Results found: 2

Search results

Sort By:

Limit search:

Kultura strzyżowska w świetle znalezisk grobowych

100%

Bargieł B.

Wiadomości Archeologiczne

2006

vol. LVIII

issue 58

65-99

Publishing his monograph on the Strzyżów Culture in 1968 J. Głosik had at his disposal materials obtained from 18 sites located in 14 towns from the Lublin Region, among which there were seven cemeteries. The insufficient knowledge about the cultural situation in phase I of the Bronze Age in mid-eastern Poland resulted in including all these features into that culture. Today, we know that they should be divided between the Strzyżów and Mierzanowice Cultures. Cemeteries and individual graves typically located at hills do not represent the actual original set-up. Hence, they often differ in size today, which is also connected with the extent to which the individual features have been excavated. The recorded form of burials at all cemeteries are flat (at discovery) inhumation graves, which are sometimes arranged in rows and contain human remains of different state of preservation. The bodies were mainly laid in a supine position and were oriented along the E-W axis. The gender and age were determined for 56 individuals (42 graves), which included 41% of women, 34% of men, while the rest were children and adolescent individuals. Among 20 women, the greatest death rate was noted in the age groups adultus (35%) and maturus (45%). Among men, the majority of deaths occurred at the age group maturus (92.9%), with a minimal fraction of the individuals who died at the age of 20 (7.1%). The average lifespan for men in the society of the Strzyżów Culture is 41.6 and it is 33.8 for women. The burial furniture deposited in 76 features (88.3%) is diverse and comprises mainly artefacts made of clay, flint, stone, copper, bone, shell and faience. The most common are vessels which have a unique character, which is easily detectable from materials of other cultures. These are, among others, such characteristic features as rich ornamentation in the form of densely arranged impressions of rope with less numerous other features (stamps, engraved lines) and strong wiping with a bunch of straw of the surface of the vessel before burning. Among the flint materials, which are copiously represented at cemeteries and made solely of the Volhynian flint, one can distinguish a few groups. The first one, and the most numerous group includes subtriangular sickle-shaped knives with sharply ended top, lenticular axes, heart-shaped arrowheads, individual ‘spearheads’. Artefacts of stone other than flint are represented by an individual battle axe On the other hand, copper artefacts include earrings and bracelets. The burials also contained bone and faience beads, pendants made of antlers and halved tusks of a wild boar. Among the materials constituting the furniture of the graves 30 types of artefacts were distinguished. Most of them were noted in Husynne Kolonia 6 and in Raciborowice-Kolonia II. It seems, that elements which could be unequivocally attributed to one of the genders are missing in the structure of grave furniture. The relation between the type of grave goods and gender or age could be analysed on the basis of 49 burials. In 22 female graves, a richer and more varied furniture was noted – 26 types of artefacts (the indicator of an average furniture 3.3). In male graves, 15 types of artefacts were found with an average coming close to the female ones (3.2). Much poorer are the burials of children and adolescent individuals (indicator: 0.8). An analysis of the inventories of the Strzyżów Culture leads us to the conclusion that the burial “richness’ does not closely reflect the relation between gender and age of the dead, and hence, the ritual does not fully reflect (?) the internal social structure of the group. We also do not understand the reasons why the grave of two adolescent individuals (Raciborowice-Kolonia II, grave 7) was honoured with the most rich furniture. The absence of C14 dating for the assemblages of the Strzyżów Culture and for the stratification layers makes it quite difficult to posit the chronology for this unit. Most probably, the Strzyżów Culture can be synchronised with the classical phase of the Mierzanowice Culture, developing at the territory of Little Poland. At Volhynia, this corresponds to the disappearance of the so called Gródek-Zdołbice Culture constituting a counterpart of the early phase of the Mierzanowice Culture.

Zespoły grobowe z krzemiennymi płoszczami w Małopolsce i na Wołyniu

63%

Bargieł B., Libera J.

Wiadomości Archeologiczne

2005

vol. LVII

issue 57

3-27

Large bifacially-worked flint points also called projectiles (other names: spearpoints, daggers) constituted a regular element of the tool inventory of the communities inhabiting the territory of the Little Poland and Volhynia, especially in the Early Bronze Age. Despite their considerable number (over 350 items) almost 90% of the collection comprises stray finds that is ones which are deprived of the archaeological context. A third of the remaining group represents artefacts obtained from destroyed and impossible to reconstruct features, which were typically found by accidental discoverers. So far, 39 projectile points are known which were recorded in graves in the Little Poland and Volhynia, of which 13 come from destroyed burials or constitute the so called stray finds obtained from the surface of inhumation cemeteries (Table 1). An analysis of three most important cemeteries (Czerniczyn, site 3, Strzyżów and Torczyn) allows us to conclude that flint projectiles appear in the early phase of the Mierzanowice Culture. They occur in graves which are devoid of ceramics and in which the individuals exhibited various degrees of crouching. The mutual similarity between these points paved the way for distinguishing the points of the Czerniczyn-Torczyn type (Fig. 19) including both the lean and bulky forms with a triangular and leaf-shaped top. They had a short or long tang which could be either weakly or clearly distinguished (Fig. 1–5, 8B.D, 9, 10, 12, 13, 18). In the late phase of the Mierzanowice Culture, asymmetrical points occur which are made of local raw material and constitute transitional forms between the tanged projectile points of the Czerniczyn-Torczyn type and the tangless specimens (Fig. 6, 14). Quite different points are connected with the Strzyżów Culture, which have so far been known only from one cemetery in Raciborowice-Kolonia, site II, grave 23 and 24. They represent the sub-oval and pentagonal type (Fig. 6, 14). The problem of determining the specific usage of this type of bifacial tool by the societies of the Trzciniec and Lusatian Cultures is extremely difficult. Taking into account the knowledge of the bilaterally retouch technique it is impossible to exclude the possibility that the people of these cultures knew and were able to produce flint projectile points. Nonetheless, in the case of the artefacts under discussion, it is highly probable that both cultures adopted the points of the “older cultures”. The problem of the origins of the bifacial points produced in the Volhynian workshops is yet to thoroughly study. The lean and bulky triangular and leaf-shaped tanged projectile points which were produced there, as well as the analogical tools with weakly distinguished tangs called projectiles of the Czerniczyn-Torczyn type, should probably viewed as connected with the people of the so called Gródek-Zdołbica group of the Mierzanowice Culture at the territory of Volhynia. On the other hand, in the Little Poland, their presence should be associated with the phenomenon of ceramic-free crouched burials of this culture, which was established on the basis of uncalibrated radiocarbon dates obtained from the cemetery in Czerniczyn (1770 ± 30 BC and 1740 ± 30 BC) and similar features (devoid of projectile points) discovered in Szpikołosy Kolonia – 1790 ± 70 BC and in Świerszczów Kolonia, site 28 – 1870 ± 40 BC (Fig. 24). Generally, this phenomenon should be connected with the second quarter of the 18th century BC and synchronised with the early phase of the Mierzanowice Culture. Another horizon of the occurrence of projectile points at the territory under discussion can be determined by lean leaf-shaped tangless points having a bottom with a distinguished base. An item of this type comes from a destroyed grave from Beresteczko, and also from the Dniester and Horodenka rivers. The appearance of flint projectile points in the Western Ukraine was most probably due to the Gródek-Zdołbice people who produced them in the workshops situated beyond the upper sections of the Horyn and Styr rivers, from where they spread into the area of Polesie, Little Poland, Mazowsze, Podlasie and the Sieradz Land (Fig. 20–23). In the later period they were supplemented by tools based on local raw materials, that is, the Świeciechów, chocolate, and Jurassic flint (Fig. 25). The flint projectile points should undoubtedly be viewed as multifunctional tools which could be used at work, battle, as well as the attributes of power. At a later stage, probably from the second half of the classic phase of the Mierzanowice Culture, they began to be replaced by other multifunctional bifacial tools such as sickle-shaped knives having a similar function as points (stilettos, knives, daggers, sickles), which were frequently deposited at the cemeteries of this culture at the territory of Sandomierz Upland (Mierzanowice, Wojciechowice, Złota). Initially, both these forms could have co-existed. The reversal of the quantitative proportions took place towards the end of the classic phase of the Mierzanowice Culture. It should be noted that a series of both tools bare similar macro-traces of work in the form of gloss (almost lustrous) with a similar location with respect to their cutting-edges and the top.

Refine search results

2 Wiadomości Archeologiczne

2 Bargieł B.

1 Libera J.

1 2006

1 2005

Search results

Kultura strzyżowska w świetle znalezisk grobowych

Zespoły grobowe z krzemiennymi płoszczami w Małopolsce i na Wołyniu