The Giurgiulesti Cemetery in Chronological and Cultural Context os Southeastern and Eastern Europe (original) (raw)
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75 YEAR JUBILEE OF THE INSTITUTE OF ART HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY, 2024
The ancient necropolis of Gorenci near Trebenishta certainly has a special place in the context of Central Balkans archaeology. During several campaigns in the last century, some of the most valuable examples of arts and crafts from the 6th and 5th centuries BCE were discovered. Both older and more recent considerations of this material increasingly confirm the value of the Ohrid area in the dynamic processes of various intercultural relations and transmissions of leading members of society of that period, but also the spread of specific material culture of the narrower and wider region. An exceptional find is certainly Grave 8, which was systematically discussed in previous scientific discourse so that the preserved objects have undergone countless interpretations. However, they were rarely or never connected into a meaningful, coherent entity that represented the grave as a unique, cohesive unit. The present study focuses on the archaeological context of the grave and the analysis of symbolic grave goods, such as golden foils that covered various parts of the deceased's body, silver ceremonial drinking vases, an Illyrian bronze helmet, and a volute krater. Since the comparative analysis and iconographic interpretation of multidimensional visual art depicted on these objects are integral to understanding the archaeological context, their synthesis will revise previous knowledge and offer a new interpretation of the gender, age, and significance of the buried person as well as the burial ritual itself.
This article critically explores the century-long history of research into a particular set of archaeological finds. The 'princely graves' -funerary assemblages dated to the early Iron Age (seventh to fifth centuries BC) containing, among other things, luxurious objects produced in Archaic Greek workshops -are known from various parts of temperate Europe, and were first recorded in the central Balkans region by the end of the nineteenth century. By their very nature, these finds pose several important theoretical and methodological problems, one of them being the need to bridge the divide between the procedures of prehistoric and classical archaeologies. The first attempts to account for these exceptional finds, in Europe as well as in the Balkans, were guided by the culture-historical procedure, typical of the archaeological investigation of the time. During the 1960s New Archaeology brought about the notion of chiefdom as a tool to account for the Iron Age societies. The concept was introduced into research on the central Balkan finds, proving successful in overcoming the shortcomings of the previous explanations, but at the same time creating new ones, encapsulated in the critique of the evolutionary approach. This review of research into the 'princely graves' concludes in proposing several new lines of inquiry, already introduced in the European archaeological theory: issues of group identity and individual actors, and phenomenological approaches to time and space.
This article is a contribution to the ancient architecture and graves of the upper Vardar (Axios) valley. The gold hoard from Tremnik near Negotino in central Macedonia offers a reason once again to open the discussion about the group of gold jewellery and especially the existence of local élites of that period in the wider Vardar valley region. The development in the period between the reign of Philip II of Macedon and the Celtic penetration into southeastern Europe and the Peloponnese, well-known from antique sources and reference to the sanctuary at Delphi in 279 BC, can be recognised through the monumental fortresses and impressive stone-built tombs and their typical grave goods. All told, this evidence permits recognition of the high level of society of the population in the time of Philip II and Alexander III the Great in the area of the Peones, Enchelees-Dassarates and the other tribes of the region and their dependants in the reign of the mighty Macedonian kings. A number of coin hoards dating to the end of important settlements like Kale Kruševica-Bujanovac and Vardarski Rid, and especially the rich jewellery hoard of Tremnik allow us to classify élites in the valley of the Upper Vardar river during the period at the end of the Archaic as well as later in the Classical period, and allow us to identify the first signs of the Celtic incomers in the Hellenistic period.
This article aims to discuss the ways in which the funerary inventories of the 4 th-3 rd centuries BC from the eastern Carpathian Basin, which include tools and utensils used by craftsmen, illustrate their professional identity. In rural societies of the 4 th-3 rd centuries BC from the Carpathian Basin, the social competition can be observed within the funerary domain by analysing the internal organization of the cemeteries in groups of graves. These groups more likely reflect the social organization of local communities in families or clans. The funerary inventories sometimes include panoplies of weapons and other times only sets of female jewellery and costume accessories indicating a specific social and gender identity. In this context, one question concerns the role of tools and utensils used in craftsmanship which were included in funerary inventories. From the archaeological perspective, the social and professional identity of the craftsmen from the eastern Carpathian Basin can be sometimes observed in the funerary inventories during the 4 th-3 rd centuries BC. When the social role of the craftsmen was perceived as important by the community, the descendants aimed to express that in a public manner, by placing tools specific to the respective craft in their grave. In other situations, the craftsmen's identity was ritually expressed through the votive offering of assemblages containing objects specific to their activity. Lastly, the presence of some traces of manufacturing activities in certain contexts can be related to the practising of magical rituals.