Paciorki bursztynowe znalezione na cmentarzysku w Świbiu / Amber beads from the cemetery at Świbie

The Late Bronze Age Urnfield Period in Central Europe (BA D, Ha A/B, c.1300 to 800 BC) is characterized by the dominance of cremation as a burial rite. The simple appearance of urn burials give an impression of simplicity, but they are the endpoint of a chain of actions and practices that constitute the funerary ritual, many of which may not be simple at all, but include a large number of people and resources. The washing, dressing, and furnishing of the body as it is laid out prior to cremation leave no traces. The funerary pyre, as spectacular as it may have looked, smelled, and felt during the cremation, preserves only under exceptional circumstances. The rituals and feasts associated with selecting the cremated remains from the funerary pyre and placing them in a suitable organic container or a ceramic urn prior to their deposition do not leave much evidence. The large-scale spread of cremation during the Late Bronze Age has traditionally been explained by the movements of peoples (e.g. Kraft 1926; Childe 1950), or a change in religious beliefs (e.g. Alexander 1979). More recently, a change in how the human body is ontologically understood and how it has to be transformed after death is seen as the more likely underlying cause (Harris et al. 2013; Robb and Harris 2013; Sørensen and Rebay-Salisbury in prep.), although a simple and single reason is rarely the driver of such pan-European developments. This chapter will be concerned with another transition, the change from cremation back to inhumation, several hundred years later during the Early Iron Age, and investigates its background and causes. In Central Europe, cremation is given up as the solitary funerary rite, and a range of different options, including inhumations in burial mounds, bi-ritual cemeteries, and new forms of cremation graves emerge. This change happens at a different pace in the various areas of the Hallstatt Culture and adjacent areas, which will be surveyed here. Despite doubts about the validity of the term ‘Hallstatt Culture’ as a cultural entity (e.g. Müller-Scheeßel 2000), it remains a convenient shorthand to the Early Iron Age in Central Europe, c.800–450 BC, in eastern France, southern Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, and parts of northern Italy.

Sacrificial Tradition and Religion during the Early Iron Age in South Scandinavia – with Special Reference to Settlement SacrificesSacrificial customs and religion during the Early Iron Age (500 BC–400 AD) has occupied archaeologists from the infancy of archaeology. Most would probably agree that the religion was primarily fertility related, originating as it was in the existing peasant society. The literature does not reflect any disagreement about the religion of the Early Iron Age being polytheistic and consequently concerned a variety of gods. However, it is still unknown how the religion was integrated in the everyday life, and under which conditions it was practiced.The research interest and the overall synthesis framework have especially addressed sacrifices in bogs and wetlands (for instance weapon sacrifices, bog bodies, deposited earthenware, anthropomorphic wooden figures, domestic animals, cauldrons, ring sacrifices, etc.). Strongly simplified, the existing consensus may be expressed in one single sentence: The overall society-related sacrificial traditions develop from being almost exclusively connected with wetland areas during the Early Iron Age (until c.400 AD) to being primarily connected with dry land after this time, cf. Fig. 1.The question is whether – based on the intense data collection over the recent decades – archaeology can or should maintain this very simple picture of the development of the sacrificial traditions and the religions during the Iron Age? Is it possible that we – rooted in for instance narrow definitions of sacrificial finds, habitual thinking, and a “delusion” consisting of the numerous well-preserved, well-documented, spectacular, and impressive finds of bog sacrifices – fail to see numerous forms of deposits, which (as opposed to the impressive finds of sacrifices in bogs) are hidden in the archaeological material?The settlements of the Iron Age have been excavated in large numbers over the recent decades, and it is the ritual finds from these localities that provide the background for this article.The ritual deposits from the settlements can be divided into two superior groups distinguished by the physical context. One comprises sacrifices made to constructions, which are characterized by being directly connected to a specific structure; the other encompasses settlement sacrifices that are to a higher degree characterized by an overriding affiliation to the settlement. The establishment of a sacrifice definition suitable for scanning the archaeological material for relevant finds is of vital importance. As the definition should not beforehand restrict the search through the material, it is important not to narrow the basis by concentrating only on the physical characteristics of the individual artefacts. The general idea behind the present presentation is that the different ritual dimensions of a society are internally connected as they function within the same overall conventions and, as a consequence, make up parts of a general mental structure, which can leave physically recognizable traces across the different ritual dimensions, cf. Fig. 2. This principal viewpoint creates a theoretical starting point for my work and the established definition of sacrificial finds: All intentionally deposited objects, which analytically show significant similarities as regards their physical appearance and/or their deposition context with other recognized ritual objects/contexts, and which are closely connected to these in time and space, should, when analysed, be considered sacrificial finds.The British religious historian, Ninian Smart, describes religion as consisting of seven thematically describing situations, which – albeit not completely unconnected – may be described individually:1) A dogmatic and philosophical dimension, comprising doctrine systems.2) A mythical and narrative dimension, comprising tales of the deities, of the creation, etc.3) An ethical and judicial dimension, comprising the consequences of the religion in relation to the shaping of the life of the individual.4) A social and institutional dimension comprising organisations and institutions that tie together the individual religious society.5) An empirical and emotional dimension comprising the individual’s experience of god and the divine.6) A ritual and practical dimension comprising prayer, sacrifices, worship, etc.7) A materiel dimension comprising architecture, art, sacred places, buildings, and iconography.As archaeologists, we have a very limited possibility of investigating the very thoughts behind the practiced religion. It is therefore natural to concentrate to a higher extent on the overall setting for it – the ritual dimension and the materiel dimension respectively. The ritual dimension and in particular its sacrificial aspect is traditionally divided into groups characterised by their significance level within the religion as such.1) The first and most “important” group consists of cult rituals. These are characterized by being calendar rites based on the myths of the religion or the history of the people, and by playing a part in the events of the year.2) The next group comprises transition rites (rite de passage), which follow the life cycle of the individual.3) The last group comprises rites of crises, which serve the purpose of averting danger, illness, etc.It is important to realize that the two first ritual groups are predictable cyclic rituals addressing the gods, the myths, and/or the people/the individual respectively. Only the third and least central group of rituals is determined by non-predictable and “not-always” occurring incidences. On this background, it becomes central to analyse, which category one is facing when one wants to assess its importance for the religion as such, in order to evaluate the primary character of the religion.In an attempt to understand the overall importance of a specific ritual practice, one cannot ignore a very complicated problem, which is to evaluate whether the sacrifices were practiced by single individuals or by a larger group of people as part of more common and society-supporting rituals. The issue of the relation between different sacrifice types and the groups causing these has been addressed repeatedly. Often, narrow physical interpretation frames as to who sacrificed what are advanced (i.e. Fig. 3). However, the question is how suitable are these very narrow and rigid interpretation models? As mentioned above, a sacrifice is defined by the intention (context) that caused it rather than by the specific physical form of the object!The above mentioned methodical and theoretical issues provide the background for the author’s investigation of the archaeological sources, in which he focused especially on the relationship between ritual actions as they are expressed in bog deposits and in burial grounds and measured them against the contemporary finds from the settle­ments.The analysis of the archaeological material is based on those find groups (sacrifices of cauldrons, magnificent chariots, humans, animals, metals, and weapons), which have traditionally been presented as a proof that society supporting and more community influenced ritual sacrifices were carried out beside the bogs.The examination of the material supports that sacrifices of cauldrons, magnificent chariots, humans, animals, and earthenware are found in both settlements and wetlands (Figs. 4-12), and that the deposits seem to follow superior ritual conventions, i.e. Fig. 2. The sacrifices were not made in fixed sacred places but in a momentary sacred context, which returns to its daily secular sphere once the rituals have been carried out. Often, the ceremony consists of a ritual cutting up of the sacrificed object, and the pars pro toto principle occurs completely integrated in connection with both burial customs, wetland sacrifice customs, and settlement sacrifice customs. Sacrifices often occur as an expression of a rite de passage connected to the structures, fields, or infrastructure of the village. However, the repeated finds of earthenware vessels, humans, and animals in both wetland areas and in the villages indicates that fertility sacrifices were made regularly as part of the cyclic agricultural world. This places the find groups in a central position when it comes to understanding the religious landscape of the Early Iron Age. In a lot of respects, the settlement finds appear as direct parallel material to the contemporary wetland-related sacrificial custom and so one must assume that major religious events also took place in the settlements, for instance when a human or a cauldron was handed over to the next world. Both the selection of sacrificial objects, the form of depositing, and the preceding ceremonial treatment seem to follow superior ritual structures applying to both funerary rites and wetland sacrifices in Iron Age society.Often, the individual settlement-related sacrificial find seems to be explained by everyday doings, as largely all sacrifice-related objects of the Early Iron Age have a natural affiliation with the settlement and the daily housekeeping. However, it is clear that if the overwhelming amount of data is made subject to a comprehensive and detailed contextual analysis, settlement related find groups and attached action patterns appear, which have direct parallels in the ritual interpretation platform of the bog context. These parallels cannot be explained by pure practical or coincidence-related explanation models!As opposed to ploughed-up Stone Age axe deposits or impressive bronze depots from the Bronze Age and gold depots from the Late Iron Age, a ploughed-up collection of either earthenware, bones, human parts, etc. are not easily explained as sacrificial deposits. However, much indicates that the sacrificial settlement deposits of the Iron Age were not placed very deeply, and so they occur in the arable soil of later times. We

The idea of covering pottery with polychrome ornaments adopted from the Greek art of the Late Geometric period spread to almost every corner of Early Iron Age Europe, including some areas in present-day Poland. Painted pottery was manufactured in Middle Silesia and southern Greater Poland. Finds of painted vessels are recorded also in Upper Silesia, and a smaller number still, in Lesser Poland. The presented paper addresses painted pottery identified with the Upper Silesian-Lesser Polish regional group of the Lusatian culture from settlement and funerary contexts (cremation and bi-ritual cemeteries). A closer look is taken at the previously unpublished finds of polychrome vessels from the cemetery at Dobrzeń Mały investigated during the 1970s. Their collection is now displayed and preserved in the Museum of Opole Silesia in Opole.

This study is first attempt to refine Early Iron Age absolute chronology, specifically the timing of the Hallstatt C-D transition in southern Germany, using Bayesian chronological modelling of radiocarbon (14C) dates. The Hallstatt period (c.800–450 BC) marks the transition from prehistory to proto-history in Central Europe. The relative chronological framework for Hallstatt burials developed by the mid-twentieth century is still used today, but absolute dating is limited by the scarcity of dendrochronological dates and the perception that 14C dating in the Hallstatt period (HaC-HaD) is futile, due to the calibration plateau between c.750 and 400 cal BC. We present new AMS 14C dates on 16 HaC-HaD burials from a stratified sequence at Dietfurt an der Altmühl ‘Tennisplatz’ (Bavaria, Germany). This sequence is situated entirely on the ‘Hallstatt plateau’, but by combining 14C dating with osteological, stratigraphic, and typological information, we demonstrate that the plateau is no longer the ‘catastrophe’ for archaeological chronology once envisaged. Taking into account dendrochronological dating elsewhere, we show that at Dietfurt, the HaC-HaD transition almost certainly occurred before 650 cal BC, and most likely between 685 and 655 cal BC (68.3% probability), several decades earlier than usually assumed. We confirm the accuracy and robustness of this estimate by sensitivity testing. We suggest that it is now possible, and essential, to exploit the increased precision offered by AMS measurement and the IntCal20 14C calibration curve to re-evaluate absolute chronologies in Early Iron Age Europe and equivalent periods in other regions.

During the Early Iron Age in Europe (EIA), the phenomenon of the Hallstatt culture enveloped a large portion of the European continent. Between the Atlantic Ocean and the River Danube, cultural groups can be roughly divided into two major regions: the Western and the Eastern Hallstatt circle. EIA finds made from organic material decorated with pigments are usually well-preserved only in specific conditions. A good example is the coloured textile found in the salt mines of the eponymous site Hallstatt (AT). Other examples are Scythian finds north and east of the Black Sea, far outside the Hallstatt culture area. This paper presents the results of the analysis of decorated artifacts made from bone or antlers from Jalžabet (NW Croatia). The artifacts were found in two princely burial mounds with incinerated remains: burial mound 1 (Gomila) and burial mound 2. The funerary monuments belong to the Eastern Hallstatt culture and date back to the middle of the 6th century BC, i.e., the end of the Ha D1 period. A group of scientists from Croatia and abroad performed several series of analyses on the selected bone or antler artifacts. The motifs on the artifacts were made by incisions and were filled with black pigment, and there are faint traces of red pigment on the surface. With the help of colourant analysis performed in Brussels and Zagreb (SEM-EDX, MRS, FT-IR), zooarchaeological taxonomic identification, and archaeological determination of a selected group of findings from Jalžabet, we have tried to answer several major questions. The most important question being: are the traces of pigments on artefacts deliberate decoration? If so, can we determine the composition of the paint? What kind of raw materials were used for the production of the artifacts? These questions are important because these kinds of EIA finds are rare and even more rarely analysed. New data would considerably expand our knowledge about the funeral rites of the most prominent members of the Hallstatt nobility in the Drava River valley and Central Europe. Taxonomically, the raw material from which the finds were made was identified to be antlers, probably from red deer (Cervus elaphus). Using methods for colourant analysis, we have successfully proven deliberate application of black paint based on carbon black as a pigment, probably in combination with terpenoid resin. Until now, this composition was only known from much later, Roman-period finds. Also, it was confirmed that the black paint on the artifacts from both burial mounds in Jalžabet is of the same composition. The red pigment on the finds has been identified as hematite. It is highly probable that the red surfaces were deliberate, painted decoration. The probability of extracting the raw material needed for the production of the red paint in the Jalžabet micro-region was also established and requires further research (bog iron ore). The archaeological analysis of the finds supports the idea of the use of various types of decorated plates as inlays, probably on furniture or other luxury everyday items. Smaller finds could have been used as utilitarian objects, parts of attire, and jewellery.

This field report deals with a peripheral, or non-central cross-border region between Poland and Czech Republic. It presents some results of bibliographical research and field observations in the cultural-historical region of Silesia (PL: Śląsk; CZ: Slezsko), mainly in its part of Upper Silesia (PL: Górny Śląsk; CZ: Horní Slezsko). After the Introduction, the question of the location and position of cultural-historical Silesia and Upper Silesia is examined between the two countries. In the second place, the spatio-temporal development of the territorial formation of Silesia is presented. In the third place, the most important territorial features of the intensive urbanization process and the Silesian-Moravian agglomeration are treated. In the fourth part, which deals with “peripheral regionalism” in Central Europe, the report tries to show that Upper Silesia is a classic cross-border central region in the sense of a strategic “Heartland” between Poland and Czech Republic. In fifth place, the report addresses the current productive reconversions in Upper Silesia, the closure of coal mines and steel mills considered unproductive, the integration of the periphery into the central macro-regional production networks of the automotive industry, the gradual adaptation to the Paris Agreement, and the search for a service-based economy, mainly through historical and ecological tourism. In sixth and final place, the report addresses cross-border management, focusing on Euroregions, the EGTC Tritia, and functional urban areas (FUAS) in both sides of the countries. A concluding Discussion highlights that the concept of periphery may not be appropriate for Upper Silesia and, to some extent, for the entire cultural-historical Silesia, even though its geo-economic role in production networks is changing today. A brief Post Scriptum highlights the current state of cross-border integration processes, which respond to the uncertainties of nationalisms, the difficulties of integrating processes and productive reconversions, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

A research team of the Institute of Archaeological Sciences of the Eötvös Loránd University continued the fieldwork between 1 September 2022 and 31 December 2023 on two Early and Middle Iron Age sites, Dédestapolcsány-Verebce-bérc and Dédestapolcsány-Várerdő, in the frame of a project investigating Early Iron Age crises. New excavation trenches were opened at the fortified settlement in the north of the Bükk Mountains (Northern Hungary). One was an extension of a trench opened in 2022, where remains of a burnt house had been identified. Metal detector surveys recovered some new fascinating stray metal finds (e.g., an akinakes, battle axes, and the bronze protective sheath of a sword) and new assemblages (iron tool deposits and a hoard of gold jewellery and amber beads). Eleven more graves were excavated in the cemetery (Várerdő) north of the coeval settlement. The most interesting grave was the burial of an adult man with rich grave goods such as an ironworking toolkit, pottery, and other items.

The probabilistic radiocarbon calibration approach, which largely has replaced the intercept method in 14C dating, is based on the so-called Bayes' theorem (Bayes 1763). Besides single-sample calibration, Bayesian mathematics also supplies tools for combining 14C results of many samples with independent archaeological information such as typology or stratigraphy (Buck et al. 1996). However, specific assumptions in the “prior probabilities”, used to transform the archaeological information into mathematical probability distributions, may bias the results (Steier and Rom 2000). A general technique for guarding against such a bias is “sensitivity analysis”, in which a range of possible prior probabilities is tested. Only results that prove robust in this analysis should be used. We demonstrate the impact of this method for an assumed, yet realistic case of stratigraphically ordered samples from the Hallstatt period, i.e. the Early Iron Age in Central Europe.

• Geochemical proxies indicate mining activity during the Bronze and Iron Ages. • Variations of δ 15N and δ 34S point towards lake catchment changes. • Pb enrichments in the calcareous deposits are not consistent with supra-regional amtospheric Pb peaks. Palynological studies and archaeological discoveries suggest repeated extensive prehistoric copper mining in the Eisenerz Alps (Styria, Austria). In an attempt to reconstruct the specific temporal evolution of copper (Cu) mining activity in this area from the Bronze Age to the medieval period, this article presents records of elemental variations, trace elemental enrichments of Cu, nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), antimony (Sb) and lead (Pb) as well as light stable isotopes of nitrogen ( δ 15 N) and sulfur ( δ 34 S) as preserved in a calcareous sediment core retrieved from Lake Leopoldstein (Eisenerz). While the multi-element geochemical approach covers a time period from the Early Bronze Age to the mid-medieval period (2070 BCE – 850 CE), isotopic analyses were conducted up to a core depth of 660 cm, corresponding to about 3100 BCE. A comparative study of the parameters revealed strong indications of regional mining during the mid-Bronze Age (∼15th – 14th century BC), the Hallstatt period (∼8th – 6th century BC) and in the late La Tène period (∼3st century BC). Statistical evaluation of the data highlighted a good correlation of trace elements associated with local copper ores (fahlores, chalcopyrite). Enrichments of Pb, in contrast, are characterised by a more substantial deviation from the general trace element trend and are mainly linked to lithogenic input. Overall, the results of this study underscore the necessity of a broad-based multi-proxy approach in order to reconstruct periods of past mining activity based on the analysis of calcareous lake sediments. Especially, δ 15 N and δ 34 S revealed no particular potential for identifying past mining activity. However, both proxies were helpful for inferring erosional changes in the lake catchment, and thus for unraveling the interdependencies between geogenic and anthropogenic signals. Our study sheds new light on prehistoric copper mining in Central Europe.

Chihlimbarul preistoric de la frontiera estică a Bazinului Carpatic / Prehistoric Amber Artifacts at the Eastern Frontier of the Carpathian Basin

Reproducing colourful woven bands from the Iron Age salt mine of Hallstatt in Austria: An interdisciplinary approach to acquire knowledge of prehistoric dyeing technology

In January 2023, the National Institute of Archaeology of the Hungarian National Museum launched a new research programme, the aim of which has been to explore the Somló Hill (Somló-hegy) (Veszprém County), a site neglected by systematic field research focusing on Late Bronze Age (LBA) and Early Iron Age (EIA) inhabitation. Somló Hill was often considered one of the most important EIA power centres in the western part of the Carpathian Basin. However, this notion was based mainly on funerary evidence partially unearthed from nearby burial mounds. Beyond doubt, these burials are associated with a prominent elite in the Ha C Period that maintained long-ranging contacts with communities in the (north)west and south. By contrast, virtually nothing is known about either the extent of the EIA settlement both in geographical and chronological terms, its inner structure, or the activity of the community associated with it. In this paper, we aim to show some of the first results of the field research conducted in the last months on the hill and to introduce the first documented EIA hoard of Somló Hill. The typo-chronological evaluation of the hoard suggests that it was deposited in the Late Hallstatt Period, i.e. the Ha D2–D3 phases.

During the 1989–1994 renovation of the Zagreb Town Museum, it became obvious that the area was inhabited in prehistoric times. We 14C dated 40 samples to determine various settlement periods. The ages of the samples span a much longer time than expected, from the Early Iron Age (Hallstatt period) to the 19th century ad. 14C dates on charcoal samples placed the remains of dwelling pits in the Hallstatt period, 8th to 4th century bc. A late La Tène settlement dated between the 4th century bc and the 2nd century ad. Medieval fortifications were identified in the western part of the complex, consisting of a well-preserved wooden structure used for construction of the royal castrum. 14C measurements on wooden planks and posts date the construction of the fortification between the 13th and 15th centuries ad and branches, beams, and tools found below the basement of the Convent of St. Clare span the 16th to the 19th century ad.

The article contrasts two chronologically distinct groups of artifacts: painted ceramics from the Hallstatt period and the so-called white ceramics, produced until the end of modernity. They are related by means of the technique of covering a bright surface with colorful patterns and the stylistic similarity of certain geometric motifs. However, the ideas behind creating these pictorial representations were completely different. In the article, painted vessels from the Hallstatt period and modernity will be the starting point for detailed studies on magical and rational thinking about the world. It was in the Renaissance that, according to the concept of the sociologist and philosopher Max Weber (1864‒1920), a “disenchantment of the world”, took place ‒ e.g. the departure from the magical understanding of reality. Early Iron Age and Modernity ceramics will illustrate this process.

Assessing the level of metallurgical and foundry technology in prehistoric times requires the examination of raw material finds, including elongated ingots, which served as semi-finished products ready for further processing. It is rare to find such raw material directly at production settlements, but Wicina in western Poland is an exception. During the Hallstatt period (800-450 BC), this area, situated along the middle Oder River, benefited from its favorable location in the heart of the Central European Urnfield cultures and developed networks for raw material exchange and bronze foundry production. Numerous remnants of casting activities, such as clay casting molds, casting systems, and raw materials, have been discovered at the Wicina settlement. This article aims to provide an archaeometallurgical interpretation of raw material management and utilization by prehistoric communities during the Early Iron Age. To achieve this, a collection of 31 ingots from the defensive settlement in Wicina, along with two contemporary deposits from Bieszków and Kumiałtowice, both found within a 20 km radius of the stronghold, were studied. Investigations were conducted using a range of methods, including optical microscopy(OM), scanning electron microscopy (SE M), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SE M-EDS), X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (ED-XRF), powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), AAS and ICP-OES spectrometer. The significance of ingots is examined in the context of increasing social complexity and the rising popularity of bronze products, which necessitated diversified production and a demand for raw materials with different properties and, consequently, different chemical compositions.