CULTURAL IDENTITY OF BARROWS IN EAST SLOVAKIA – XXTH CENTURY INVESTIGATIONS AND PRESENT-DAY PROSPECTIONS (original) (raw)
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Archaeologies: Journal of the World Archaeological Congress, 2024
Late Neolithic long barrows are commonly found throughout Central and Northwestern Europe, within the Funnel Beaker Culture territory. The sites of this Culture are known from Bohemia covering a period between 3900 and 3400 BC. However, long barrows have not been detected in Bohemia for a long time. The main reason is that they are located in areas where they were affected by modern ploughing. A significant contribution to their recognition was the remote sensing of modern fields, especially aerial archaeology. Current research in Bohemia provided new evidence of dozens of long barrows of several types, significantly expanding our knowledge of this phenomenon in the south-eastern margins of its distribution. A new type of long barrow has been identified in Bohemia using remote sensing and current excavation data. The characteristic parameters of the long barrows in Bohemia are an east-west orientation with the ceremonial place in the eastern front and the delineation of the perimeter by a palisade trough or a ditch. The mounds can be divided into at least two structural and chronological forms. The first is the narrow and sometimes extremely long mound with perimeter defined by a palisade trough dating to the 3900–3800 BC. The second type of barrow is enclosed by a trapezoidal ditch. Based on radiocarbon dating, these structures were constructed during the 3700–3600 BC. This type of monument is currently known exclusively from Bohemia.
Tumulus Culture Barrows in the Polish Lowlands. The case of the Cemetery in Smoszew
Tens of barrows of the Tumulus culture create a clearly visible element on the cultural landscape of the south western part of the Polish Lowlands. Paradoxically, the abundance of this category of archaeological source does not broaden our knowledge about the societies that left them behind. The majority of cemeteries were discovered, mapped and excavated mainly in the first half of the 20th c. Hence, the existing plans of sites are usually very schematic and inaccurate. In many cases excavators were careless and they neither recognized nor documented details of unearthed features.
New burial rites at the end of the Linearbandkeramik in south-west Slovakia
Antiquity, 2020
The recent discovery of several late Linearbandkeramik (LBK) sites in Central Europe, including Vráble in southwest Slovakia, has revealed evidence for increasing diversity in Neolithic mortuary practices, which may reflect inter-community war and sociopolitical crisis at the end of the LBK. Here, the authors combine osteological and radiocarbon analyses of inhumations from Vráble. Rather than a straightforward sign of inter-community conflict and war, this development reflects a culmination of internal conflict and a diversification in the ritual treatment of human bodies. The emerging variability in LBK methods of manipulating and depositing dead bodies can be interpreted as an experimental approach in how to negotiate social conflicts and community boundaries.
Analacta Archaeologica Ressoviensia, 2017
In the autumn of 2016 a geomagnetic survey was conducted in Skołoszów, site. 7, Dist Jarosław. The magnetic prospection took place on a low hill spanning 2.12 ha in total. Distribution of the anomalies, as visible on a map depicting obtained data, reflects numerous structures related to human activity in the area during the prehistory and historic times. Among them are two features interpreted as residues of funerary rituals taking place at the site. One of them pertains to Middle Neolithic earthen long barrow, whereas the second by its shape resembles Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age tumuli. Apart from the latter, one can discern numerous anomalies potentially related to pits and ditches. Interpretation of the geophysical imagery was based upon the results of excavations conducted in 2010 in the nearby section of Skołoszów, site 7. In the process, funeral structures in the types of earthen long barrow and a presumable tumulus were recorded. Thus, it is possible to confront observations inferred from the results of non-invasive, magnetometric survey, with data obtained by means of more direct exploratory methods. Besides the prehistoric record, our investigation resulted in reconstruction of the trenches most probably dating to the First World War.
2014
A surprising discovery was made in 1995 in the Muszkowice Forest, south-western Poland, of a monumental cemetery with 6 earthen long barrows of the Funnel Beaker culture. Following an in-depth examination using traditional methods of archaeological survey, the cemetery was hailed as the only such funerary feature in that part of the country. However, subsequent large-area prospection performed using airborne laser scanning led to a startling discovery of further 15 monumental cemeteries with a total of 20 earthen long barrows. This article shows that even following a very fruitful examination conducted using surface survey, excavation and geomagnetic prospection, the employment of modern methods of non-invasive prospection may still deliver unexpected results that enhance our knowledge: they help discover unknown features and, by producing new data, extend the research perspectives, thus creating new possibilities for interpreting the cultural phenomena of the past.
Archaeologies: Journal of the World Archaeological Congress , 2024
Late Neolithic long barrows are commonly found throughout Central and Northwestern Europe, within the Funnel Beaker Culture territory. The sites of this Culture are known from Bohemia covering a period between 3900 and 3400 BC. However, long barrows have not been detected in Bohemia for a long time. The main reason is that they are located in areas where they were affected by modern ploughing. A significant contribution to their recognition was the remote sensing of modern fields, especially aerial archaeology. Current research in Bohemia provided new evidence of dozens of long barrows of several types, significantly expanding our knowledge of this phenomenon in the southeastern margins of its distribution. A new type of long barrow has been identified in Bohemia using remote sensing and current excavation data. The characteristic parameters of the long barrows in Bohemia are an east-west orientation with the ceremonial place in the eastern front and the delineation of the perimeter by a palisade trough or a ditch. The mounds can be divided into at least two structural and chronological forms. The first is the narrow and sometimes extremely long mound with perimeter defined by a palisade trough dating to the 3900–3800 BC. The second type of barrow is enclosed by a trapezoidal ditch. Based on radiocarbon dating, these structures were constructed during the 3700–3600 BC. This type of monument is currently known exclusively from Bohemia.
The main purpose of this paper is to contribute archaeological data towards the on-going discussion on the missing evidence of barrows of the late Eneolithic Corded Ware and Bell Beaker period in Central Europe. A variety of problems, such as demographic representation of cemeteries, burial customs and the spatial structure of funerary areas is associated with the missing barrows. The sites, such as Dřevohostice (East Moravia), represent one of the few examples of Eneolithic cemeteries with remaining surface relics of funerary activities. We also stress that the variability of late Eneolithic funerary monuments is, however, commonly reduced by modern ploughing and erosion. Therefore, the evidence from exceptionally preserved barrow cemeteries in Central Moravia is enormously important for the reconstruction of the structure and extent of cemeteries in the ploughed landscape. Such sites represent an exceptional opportunity to investigate the evidence of otherwise missing and highly invisible archaeological data. Furthermore, in some respects, this opportunity may be thought of as the key to answering many of the questions regarding Late Eneolithic funerary archaeology. In this paper we are going to summarize the aims and methodology of recent research into the late Eneolithic Corded Ware and Bell Beaker burial mounds.
Analecta Archaeologica Ressoviensia, 2017
This article evaluates the potential of magnetometry to establish the internal structure of three mounds in the barrow cemetery of Bukivna in the Upper Dniester River Basin in Ukraine. We also evaluate the effects of geomorphological processes on the magnetometric results. The three-stage research method we applied comprises the preparation of a digital elevation model of the mounds, conducting geomagnetic surveys and, finally, targeted excavations, the latter enabling the verification of previously detected magnetic anomalies. In effect our studies show exceptionally complex geophysical anomalies, difficult to interpret with any certainty. In the peculiar case of the barrows 6 and 7 in group I, partly connected by an earthen mantle, the overlapping magnetic fields did not allow the two mounds to be distinguished from each other; it was possible to achieve only through subsequent excavations. In both barrows, a series of ritual and sepulchral structures were discovered that provided clear magnetic signals. The arrangement of the anomalies in the mound 1, group II, potentially reflects various aspects of the barrow's structure and its state of preservation, beginning with postdepositional processes related to erosion or to the runoff of material down the slope, and ending with the mound's stratigraphy, formed over the course of two phases. In turn, in the case of mounds 6 and 7, it can be assumed that the effects of these processes have been 1 The author is the recipient of a scholarship of the Foundation for Polish Science, awarded within the framework of the 2017 START programme. 2 The article is the result of project no. NCN 2011/03/B/HS3/00839 "Bukivna. Elitarna nekropola kultury komarowskiej nad Dniestrem" [Bukivna. An Elite Komarów Culture Necropolis by the Dniestr River] and project NPRH 12H 12 001981 "Katalog cmentarzysk kurhanowych kultury komarowskiej w dorzeczu górnego Dniestru. Dawne województwo stanisławowskie" [Catalogue of Komarów Culture Barrow Cemeteries in the Upper Dniestr River Basin. The Former Stanisławów Province].