MARKERS OF SOCIAL IDENTITY FROM EARLY IRON AGE BURIALS IN THRACE.NOTES ON THE GRAVE GOODS FROM A ’WARRIOR’S GRAVE’ IN THE AREA OF MARITSA VALLEY
MARKERS OF SOCIAL IDENTITY FROM EARLY IRON AGE BURIALS IN THRACE.NOTES ON THE GRAVE GOODS FROM A ’WARRIOR’S GRAVE’ IN THE AREA OF MARITSA VALLEY

Summary/Abstract: The paper offers a re-examination of an EIA tumular grave located in the area of Maritsa valley, near the village of Novo Selo, Stamboliyski Region. Given its ‘unusual’ character, it is surprising that after the first publication in 2004, it was mentioned scarcely or is absent from the discussions in the literature. Having analyzed the specifics of the grave goods it was possible to argue that the complex should be dated no later than to the 8th century BC. The comparisons with similar synchronous and diachronic complexes from the Balkans and the Aegean region as well - the so-called ‘burials with weapons’, or ‘princely graves’ - allowed to outline its key role in the future discussions on the local specifics of the complex processes that took shape in Thrace during the EIA, e.g. the formation of new social identities and the emerging of local elites.

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