Mortuary Practices in the First Iron Age Romanian Frontier: the commingled assemblages of the Magura Uroiului

Summary

Frontiers are fuzzy spaces, allowing for cultural diffusion and the negotiation of cultural identities. Identity is defined both based on interaction and on exclusion of surrounding groups. Located at the confluence of the Mures and Strei Valleys, the Magura Urioului rock formation stands as a natural fortress dominating the built and natural landscape. The highly visible rock outcropping and surrounding terraces have been continuously used by various groups including the Hallstatt, Celtic and Late Iron Age Dacians as fortified settlements. It would have served as a very visible focus for both economic and ritual performance. The focus of this presentation is the First Iron Age funerary monument located at the base of the rock face. Multiple types of human mortuary processing (both primary and secondary burials are present) as well as animal sacrifice and feasting activities are visible, suggesting increasing stratification and differential burial based on gender and age categories. Only adult females and children were found in the monument, suggesting a very complicated mortuary program likely reflecting rapid social hierarchy formation at a time when proximity to newly utilized metals such as copper, iron, tin, gold, and coal would have significantly changed society and social interaction.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• The Bioarchaeology of Frontier and Borderlands

Keywords

Spatial Coverage