Journal Analele Banatului N.S. Archaeology-History

Călin Cosma

Dépôts de vases en céramique dans les tombes de la Transylvanie des VIIe-Xe siècles / Pottery off erings in graves from Transylvania during 7th–10th centuries

Jan. 1, 2012

Abstract

! e archaeological evidence certifi es that the clay vessel one of the artefacts used in funerary practices by those communities who lived in Transylvania during the 7th–10th centuries. ! e custom to place clay objects in graves varies from one community to other, from the frequency way of speaking, regarding the funerary rituals (cremation or inhumation) at both individual level and each of the necropolises, as well, for diff erent chronological segments of the last centuries of the 1st millennium AD. ! e fact that only some of inhumation and cremation graves from the 7th–10th centuries Transylvanian necropolises had also clay vessels could have a double meaning. On one hand, the presence of pottery – entirely or broken preserved – in some of the graves has religious connections. On the other hand, but of same importance, the presence of pottery in grave is a mirror of social realities within those communities. ! e clay vessels placed near some of the funerary urns, or directly on the ground near the piles of cremated human bones can be framed as funerary off erings. ! e family has placed these vessels inside graves wellaware of the magic-religious meaning of these recipients needed to the dead on his way to the ‘everlasting life’. ! e quantity, variety of shapes, but especially the small sizes of this pottery (in most of the cases they are miniature vessels) found in the necropolises from west Romania and the Transylvanian Plateau dated in the 7th–10th centuries may allow to forward the hypothesis on the presence of potters specialized also on funerary pottery.