Warrior Graves Research Articles

Sociocultural Research on Warrior Graves Containing Knife-Daggers in the Sambian-Natangian Cultural Area

Knife-daggers are one of the most unusual and narrowly specialized forms of Great Migration era weaponry of the peoples in the southeastern Baltic Sea basin on the territory of western Lithuania and Russia's Kaliningrad oblast (the Sambian-Natangian culture area). Research indicates the need to radically reconsider hypotheses that have gained currency in the literature of recent years in relation to knife-daggers and shoulder belts [baldrics, baltei Vidgiriai type], their owners, and their relevant culture area. While these presumably formed a functional complex in antiquity, it is possible to distinguish several main types of knife-daggers and their variants. The project reveals that shoulder belts were already used at the end of the Roman Influence era, in its late phase and therefore earlier than the appearance of “classic” knife-daggers. Relevant archeological materials do not confirm concepts that knife-daggers by definition had to be part of the wealthy burials of professional warriors of non-local [allochthonous] ethnocultural origin with a high social status. Knife-daggers were a widespread weapon among free members of Sambian-Natangian cultural communities.

“Hva har romerne noen gang gjort for oss i Nord- Norge?” Om mulige forbindelser mellom Romerriket og det nordligste Norge

<em>“What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us Here in North Norway?”: On Possible Connections Between the Roman Empire and Northernmost Norway. </em>This article argues that scholars studying the early history of northern Norway should pay more attention to Roman history. Even if the geographical distances were long, there are clear signs of connections between inhabitants of northern Norway and the Roman world during the Roman era. In order to understand these connections scholars also need to study Roman history in its own right. To make this point the article investigates the possible Roman connections of a well-known warrior grave from Steigen (Nordland County, North Norway), dated to the middle of the third century CE. The investigation yields no stunning new discoveries, but aims to contribute to a broader and more well-founded understanding of the buried man and the experiences he might have had, as well as a cautious and informed view of broader connections between the North and the Roman world.

The eastern Celts and their invasions of hellenistic Greece and Asia minor

During the fourth century BC the Celts expanded into the Balkan Peninsula and the Carpathian Basin. After the major defeat at Delphi, in Greece, the surviving Celtic tribes formed an alliance under the name Scordisci. They settled in the wider territory around the confluence of the Sava and the Danube, which became a base for their subsequent invasions into Thrace and beyond. The Celtic presence in the region has been best documented by the necropoles in Karaburma (Singidunum) and Pecine (Viminacium). These graveyards had a complex arrangement of burials into groups and sections. The warrior graves contained pieces of weaponry showing decorative elements of both Western and Eastern Celtic art tradition. Some of the female graves contained rich personal adornment such as the coral bracelet and the M?nsingen-type fibula in a grave in Pecine. Until the Roman conquest, the Scordisci remained the most powerful military force in the region.

Socio-ekonomska i simbolička uloga importovanih metalnih posuda s Glasinca

The earliest traces of imported goods from the Mediterranean south are typical for Glasinac plateau. During the eighth century BC there was a rise in livestock aristocracy in Glasinac area. Prominent individuals were able to mobilize larger labor force for the construction of public facilities, as well as to show their power through the ownership of prestigious items. One of the markers of the new ruling class is the emergence of imported metal vessels, which is a theme to be discussed in this paper. Parts of metal vessel sets were found only in grave assemblages dated from the early 7th century to the end of the 5th century. Besides being the distinctive grave goods found in princely graves, from the 5th century they become a part of the inventory of luxury warrior graves of Glasinac area.Most of the imported metal vessels from Glasinac were produced in south Italic and /or Etruscan workshops. There were two main forms of distribution of goods from southern Italy and Etruria: direct trade and exchange with local communities along the coastline and/or trading through colonial intermediaries on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. The first model whereby the imported material came directly to the local communities without an intermediary is less likely. The fact is that there is no evidence yet of the large settlements of indigenous population with a capacity to accept goods and carry out further redistribution. This, clearly, does not imply the inferior position of the local communities. Nevertheless, the social structure itself and the economic strategy of the early communities of the Iron Age on the east coast of the Adriatic Sea were not focused on the urbanization or creation of a wide network of monopoly over trade and exchange. A direct contact would have indicated much more imported finds among the local aristocracy's grave goods, which was not the case. The number of imported finds is very small on the Adriatic shoreline and in the immediate hinterland when compared with the Glasinac plateau and further inland. The model of colonial intermediary is a more probable answer to the question where the goods from Italic centres ended up. Along with the Italic imports somewhat bigger in number, the Greek continental goods included mainly phialae and cups. The origin of imported objects found among the "barbarians" in Glasinac is mostly interpreted through their economic activity, with a strong Greek economic and social component bringing changes to the barbaric hinterland. These postulates were later criticised by researchers. Although the imported objects played an important role in defining the social prestige, they did not have power to shape up or change the existing social and political relations. Imported objects represent the symbolic power of the chief, his status and economic position, but not the origin of his power and status. Prior to contacts with Greece, the chiefs had to create objects that symbolically represented their social, military and economic power. For chiefs from Glasinac these are likely to have been lavishly ornamented grinders and/or parts of weapons.. The trade and exchange with metal vessel sets or their parts should be seen, without any doubt, as a model of redistibution through several intermediaries. Yet, it is not always possible to make a sharp distinction between a ritual exchange and an economic exchange. Depositing metal vessel sets with chiefs is the final act of distribution and circulation of vessels in the society.

Warrior Burials with Knives-Daggers: Socio-Cultural Aspects of Research. A Comparative Analysis of Early Migration Period Warrior Graves in the Sambian-Natangian Group Area (the Kaliningrad Region of Russia)

The author presents some of his recent results and observations made within the framework of a research project devoted to a comparative typo-chronological analysis of Migration Period knives-daggers in the basin of the Baltic Sea, and to the study of socio-historical tendencies and events marked by the appearance of these artefacts. The intensification of field research in the region in recent years, as well as the rediscovery of parts of the former Prussia-Museum’s collection and regained access to the archives of prewar researchers, has allowed the author to back up the study with an unprecedentedly high number of knife-dagger finds and relevant burial complexes.

Grave 22 of the Belgrade necropolis in Karaburma: Retrospective and perspective

Keltska nekropola nađena na beogradskoj Karaburmi i dalje je jedno od znacajnijih nalazista za interpretaciju povijesnih, ekonomskih i kulturnih procesa koji su se zbivali na podrucju srednjega Balkana u vremenu od pocetka 4. do konca 1. stoljeca. Ispred svega, predstavlja najobimniji izvor za pojasnjenje kronologije najstarije keltske prisutnosti na tom prostoru, te pruža mogucnost ilustracije kulturnih i ekonomskih razmjera u mreži u koju su sami bili ukljuceni. Naime, prostor je spoja Save i Dunave bio prostorom gdje su se koncentrirale i razvijale tehnoloske inovacije i ujedno prostorom gdje su se filtrirali politicki, vojni i gospodarski kontakti. Na nekropoli, nedvojbeno pripadajucoj regionalnoj vojnoj eliti, istupa nekoliko grobova u kojima su, pored standardnih priloga iz okvira regionalne materijalne kulture, svoje mjesto nasli i predmeti podrijetlom iz sireg prostora, kako latenskog tako i južnog balkanskog svijeta. Među njima, narocito istupa grob broj 22 kod kojega je bilo moguce prepoznati i pojasniti ispreplitanje tradicija i inovacija, te kulturnih ispreplitanja i međusobnih prožimanja.

Notes on Glasinac: The chronology of princely graves

Princely graves of the Iron Age represent a particular phenomenon in archaeology, which is constantly the subject of interest. They are usually dated to the end of the 6th and the beginning of the 5th century. The author discusses the chronology of princely graves in the Central Balkans and analyses their appearance in each part of this territory: on the Glasinac plateau, in Serbia, Kosovo and Metohija, Montenegro, North Albania and Nordwest Bulgaria. He concludes that they date from the middle of the 7th to the middle of the 4th century, depending on the cultural and socio-economic situation in the respective area. In the middle of the 7th century princely graves in the true sense of the word were known only on the Glasinac plateau, in the Ilijak necropolis. At the end of the 7th and in the beginning of the 6th century they still appear on Glasinac, though in greater number and in various parts of the plateau. In northwest Bulgaria a grave dating to the second half of the 7th century was found, which would, according to grave goods, correspond to the Glasinac princely graves. On the other hand, there are no princely graves in Serbia and north Albania from that time but some outstanding warrior graves are known, belonging possibly to the chiefs of smaller warlike bands, whose power was limited. Princely graves from Arareva gromila on Glasinac, Pilatovici by Pozega and Lisijevo Polje by Berane date to the beginning of the second half of the 6th century, and according to their characteristics represent princes, whose power and wealth were considerable and known to the neighbours. Culmination of the rise of the princes in this region was demonstrated by the graves from Novi Pazar, Atenica, and Pecka banja, which date to the end of the 6th and the first quarter of the 5th century. Some decades later there are several rich graves, e.g. the recently discovered grave from Velika Krsna, which could belong to a prince, but can not be compared with the wealth of the previous princely generation. In the middle of the 4th century, new rich princely burials are seen in the graves in Belsh in Albania and Vratsa in Northwest Bulgaria. Their appearance was conditioned by a new socio-political climate. All this proves that one should be cautious when dating the princely graves in this region to the ?end of the 6th/beginning of the 5th century BC?.

Vikings in the Land of Amber

AbstractThe graves of Scandinavian merchants and warriors in Wiskiauten have been known for a long time. Now, German and Russian archaeologists have discovered remains of the settlement – an important piece of evidence for past trade relations in the Baltic Region

A sixteenth‐century warrior grave from Uppsala, Sweden: the Battle of Good Friday

AbstractLittle is known about the Battle of Good Friday in Uppsala. The historical records are scarce and of limited extent. Moreover, the more spectacular event of the Stockholm Bloodbath has drawn most of the attention from both the contemporary public and later historians. This is why the discovery of a mass grave in the steep slope of Uppsala Castle in 2001 has provoked much interest. An analysis of the osseous material showed that the remains of at least 60 male individuals, mostly between 25–34 years of age, were buried in the excavated area. The demographic profile is largely similar to other European war‐related skeletal assemblages of the same era. Sharp force trauma was exhibited primarily on the skulls, with no obvious dominance to either side. The trauma distribution pattern suggests that the battle was not fought face‐to‐face. Blade wounds concentrated in specific regions imply a standardised technique when delivering the blows. The combination of commingled bones and articulated elements suggests that the individuals were in different stages of skeletonisation when buried. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Objects with Attitude: Biographical Facts and Fallacies in the Study of Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Warrior Graves

Aegean prehistory still has to deal with the legacy of ‘Homeric archaeology’. One of these legacies is the ‘warrior grave’, or practice of burying individuals (men?) with weapons which we find both in the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age in the Aegean. This article suggests that the differences between the ‘weapon burial rituals’ in these two periods can tell us much about the kind of social and cultural changes that took place across the Bronze Age/Iron Age ‘divide’ of c. 1100 BC. In neither period, however, can items deposited in ‘warrior graves’ be seen as straightforward biographical facts that tell us what the individual did and suffered in life. Rather, the pattern of grave goods should be seen as a metaphor for a particular kind of identity and ideal. It is only in the Early Iron Age that this identity begins to correspond to the concept of the ‘hero’ as described in the Iliad. One means towards our better understanding of this new identity is to follow up work in anthropology on the biography of objects. It is argued that the ‘life cycle’ of ‘entangled objects’, a cycle which ends in deposition in a grave, provides us with indispensable clues about the nature of new social identities in Early Iron Age Greece.

Burial and Status in the Early Medieval West

EARLY medieval archaeology can be said to have its origins with the investigation of burial: with Otto III's opening of Charlemagne's tomb in 1000; with medieval and early modern reports of the discoveries of the graves of kings or warriors; and, most notably, with the discovery at Tournai in 1653 of the grave of an early Frankish king, Childeric. And, until very recently, the study of burials dominated the subject. This is only natural. Graves are easily recognisable when discovered accidentally; often they were intended to be, and have remained, a very visible part of the landscape. Surviving royal burials are, of course, very rare. But there are over one hundred thousand excavated graves of lesser personages from the period betweenc. 450 andc. 1000: an astonishing mass of data which forms a significant proportion of the total available evidence for the early Middle Ages and which needs to be assessed and taken into count by any early medievalist interested in the totality of the period. And it can be argued that cemeteries offer rather more opportunity than the written sources to understand the world of those below the status of kings and bishops, and to do so without the ecclesiastical bias that the written sources have. We nevertheless have to remember that graves are not the unconscious waste products of society, like most of the data studied by an archaeologist: rubbish pits, building remains and so on. Bodies were deliberately and carefully placed in the ground, along with whatever accompanied them. Those responsible for the burial made a whole series of choices about the manner in which they carried out this action. A burial, like a written text, is a product of conscious mental activity, and subject to many of the problems of interpretation and analysis with which historians are familiar.

A Viking-age Grave at Donnybrook, Co. Dublin

RECOGNITION IN THE Castle Museum, Nottingham, of a ‘lost’ sword from a Viking-age warrior's grave excavated at Donnybrook, Co. Dublin, in 1879, has prompted a reassessment of the burial, which is d...

The Warrior's Grave

The Warrior's Grave