“DEVIANT” BURIALS AS MARKERS OF PARTICULAR SOCIAL IDENTITIES. SOME EXAMPLES FROM THE “SCYTHIAN” CEMETERY AT SÂNCRAI-DARVAS (TRANSYLVANIA)

• Authors: Rustoiu Aurel , Egri Mariana , Drăgan Andreea , Căsălean Adrian Cătălin
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The article analyses three recently unearthed burials from the “Scythian” cemetery at Sâncrai-Darvas in Transylvania that broke the common funerary norms of this chronological and cultural horizon. In the first case, a double re-inhumation illustrates the practice of prolonged funerals which is also attested in a few other cases from the same cemetery. The second grave, belonging to a female shaman, is another case of a post-burial intervention, this time determined by communal fear. The last grave belongs to another person whose social status and function determined the community to choose less common funerary rituals. In all of these cases, the funerary rituals were part of either the liminal or the post-liminal stage of the funerary ceremonies, being connected either with the physical and symbolic treatment of the corpse or with the integration of the deceased into the otherworld, concomitantly with the restoration of the social and spiritual equilibrium of the family or the community.

Keywords

EN

TRANSYLVANIA; SCYTHIANS; BURIALS; FUNERARY PRACTICES; MAGIC

• Publisher: Slovak Academy of Sciences, Archaeological Institute
• Journal: Študijné zvesti
• Year: 2024
• Volume: 71
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 549 - 569

Contributors

author

Rustoiu Aurel

• Academia Română – Filiala Cluj-Napoca, A Institutul de Arheologie şi Istoria Artei, Str. M. Kogălniceanu 12-14, RO – 400084 Cluj-Napoca, Romania

• https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7033-1866

author

Egri Mariana

• https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0729-9338

author

Drăgan Andreea

• https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1694-4471

author

Căsălean Adrian Cătălin

• https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6016-490X

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31577/szausav.2024.71.26