New Perspectives on the burial customs in Macedonia during the Early Iron Age (original) (raw)
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BURIAL PRACTICES IN THE REGION OF MACEDONIA IN THE BRONZE AGE (3300-1080 BC
BURIAL PRACTICES IN THE REGION OF MACEDONIA, 2018
It is well known that there has been a wide study about funerary practices in Ancient Greece by many scholars. It is a very important source in understanding the ancient Greeks culture, their habits, possible religion beliefs, hierarchical matters and various anthropological issues, such as their development through the ages. In Neolithic assemblages, the evidence has shown a diversity in the manipulation of the deceased . In the region of Macedonia two fundamental burial practices have been noticed. 1. Burials within the settlement which are consisted of simple pit graves with the deceased inhumed in a contacted position. Most of these were a single person burial with minimal grave goods, such as pottery etc. In only a few exceptions the deceased “were disposed of as primary burials in refuse pits without any care”, such were one burial in the region of Thessaloniki and one in Makrigialos . 2. Disarticulated bones within the settlement deposits. This case is of little interest of the archaeologists for they cannot tell whether the bones come from a primary or a secondary burial and it’s difficult to be proven.
master's thesis (IHU), 2020
This dissertation was written as part of the MA in the Classical Archaeology and the Ancient History of Macedonia at the International Hellenic University. The subject matter is based on unpublished grave findings, owned since 1936 by the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, that come from the tumuli necropolis of Pateli (Agios Panteleimon) at Amyntaio in western Macedonia. Part of these objects were found during a small-scale excavation of two cist graves, conducted by Nikos Kotzias, and the rest were turned in to the Archaeological Service by Stefanos Kangas, resident of Pateli. The majority of these kterismata fall into the Early Iron Age period (about 1100-700 BC), and they demonstrate correlations with other sites within and outside Macedonia. This work also portrays an index of the Early Iron Age cemeteries of the regions adjacent to Pateli, and, moreover, an overview of the Pateli necropolis, in order to interconnect the material under study with a series of unpublished excavations conducted at the site. Hopefully, this research yielded some fruitful conclusions regarding the material culture and dating of the grave offerings, but reasonable questions arise concerning the period of use of the cemetery and its connection with the Vergina tumuli necropolis. Finally, a rare, for western Macedonia, assemblage of potters’ marks makes the material even more intriguing. The Early Iron Age or else Dark Age is a very challenging era to deal with as it “floats rather uncomfortably” between the clearly defined limits of the Prehistoric and Classical periods. The study of this era in Macedonia presents additional difficulties, in contrast to southern Greece, due to, on one hand, the insistence on a local ware tradition with various regional diversities, and on the other hand, the paucity of fully studied and published excavational data, specifically regarding western Macedonia. Beyond these concerns, what is of great importance is that, during this transitional period, the foundations for the creation of the historical times of Greece were gradually established. Keywords: Pateli (Agios Panteleimon). Grave findings. Early Iron Age. Macedonia. Cemeteries.
GRAVES WITH ROUND STONE WREATHS FROM THE ROMAN IMPERIAL PERIOD IN EASTERN MACEDONIA
The research has been situated in the region of Eastern Macedonia, on the mountains: Ograzden, Plachkovitsa and Osogovo. The mayor characteristic of these several recently discovered necropolises is that they appear on high altitude, ranging 800 m, up to 1.400 m above sea level. The period in which they are present is taking almost three centuries, from the end of the 1 AD till the end of the 3 AD. The graves are only with cremated deceased, and the cremations were done on the exact place of the burial. The grave pits were framed with wreath of stones, mostly with circular form, but they also appear in ellipsoid or rectangular form. Above them were raised small mounts with diameter of 0,80 m to 10 m, with height of 1 m. The burial inventory is very rich. Mostly there are ceramic vessels done on a pottery wheel, characteristic for the entire Balkan region and wider from the period of the roman domination. We are giving special attention on the pottery done on hand, which is conservative feature of the older traditions of the population from the territory of Macedonia. The presence of the weapons is surprisingly big, especially on the necropolises settled on Ograzden and Plachkovitsa, as well as the ritual of its melting before it was put as a burial offering. Until only six years ago the mountain regions of eastern Macedonia were almost completely unexcavated. There were no or only scarce data for the life in these regions during the ancient period. All known information was based on incomplete research. With the first archaeological excavations in 2001 which were taken in the proximity of the city of Delchevo i.e. on the Osogovo mountain, there were discovered for the first time considerable archaeological remains of settlements and necropolises from the Roman Imperial Period with types of graves as mentioned in the title of this presentation. The scientific interest was intensified on the Plackovica mountain and particularly in 2003 with the systematic excavations on the Ograzden mountain near Novo Selo at the utmost southeast of Macedonia, which resulted in extraordinarily interesting and significant scientific discoveries that enriched and to a great extent changed our knowledge about life during the Roman rule in Eastern Macedonia (Fig.1). With our excavations we have for the first time discovered on the territory of R. Macedonia round stone wreaths from the Roman Imperial Period framing one grave only, which is not necessarily a part of a small mound or together with other graves it is framed into a mound large in size but small in height. The first two necropolises were discovered in the proximity of the villages of Dramche and Bigla. Both of them are at 800m above sea level, on the northeast slopes of the Osogovo mountains. At the site of Chiflik near Dramche, at 10 km northeast of Delchevo we discovered a necropolis comprised of small round tumuli 0.5m high, with a diameter ranging from 4 to 10 meters. This was the first discovery of this type of graves in the Republic of Macedonia. A part of this necropolis was destroyed more than 20 years ago when a road was built. In 2001 and 2002 the remaining of all 21 graves were explored. A mutual characteristics of these tumuli is that they were formed of amorphous river stones heaped on the grave, while the round wreath of each of the graves was formed of large stones. The rite of cremation was employed in all of them. In the middle part of each tumulus there was a shallow hole for the pyre onto which the deceased were burnt together with their clothes, jewelry and other belongings. After the cremation the burnt remains were supplemented with a large number of ceramic vessels, sometimes with glass ones, then coins and weapons (spears and knives) if the deceased was a male (Fig.3), and after that the grave was heaped with stones. Under these tumuli there is, in the most cases, only one burial, but there are several cases where the same grave was used again. The most specific was tumulus No19 (Fig.2), under which 9 graves were found, each 121 electronic version at http://arheologie.ulbsibiu.ro/
New perspectives of the tumuli burials during the Iron Age in the Republic of Macedonia
2019
The Early Iron Age in R. Macedonia (10th to the beginning of the 8th century BC) was a period of unclear and undefined cultural values for these communities which were influenced by the new waves of the Transitional period. Yet, besides these influences, local communities also developed their own specific and characteristic appearances in the material culture. There is the obvious influence of the local Bronze Age culture, mixed with the northern elements of Hallstatt cultures from the western Balkan regions. Some of these elements existed for only a short time during the Transitional period and disappeared leaving no trace of their further development. The elements that were accepted were adapted to the local tastes (and needs) of the Iron Age communities, thus becoming incorporated into and recognizable parts of the local Iron Age culture. All of these elements present specific manifestations of the Early Iron Age culture in R. Macedonia, bringing it closer to the northern and nor...
The attempt to reconstruct the prehistoric past is a complex and multi-layered effort. The deep chronological context, the absence of written sources, the lack of finds, the fragmentation of residential remains highlight the need for the coexistence of combined scientific practices in archaeological documentation. Leading role in this process has the study and analysis of the geographical environment. The geomorphology, wealth-producing sources, water resources, arable land, fauna and flora of an area weigh on the form and development of prehistoric societies. Prehistoric Macedonia International Hellenic University School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Economics Ma in Classical Archaeology and Ancient History of Macedonia Winter semester coursework
Perspectives on Balkan Archaeology, 2020
Northern Greece is a stimulating area to observe cultural contacts. It is both turn toward sea with the Chalcidic peninsula, the Thermaic Gulf, the Pierian coast, as well as toward the northern hinterland with the mountainous passes as well as with the Axios/Vardar and the Strymona Rivers. Contacts between north and south are visible in the prehistoric period, and especially in the Mycenaean period, as well as during the Early Iron Age and the early archaic period with the Greek colonization. Through the modern literature, scholars have given different roles to this specific region: a corridor north/south, a periphery of the Greek world or of the central Balkans. Since few decades, the many excavations and research programs, have shown that this region is the centre of complex cultural relationships between the central Balkans and southern Greece. These contacts are expressed in varied manners depending on communities and spheres of human activities. In this paper I will focus on the Early Iron Age burial customs between the Pindus and southwestern Rhodopes mountains (11th to the end of the 7th century BCE). A geographical approach of the burial customs at a large scale raises many questions about collective identities and contacts between communities. The result of this study varied if we consider in one hand the spatial distribution of the treatments of the deceased, the architecture, and the organisation of the graves, and on the other hand the funerary ideologies visible through the grave goods, as their regional spatial patterning seems to be different.
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