Cimitirul din Epoca Bronzului de la Cârlomǎneşti – La Arman. Campaniile 2003–2007
The Bronze Age Cemetery from Cârlomǎneşti – La Arman (Excavations 2003–2007)

Summary/Abstract: Some years ago, the villagers from Cârlomăneşti, county Buzău, in several times had discovered by accident shards of clay pots and human bones all belonging to some burials in the neighborhood of the well known Bronze Age settlement situated on the point called Cetăţuia. Although in Cetǎţuia were performed archaeological researches on a large scale during several campaigns in 1972–1981, only one tomb, belonging to a late stage of Monteoru culture, was discovered inside the settlement, the place of the necropolis remaining unknown. These burials belong to a cemetery which is placed on a large plateau called La arman, one the northern terrace of Nişcov spring at about 400 m south-west of the settlement Cetǎţuia. To day, the terrace is about 40 m height and is cultivated with maize. The first tombs appeared in a ravine, which „cut” the plateau and became the main street of the village. In a rescue intervention in fall, 2001 was excavated the first grave (Grave no.1). The people already destroyed another grave in 1999, its position could not be précised (Grave no. 00). After the inventory – especially a cup with two handles – of the Grave no. 1, the burial belongs to the „phase” Ic1 of the Monteoru culture. Due to the time of crop and restricted financial support, the rescue excavations, which began in 2003, were made on a restricted scale. In the same time was drawing up a topographical sketch of the entire plateau. The research conducted with this occasions over a large area indicate that the real surface of the funerary zone seems to be very large, a good part of it being superposed today by the village. During the five campaigns of archaeological excavations – 2003–2007 – on a surface of about 200 square meters have been discovered 24 funerary objects. From the stratigraphical point of view, numerous shards, animal bones, pieces of burnt adobe and some stones represent the first archaeological level. According to the pottery, this level belongs to the late period of the Bronze Age, i.e. a late phase of Monteoru culture, characterized by a ware category of common use with the broomed surface, of the so-called Besenstrich type, but always in association with typical Monteoru IIb pottery style. In two cases in these pits, belonging to this level, we discovered 10 human teeth – pit no. 26 – and some human bones – pit no. 27. In the proximity of these objects, there were not graves so these human bones could not be from disturbed burials. In the same time were not at all founded rests of dwellings and some special features of these late pits indicated a special function. Unfortunately, we have not yet sufficient data to solve the problem concerning the exact relations between these pits and the tombs. The skeletons lay crouched on the left side. There are some exceptions, such as Grave no. 5 (a male) with the skeleton lays on the right side and Grave no. 11 and 19 with the skeletons (both female) lying on the belly but with the skulls on the left side and the legs flexed and laying also on the left. All skeletons had the skulls toward SSW or SW. Very interesting is the manner in which some grave pits were dug, i.e. the graves no. 2, 8, 12 and 13 with a pit with 2 stairs, or the custom to fill up the pit-grave with a lot of stones and pebbles sometimes eve with pieces of burnt adobe. The rest of the tombs had the skeletons covered also by pebbles and in the middle of these a large slab of conglomerate such as in the Grave no. 5. Also were discovered another four objects without human bones – Graves’ no. 12–15. The structure of these – pit, in two cases with step, and the filling with a large amount of rocks – and the inventory – a cup for Graves no. 12–14 – are very close to those of the tombs reason for which all these four objects could be considered as symbolic graves, so-called „cenotaphs”. A special case is the Grave no. 10. The tomb had an oblong pit with some rocks around and inside a double handled cup. In the pit were discovered only small pieces of burnt bone. The form and dimensions of the pit are unusual for a cremation grave and the burnt bones were too small to see if they are human ones or not. We think that the grave no. 10 could be also a „cenotaph”. Burnt bones were founded also in Grave no. 23 beside the skeleton, so we could say that the practice of burning the corpses is proved. The custom to fill the pit graves with pebbles is known in south Basarabia for some tombs in barrows belonging to Mnogovalikovaja culture. The grave pits with steps are of an old tradition, well known in the kurgans of the Pit Grave Culture/Jamnaja, but again some tombs with such pits were discovered in Mnogovalikovaja barrows in the nord-pontic steppe. These two structural elements reveal the connections between Monteoru area and the eastern regions. The inventories of the tombs consist of jewelry – earrings, a fragment of a bracelet and two metal collar so-called Ösenhalsring, caolin pearls in one case –, and pottery. The two copper collars represent jewelry not at all frequent for Monteoru burials but with good parallels in the cemeteries from Central Europe, i.e. the area of Periam-Pecica culture, a region where these adornments seem to came from. The earrings also made of copper – Grave no. 1, 4, 8, 11, and 23 – are of common types for the Middle Bronze Age. The main type of ware is the two-handled cup of so-called kantharos type and its presence indicate the special meaning of the beverage during the funerary ceremony but in a symbolic way as is proved by the fact that in the each two-handled cup of the Grave no. 19 and Grave no. 24 were founded another small bowls, the so called pixida. The first two-handled cup has decoration in a typical manner of the Monteoru Ic3 style, so the Grave no. 19 could be the oldest. The vessel from Grave no. 2 has a decoration typical for to the Monteoru Ic1 style like the cup from Grave no. 24 for which we have a 14C dating between 2030–1870 BC. The two-handled cup of the Grave no. 10 typical to the style Ib is the earliest. For some graves – Graves no. 4, 7–8 and 11 – were discovered shards scattered in the pit filling together with fragments of animal bones, perhaps as an element of the mortuary ceremony. The cemetery ceased to function some time before the Late Bronze Age as is proved by the pits (no. 10a–b, 14, 24, 26 27 and 29) with a pottery characteristic for the final stage of Monteoru culture.

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