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The present article wants to be am original approach over the funerary grave goods, from Starčevo-Criş graves. There will be analyzed all the Starčevo-Criş graves from Romania, Hungary and Yugoslavia. It would not be included in this analysis the discoveries from the North of Bulgaria (Kremikovci, Ovčaraovo and Tsonevo groups) and Macedonia (Anzabe...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... zona membrelor inferioare -Gura Baciului M1 -o parte din piesele amintite (împungătorul şi piesele de silex) erau depuse lângă falangele membrelor inferioare 150 ; Gura Baciului M9 151 ( fig. 8. a); Kamenički Potok-Mihajlovac M1 -două vase lângă picioare 152 ...
Context 2
... fragmente ceramice depuse sub defuncţi -Gura Baciului M1 ( fig.4. • fragmente ceramice depuse lângă defuncţi -Grădinile M1 243 ; Gura Baciului M9 244 ( fig.8. ...
Citations
... No doubt, some of them reflect these aspects, but they can also have other meanings. The grave goods may have some specific connotations (economic, social, spiritual, religious, symbolic, emotional-affective) determined by those left alive (relatives, participants at the funeral ceremony, religious leaders, etc.) (Lazăr 2008). They play a leading role in the determination, selection and assignment of objects designed to accompany the deceased (Gamble, Walker and Russell 2001, 198). ...
... At the same time, the process of choosing the objects placed near the deceased includes multiple determinants (Lazăr 2008): ...
Most archaeologists agree that funerary practices are directly connected with beliefs in the existence of an afterlife, and that objects placed in graves are sometimes extremely helpful in reconstructing past social systems or other types of identities (economic, cultural, ethnic, racial, etc.). However, this assertion is only partially valid, because the archaeological context offers only a slice of past realities.
The aim of this paper is to explore the significance of the grave goods associated with human skeletons from Sultana – Malu Roşu cemetery, in relation to the archaeological contexts and various post-depositional processes that affected them over time.
Originally published in Homines, Funera, Astra 2 Life Beyond Death in Ancient Times (Romanian Case Studies) (ed. Kogălniceanu et al.) ISBN 9781784912062, Archaeopress 2015. This version published in Archaeopress Open Access 2015, available here. For more information regarding Archaeopress Open Access please visit the Archaeopress website.
The transition from hunting and gathering to farming involved profound cultural and technological changes. In Western and Central Europe, these changes occurred rapidly and synchronously after the arrival of early farmers of Anatolian origin [1–3], who largely replaced the local Mesolithic hunter-gatherers [1, 4–6]. Further east, in the Baltic region, the transition was gradual, with little or no genetic input from incoming farmers [7]. Here we use ancient DNA to investigate the relationship between hunter-gatherers and farmers in the Lower Danube basin, a geographically intermediate area that is characterized by a rapid Neolithic transition but also by the presence of archaeological evidence that points to cultural exchange, and thus possible admixture, between hunter-gatherers and farmers. We recovered four human paleogenomes (1.1× to 4.1× coverage) from Romania spanning a time transect between 8.8 thousand years ago (kya) and 5.4 kya and supplemented them with two Mesolithic genomes (1.7× and 5.3×) from Spain to provide further context on the genetic background of Mesolithic Europe. Our results show major Western hunter-gatherer (WHG) ancestry in a Romanian Eneolithic sample with a minor, but sizeable, contribution from Anatolian farmers, suggesting multiple admixture events between hunter-gatherers and farmers. Dietary stable-isotope analysis of this sample suggests a mixed terrestrial/aquatic diet. Our results provide support for complex interactions among hunter-gatherers and farmers in the Danube basin, demonstrating that in some regions, demic and cultural diffusion were not mutually exclusive, but merely the ends of a continuum for the process of Neolithization.
The current paper aims to present and discuss a series of funerary discoveries which indicate specific mortuary practices by the communities of the Transylvanian Neolithic and Eneolithic, both older and more recent. A special attention was given to the cremation rite, still considered an unusual practice for the period and area under research. We believe that these new funerary discoveries confirm the practice of cremation of the N-W Romanian Neolithic communities.
Until recently, only 7 inhumations in crouched on side position, found in Ak-Mechetka, Konstantynivka, Savran', Tsekynivka I and Hyrzhove have been published as attributed to the Bug-Dniester culture (BDC). An inhumation stretched on the back was excavated on Dobryanka 3 site in 2006. It disproved entrenched views and made the researchers have a closer look at available data. A study of field survey reports showed that 4 other inhumations stretched on the back, unearthed on the territory of the Bug-Dniester settlements Samchyntsi I, Haivoron-Polizhok and Sokiltsi VI in 1956-1961, have not been published. Analysis of arguments in favor of the Neolithic age of the twelve mentioned burials showed that 1 cenotaph and 3 inhumations with crouched skeletons and grave goods from Ak-Mechetka and Konstantynivka, in fact, belong to the Early Bronze Age. The Bug-Dniester attribution of the remaining burials without grave goods was neither proved nor disproved. The only way to determine their reliable age is to obtain radio-carbon dating of the bones. So far, the only date pointing to the turn of the Mesolithic and Neolithic has been obtained for a human bone from Dobryanka 3. The Neolithic age of the crouched skeleton from Tsekynivka I is indirectly proved by its position under a fragmented Neolithic vessel. Thus, for the moment, connection of inhumations stretched on the back with the BDC is better justified. However, there are some grounds to suppose that the funerary rite of its bearers also included inhumations in crouched on side position.
This study aims to publish the results of the archaeological excavations carried out in 2012 in the neo-eneolithic site from Boldeşti-Scăieni, Seciu neighbourhood (Prahova County). In the 2012 campaign the excavated surface was small, comprised of two sections. Extensive research was performed there in 2009 and the obtained results were comprised in a monography and several studies. In 2012 were unearthed archaeological artefacts specific to the Starčevo-Criş culture, especially ceramics, but also an inhumation burial of a child. Archaeozoological material was also found. Above de early neolithic habitation layer there was an eneolithic dwelling attributed to the Stoicani-Aldeni cultural aspect. Two radiocarbon dates were performed, the samples being taken from the neolithic layer, presented and analised in this paper in the broader context of the evolution of the Starčevo-Criş culture at the Lower Danube.
