Exploring Second Iron Age Landscapes. The Necropolis from Zimnicea, on the Lower Danube (original) (raw)
Related papers
2016
The relationship between the deposition of human bodies in the domestic space and the deposition of isolated human bones and body parts in different contexts is a characteristic of the Late Iron Age north to the Lower Danube. The diversity of deposition practice also appears in the case of the dog skeletons found in the settlements. In the present article, we try to interpret these deposition practices using as a case study some contexts from the Late Iron Age settlement at Bucureşti-Băneasa, Strada Gârlei, in southern Romania (dated between the 2nd and the 1st century BC), investigated between 2008 and 2013. Children skeletons were discovered in C555 and C519A pits. The comparison between the structure of these pits reveals a certain contrast between their “domestic” aspect (similar to the other pits from the same settlement) and the formalism of the children deposition: placing them on the southern edge of the pits, the deposition at a certain moment of the filling, the crouched position on the right side, a certain bipolarity of the orientation of the bodies. This contrast is highlighted more clearly by the deposition of the child from pit C519A, that (also due to the discreet presence of the domestic waste) evokes a certain ceremonial gesture, characteristic of a burial act. Furthermore, a necklace of glass beads and bronze links (probably combined with iron links) builds the funerary identity of the child. In the case of pit C555, the elements with funeral characteristic are included in the continuous stream of the pits’ filling, marked by the uniformity of the its content composition, as well as by the presence of the domestic waste underneath, among and above the human body. The “melting” until blurring of the images that evoke “the domestic” and “the funerary” is highlighted by the presence of a perforated calvaria fragment belonging to an young adult in the filling of pit-house C585. The fragment was treated like an artefact, in the sense that it has been preserved, used and discarded in the pit-house filling similarly to the other disused objects. The same complete-fragment concept, as well as the relationship between the structural character of the deposition (similar to a funeral), and the deposition of the disused objects and consumption waste can be also established in the case of the dog skeletons and of the isolated bones. Although the processing of the faunal material from the whole settlement is in a preliminary stage, a certain opposition relationship between the age of the human skeletons and that of the dog skeletons emerged. On the one hand, the complete human skeletons belong to children, while the only skeleton fragment belongs to an adult. On the other hand, the complete dog skeletons belong to mature or old individuals, while the isolated bones discarded in the filling belong mainly to juveniles. In a wider geographical area, the relationship between the deposition of bodies and the community of domestic waste and the disused objects with which they are associated in the filling of pits often fades the borders between different contexts (habitation, grave, “pit fields”, “places of worship”). The “funerary” and the “domestic” images are transferred from a domain of the social space to another; they are combined in diverse material communities, building distinct meanings of an “everyday domestic life” impregnated by “funerary” and mortuary practices that are incorporated in the “domestic” materiality. The everyday space of habitation is a combination of practices which join to the “domestic” images of its death. The death of houses, workshops, and pits is knitted in certain significant moments with the death of objects, people, and dogs
2016
There are some cemeteries and single burials in the Prut-Dniester region, which are dated since the second half of IX -up to the XII centuries: Alcedar, Ecimăuti, Lucaşouca, Brăneşti, Braneşti XIII, Hansca, Limbari, Căprăria, Calfa. These are mound (Alcedar) and plain (Brăneşti, Limbari, Căprăria, Calfa) necropolises, as well as some single graves at the settlements of Ecimăuti, Braneşti XIII, Lucaşouca, Hansca. Graves with cremations are specific for Alcedar necropolis. There were several burials with cremations found in the plain necropolis of Brăneşti as well. However, the majority of graves at Brăneşti were inhumations. The inhumations are presented in Limbari, Căprăria, and Calfa also. Each of these cemeteries is characterized by bright specific traits of funeral rite. Researchers have very controversial opinions about the cultural attribution of these monuments: "The Old Russian culture", the "group of monuments of Ecimăuti -Alcedar type", "Balkan-Danube culture", "monuments of the contact zone", "the Petruha grup of monuments'', "the Hansca-Răducănen culture", etc. The ethnic attribution is not less controversial -East Romanian or Old Russian usually. It is important to mention, that there is a kind of "the end of history" in the historiography of this topic nowadays. A vicious cycle has been created in the discussion, the believers of different hypothesis do not respond to long-standing arguments of opponents, or even do not notice them.
2015
VORWORT DER HERAUSGEBER Die Reihe "Universitätsforschungen zur prähistorischen Archäologie" soll einem in der jüngeren Vergangenheit entstandenen Bedürfnis Rechnung tragen, nämlich Examensarbeiten und andere Forschungsleistungen vornehmlich jüngerer Wissenschaftler in die Öffentlichkeit zu tragen. Die etablierten Reihen und Zeitschriften des Faches reichen längst nicht mehr aus, die vorhandenen Manuskripte aufzunehmen. Die Universitäten sind deshalb aufgerufen, Abhilfe zu schaffen. Einige von ihnen haben mit den ihnen zur Verfügung stehenden Mitteln unter zumeist tatkräftigem Handanlegen der Autoren die vorliegende Reihe begründet. Thematisch soll darin die ganze Breite des Faches vom Paläolithikum bis zur Archäologie der Neuzeit ihren Platz finden. Ursprünglich hatten sich fünf Universitätsinstitute in Deutschland zur Herausgabe der Reihe zusammengefunden, der Kreis ist inzwischen größer geworden. Er lädt alle interessierten Professoren und Dozenten ein, als Mitherausgeber tätig zu werden und Arbeiten aus ihrem Bereich der Reihe zukommen zu lassen. Für die einzelnen Bände zeichnen jeweils die Autoren und Institute ihrer Herkunft, die im Titel deutlich gekennzeichnet sind, verantwortlich. Sie erstellen Satz, Umbruch und einen Ausdruck. Bei gleicher Anordnung des Umschlages haben die verschiedenen beteiligten Universitäten jeweils eine spezifische Farbe. Finanzierung und Druck erfolgen entweder durch sie selbst oder durch den Verlag Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, der in jedem Fall den Vertrieb der Bände sichert. Herausgeber sind derzeit: Kurt Alt (Mainz) François Bertemes (Halle) Nikolaus Boroffka (Berlin) Peter Breunig (Frankfurt am Main)
Funerary practices during the 6th - 5th centuries BC in Teliţa ‘Celic Dere’, at the Lower Danube
E. Teleaga (Ed.), 2020, Späthallstattzeitliche Funeralkultur an der unteren Donau. Beiträge der Tagung Funeralkultur der Thraker und Skythen des 7. bis 5. Jhs. v.Chr. an der unteren Donau, 2020
Located in the vicinity of the most important ford over the Danube, in its lowest sector, along a road connecting the Northern steppes with the Western Black Sea Greek colonies, the archaeological site at Telița ‘Celic Dere’ (Tulcea County, Romania) advances the opportunity to investigate significant aspects of the transition between the late Hallstatt funerary customs to those of the second Iron Age, against a complex cultural background. Not only did the cemetery reveal a consistent and seemingly uninterrupted sequence of burials, spanning from the 6th to the middle 3rd century BC, which is rather uncommon for the Carpathian-Danube space, but the association with a neighboring and contemporaneous settlement opens the possibility to complete the ancient community picture in a meaningful way. Other issues to which the research of this site may contribute are: the early production of wheel-made grey pottery in the North-Thrace hinterland, the relations between first Greek colonists and communities in the neighboring territories, or the discussion regarding the relation between ‘Scythian-style’ artefacts and actual people movements or interactions.
Musaica, 2017
The practice of re-opening of graves and the removal of grave goods is well-known from large inhumation cemeteries dating to the Early Bronze Age, primarily from the territory of Austria. These events are generally explained by material/economic motivations. Thus, more recently, the re-opening of Bronze Age graves is interpreted within a complex system of a multi-phase mortuary praxis or rite, including temporary burial depositions and post-funerary activities. In this paper I intend to focus on these particular post-funerary activities which transformed the original, primary depositions of inhumation burials dating to the Early Bronze Age recovered from the case-study region of my forthcoming PhD thesis. The closer study region is situated at the confluence of the Danube the Morava River and the Rába River, between 2000-1600 BC, according to the Hungarian terminology, the end of Early Bronze Age and first half of the Middle Bronze Age.
Sirbu, V., Stefan M., Stefan D., Juganaru G., Bochnak T. Proceedings of the 12th International Congress of Thracology, Târgoviște, 2013
Excavated since 1985, the biritual tumuli and flat graves necropolis from Telița-Celic Dere (Tulcea, Romania) has remained known to the scientific public only through general and rather brief presentations, even if the archaeological discoveries made here propose the site as one of the key elements for the comprehension of the cultural processes and ethnic interactions happened at the Lower Danube during the late Hallstatt and early Second Iron Age (6th – 3rd centuries BC). Exhibiting archaeological features relevant for the North-Thracians, but also for various North-Pontic populations, including Scythians, the site could give insight into the specific phenomena that characterized the authority structures existing in Northern Dobroudja in the vicinity of Greek colonies Orgame and Histria. The authors, as members of a new research team engaged in the site since 2006, present for the first time a complete and systematic picture of what is considered to be a typical funerary monument of the necropolis – a tumulus grave – by making reference to its location, structure, ritual and artifacts as to chronology and research methodology. The mound was thoroughly excavated and analyzed by employing a complex set of interdisciplinary methods and techniques: geophysical prospecting with various methods.