chemins de mer et de terre, entre la péninsule italienne, la Provence et l’Italie du Nord. Á l’Age du Fer la région est caractérisé pour un group ethnique défini, les Liguriennes. Dans la Première Age du Fer est contourné pour les groups culturels, Villanova et Golasecca, qui dans la seconde parie de l’Age du Fer formeront ou des peuples préromains (Etrusques) ou la base culturelle pour outres (Celtes Insubriens et Boiennes). Pendant ces périodes, les Liguriennes dans leurs horizons funéraires, préservent une propre identité, amis aussi manifestent, dépendant des périodes, influences pour part de ces peuples préromains, et des Grecques d’ Occident, avec les quels interagissent jusqu’à la romanisation. Mot Clé: Liguriennes, Age du Fer, interaction, identité, kit funeraire

contact with the cultures in the second Iron Age termed the ‘pre-Roman Italy (Golant and Villanova): in spite of their land was poor, however, was in an important strategic position between the Alps and the Mediterranean, the Ligurian which became a major trading or military partner with pre-Roman peoples (Etruscans, Celts Insubres and Boi), both of which already by the Greeks wich since VIII century. BC. had settled in Marseille (Giannattasio 2007, p. 162).

INTRODUCTION Historical Liguria does not coincide exactly with the administrative region today: caught between the Maritime Alps to the west, the Apennines to the north and east of the river Magra, the latter is equivalent to the territory of the ancient Ligurian Sea. The region occupied in the Iron Age by the Ligurian people, also included part of Provence, the foothill areas of the Po Valley and northern Tuscany to Emilia to the River Arno; from west to east the tribes that made up the Ligurian people were Salluvii, Ossibii (Provence), Taurine, Libues, Bagenni, Statielli (Piedmont), Intemeli, Ingauni, Sabazi, Genuates, Langates, Tigulles (Ligurian Sea), Veleiates, Friniates (Western Emilia) and Apuanes (northern Tuscany) (Colonna, 2004, p. 12; Giannattasio 2007, pp. 11-12). (Fig. 1).

To understand the dynamics, the intensity of interaction and the consequences of these on the Ligurian substrate between the first and the second Iron Age, we will proceed to an analysis of the contexts that best explain these phenomena: the burial contexts. In fact, do you have about these, sufficient data for the duration of the Iron Age; however, cover only the area of the maritime Liguria for reasons of space in this publication. We will adopt the tripartite division of the Iron Age of Liguria: the early Iron Age (IX-VII century BC.) Middle Iron Age (VI-V century BC.), and the late Iron Age (IV-II century BC.) (Giannattasio 2007, p. 162).

The formation of ligurian ethnos has a substrate in the Bronze Age (XIII century BC.), evidenced by the material culture (Gambari, Venturino Gambari 2004; Del Lucchese 2004, Delfino 2010; Giannattasio 2007, p. 19), that becomes even more evident between the First and Mid Iron Age (De Marinis 2004): population mainly allocated in small walled at hilltop settlement (castlellari) that control pathways ridge and small territorial units, relatively poor in material culture, economics-based herding and subsistence agriculture.

DATA First Iron Age (IX- VII cent. BC) In the early Iron Age the landscape around the geostrategic Ligurians was as follows: on the mainland had developed a dynamic trade route between the Villanova area and the transalpine culture of Hallstatt, mediated in

Living in a mountainous region, with a few conditions for agriculture, with few natural resources (but sufficient for local needs), the ancient Ligurians were found to be in 69

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Figure 1 – Liguria in the Tyrrhenian Sea; the ancient Liguria with ligurian tribes (De Marinis, Spadea 2004)

Figure 2 – First Iron Age graves. A) Chiavari cemetery; B) female grave in Chiavari cemetery; C) male grave in Chiavari cemetery; D) male grave of Savignone (De Marinis, Spadea 2004)

coastal plains of Liguria. It consists of distinct burial areas, enclosed by fences round or square, which often contained one cist stone and in some cases two (Fig. 2A, B and C). Each cist contains a cremation urn, but it could be reused for more evidence over time (Leonardi, Paltinieri 2004, p. 212). The cemetery has not been fully excavated, but knowing a reasonable extension. According to the materials in the kits, we can distinguish three periods: 1) late VIII or early VII Century. BC, 2) Start the VII Century. BC, 3) Full VII Century. BC.

the foothills of Po valley by Culture Golasecca; in Tyrrenic northern coast of the commercial hegemony of the Greeks of Marseilles made the rich interaction between these groups of the Ligurian coast and the protoetruscan cities the Tuscan coast. With regard to this period, in the Liguria coastline there are two cemeteries that are significant of this geo-strategic situation: Chiavari and Albenga. For this chronologic stage, you do not know, unfortunately, settlements on the Ligurian coastal territory, there are some castellari that have some frequentation steps in the Late/Final Bronze Age (Uscio, Camogli, Zignago) and re-frequented only in the second Iron Age.

– In the first-period distingue, where it is possible, male and female graves only present in the kit metal urns, which are undifferentiated type. An example comes from the grave n.º 43 where you have two cremation distincts in a single cist: one male, with razor-like crescent Sarteano type common in northern and internal Etruria, and one female with three buckles

Chiavari cemetery Discovered and excavated by Nino Lamboglia since 1959 (1963), it is a cremation burial placed on one of the few 70

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“navicella” Este type widespread in northern Italy (Paltrineri 2004, p. 250). At this chronological stage, including imported materials, are noted in the tomb n.º 9, like bucchero amphora decorated with pendants (Tyrrhenian area) and a vase with globular body and slip-painted decoration with concentric red painted circles, like geometric style in Italic area (ibid., p. 253).

Other evidences of funerarian status symbol In the eastern part of Liguria, have some statuae-stelae, but no with archaeological context of origin, as found in situations of reuse architecture from the medieval age. Probably depict warriors, judging from who display weapons, are dated at the Iron Age. Examples are:

– In the second period, the import of materials are distinguished from Etruscan Orientalizing area, like the urn of grave n.º 10, lid with plastic zoomorphic (ibid., p. 254).

– The six statuae-stelae of Pieve di Sorano, who seem to have been Eneolithic stelae adapted in the Iron Age to represent a warrior. Of these one (Filetto V) is enough to be able to appreciate the full arming of the warrior: an “antennas” type sword, an rectangular axe and two spears. Just based on the type of “antennas” sword, it is possible to give a representation of the warrior in the VII century. BC (Paribeni 2001, 13). On his chest you can see what remains of an inscription in Etruscan characters, which suggests a funeral finality (Paltinieri, 2004, p. 268).

– Better documented is the third period (ibid.), for which completeness of kit are available with various male and female cremation. These are respectively characterized by iron swords and spearheads bent cusps iron spear, crescent razors and fibulae (graves n.º 60 and n.º 55) and bracelets, buckles, studs and spindle whorls truncated (graves n.º 23 and n.º 61) and rarely with gold jewels (graves n.º 5, 73 and 74A). How to import material, you can see a bowl with bucchero mold of a Greek gem (tomb 55) a kylix bucchero lika southern Etruscan type (tomb n.º 47B) and a Protocorinthian kylix (tomb n.º 60D). For this period can be observe also metallic products (like bracelets “Chiavari” type) and ceramic (urn over painted of the grave n.º 25B, cover with decorative shiny dough local stamp) that are the result of local reworking “exotic” products

– The Filetto I stelae thread reveals the same weapons represented the stelae Sorano V, so it’s also attributable to the VII century. BC (Ibid., p. 269). You can probably think of a funeral function, even in the absence of an inscription, this may be gone disappeared. Middle Iron Age (VI-V cent. BC)

Albenga cemetery

Starting from the VI century BC the geostrategic framework around the Liguria change significantly, as throughout the central Mediterranean: after the battle of Alalia (541 or 535 BC) the Greeks (Phoceans) of Marseille are replaced in the hegemony of the market in the northern Tyrrhenian by the Etruscans (Bernardini, Spanu, Zucca 2000). Throughout the second half of the VII century BC C. and until the beginning of the IV century BC, the Etruscans were the undisputed masters of maritime trade in the northern Tyrrhenian Sea and the land in the Po valley in the direction of Hallstattian Central Europe (Grassi 1991, pp. 14-15; Bandelli, 1988). It was founded in this period the North Etruscan emporium of Genua (Genoa): here is established, at least since 525 BC, a community business or Etruscan or strongly Etruscanized, as evidenced by the language and writing, the funeral rites, the ceremonies and techniques craft (Melli 2004a, p. 288). From the beginning of the IV century BC then another change takes place in the area of northern Italy, which also has an impact on the Ligurian: an invasion by tribes related to the culture of La Tene (De Marinis 1988, p. 237), above all Boi and Insubres, put into crisis Etruscan territorial structure in the Po valley, and so allowing at the Ligurian settled in the Northern Apennines and in northern Tuscany, to resume its political independence, failing territorial control Etruscan (Malnati 2004, p. 361). For the second Iron Age are known in the territory of the maritime Liguria, several hilltop walled settlements (castellari), many new plants and, of these, a substantial number gravitating in the territory of emporium of Genoa (Bernabo Brea 1946; Isetti 1959, 1984 Melli, Gambaro 1999, p. 57-59, Launaro 2007)

Located in western Liguria, on the other side in respect at Chiavari, is regarded as the “Chiavari of the West”. It is a relatively recent discovery, in 2004, and as in the case of Chiavari, excavated in urban context and is located in one of the rare coastal plain of the region: there not was an opportunity to highlight a wide area as in Chiavari, but only 10 tombs were documented. These revealed some similarities with Chiavari, regard to the stone cist containing the urn; but some differences were noted, like the absence of the ballot boxes for urns, and lids for the presence of non-uniformity to hold ashes and equipment, not in full cases in urn. In this case, the objects that accompanied the deceased were always related to gender: weapons made in iron and bronze crescent razors for men, spindle whorls for women. Preliminarily, based on the type of metals in the kits, the necropolis dates from the VII century. BC (Massabò, 2004). Isolated graves Outside of the necropolis contexts, know an isolated grave, anomalous in this region: a chariot tomb at Mount Trabocchetto (Pietra Ligure): discovered in a ravine in 1929, contained numerous pieces of bronze and iron, of which 10 are conserved spearheads and a short sword to Hallstatt-type “antennas”, dating the tomb of the VII century. BC (Odetti 1996, pp. 80-81). The whole context of the tomb, probably inhumation (the only in Ligurian region in the First Iron Age), indicate that it is a ritual typical of Hallstatt culture and, probably, the buried was a personage of high rank, not Ligurian.

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TUMULI GRAVES – STATUS SYMBOL OF THE DEAD IN BRONZE AND IRON AGES IN EUROPE

Figure 3 – Medium and Late Iron Age graves. A) Genoa cemetery; B) Cafaggio cemetery, male grave; C) Cafaggio cemetery, female grave

half of the V century. BC (De Marinis 1988, p. 213-214). In western Liguria is known a likely burial cave, the Cave of Ponte di Vara (Pietra Ligure) (Odetti 1996, pp. 82-83), which was probably part of a kit a bronze helmet shell “Negau” type dating from the late of the V century. BC. (Egg, 1986, pp.. 51-61).

Genoa cemetery (Fig. 3A) Associated to Ligurian- north Etruscan emporium of Genoa, was discovered between 1898 and 1910 and, later, between 1952 and 1960, a large cremation cemetery with grave goods and funerary not typical of Ligurian ritual, dating back to the whole V century BC and the beginning of the IV (Melli 2004b, p. 315; Giannattasio 2007, pp. 112-123), counting a total of 122 graves, such as recognizable 11 female and 12 male. Its publication was more complete is at the time of its discovery (Paribeni 1910). The funeral structures are circular pits dug in the limestone, the grave good reflects Etruscan costumes: in the male graves you have bronze items related at the symposium, the gymnasium and some arms (helmets) (Tomb n.º 10, 84, 112), while in female burials are watch adorned with personal items (Tomb n.º 30). Common to the many male and female burials are krateres, kylikes painted with red figures, black-painted cups with stamped: all of which lead back to the ritual of the symposium, which according to the Etruscan custom (and visible in this cemetery) was extended to the participation of women (Melli 2004b, pp. 309-315). The bronze elements and ceramic production are related to the symposium to Etrurian part of Po valley and Central Etruscan, while the jewelry and other items for female adornment (fibulas “Certosa”, “Sanguisuga” and “composit arc” type and amber jewelry) are more related Golasecca’s area. It was found one tomb like Ligurian rite: urn in stone cist (Giannattasio 2007, p. 114).

Other evidences Although the Middle Iron Age seems to persist the tradition of statue stelae, mostly Eneolithic reused in Iron Age, used as probable grave mark. To strengthen this hypothesis we have the evidence in the necropolis of the II century BC of Filattiera, a reuse of prehistoric statue stelae in funerary context of the Iron age (Paribeni 2004, p. 380). Among the statue stelae, these from Reusa and Bibliolo (which has an inscription in Etruscan characters on the chest) and Zignago (which has an inscription in Etruscan characters): all were found in medieval or modern contexts of reuse and depict warriors with square axe or in the case of Zignago, simply shaped head like “carabiniere hat” and are all dated, especially on a paleographic, not before the VI century. BC (De Marinis, Spadea 2004, pp. 268-270). Late Iron Age (IV- III sec. aC) Cafaggio necropolis (Ameglia) (Fig. 3B and C) In the far eastern Liguria, you know a necropolis with typical Ligurian funerary ritual and structures that reveal careful planning of construction of fences funeral. The necropolis of Cafaggio, probably near an hilltop settlement at the sea coast between Liguria and northern Tuscany, is characterized by 21 structures in dry stone, for the most part squared, home to them with a stone cist cineraria and grave good, while only in two structures, the largest, other lytic cists are huddled outside. A total, the graves, 34 are recognizable as female and 27 as male graves (Giannattasio 2007, p. 154). In all the monuments, the cists have multiple incinerations. The grave good are distinguished by gender: male are characterized by the presence of iron weapons, especially spears and swords

Isolate graves Immediately in the hinterland of the territory of Genoa, since the end of the XIX century were encountered some isolated graves in stone cist with a cinerary urn, typically Ligurian: in Savignone (1884) (Fig. 2D), in Roccatagliata (1889), in Valbrevenna (1934). In the first two graves kit includes a iron sword and a few spears, as well as fibulae “Certosa” type (most prevalent in the Golasecca’s area) dating from the late V century. BC, while the third kit was composed of a plate and a belt to leech fibula, found mainly in the Golasecca’s area and datable to the first

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sheath typical La Tene type, decorated with dragon pair, typical of La Tène art of Waldagesheim phase, or “Continuous-style vegetable” (Kruta 2003, p. 177-118), and defensive armament as bronze helmets with cheekpieces close to the dome types as the Celtic-Italic Montefortino; female burials are characterized by gold jewelry of Etruscan influence, adorned with personal items and elements of Golasecca’s tradition related to domestic work. Common to the grave of the two genders, the impasto pottery urns and lids made of black-glazed bowls decorated with stamped (Durante 1982, 1987). The elements of metal equipment indicate the use of the nercropoli between the end of IV and III cent. BC. (Durante 2004, pp. 404-420). The clear belonging to the La Tene culture of accompanying elements related to males with a status of warriors, while female burials in the grave good is also related to traditions Golasecca’s / Ligurian. It is plausible to think of a group of warriors came as a result of the Celtic invasions of northern Italy in the IV century. BC and implanted in eastern Liguria contracting marriages with native women.

and always without a funerary monument; in central hinterland of Liguria (territory of Ligurian Genuates and Langates) the constant seems to be the cinerary urn not in the stone cist and not in funerary monument without of thye the cemetery gathering; in Cafaggio Pulica (eastern Liguria, territory of Ligurian Apuanes) seems to be the constant funerary urn in the cist with stone funerary monument, which always contains only a cist and sometimes it is home to some of its outer edges. This nuance of the funeral ritual tied to the Ligurian territory coincides with the traditional version given to us, including all those of Greek and Latin writer Livius (XXX, 10.1) (Maras, 2007) of the Ligurian people divided into tribes, but with customs in common. The fact that a given diachronic, being based on data and synchronic contexts often ranging from VIII to III century BC, can be a confirmation that the funeral ritual of Liguria is a testimony of Ligurian ethnos, having lasted for more than five centuries.

Pulica Cemetery

It should be considered in another consistent feature in the funeral ritual of Liguria, which changes over time in the form of objects, but essentially unchanged until Roman domination: the individuals Ligurian males buried with a kit that symbolizes the status of warrior and women individuals with items of equipment which symbolized the status of matron.

Diacronical constant burial element, and intertribal

Also in the territory of eastern Liguria, one can consider the necropolis of Pulica fairly recent discovery (2004). These 5 lytic cists containing cinerary urn and grouped on a hill, like a familiar mound were buried males with the status of warriors, judging by the outfit composed of iron swords, and are dated between the end the IV and early III century BC (Paribeni 2004).

Albeit with different materials during the Iron Age, another important element that characterizes the Ligurian funeral ritual is the introduction of elements of prestige in the grave good that recall the direct or indirect relationship of the deceased, were living, with civilizations around to Liguria: Golasecca, Villanova, Phocians of Marseilles, the Etruscans and Boi and Insubres Celts. Relationships that can be seen in these optics:

Isolated graves The Pegazzano grave show for the late IV or early III century BC a other La Tene component in the territory of Apuanes Ligurians. It is a grave stone cist tombs with two cremation in urn: one female and one male, with this grave good consists of a bronze helmet shell, a spearhead and a iron sword “La Téne” type (Giannattasio 2007, p. 160), indicating the burial of a probably celtic warrior with ritual Ligurian.

– Mercenary service for the northern Etruscan city or Greek colonies orbiting in the Tyrrhenian area, already documented in the battle of Himera in 480 BC (Giannattasio 2007, p. 163);

CONCLUSIONS

– Contraction of marriages with people related to Golasecca and the culture of Villanova and Este;

It is clear that one of the elements that characterizes the Ligurian culture of Iron Age and the ritual burial: cremation urn in stone cist. But in burial you have other different elements

– Role of commercial intermediaries between the Tyrrhenian area and the Po valley and alpine area. For the former, may be indicative of the weapons found in male graves constantly, sometimes associated with elements of a set of Etruscan and Italic direct import (ceramics): This could mean that Ligurian warriors who served in the mercenary for Villanovian and Etruscans first and then Greeks, they were buried with the element that characterized their status (weapons) together with elements linked to the places and peoples with whom they fought (ceramics import). These two elements, iron weapons ceramics import more, it could provide another justification for interpretative hypothesis, the third: the weapons indicate the status of warrior proper, but a free

Common burial elements and littles tribal differences This ligurian burial feature, which is present throughout the Iron Age and throughout the region, however, seems associated with small differences depending on the territory: in Chiavari (Central / Eastern Liguria, the territory of Ligurian Tigulli) is a constant the cinerary urn in stone cist included in a funerary monument, which sometimes contains more cysts; in Albenga (western Liguria, territory of the Ligurian Ingauni) the cremation urn seems to be not always, not always in a stone cist, 73

TUMULI GRAVES – STATUS SYMBOL OF THE DEAD IN BRONZE AND IRON AGES IN EUROPE

varying degrees of difference. In the early Iron Age, the probable tomb of the chariot of Rocca delle Fene shows a typical ritual area Hallstatt (Egg, Pare 1998), but also widely available starting from VII century BC in villanovian central Italy, and in Golasecca (Camerin, 1998). The presence of an “antennas” type sword, clearly from transalpine area, suggests more of a warrior coming from Hallstatt area. The tomb is almost contemporary of the necropolis of Albenga and the most intense period of the necropolis of Chiavari. This could be explained by the coming and death in Liguria coming from a warrior chief from Alpine area, which could be supported by the presence of depictions of “antennas” type swords on some of statue stelae of eastern Liguria, a case that would not insulated. The reasons for this are, however, came subject to different interpretations: military expedition, the contraction of marriage, mercenary.

man (and medium-high social rank) and ceramics import would be the true status symbol indicating that the deceased had the power of business with the Villanova area / Etruscan and Western Greek. To strengthen this hypothesis, might just be the element that imported ceramics are present only in rare cases, while the weapons are a constant. Regarding the latter, the contraction of marriages with women from Golasecca area, Este, and Villanova, are indicative of decorated metal objects found in personal grave good. These are all types of spread in the three respective areas and thus could be objects related to the territory of origin of women buried. This contraction of marriages with neighboring cultures, it would make sense in the context of trade relations with the Ligurian entertained with Goasecca, Villanova, Etruria and Greek Tyrrhenian area, thus being directly related to the phenomenon seen only in the event proposal relating to the funeral male.

In Middle Iron Age, the necropolis of Genoa can be anomalous phenomena (Melli 2004b, p. 315). There are two hipotesis:

Allogenous elements (Fig. 4) – With it we know only the north Etruscan tombs of the community to install its own emporium of Genoa, and the tombs of the possible ligurian community who lived

During the Iron Age there are different manifestations of funeral totally alien to the classical view of Liguria, with

Figure 4 – Example of foreign grave element in Iron Age. A) Orientalizing urn, Chiavari cemetery (First Iron Age); B) Italic geometric ware, Chiavari cemetery (First Iron Age); C) Hallstattian short sword, Rocca delle Fene grave (First Iron Age); D and E) Attic red figures kraters, Genoa cemetery (Medium Iron Age); F) Etruscan schnabelkanne, Genoa cemetery (Medium Iron Age); G) Amber necklace, Genoa cemetery (Medium Iron Age); H) La Téne’s swords, Cafaggio cemetery (Late Iron Age) (De Marinis, Spadea 2004) 74

D. DELFINO: BETWEEN ETRUSCAN, GREEKS AND CELTS: CHANGEMENT IN THE GOOD GRAVES OF THE LIGURIAN IRON AGE NECROPOLIS

CAMERIN, N. (1998) – L’Italia antica. L’Italia settentrionale, In Emiliozzi, A. (ed) Carri da guerra e prinicpi etruschi, Roma: L’Erma di Bretschneider. Catalogo, pp. 33-44. COLONNA, G. (2004) – Dall’ Oceano all’ Adriatico: mito e storia preromana dei Liguri, In De Marinis, R.C., Spadea, G. (eds) I Liguri: un antico popolo europeo tra Alpi e Mediterraneo, Genéve-Milano: Skirá, p. 9-15. Catalogo. DELFINO, D. (2010) – L’etá del Bronzo Media e Recente in Liguria; percorsi tecnologici e culturali, Vila Real: Universodade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro. PhD dissertation. DEL LUCCHESE, A. (2004) – Il Bronzo Medio e il Bronzo Recente in Liguria, In De Marinis, R.C.; Spadea, G. (eds) I Liguri: un antico popolo europeo tra Alpi e Mediterraneo, Genéve-Milano: Skirá, p. 117-121. Catalogo. DE MARINIS, R.C. (1988) – Liguri e Celto- Liguri, In Puglese Carratelli, G. (ed) Italia omnium terrarum alumna, Milano: Libri Scheiwiller, pp. 159-259. DE MARINIS, R.C. (2004) – I Liguri tra VIII e V secolo a.C., In De Marinis, R.C., Spadea, G. (eds) I Liguri: un antico popolo europeo tra Alpi e Mediterraneo, Genéve-Milano: Skirá, p. 197-211. Catalogo. DE MARINIS, R.C., SPADEA, G. (eds) I Liguri: un antico popolo europeo tra Alpi e Mediterraneo, Genéve-Milano: Skirá. Catalogo. DURANTE, A. (1982) – La necropoli di Ameglia, Quaderni del Centro Studi Lunensi, 6-7, La Spezia, p. 25-46. DURANTE, A. (1987) – Corredi tombali con elementi La Téne dal sepolcreto di Ameglia, In Vitali, D. (ed) Celti ed Etruschi in Italia settentrionale dal V secolo a.C. alla romanizzazione, Atti del Colloquio Internazionale, Bologna, pp. 13-22. DURANTE, A. (2004) – Necropoli di Cafaggio, In De Marinis, R.C., Spadea, G. (eds) I Liguri: un antico popolo europeo tra Alpi e Mediterraneo, GenéveMilano: Skirá, p. 404-420. Catalogo. EGG, M. (1986) – Italische helme. Studien zu den alterheisenzeitlitchen Helmen Italiens und der Alpen, I-II, Mainz. EGG M., PARE, C.F.E. (1998) – Il mondo celtico, In Emiliozzi, A. (ed) Carri da guerra e prinicpi etruschi, Roma: L’Erma di Bretschneider. Catalogo, pp. 45-52. GAMBARI, F., VENTURINO GAMBARI, M. (2004) – L’etá del Bronzo Media e Recente in Piemonte, In De Marinis, R.C., Spadea, G. (eds) I Liguri: un antico popolo europeo tra Alpi e Mediterraneo, GenéveMilano: Skirá, p. 123-129. Catalogo. GAMBARO, L. (1999) – La Liguria costiera tra III e I secolo a.C.; una lettura archeologica della romanizzazione, Mantova: Societá Archeologica Padana s.r.l. GIANNATTASIO, B.M. (2007) – I Liguri e la Liguria. Storia e archeologia di un territorio prima della conquista romana, Milano: Longanesi.

with the Etruscans in Genoa has not yet been discovered; – The necropolis is the manifestation funerary cult of the of the whole oppidum-emporium, thus giving the idea that Genoa was an Etruscan enclave in Liguria. Probably the latter hipotesis is to be discarded: Strabo calls Genoa as a “emporium of the Ligurian” (IV, 6, 1-2, V 1.3). Now, if it was an emporium of only Etruscan Ligurian area, Strabo would have attributed to the Etruscans and the Ligurians. Also the only tomb discovered like Ligurian type could be the signal of the 'existence of others. Therefore you can think of Genoa as a commercial city like emporium, where he lived and Genuiates Ligurian with merchants from north Etruscan area. Moreover, the fact that a good number of male burials have weapons in the kit, it may indicate that it was the rich merchants of Liguria, who adopted Etruscan rituals as a status-symbol, while maintaining a native ritual component indicating their role as free men, however. This hypothesis is already proposed in Giannattasio 2007 (p. 122). This can be confirmed by the mixture of Greek production (vessels) and Etruscan (bronze) in the grave good. Finally, in the late Iron Age necropolis of Cafaggio clearly shows two ethnic groups that were buried with the same ritual, Ligurian, but they took to the grave objects characteristic of the respective memberships: Celts and Ligurians. The first are the warriors that have supplied weapons in their latent type, the second-ranking women are likely to medium-high and probably indigenous. The common ritual, funerary urn with stone cist and placed in tombs, typical of the Ligurian Levant from Early Iron Age (Chiavari), could be an indicator of an integration of a group of Celtic warriors in the territory of the Apuanes Ligurians, with probable marriage with local women. This phenomenon may be related to the dynamics of the Celtic invasions in northern Italy, which began in the early IV century BC, but continued until the III century BC: at this juncture, where even small groups of warriors used to do raids to search for new territories, it is possible that one of them has gone up in the Apuan Ligurians territory, probably coming from the Northern Apennines, and is permanently installed and integrated into the local community, while maintaining their status symbols. The presence of Latenians in Apuan territory, is confirmed by the tomb of Pegazzano. Bibliography BANDELLI, G. (1988) – La frontiera settentrionale: l’ondata celtica e il nuovo siistema di alleanze, Storia di Roma, 1, Torino: Einaudi, pp. 505-525. BERNABÓ BREA, L. (1946) – Di una stazione all’aperto nei pressi di Rossiglione e considerazioni sull’ etá del Ferro in Liguria, Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche, 1, pp. 33-67. BERNARDINI, P., SPANU, P.G., ZUCCA, R. (2000) – Mache. La battaglia del mare Sardonio. Studi e ricerche, Cagliari-Oristano. 75

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MASSABÓ, B. (2004) – La necropoli preromana di Albenga, In De Marinis, R.C., Spadea, G. (eds) I Liguri: un antico popolo europeo tra Alpi e Mediterraneo, Genéve-Milano: Skirá, p. 216-217. Catalogo.

GRASSI, M.T. (2001) – I Celti in Italia, Milano: Longanesi. ISETTI, G. (1959) – Un catsellaro dell’ etá del Ferro sopra a Sestri Ponente, Studi Genuensi, 2, pp. 50-58.

MELLI, P. (1984) – Monte Carlo, In Melli, P. (ed) Archeologia in Liguria, scavi e scoperte 1976-81, Genova: Soprintendenza Archeologica della Liguria, pp. 139-140.

KRUTA, V. (2003) – La grande storia dei Celti, Roma: Newton & Compton Editori. LAMBOGLIA, N. (1963) – La necropoli ligure di Chiavari. Studio preliminare, Rivista di Studi Liguri, XXVI, p. 91-220.

MELLI, P. (2004a) – Genova. Dall’approdo del Portofranco all’ emporio dei Liguri, In In De Marinis, R.C., Spadea, G. (eds) I Liguri: un antico popolo europeo tra Alpi e Mediterraneo, Genéve-Milano: Skirá, p. 285-297. Catalogo.

LAUNARO, A. (2007) – Il castellaro di Sestri Ponente e il castellaro di Monte Carlo, In De Marinis, R.C., Spadea, G. (eds) Ancora sui Liguri. Un antico popolo europeo tra le Alpi e il Mediterraneo, Genova: De Ferrari editore, pp. 79-84. Catalogo.

MELLI, P. (2004b) – Genova, la necropoli preromana, In De Marinis, R.C., Spadea, G. (eds) I Liguri: un antico popolo europeo tra Alpi e Mediterraneo, GenéveMilano: Skirá, p. 309-357). Catalogo.

LEONARDI, G., PALTINIERI, S. (2004) – La necropoli di Chiavari, In De Marinis, R.C., Spadea, G. (eds) I Liguri: un antico popolo europeo tra Alpi e Mediterraneo, Genéve-Milano: Skirá, p. 212-216. Catalogo.

ODETTI, G. (1996) – Pietra Ligure e la Val Maremola dalla Preistoria alla Storia, Pietra Ligure: Comune di Pietra Ligure.

MALNATI, L. (2004) – Galli, Liguri Veleiati e Friniati nell’ Emilia Occidentale, In De Marinis, R.C., Spadea, G. (eds) I Liguri: un antico popolo europeo tra Alpi e Mediterraneo, Genéve-Milano: Skirá, p. 361-365. Catalogo.

PALTINIERI, S. (2004) – Schede, IV, In De Marinis, R.C., Spadea, G. (eds) I Liguri: un antico popolo europeo tra Alpi e Mediterraneo, Genéve-Milano: Skirá, p. 246-271. Catalogo. PARIBENI, R. (1910) – Necropoli arcaica rinvenuta nella cittá di Genova, Ausonia, V, pp. 13-55.

MARAS, D.F. (2007) – Fonti della storia dei Liguri, In De Marinis, R.C., Spadea, G. (eds) Ancora sui Liguri. Un antico popolo europeo tra le Alpi e il Mediterraneo, Genova: De Ferrari editore, pp. 17-26. Catalogo.

PARIBENI, E. (2001) – La statua stele Sorano V, In Paribeni, E. (ed) Guerrieri dell’ etá del Ferro, la Spezia, 12-13.

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5TH-4TH C. BC THRACIAN ORPHIC TUMULAR BURIALS IN SLIVEN REGION (SOUTHEASTERN BULGARIA) Diana DIMITROVA National Institute of Archaeology with Museum near Bulgarian Academy of Sciences [email protected]

The archaeological researches of Archaeological Expedition for Tumular researches (TEMP), directed by Dr. Georgi Kitov and Diana Dimitrova and carried over the last years in the territory of Sliven municipality (southeastern Bulgaria), enriched our knowledge on Thracian burial practices and submitted new material proofs for the Orphic region followed by the Thracian society. For 5 seasons a total of 24 tumuli were studied, but only 6 of them were dated earlier than the Roman Age. Two of the embankments had been piled in the 3rd millennium BC and cover graves from the Early and Middle Bronze Age.1

Sirbu 2004, 94),3 since the horse sacrifice is one of the basic elements of the entire ritual structure ensuring Thracian king’s immortality. A large stone pile (w = 5 m, l = 7 m, h = 1-1.20 m) was discovered at 3.70 m under the ground surface and 0.40 m under the ritually laid down horse cranium, almost in Yakimova tumulus geometrical center. It covered a pit (3.60 x 4.90 m), filled in with stones and soil, planked with boards that collapsed into the pit since wooden particles were found in situ. The pit bottom was covered by crushed slate stones although some items were missing in the pit periphery. A Thracian aristocrat/king (?) had been laid down together with grave goods (fig. 2) on the coverage. The following were found in the grave: bones from the cranium, bones from the right hand, fragments from vertebrae and some teeth. This makes us presume that the dead body had been ritually and preliminary dismembered and only part of it was laid down in Yakimova tumulus. Two of the grave goods identify the buried individual as Thracian king (Димитрова 2008а, 222). These are a gold pectoral and a gold signet-ring.

In 5th-4th c. BC Thracian kings or Odryssian nobles had been buried in 3 of the tumuli after their corpses were torn intentionally like the Titans treated the child Zagreus (Фол 1986, 164). King’s role in the cult is closely related to the aristocratic and esoteric doctrine of the Thracian Orphism (Фол 1990, 29). The earliest Orphic burial in Sliven region had been performed in Yakimova tumulus2 (Димитрова 2008а, 221 сл.), located in the lands of the village of Krushare (fig. 1). The tumulus (h = 4 m, diam. = ca. 35 m) is approximately 8 kilometers to the south of the town of Sliven. It had been piled on a considerably flatter prehistoric tumulus and used to be cultivated every year for agriculture purposes.

The pectoral, twice fold preliminary and intentionally, was placed on the thorax (fig. 3). Once the item was straighten out and its initial appearance was restored, it was found out that its lower part is arch-shaped and the upper side of this arch is broken by three consecutive semi-elliptical elements. The pectoral is decorated with geometric and vegetal motifs, arranged as to form some belts. The make is not enough precise. Attachment holes had been driven by hitting from the back side and their outlines are seen on the front side. These are well produced and do not suggest long-time use of the item. Most probably, the pectoral had been manufactured in a hurry, especially for the burial ceremony and had not been used in person’s lifetime. This may explain the careless workmanship and ornament arrangement. The gold is in two layers. The holes give grounds to presume that the pectoral had been front-side down put either on person’s breast-plate or cloth. In terms of composition and shape such pectoral decoration has not been seen on so far known similar items. Regardless the careless make, the pectoral may be specified as unique work of the Thracian art. However, there is some fugitive resemblance between this pectoral and the mid 5th c. BC pectoral from Golyamata tumulus near Duvanlii

Immediately to the south from Yakimova tumulus center, at 3.30 m under surface, a horse cranium, left-side laid down with its jaw pointing to the south, was discovered without accompanying materials in a pit with no specific outlines. Sometimes a horse, or buried horse trappings, replaces king’s self-sacrifice, who is torn and dies symbolically to get reborn later on (Фол 1990, 164) thus ensuring the natural and social circum rotation. A similar example with partial horse buried in Binyova tumulus (Китов 1994, 54; Kitov 1999, 4) near Shipka in the Valley of Thracian Kings (Central Bulgaria) suggests that the ritual used to be widely spread in Odryssians’ lands in the period their state was most flourishing and powerful. Horse burials of entire animals or parts of them (Кузманов 2005, 99) are typical for all lands inhabited by Odryssians, Getai and Triballoi (Кузманов 2005, 98; 1 Excavations directed by Diana Dimitrova – National Institute of Archaeology with Museum near Bulgarian Academy of Sciences – in 2011. 2 Excavations directed by Diana Dimitrova in 2008.

3

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See op. cit. in Кузманов, М. (2005).

TUMULI GRAVES – STATUS SYMBOL OF THE DEAD IN BRONZE AND IRON AGES IN EUROPE

Figure 1 – Map with locations of the villages Krushare and Topolchane (Sliven region). Author: N. Radionov

Figure 3 – Gold pectoral from Yakimova tumulus before restoration. Photo: G. Kitov

(Венедиков, Герасимов 1973, обр. 215).4 Taking in consideration that gold pectorals are not so often met in Thracian burials as well as that the gold was conferred the sacral function of mediator amongst the world’s (Маразов 1994, 9), we may state with great degree of probability that the individual buried in Yakimova tumulus was of kingly origin. The pectoral evidences that the individual had passed through a quality transformation, accessible to few initiated only (Димитрова 2008а, 223).

Figure 2 – The grave pit in Yakimova tumulus. Photo: D. Dimitrova

4

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See op. cit. in Венедиков, Ив.; Герасимов, Т. (1973).

D. DIMITROVA: 5TH-4TH C. BC THRACIAN ORPHIC TUMULAR BURIALS IN SLIVEN REGION (SOUTHEASTERN BULGARIA)

Figure 4 – The grave in Dalakova tumulus. Photo: S. Dimov

color was to imitate such stone vessels (Boardman 1997, 129), which were also not used in the everyday life. The lekythoi, together with the other grave goods, bear the semantics of objects meant for the Afterlife.

The second object from the same grave, confirming individual’s extremely high social position, is a gold signet-ring – agate scarab seal (light yellow carnelian). The figure of a young man, presumably musician playing a lyre and wearing a wreath on his head, is engraved excellently on the gem (Димитрова 2008а, 224). Similar item from inside Thrace was discovered near Chernozemen, Kaloyanovo region (Kisyov 2005, 51 сл.).5 Pursuant to all analogues mentioned there (Kisyov 2005, 54), this type of rings was spread in the entire 5th c. BC, but disappeared after the century expired. Presumably, Yakimova tumulus item might have been received by the Thracian man as a gift for a competition won. However, this neither diminishes the significance of the finding, nor does it downgrade the social rank of the noble individual buried near Krushare.

Based on analysis of the burial ritual and grave goods, we may state that the individual buried in Yakimova tumulus had been a person of extremely high social rank and follower of Orphism. Presumably he used to be an Odryssian dynasty king from the mid 5th c. BC and would remain anonymous for us. Burial of Thracian king from the first quarter of 4th c. BC, dated based on seals of two Thassos amphorae (Китов 2007, 48)6 was excavated in Dalakova tumulus, located in the lands of the village of Topolchane (fig. 1), approximately 10-12 km south-east from Yakimova tumulus. At first sight, a ‘regular’ sumptuous burial with inhumation of noble representative of Odryssian dynasty had been performed in the primitive tomb planked with wooden boards (Димитрова 2010, 221). The head had been detached preliminary and laid down in the area of the pelvis (fig. 4). A finger phalanx with gold signet-ring on it was found at the same place but detached from the hand. A man’s profile (fig. 5) and two Thracian names in dative case ΣΕΥΣΑ ΤΗΡΗΤΟΣ (Китов, Димитрова, Сираков 2008, 246; Китов 2007, 46; Kitov, Dimitrov 2008, 26) are seen on the plate. These are two Thracian names and, having in mind the particular place of the inscription – on a signet-ring and in an extremely rich grave, we may presume that they are also king’s names. Since there are no written data about Thracian ruler from the first quarter of 4th c. BC, whose father was called

The grave goods comprise also: silver and bronze vessels – some of them intentionally and preliminary segmented or ‘killed’ ritually (with hole driven through the body), bimetal armor (iron and bronze) fold intentionally and preliminary, weapons, iron bit and bronze hemstitched front-piece from horse trappings. Style and technological features of the objects date them to the mid 5th c. BC, except for the front-piece, which is earlier and of so far unknown type. The remaining elements of the horse trappings had not been laid down amongst the grave goods. The grave is dated exactly to the mid 5th c. BC based on three red-figure lekythoi (Иванов 1963, 191 сл.) with belts of vegetal and geometrical decoration against white background, presumably manufactured especially for the burial ceremony (Τιβέριος 1996, 18, 45) and not used as personal belongings. The idea of laying on the white 5

6

Excavations directed by Dr. Georgi Kitov – National Institute of Archaeology with Museum near Bulgarian Academy of Sciences – in 2007.

See Kisyov, K. (2005), p. 51 and op. cit. therein.

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Figure 5 – Gold signet-ring from Dalakova tumulus. Photo: S. Dimov

Figure 6 – Gold mask from Dalakova tumulus. Photo: D. Dimitrova

Teres, presumably the signet-ring belonged to unknown para-dynast or Odryssian king, whose name we meet for the first time (Kitov, Dimitrov 2008, 26 sqq). We may state that he was buried after the Orphic ritual – i.e. his dismembering. Now was considered to be a guarantee for his immortality Afterlife (Димитрова 2010, 222). For the purpose, a particular gold object, conditionally called mask by us (fig. 6), had been laid down in his grave. Upon king’s burials the mask is the sign of person’s essential feature, acquired on this world over the mysteries of status transformation (Маразов 2005, 16), or anthropomorphic idea of divinity (Фол 1990, 56). No one, except for the king, would be conferred divine status after his death. Yet taking in consideration the sacral meaning of the metal itself as mediator amongst the worlds and the impersonal characteristic of the king’s institution (Маразов 1994, 6), we may state with great degree of probability that the buried individual is of kingly origin (Димитрова 2011, 48).

situla-hydria. Apart from vessels associated with liquids and king’s feast, also a full set of weapons had been laid down in the grave (silver helmet, armor, spears, arrowheads, swore) in order to emphasize buried person’s function of a warrior, alongside with two horse bits (silver and iron), two gold and silver sets of horse trappings, bronze wash-basins, comprising the mask, clay lekythos with a picture of Nike – the Goddess of Victory (Димитрова 2011, 222). The brilliant interpretation of the scene on the ram’s head rhyton, given by Prof. Marazov (Маразов 2009b, 12 сл.), make associations with Old Greek epos. The formal interpretation of characters cross-refers to the story about the murder of Troyan King Priam (Шмид 1995, 196; Маразов 2009a, 17; Маразов 2009b, 27). It is exactly there we may look for and find out the Thracian link of the characters from the scene. During the war against the Achaeans legendary Thracian kings were Trojans’ allies. In the cultural context of the burial from Dalakova tumulus, Priam from the rhyton scene may be interpreted as incarnation of the buried person, who was also a king (Димитрова 2010, 224). Although the toreutes used characters from Greek literature tradition, here the semantics of the images is different. Presumably the Thracian artist depicted the act of ruler’s dismembering as it was done with person’s dead body (fig. 7). I accept that in the Thracian cultural environment the scene presents king’s ritual murder, after which he would reincarnate with all his parts like in the myth for Zagreus, who was torn into pieces by the Titans (Фол 1986, 165), thus guaranteeing king’s immortality Afterlife and triggering the cycle of society’s development Now.

The buried person had been accompanied to his resting place with lots of the so called grave ‘goods’. The ruler’s body had been laid down on five clay vessels (lekanai) with sumptuous scenes depicted on their lids. The vessels had been open intentionally and arranged picture-side down and, I would say, thus the buried body had been ‘offered’ symbolically on these clay bowls. And this ritual was performed after the head had been detached preliminary from the dead body and laid down ritually in the area of the abdomen, where the cranium was found too (Димитрова 2010, 221). All necessary elements of tableware set of hero’s banquet/king’s feast, known from written sources and pictures on vases and other monuments, had been laid down in the grave – two gold phialae, two silver-gilt rhytons, silver-gilt goblet, three clay amphorae, clay hydria without decoration (manufactured in a local Thracian workshop) as well as bronze oinochoe and

Two graves were excavated in neighboring Taneva tumulus,7 located approximately 500 m to the east from Dalakova tumulus in the lands of the village of 7

80

Excavations directed by Dr. Georgi Kitov in 2007.

D. DIMITROVA: 5TH-4TH C. BC THRACIAN ORPHIC TUMULAR BURIALS IN SLIVEN REGION (SOUTHEASTERN BULGARIA)

Figure 7 – Unfolded scene on rhyton from Dalakova tumulus. Picture: P. Petrov

As per the legend, the child Zagreus – the chthonic hypostasis of the main Thracian cosmic deity, glazed in a mirror (Теодосиев 1990, 65) when the Titans threw the toys to distract him and tear him into seven parts – head, torso, members and phallus. The so called ‘Zagreus’ toys’, used to lure the child, are listed by ‘Orpheus, the Thracian’ in a text of the Christian apologist and philosopher Clement of Alexandria (ca.150 – ca. 215), who wrote in old Greek language (Kern 1963, II 31). These are cone, rhomb (interpreted speculatively as symbol of the Great Mother Goddess, i.e. associated with earthly home), knuckle-bone, mirror, apple, sphere and wool. The cone means a phallus. The rhomb, tied with a string, represents a music instrument that produces loud sounds when it is spun (Конова 2005, 150). The knuckle-bone, besides as a toy, is used for fortune-telling and predictions. The apple, sphere and wool (fleece) are associated with solar (Uranus) principle, i.e. the idea of integrity, completeness and fertility. The cult objects from grave 1 in Taneva tumulus (fig. 9) are evidences of sustainable ancient oral tradition in the spirit of the Thracian Orphism, evidenced also in many graves from present-day Bulgarian lands as well as in many graves from the entire Thracian areal dated from 6th c. BC to AD 2nd c. (Конова 2005, 157). Multiple findings of similar small-size magic objects (Агре, Дичев 2008, 21, цв. табло 1а; Балабанов 1979, 29, обр. 15-17; Гетов 1991, 172 сл., обр. № 48, 52; Димитрова 1982, 121, табло V-4; Димитрова 2003, 80, обр. 5-7; Димитрова 2008b, 81, обр. 4; Китов, Димитрова, Димитрова 2007, 152; Карайотов 1976, 67, обр. 20-21; Катинчарова 2005, 386, обр. № 9-13; Конова 2005, 149; Танкова 2010, 390, обр. 2; Тачева-Хитова 1971, 48; Филов 1934, 138, обр. 165) show that these were widely spread in Thrace as well as the entire society was excited about Orphic mysteries all over the period from the Early Iron Age (Ελευθεράτου 2006,

Figure 8 – Grave No. 1 in Taneva tumulus. Photo: D. Dimitrova Topolchane (fig. 1). In one of them the burial ritual had been performed by cremation outside the embankment. Partly burnt bones from cranium and vertebrae had been collected thoroughly and buried in a clay urn with three bronze rings with engraved images of Artemida Phosphorus, Dionysus and a sphinx, covered by a bronze wash-basin (fig. 8) (Китов 2007, 45; Димитрова 2008b, 80). Thracian aristocrat’s affiliation with warrior’s estate is marked by a bronze three-edge arrowhead. The urn comprised also two fragmented bronze fibulae, one of them of Thracian type (Домарадски 1997, 53, обр. 3151), which dates the grave to the second half of the 4th c. BC. A glass bead with human face of type widely spread in entire eastern Mediterranean (Димитрова 2003, 75, обр. 4)8 confirms this date. Small cult objects had been laid down in the grave (clay beads of different shapes and sizes, rhomb, disc with punched decoration) – the so called ‘Zagreus’ toys’ (Фол 1991, 115). 8

See cat. No. 18 and op. cit. in Димитрова, Д. (2003).

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Figure 9 – Small-size cult objects from Taneva tumulus. Photo: S. Dimov

138)9 to the 3rd c. of the Roman Age (Димитрова 2005, 126, обр. 3; Огненова-Маринова 1984, 210-211, обр. № 378-397).10 The burial had been performed in middle or third quarter of 4th c BC. In grave No. 2 in Taneva tumulus a burial through inhumation had been performed in a pit, located highly in the embankment (fig. 10). There only the lower part of the dead body had been laid down. During the study we have found only bones from pelvis and lower limbs (Димитрова 2008b, 82). There are no fragments from cranium, vertebra and upper limbs. They could not have decayed without leaving any traces. Clay vessels prevail amongst the grave goods – different types of bowls, jugs and one-handle cups with typical shapes for the 4th c BC. The only bronze object is a jug with its handle intentionally and preliminary separated and put in another clay vessel. We exclude the presumption that the handle had been dropped occasionally in the bowl since the vessels had been arranged into each another at some places in the grave. A clay rooster’s-body and horse’s-head rhyton (fig. 11) shows up amongst the grave goods. A relief picture of front-piece, shaped as a large two-edge axe (labrys) is seen on horse’s forehead between the eyes. This wellknown Odryssian king’s insignia (Kitov 1999, 6; Dimitrova 2000, 151) suggests that the individual buried

Figure 10 – Grave No. 2 in Taneva tumulus. Photo: D. Dimitrova

in grave No. 2 used to be Thracian nobleman. Presumably he used to be a para-dynast. Based on two fragmented Thassos amphorae the grave is dated to the middle or third quarter of 4th c BC. The scarce remains of burnt bones in grave No. 1 are not enough to proceed to DNA analysis in order to find out whether there is some connection between both burials in

9

See fig. Nos. 419-425 in Ελευθεράτου, Σ. (2006). 10 See fig. Nos. 378-397 in Огненова-Маринова, Л. (1984).

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D. DIMITROVA: 5TH-4TH C. BC THRACIAN ORPHIC TUMULAR BURIALS IN SLIVEN REGION (SOUTHEASTERN BULGARIA)

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ДИМИТРОВА, Д. (2011) – Златната маска. Наука, 3, с. 44-50. ДИМИТРОВА, Е. (2005) – Гробни могили, светилища и селища от римската епоха (I-IV в.) в Долината на тракийските владетели. Земите на България – люлка на тракийската култура, II, София, с. 125128.

TEMP archaeological researches in 2007 and 2008 in Sliven region provide enough grounds to extend the geographic areal of 5th-4th c. BC Valley of Thracian Kings to the east alongside the upstream of the Tundzha River to the place where the river turns sharply to the south. The existence of the above-mentioned tumular burials was ‘forecasted’ brilliantly yet in 1986 by Prof. Alexander Fol (Фол 1986, 164). They give us reliable material evidences to state that the Odryssian kings of that period had been initiated to and followed the Orphic doctrine. This is also a reliable proof that between the mid 5th to the third quarter of the 4th c. BC the Odryssian aristocracy at the upstream of the Tundzha River abided by the orally transmitted belief in immortality of the soul, in whose foundation lays the self-improvement. The graves we have studied in Sliven region with buried, intentionally dismembered individuals according to the Orphic doctrine, represent material registration of the oral doctrine of the non-literature Thracian society (Fol 1994, 115).

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AGIGHIOL AND PERETU – GRAVES OF GETAE BASILEI (350-300 BC) AT THE LOWER DANUBE Valeriu SÎRBU Museum of Brăila; Institute of Archaeology “V. Pârvan” Bucharest [email protected]

Abstract: The graves of Agighiol and Peretu are, by their tumular constructions and the fittings under, by the age and gender of the deceased, the inhumations of horses and the funerary inventories of precious metals, as well as by the complicated rituals performed, expressive evidence not only of the Getae princes’ conceptions about the “other world”, but those of wealth and luxury at their courts. The inventories include ceremony items and jewelry for humans and horses, drinking vessels for the banquets, most of them made of silver and gold, fighting gear and harness pieces, pottery vessels. Keywords: Northern Thracians, royal graves, art, mythology Résumé: Les tombes d’Agighiol et Peretu sont, par leurs constructions tumulaires et les aménagements en dessous, par l’âge et le genre des décédés, les inhumations de chevaux et le mobilier funéraire consistant en métaux précieux, ainsi que par les rituels compliqués y accomplis, un témoignage expressif non seulement des conceptions que les princes Gètes avaient sur « l’autre monde », mais aussi de l’opulence et le luxe de leurs cours. Le mobilier comprend des pièces de cérémonie et des bijoux pour les hommes et les chevaux, vases à boire pour les festins, la plupart faits en argent et or, équipement de combat et pièces d’harnachement, poterie. Mots-clés: Thraces septentrionaux, tombes royales, art, mythologie

even though it was not completely recovered. We are talking about the ceremonial gear of the basileus, of the princess (helmet, greaves, necklaces, gold and silver earrings) and of the horses (appliqués, bridle bits), plus a set of drinking vessels (silver phialae and goblets) and weaponry (Berciu 1969: 33-76) (Fig. 1).

Belonging to the northern branch of the Thracians, the Getae lived in the territory between the north of the Balkans, the Southern Carpathians, the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniestr River. Written documents and a significant number of monuments and characteristic artifacts are attesting their living in the region throughout the 6th c. BC-1st c. AD.

The helmet (H = 270 mm), made of silver sheet, gilded here and there, the upper part, conical and the cheek pieces fastened; one can remark the rich and varied geometrical, vegetal and animal decoration, mainly the “exophthalmic eyes” on the visor and a rider in armor with the spear in his hand, represented four times on the cheek and nape pieces (Berciu 1969: 39-45, fig. 8-11) (Fig 1/9;3/2).

In the classic period of the Getae civilization (400225/200 BC), the items with figurative representations, almost all of them made of gold or gilded silver, can be grouped in three main categories: a) ceremony items (helmets, greaves, appliqués, necklaces, bracelets, rings etc.), b) vessel sets for feasts (goblets, rhyta, phialae, bowls, mugs etc.), c) appliqués for the horse harnesses (Sîrbu 2006a: 87).

Greave no. 1 (H = 478 mm), made of gilded silver, rendering, in the upper part, the head of a female character, with earrings and a necklace, displays a number of figurative representations, significant for the Getae art and mythology; on the right, a rider with a bow in his right hand, affronted by an ophidian, and, lower, a male character on the throne, keeping a horned bird in his right hand and a decorated drinking horn in the left hand; on the left of the greave, an over dimensioned ophidian affronted to another ophidian with a bird head (Fig. 1/13;3/5).

These types of items have been found in tumuli tombs, hoards, as isolated pieces and, very rarely, in the fortresses. Agighiol Tumulus (350-325 BC). Tumulus (L = 32 m, preserved H = 2 m), with some fitting outs underneath: a) two chambers made of carved stone, without a door between, the dromos to the West; inside, disturbed, a male and a female skeleton; b) a chamber made of noncarved stone, the dromos to the East, with three inhumed horses, rich harnesses; a wooden roof (Berciu 1969: 3538, fig. 7). Although the chambers with the deceased have been plundered, the archaeological excavations of 1931 revealed an abundant funerary inventory.

Greave no. 2 (H = 460 mm), made of gilded silver, rendering a male head in the upper part, with horizontal gilded lines on the face, has a simpler figuration, similar to that on the left part of the greave no. 1, but showing some other elements (Berciu 1969: 46-48, fig. 12-15) (Fig. 1/12; 3/6).

The tomb of Agighiol has one of the richest and most varied funerary inventories known in the Thracian world, 85

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Figure 1 – Inventory of the tumular grave from Agighiol (after Berciu 1969; Kull 1997)

Goblet no. 1 (H = 160 mm), made of silver, displays a socalled “procession of the animals”: a horned bird keeping a fish in the beak and a hare in the claws, followed by a

deer, a composite animal with eight legs and an ibex; face to them, there is another rapacious bird, but much smaller; over it, a frieze with heads of rapacious birds,

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On a burnt oval zone, 6m in diameter, were the inhumed deceased, lying on the back, accompanied by some personal effects (spear head, knife), plus the head and the legs of a horse. In two pits there were three dogs, one of them beheaded, and in another pit, some parts of a bovine. The parts of a ceremonial chariot with four wheels were found in a cell on the ground level, and the rich funerary inventory, in a bronze cauldron, deposited in the mound (Moscalu 1989: 133-135, Abb. 2-3).

and on the bottom, outside, a fabulous animal keeping a wild boar in the claws and a mammal leg in the mouth (Fig. 1/2; 3/4). Goblet no. 2 (H = 165 mm), made of gilded silver, has almost the same decoration that the goblet no. 1, but missing the unicorn bird with fish and hare, the affronted bird, while the animal on the bottom has no mammal leg in the mouth (Berciu 1969: 53-57, fig. 26-38) (Fig. 1/1).

The funerary inventory is composed of various categories of artifacts: a) ceremony pieces made of silver or gilded silver for the deceased (helmet, human head, clothing items and jewelry) or the horses (appliqués, bridle bit), b) weapons (spear head, knives), c) set of vessels for the banquets, made of silver or bronze (phialae, cauldron, aryballos, colander, plate, tube), d) Greek and Getic pottery vessels (Fig. 2; 3/1,3) (Moscalu 1989: 136-190, Taf. 41).

The adornments consists of earrings, pendants, appliqués, necklace made of pearls, gold and silver (Berciu 1969: 49, 51, fig. 16-18) (Fig. 1/23, 28-30, 36-39). There are also several iron and bronze items. Appliqués. 21 silver appliqués decorate the three horses; eight of them are frontal, rendering bears, a griffon and a feline with a hare head, then seven with two or three arms, horse head-shaped, plus six round items (Berciu 1969: 59-68, fig. 41, 43-47) (Fig. 1/14-22, 40-43).

Helmet (H = 258 mm), made of silver sheet with some gilded parts, the upper part, conical and the cheek pieces fastened, and a particular figuration: “exophthalmic” eyes on the visor, a horned bird with a fish in the beak and a hare in the claws on the right cheek piece, an ibex on the left cheek piece, and three deer on the nape piece (Moscalu 1989: 141-144, Abb. 7-8, Taf. 42-45) (Fig. 2/8; 3/1).

The other harness items that were recovered consist of two iron and one silver bridle bits, semicircular rings (Berciu 1969: 58-59, fig. 39-40, 42) (Fig. 1/44-47). The miscellaneous category includes iron cleats and nails, the latter probably from the coffin. The weapons consist of around 100 arrowheads with three ribs, lance heads and heels, a knife, two slingshot stone balls (Berciu 1969: 58-59, 68-70, 74, fig. 18, 49-50) (Fig. 1/24-27).

Male head made of gilded silver (H = 170 mm), curled hair, eyes and eyebrows well rendered, diadem on the forehead and a necklace of amphora-shaped pearls round the neck, with fastening holes on a holder, representing either the deceased or a deity (Moscalu 1989: 144-147, Abb.9, Taf. 46-47) (Fig. 2/5; 3/3).

The excavations revealed, from the feast vessels, five silver phialae, some with geometric or vegetal decoration, one with an inscription in Greek letters (Berciu 1969: 51-53, fig. 20-25) (Fig. 1/3-7).

Appliqués. One has found 50 silver appliqués at the horses harness: one, frontal, representing the head of a fabulous animal, 26 appliqués with four, three or two horse heads whirled rendered, two with griffon head, plus two others with geometric decoration; all these are completed with 19 circular, non-decorated appliqués; there is also an iron bridle bit plated with silver, plus an iron harness buckle (Moscalu 1989: 150-152, Abb. 10, Taf. 54-60) (Fig. 2/26-28; 32-34; 36-40).

The pottery vessels are represented by Thasos amphorae (Fig. 1/10-11) and an Attic skyphos with red figures, but also by hand-modeled Getic vessels (Fig. 1/8) (Berciu 1969: 74-75, fig. 51-54). In our opinion, the helmet, greaves and goblets show the dynast in three moments typical of the Thracian elite’s mythology: hunting (lance in hand), before the investiture (riding and keeping the bow in hand), and after the investiture, with the symbols of power (on the throne, with the unicorn bird in the right hand and the drinking horn in the left); the “animal procession” on the goblets points to the rule of the basileus over the air, land and water by way of the bird, hare and fish, all of it under his commanding gaze, indicated by the “apotropaic” eyes on the helmet (Sîrbu 2008: 271).

The remains of a ceremonial chariot with four wheels are some iron, deformed pieces, some with fire traces; there was also a spear head, also deformed (Moscalu 1989: 138, 141, Abb. 5-6, 17-18, Taf. 62-63) (Fig. 2/43-48). The banquet vessel is formed of various pieces, either for preparing the beverages, or for serving them: a bronze cauldron and a plate, three phialae, an aryballos and a silver colander (Moscalu 1989: 147-150, Abb. 11-14, Taf. 48-53) (Fig. 2/1-4, 7, 9, 13).

TUMULUS OF PERETU (350-325/300 BC) The weapons consist of a lance head, plus a knife (Moscalu 1989: 138, Abb. 4/1, 7-9) (Fig. 2/16-18, 21).

The tumulus (D = 30 m; preserved H = 1.25 – 2 m), has been erected in successive layers of earth, no stone or wood, and the funerary deposits were on the ancient level, in pits or the mound.

The pottery consists of many Getae vessels that can be reconstituted or of just fragments of them (mugs, plates, 87

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Figure 2 – Inventory of the tumular grave from Peretu (after Moscalu 1989; Kull 1997)

jars, truncated vessels (Fig. 2/6, 14, 15) and a fragment from a Thasos amphora (Moscalu 1989:152-154, Abb. 15-16, Taf. 64.).

emphasize the shared features, but also where the similarities end. Funerary fitting outs: They are both tumuli, but there are notable differences regarding their size and way in which they are fitted out. Whereas in Agighiol we have a tumulus with two chambers – one for the dead, one for the horses – plus the dromos, made of cut or uncut stone,

******** We will briefly compare the funerary constructions and inventory found in the two graves in order to 88

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the dead was brought to the grave in the ceremonial chariot, where other sacred acts took place (purifying the area for the dead, inhuming the dogs, burying the chariot and funerary inventory, raising the mound etc. (Moscalu 1989: 131-190).

wooden beams, mud from the lakes and soil from the surroundings (Berciu 1969: 35-39, fig. 1), in Peretu the mound mantle consists of just successive layers of earth, the dead and the horse have been laid on the ancient soil, on an area cleaned and purified through fire, and the rest of the animals and the inventory were placed at the same level as the dead, in pits or in the mantle (Moscalu 1989: 134-135, Abb. 2-3).

Meat offerings. We do not have data on Agighiol, but one has found in a pit in Peretu parts of a bovine and, next to a dog skeleton, several bones from the jawbone of a bovine; we observe here the presence of three iron knives, probably used for sacrificing and cutting the animals (Moscalu 1989: 136-137: Abb. 3/1, 7-8).

The fact that the grave in Agighiol has chambers made of carved stone and a richer inventory could be due to the larger resources of the local dynast, the presence of stone in the area and the fact that it was closer to the Greek colonies (the blocks of limestone with Greek letters even suggest the presence of Greek craftsmen when the fitting outs were erected). The disruption in the funerary rooms of the dead prior to the destruction of 1931 could be the result not only of a robbery in ancient times (Berciu 1969: 36-37), but also of repeated entries in the tomb for certain ritual practices, such as seen in a number of other Thracian graves (Gergova 1996: 130-136), because it is difficult to believe that the robbers would not have taken the valuable items found here later on. The presence of the woman might point to a human sacrifice, as indicated by some written sources and archaeological finds (Sîrbu 2006a:146-150), or to a later addition of the woman, dead from natural causes, in the chamber meant for her.

FUNERARY INVENTORY Whereas, in Agighiol, the funerary inventory was in the rooms for the dead and the horses, in Peretu it was placed in the mantle of the mound, in a bronze cauldron or in a pit (the remains of the chariot), except for a lance head and a knife, found to the right of the dead (Moscalu 1989: 134-135, Abb. 3). a. The ceremony gear in Agighiol consists of a helmet, two greaves, a pearl necklace, all of them made of silver, plus two pendants and a tube made of gold (Fig. 1; 3/2,4-6). In Peretu, it consists of a helmet, a human head, a pearl necklace, all of them made of silver, plus a chariot made of wood and iron (Fig. 2; 3/1,3). It is worth mentioning that not all of the metal parts of the chariot were laid down and that others were warped on purpose.

The imposing construction and the complexity of some fitting outs suggest that the grave was erected while the dynast was still alive, since such a funerary fitting out could not have been made in the short time available after death; this was observed in the case of the other impressive royal Thracian graves (Gergova 1996: 129140; Rousseva 2000: 131-157).

b. Weapons. In Agighiol, this category includes several iron lance heads and heels, about 100 arrowheads with three bronze winglets and two stone slingshot balls. In Peretu, only an iron lance head was found. We need to mention the absence of items representative for war, such as helmets, armor plates, shields and swords, characteristic of almost all graves of Getae dynasts.

On the other hand, whereas the lack of stone at the grave in Peretu could be the consequence of the distance from quarries with this material, the absence of chambers made of wood is more likely to suggest an unexpected death and a hurried burial, since the rich inventory indicates that the community had significant resources.

c. Drinking vessels. At Agighiol, five phialae and two goblets, all made of silver, at Peretu, a bronze cauldron, a plate, three phialae, an aryballos and a colander, all made of silver.

The dead. In Agighiol, a man and a woman were inhumed, laid down in separate chambers, while in Peretu, a man was laid down on the ancient soil, previously purified by fire.

d. The imported pottery consists of several amphorae from Thasos and Attic skyphos in Agighiol, and the fragment of an amphora from Thasos in Peretu, while the Getae one is made up, in Agighiol, of a mug and, in Peretu, of a mug, a cup and a plate (all of them can be reconstituted), plus fragments from jars and bitruncated vessels, all of them Getae.

The company. In Agighiol, three whole horses were laid down in a separate room, mostly likely killed at the time of the burial (one of them had arrows in the body and other arrows were present in that chamber), with the harness items found in the area of use (Berciu 1969: 3839). On the other hand, in Peretu, one has found only bones from the head and members of a horse, close to the dead, and the remains of a ceremonial four-wheel chariot. The systematic excavations in Peretu have revealed many details that suggest that some of the funerary ceremony took place elsewhere, on which occasion some rituals took place, including the consumption of some of the horse and a bovine, plus other food and drinks, as some of the vessels used were broken on the stop. Afterward,

e. Harness items e.1. Bridle bits. In Agighiol, one has identified three bridle bits, two made of iron and one made of silver, and, in Peretu, there is, with certainty, one bridle bit made of iron and plated in silver sheet. e.2. Rings. In Agighiol, there are three “D”-shaped rings, plus a few other items for distributing the belts and, in Peretu, there was only one ring. e.3. Appliqués. Eight frontal appliqués (six bears, a griffon and a feline), seven appliqués with two and

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Figure 3 – Helmet (1) and human head (3) from Peretu, helmet (2), greaves (5-6) and goblet no. 1 (4) from Agighiol

2006a). If these items were placed in graves, then they were meant to have the same meaning in the “afterworld”.

three arms, made of silver, gold and bronze, with animal representations, and six round silver appliqués were found in Agighiol. One frontal appliqué, 30 appliqués with two, three and four arms with animal representations, plus 19 round appliqués, all of them made of silver, were found at Peretu.

The type of funerary fitting out, the animal sacrifices, the rich funerary inventory and the message of the figurative scenes place the graves of Agighiol and Peretu in the class of funerary monuments characteristic to the Thracian dynasts between the Carpathians and the Aegean Sea, such as the finds in Sboryanovo-Sveshtari (Fol et al. 1986; Gergova 1996) or the Kazanluk region (Mikoff 1954; Kitov 2005).

A FEW OBSERVATIONS As one can see, the data from the research of the two graves show a number of similarities and differences.

***** It is obvious that the items in these graves form an unitary set meant to send to the participants to the ceremony a coherent, but symbolic, message that narrated the “story” of the illustrious origin, the acts of bravery and the sovereignty of the dynasts buried there (Sîrbu

A number of items, characteristic to the Getae craftsmen and craftsmanship were discovered at other Thracian populations, such as the greave of Malomirovo-Zlatinitza (Agre 2005:68-75), south of the Balkans, in the Odrysian

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distinguishing decorative compositions, such as the “animal procession”, the unicorn bird, the characters on the throne and the apotropaic eyes. All these items and scenes show that the Getae aristocracy had its own worldview and a desire to stand out from the others, to display an ethnic and social-political identity different from that of other Thracian peoples. Both inscriptions and particular types of items point out to the tight relations that existed between aristocracies of the various peoples.

region, or the greave of Vratsa (Torbov 2005: 134-135, fig. VIII, XXI) and the goblet of Rogozen (Marazov 1996: 220-242), north-eastern Balkans, in the Triballi region. They are, most likely, the outcome of gift exchanges between the Thracian dynasts (Zournatzi 2000: 688-706). In the Sboryanovo-Sveshtari region (approx. 350-250/225 BC), was the most important Getic centre, including a Hellenistic-type city, sacred zones and a number of necropolises with hundreds of tumuli, some of them with mausoleums, frescoes and bas-reliefs (Gergova 1996; Fol et al. 1986; Rousseva 2000:131-154).

When assessing the role played by the figurative representations in the Thracian world, we need to consider that this is a society where writing was used only in exceptional situations, a society where an image was worth a thousand words, and the metaphoric language best expressed a message rooted in mythic beliefs: this ideology could only send its message by means of a consistent iconographic message, meaning the image had an aesthetic role but also sent a message (Sîrbu, Florea 2000: 198).

One noticed that some of the dynasts/aristocrats started building the funerary monuments during their lifetime, because it was impossible for their subjects to erect such tumuli and build such funerary chambers, sometimes with sculpted or painted scenes, in the short interval from the time of death to the burial.

What were the reasons behind these pieces and representations? Who is present in these scenes? On what occasions did they wear these items?

The emergence and development of exceptional toreutics at the Thracians in the 5th-3rd centuries BC show an “artistic will” at the level of the aristocracy, based on the need to display their heroic or divine origin and to manifest their authority and prestige to the contemporaries, but also in the “otherworld”.

The investiture or religious ceremonies, accepting embassies, marriages or the feasts that took place at the courts of the high-ranking aristocracy were the right occasions for displaying the wealth and prestige of the pieces’ bearers. The hierarchy of the aristocratic elite and the consolidation of the institute of royalty, in particular in the 4th century BC, required the creation of ideologies that would legitimate their power and authority, something that transpires in a number of prestige items that allowed them to display their illustrious origin, their wealth and their acts of bravery (Sîrbu 2006a: 156).

Therefore, we can assume that the Thracian aristocracy, very wealthy, created its own ideology, with some features different from the other Thracian peoples, which allows us to state it had a genuine cultural paradigm, present in a number of specific iconographic items and representations. The Thracian art is both a narrative one, because it “tells” a story, and an art of the symbols, because only those familiar with the “codes” could understand the meanings behind the decorative scenes and compositions (Sîrbu, Florea 2000: 203-204).

Therefore, we can imagine these “princes of silver and gold” in ceremonial processions where lavish gear and the scenes decorating them were meant to impress the audience by their opulence and the heroic legacy of their bearers, as well as by the magic powers of the representations, thus securing their authority, prestige and important role in the society (Sîrbu 2006b: 12-41).

That is why it is difficult to identify what is the story, how does it go, who is its audience and why. Careful analysis of the many figurative representations on Getae toreutics – and Thracian toreutics in general – has identified several motives and scenes that set them apart: the rider, male characters on a throne, showing the bow, animal sacrifice, libation scenes, hierogamy, female characters, the apotropaic eyes, “the animal procession”, the unicorn bird-fish-hare scene etc. (Berciu 1969; Venedikov, Gerasimov 1979; Chichikova 1980; Alexandrescu 1983: 45-66; 1984: 85-97; Moscalu 1989: 131-183; Crişan 1993; Venedikov 1996; Petrescu-Dîmboviţa 1996: 171-185; Kull 1997: 200-466; Sîrbu, Florea 2000: 95155; Sîrbu 2004: 29-44; 2005: 89-103; 2006a: 87-97).

The toreutics representations show us that the prestige, personal achievements and the aspiration towards superhuman status achieved by way of heroization rites were the supreme values of the Thracian aristocratic elite. We can state that the archaeological finds stand proof of the existence of a “Getae patrimony” of decorative motives and compositions, based on internal reasons and serving a cause of their own, by means of its own cultural paradigm and having a distinct “voice” in the time of Antiquity (Sîrbu 2006a: 96).

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

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