Complexe funerare de la începutul mileniului al II-lea, descoperite recent în judeţul Prahova / Funerary complexes from the beginning of the IInd millennium recently uncovered in Prahova County

Abstract

In 2011 the Museum for History and Archaeology of Prahova County conducted a series of rescue archaeological works in the area surrounding the city of Ploieşti. As a result, six tumuli (detected prior to this excavation at Ariceştii-Rahtivani (2), Păuleşti (3) and Strejnicu (1) were investigated. Inhumation graves were uncovered (both principal and secondary ones) with the individuals lying crouched on dorsal or lateral decubitus positions, having their legs constricted, fallen or lying laterally. Few grave goods were present. The burials were dated to the Bronze Age, probably the Jamnaja funerary horizon. Two other funerary complexes discovered at Păuleşti and Strejnicu were attributed to horsemen populations from the beginning of the IInd millenium AD. The grave from Păuleşti contained, alongside the human remains remains, parts of a horse skeleton. The human skeleton was lying on the back, head towards the west, arms along the body, legs stretched. The horse parts comprised the skull and the extremities of the legs, found together with a horse bit, two arrowheads, a ring and an iron object (whose functionality could not be determined because of its precarious state of conservation). The tomb from Strejnicu (probably a cenotaph) contained only the skull and leg extremities from a horse, together with a horse bit, an arrowhead and another iron object whose functionality could not be determined for the same reason as above.