Stadiul cercetării privind practicile funerare la populația geto-dacică în secolele II a. Chr. - I p. Chr.
Current state of research on the funerary practices of the Geto-Dacian people between Second Century BC and First Century AD

Summary/Abstract: This article presents the state of research on the mortuary practices of the Geto-Dacian people between Second Century BC and First C. AD, a period that marks a change in the habits related to the funerary space. The first part of the article discusses explanations in relation to the terms used to mention the population north of the Danube and how these terms were used in contemporary Greek and Latin sources.Next, the main funerary customs practised from the Fifth C BC to Third c. AD. emphasizing the changes occurred that are further discussed in the article. After this, I lay out the main instances with human bones from the studied period, highlighting the fact that these occurrences are not typical for the funerary space. I mention the inventory, the offerings, the population structure by age and sex, the orientation and position of the skeletons (for the inhumation tombs). I also name a few possible explanations of these behaviours. Lastly, I indicate the funerary practices recorded after the Roman conquest (106 AD) for the space inhabited by the Daco-Roman, and the one inhabited by the local population. I stress that both groups reverted to regular habits and the debate on the ethnic distribution from certain necropolises. The last part of the article refers to problems observed in the scientific literature and how these slow down the process of understanding this issue.

• Details
• Contents