From: george knysh
Message: 64387
Date: 2009-07-20
--- On Sat, 7/18/09, tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
Here is the translation. Original text at
http://tech. groups.yahoo. com/group/ cybalist/ message/64377
Jan Lichardus
Inhumation funerals of the early Imperial period in the area of the
southern Elbe Germani
(Körpergräber der frühen Kaiserzeit im Gebiet der südlichen
Elbgermanen)
pp. 59-69
D. INTERPRETATION
.... Already in the 50's H. J. Eggers successfully proved that
the inhumation burials contained purely Germanic types of finds and
that those there interred must be native Germani 3). Since Eggers
however was then primarily concerned with graves of the
Lubiesowo/Lübsow type, he didn't search for the beginning of the
inhumation custom as such in some given Germanic area; but drew from
the set of funerary accoutrement of this particular burial category a
conclusion of Roman influence. Since Eggers' investigations it is
undisputed, that the appearance of the inhumation custom cannot be
explained with foreign ethnoi, but that native conditions of a social
or religious nature are reflected here, essentially to be attributed
to external impulses./...
In this text we could establish that the first inhumation burials in
North-west Bohemia and in Central Germany appear in Phase 2. /...
inhumation burials which, apart from the unique and different
treatment of the corpse, express the same elements of the funerary
ritual 5).(as do the cremation burials [****GK/....
in Central Germany there exist some East Germanic inhumation funerals
which are older than the earliest Elbe Germanic finds 8).
Chronologically these burials belong to the middle section of the
later pre-Roman Iron Age, corresponding approx to the stage Latène D1
in the area of Southern Germany. A conspicuous concentration of such
inhumation funerals is found above all in Poland, in Silesia and
Kuyavia, in the area of the Przeworsk Culture; inhumation funerals
have been demonstrated here sporadically also in the early Imperial
Period 9). In constrast to the Elbe Germanic inhumation burials the
deceased here are often interred lying on the side with legs flexed [NB ****GK]
or in crouched position. Their funeral accoutrement consists of
apparel items, knives, awls, various fittings and only rarely of
weapons. The grave fields are often bi-ritual; burials in segregated
locations are found less frequently 10). In its total habitus these
inhumation burials are so different from the Elbe Germanic ones, that
a take-over from this area seems unlikely. Also, these inhumation
funerals show neither chronological nor cultural connections to the
Lubiesowo/Lübsow graves also shown to be here 11), which for their
own part have likely come about under influence from the Elbe
Germanic area, and no argument whatsoever speaks for a derivation of
the Elbe Germanic inhumation burials from this area.
*****GK: The Wikipedia Polish-language article on Przeworsk states that this type of burial [flexed ****GK]covers an area "identical to that of earlier Celtic settlements". So the idea is that northeastern Celtic groups assimilating into Przeworsk kept up aspects of their earlier funeral rites. Note however that this 'sidelying/flexed/' position differs from the inhumation rite of the earlier Wielbark culture (straightforward 'on the back' position). Where did the impulse for that come? The Marcomanni? [Note that that Gutones were subjects of Marbod and participated in the assault of 19 AD which eliminated his rulership]. On the other hand, as Wielbark spread into Ukraine and transmogrified into Chernyakhiv (beg. in the 4th decade of the 3rd c. D) it recorded a very significant number of burials of the Przeworsk inhumation type as described above ('flexed/sidelying') [acc. to Boris Mahomedov's magisterial 2001 study of the Chernyakhiv culture some 10%
(!!) of the Chernyakhiv inhumation burials were of this type. He distinguishes them from the rare Wielbark/Germanic Chernyakhiv borrowings of "Sarmatian poses" (legs crossed; hands on hips).*****
8
K. H. Otto, Jahresschr. Halle 33, 1949, 120 ff.;
id., Jahresschr. Halle 34, 1950, 142 ff.
9 Für die Latènezeitliche Gruppe 1 sind charakteristisch:
z. B. die Gräber von
Z.erniki Wielkie, pow. Wrocl/aw
(Ch. Pescheck, Die frühwandalische Kultur in Mittelschlesien.
Quellenschr. ostdt. Vor- u. früh-gesch. 5 (1939) 171 ff., 210 ff.) and
Biskupin, pow. Z.nin (B. Balke, Wiadomos´ci Arch. 34, 1969, 361 ff.).
On the Celtic tradition:
J. Kostrzewski, Sprawoszdania PAU Kraków 41, 1936, 183;
Z. Woz.niak, Osadnictwo celtyjske w Polsce (1970) 323;
St. Pazda, Studia Archeologiczne 5, 1972, 92 ff.
For the early Imperial period Group 2 should be mentioned:
the graves of
Wrocl/aw-Kozanow (Ch. Pescheck ibd. fig. 3),
Radwanice, pow. Wrocl/aw
(I. Kramarkowa, Silesia Antiqua 16, 1974, 197 ff.),
Kraków-Nowa Huta, pow.Krakow
(R. Hachulska-Ledwos, Mat. Arch. Kraków 7, 1966, 151 ff.) and
Czacz, pow. Kos´cian
(B. Kostrzewski, Fontes Arch. Posnan. 6, 1955, 68).
Listing of all inhumation burials in the area of the Przeworsk culture in:
K. Bykowski,
Acta Univ. Wratislawiensis 253,
Studia Archeologiczne 7, 1976, 139 ff.
Here also further reading.
Finally on that subject:
J. Wielowiejski (Hrsg.)
Póz´ny okres laten´ski i okres rzymski.
Prahistoria ziem Polskich 5 (1981) 108 ff.
11 H.J. Eggers ibd. (note 3) 109, Tab. I.
12 J. Filip,
Keltové ve str^ední Evrope.
Monumenta Archaeologica 5 (1956) 289 ff.
On the situation in Southern Bavaria and in Tirol: cf.
W. Krämer, Germania 39, 1971, 305 ff.;
O. Menghin, Bayer. Vorgeschbl. 39, 1974, 80 ff.;
R. Christlein, in:
Das archäologische Jahr in Bavaria (hrsg. R. Christlein) (1980)
108 ff.
Especially important are the observations in
Hortgertshausen (R. Christlein ibd.),
where apparently on has to assume small heaped-up mounds.