Revista Analele Banatului S.N. Arheologie-Istorie

George Tomegea

Accesorii vestimentare şi podoabe în necropolele birituale din Transilvania (sec. VII–IX) / Clothing Accessories and Finery Found in Biritual Necropolises in Transylvania (7th–9th centuries)

1 Ianuarie 2011

Abstract

Within the contents of this study we have focused on the analysis of clothing accessories and of finery found in cremation as well as in inhumation graves as part of the cemeteries of whose biritual character we are certain of. Due to the fact that the Berghin and Târnava cemeteries have not been published yet, the author will refer to them only to the extent to which certain inventory items are mentioned in other studies. Even from the beginning we have to mention the fact that these items are not of large number compared to the high number of the graves discovered, firstly due to the large number of incineration graves which led to their demise through the process of burning and secondly because of the shallowness of the graves which led to their obliteration due to several agricultural or town planning work processes. As items of clothing accessories only different types of belt buckles (round, rectangular, trapeze shaped, metal plate) and fibulas have been found. Items of finery have also been found like belt ornaments (especially Avar cast ones), different types of earrings (simple, half moon shaped, with a cluster made of metal grains, with a spiral shaped pendant, with a spheric pendant) bracelets, rings and beads. A first conclusion can be drawn, in that there is a significant difference between the number of the graves in which clothing accessories and those in which produced finery items – the latter are of a much larger number. Furthermore, concerning the incineration and the inhumation types of graves one difference becomes obvious and that is more clothing accessories have been found in cremation tombs than in those of inhumation, while the finery were of a larger number in the inhumation tombs. These differences are caused by the larger number of incineration tombs but also by the fact that a lot of items found in this type of graves have been destroyed once the dead person was burnt on the funeral pyre. We must also mention the fact that the most of the latter category of objects come from the Bratei cemetery, a fact that is not in the least surprising since this is the biggest cemetery of this type which was published. We must also note the existence of only two graves, one of cremation and another one of inhumation in which items of both categories can be found, namely beads and belt buckles. In a series of inhumation graves earrings have been discovered in association with beads. Their discovery in both types of graves, together with other items (especially ceramic material), but sustained by the intercalation of the inhumation graves amongst those of cremation, prove that they coexisted in the same timespan and the biritual character of these cemeteries. m e analogies with similar items from the Carpathic area but also with areas to the East or to the South of the Carpathians support the dating of these cemeteries within the 7th and the 9th century.