From: gknysh@...
Message: 64399
Date: 2009-07-22
--- On Wed, 7/22/09, tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
It seems everything here hinges on Eggers' conclusions, so I asked the library to find the article for me.
****GK: Apparently not one professional archaeologist has questioned these conclusions. His arguments must be pretty solid. I can see an analogy in Mahomedov's analysis of Chernyakhiv and Wielbark. Putting aside the obvious Sarmatian burials, the bi-ritual cemeteries of these cultures contained graves with an otherwise identical object inventory. BTW why not look at the references concerning the Przeworsk inhumations mentioned by Lichardus in his footnotes 8 ss.?****
> 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]
It seems Lichardus, who was Czech, was concerned most of all with what happened v C^echách, in the Czech lands. Hence the choice of subject, Southern Elbe Germani, and hence his cavalier attitude towards the evidence of other Przeworsk inhumation funerals than those he defines away as imitations of a half-forgotten Celtic custom.
****GK: I don't get your point. What is "cavalier" about his attitude?****
> 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.
And here Lichardus just multiplies the problem: why suddenly several styles of inhumation in an otherwise cremating culture? Several varieties of a afterlife-promising new religion?
****GK: Well Przeworsk was a distinct culture, different from Oksywie, Wielbark etc. etc. Note that there were also many different "styles" of cremation in a given culture.*****
> 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" .
But at that time the Celts practised cremation, as mentioned.
**** GK:Inhumations had never entirely gone out of style it seems.****
> So the idea is that northeastern Celtic groups assimilating into
> Przeworsk kept up aspects of their earlier funeral rites.
Much earlier.
****GK: There was a general shift to cremations in the 3rd c. BCE there. One interesting thing we have no information about: what "position" was the body cremated in? "Flexed and on the side"? This tradition is very ancient for inhumations (bronze age and earlier). In any case a return to inhumations could have several explanations, none involving foreign ethnic presence from the east, where the fl/side position was not practised.****
> Note however that this 'sidelying/flexed/ ' position differs from
> the inhumation rite of the earlier Wielbark culture
> (straightforward 'on the back' position).
I didn't get that? The early Wielbark or the Wielbark appeariing earlier (1st cent. CE) than the Przeworsk inhumation graves (I thought they were earlier than that) or the Wielbark overlaid by Przeworsk (that doesn't make sense)?
****GK: The Wielbark culture of the mid-1rst c AD-> which later developed into the Chenyakhiv culture. It is clearly later than the Przeworsk inhumation graves.****
> 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].
No matter what line of reasoning might explain them as derived from the Marcomanni, there remain the very early inhumation graves of Central Germany, which must have to do with Ariovistus' campaign down the Wetterau valley.
****GK: Those are the ones the Polish Wikipedia associates with a "return" to earlier Celtic customs, though otherwise the inventory is as "Przeworsk" as the cremationa burials of that culture. No archaeologist has ever found "eastern" elements therein (constant reminder "in passing"...****
> 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).*****
>
Does the flexed/sidelying pose type of inhumation have any relatives elsewhere?
****GK: AFAIK not at that time. I could check way back to the bronze age (in the context of my earlier notion of the position in which bodies were cremated).*****