Funerary Ditched Enclosures in the Sarmatian Funerary Ritual. Observations Regarding Their Introduction, Distribution, Use, and Dating
Funerary Ditched Enclosures in the Sarmatian Funerary Ritual. Observations Regarding Their Introduction, Distribution, Use, and Dating

Summary/Abstract: Without aiming at being exhaustive, the present study attempts to present the circular, square,rectangular, or trapezoidal ditched enclosures, with or without graves inside, from the Sarmatian environment.The analysis has shown that the Sarmatians started to use such enclosures in barrow necropolises and undersome of the singular Sarmatian barrows from the area north of the Black Sea ever since the Middle SarmatianPeriod (1st century – first half of the 2nd century AD). The author notes the fact that the earliest square ditchedenclosures without inner graves were found in the necropolises from Chertovitski II and Pisarevka (left of theMiddle Don) and Medeleni (in the Prut-Dniester interfluve). He also notes that the earliest circular ditched enclosureswith graves in the inner area are attested below a series of barrows dated to the Middle Sarmatian Period(Obileni, Cazaclia (the Prut-Dniester area), Verbki, Marina Roshcha (left of the Middle Dnieper), Kobyakovo(right of the Lower Don), as well as those in Krivoj Liman and Novoaleksandrovka I (left of the Lower Don).The analysis has indicated that at the current stage of research, most of the ditched enclosures from thenorth-Pontic area mainly cluster in the Prut-Dniester interfluve, where most are dated to the second half ofthe 2nd century – the first half of the 3rd century AD (the first stage of the Late Sarmatian Period), but are alsoencountered during the second half of the 3rd century – the beginning of the 4th century AD. A similar situationwas noted for the Lower Don Basin, where funerary ditched enclosures were discovered below barrows dated tothe second half of the 3rd century – the beginning/middle of the 4th century AD.Similar funerary ditched enclosures are also present both in the habitation area of the Sarmatians in thePannonian Plain and in the territory inhabited by Sarmatians in the Don Basin. It has been noted that thesquare, rectangular, and circular enclosures from the area of the Lower Don, most of which contained gravesinside, can be largely dated to the chronological interval between the 2nd century and the beginning/first half ofthe 4th century AD. In the environment of the Sarmatians from the Pannonian Plain, these ditched enclosureswere brought by immigrants from the north-west Pontic steppes in the end of the 2nd century AD (right after theMarcomannic Wars) and were used in this area until the disappearance of the Sarmatians from the CarpathianBasin. Most of the ditches are circular, but some are oval, square, or even polygonal with six or eight corners. Thesquare ditched enclosures from the Pannonian Plain differ from those in the north and north-west Pontic areathrough the existence of graves inside most of these enclosures.Taking into account all of these facts, the author concludes that ditched enclosures, following groundplans of different shapes, with or without inner graves, functioned as scenes for ritual actions connected tothe funerary banquet and other elements of the cult of the dead. In the case of enclosures with graves inside,the ditches probably also separated the deceased from the outer world. The author has also concluded that thefunerary ditched enclosures in the north Pontic area are mainly an attribute of the barrow funerary ritual. Lastbut not least, the author tends to believe in the eastern origin of the ditched enclosures from the Sarmatianenvironment.

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