The Illyrian tumulus of Volčje njive

Abstract

The village of Volčje n jiv e is situated in the south of the M irna v alley not far from the alread y know n finding-places 2—4, am ong w hich M okronog should be p articu larly pointed out. The tum ulus lay on the ridge of an oblong hill w hich shuts off the M irna valley to the south; it was 12 m eters long, 8 m eters wide and up to 2,3 m eters high. T he irregular form of the burial-m ound is due to the configuration of the ground. The type to w hich the tum ulus belongs is a group of sm aller burial[1]m ounds, hundreds of w hich w ere excavated in Slovenia, m ostly in D olenjsko (Lower Carniola), before 1914. Since these excavations w ere carried out un sy ­ stem atically, there exists practically no excavation plan, so th a t the sort of in term en t w ith w hich we are to deal gives no inform ation w hether the single item s point to a typical b u rial custom or at one deviating from the rule. At p rese n t three kinds of tum uli can be distinguished in Slovenia: 1. large m ounds having a diam eter of above 30 m etres; 2. m edium -sized m ounds, w hich cor[1]respond in size as well as in num ber of the bu rials to th at of V olčje njiv e; 3. sm aller m ounds, w hich a re as large as those of group 2 b u t com prise few er burials. In the tum ulus of V olčje njive 22 burials have been excavated: a b u rn t b u rial and 21 skeleton burials. One or even tw o burials m ay have been de­ stro y ed before the excavations. F airly abundant stray findes suggest a destruction of b u rial units through interm ents as far back as the tim es of the Illyrians. Concerning th e ir sex, 10 of the skeletons belong to men, 2 to w om en, 5 to children, w heras the sex of the rem aining 5 is undefinable. The b u rn t b u rial ap p a ren tly contains the rem ains of a woman. A rchaeological accessories m ake it possible to ascertain the sex; anthropological findings agree w ith this, provided the skeletons a re sufficiently preserved for exam inations of the kind. W om en an d children used to w ear ear-rings, necklaces, bracelets (more rarely anklets) as w ell as a fibula, occasionally also a knife. M en’s accessories w ere such com m odities as girdleplates, axes, knives, awls, tw eezers — ornam ents and fibulae not being common. Vessels w ere placed at the feet of m en and women. T h e corpses w ere buried lying on the back w ith outstretched arm s. The o rien ­ tatio n of the skeletons is varied and indiscrim inate. Eleven skeletons lay on rocky ground, 6 lay in the heaped-up earth o f the mound, 5 w ere cut in the rock. The burial-m ound did not come in to existence all at once but expanded w ith additional burials. The oldest section is the one containing burials 3, 4, 5 and 9. L ater on, the tum ulus expanded eastw ards, the corpses being occasionally b u rie d in the m ound. F ive burials w ere protected b y a la y er of stones, w hich was by no m eans the usual practice. A bout a q u a rte r of the skeletons — all of them m en’s — la y in coffins (burials 6, 10, 13, 15, 20). A hollow ed-out tre e tru n k ap p a ren tly served as coffin, w hich can be seen p articu la rly w ell in b u rial 10; how ever, this kind of coffin cannot be clearly ascertained in ev ery case. According to stratig rap h ic observations the only b u rn t b u rial in the tum ulus belongs to those of a younger period, although the shape of th e urn is rath e r antique. The u rn was placed at the head of skeleton 19, w hich is bound to lead us w ith considerable certain ty to the conclusion th a t a sim ultaneous b iritu a l in term en t of two individuals took place; these w ere possibly o f different sex (skeleton 19 is a m an’s, the b u rn t b u rial probably a w om an’s). One w ould be tem pted to explain the different kind of in term en t as due to th eir belonging to different national groups; how ever, this could h ard ly be proved. The problem of a single b u rn t b u ria l beside 21 skeleton bu rials rem ains obscure. In the Slovene iron-age civilization the b u rial custom w ith the sam e ethnical group changes twice, or rath e r, a tendency tow ards a transition to another b u rial custom m ay be observed tw ice. D uring Hz C (according to Reinecke) the b u rn t b u ria l is used exclusively, a t the end of this period the skeleton burial is added a n d this prevails durin g Hz D m ostly in D olenjsko and to a sm aller ex ten t in o th er parts of Slovenia. A t the end of Hz D th e re is a revival of the b u rning of corpses. In the transition periods more o r less both b u rial custom s are practised. The cause of the changes in b u rial custom s has n o t y et been ex ­ plained. In our case it is a question of a revival of the custom of burning, b u t it is difficult to determ ine w hat brought it about. How com plicated this problem is m ay be best seen from the fact th a t the b u rn t b u rial is ch aracteristic of the C elts in this region, w hereas to the north of the Alps the C elts used tu b u ry th e ir dead. Thus R einecke came to the assum ption th at the Illyrians and the C elts in the are a of the E ast Alps interm ingled, w hich prevented the typically C eltic skeleton b u rial from asserting itself. The idea itself would be v ery tem pting unless the Illy rian s in D olenjsko, w here they are not strongly re p re ­ sented, had not practised bury in g to a large ex ten t and b u rning only seldom in the period im m ediately before the penetration of the Celts. P a rtic u larly in Dolenjsko the custom of burning the corpses is at the time of the arrival of the Celts no such characteristic element as to be communicated to another people. Consequently the Celts must have brought with them into this area the custom of burning their dead. In our case it is difficult to decide whether this isolated burnt burial in the tumulus indicates a general tendency of the period, which exercised its influence to the same degree over the Celts as well as the Illyrians, or it is a continuation of the old Illyrian custom which never com[1]pletely died out even in Dolenjsko, or we must consider it as a custom already taken over by the Celts. Finds in pottery present cu ltu raly a fairly uniform picture. The final types of th e younger H allstatt native po ttery are represented throughout. At th e tim e of the tum ulus in question we can discover no essential im provem ent in th e developm ent of native H allstatt pottery b u t a decline of the usual form s on the one hand and an increase of the new L atène form s on the other. These can also be observed alread y in our m aterial (ill. V, 4; I, 2). The m aterial to b e com pared is ex trao rd in arily abundant; the m aterial from the com plex of finds from Sm arjeta, M agdalenska gora and M okronog m ust be specially m entioned. W hat is typical of the b u rial po ttery of this period are the baroque richly jointed shapes w hich becom e prom inent in the m ore elaborate pieces. T h e vessels have usually a foot or the spherical body passes w ithout sharp sepa[1]ration into the omphalos bottom . In pottery special attention m ust be paid to the bottle-shaped sieve p ip e tte w ith the cup to m atch (ill. IV, 2, 3). F or filling the pipette w as dipped w ith its sieve-like bottom into the liquid, then the n arro w e r m outh was stopped and the liquid was ready to be transferred. In o u r case this usage w as also explained by the finding of a cup whose m outh corresponds exactly to th e bottom of the sieve pipette. The common purpose of the two vessels has thus been proved. The m anufacturing and use of a vessel of this k in d suggests a certain know ledge of hydrostatic laws on the p a rt of the Illyrians. Typological objects for im m ediate com parison are p ractically non-existent; still, some vessels th a t are shaped according to the same fundam ental principle of tra n s[1]portation of liquids m ay be m entioned. This very principle is im portant in o u r case. It has its origin w ith the G reeks. In G reece the kind of transfusion is know n as early as the period of the ceram ics of b lack figures in the 6111 cen tu ry The shape of our vessel does not indicate any relationship to the G reek vessels, b u t th e re is a relation in the w ay they w ere used. In G reek authors we find descriptions of the m anufacture and use of such vessels, w hich served to them for decanting w ine. It is m ore difficult to ascertain for w hat liquid o u r vessel was used. In principle it could have served for an y drink, above all for the w ell-know n Illy rian mead. In our case another Illy rian d rin k m ay also be taken into consideration: sabaium or sabaia (34), w hich was m ade ex fungibus aquaque, as reported by A m m ianus M arcelllinus (35). F or this drink filterin g was p articu larly required. If we have ascertained th at the basic principle of the sieve pipette is of G reek origin, w e m ay also assume th a t the Illy rian s took it over from the G reeks. It is im possible to find out w hen and how it happened because of w ant of palpable proofs. Judging by th e technique of m anufacture our sieve p ip ette is a native product and corresponds com pletely to the red-clay pottery m ade in the area, some pieces of w hich w ere found also in the tum ulus of V olčje njive.The num ber of m etal objects in m en’s burials is small. G irdle-plates of rectan g u lar (6 pieces) or rhom bic form (1 piece) are the most frequent. F our of these articles are m ade of iron, three of bronze. They are less in terestin g in th e ir shape than in the w ay of m anufacture. N early all girdle-plates w ere rep aired when they w ere still being used and the bronze plate of w hich they w ere m ade had been used before. The rectangular girdle-clasps, especially those m ade of bronze, a lre ad y fall out of use in the period. New types ap p ear, b u t they are not yet to be found am ong the articles dug out a t V olčje njive. How some of the objects w ere used (ill. XIX, 10; II, 1) is obscure. The la tte r seems to occur m ore freq u en tly in the M ecklenburg collection (48) and has to all appearance a sym bolical m eaning. Two of the battle-axes (ill. VII, 1; XVIII, 3) are typical of the younger H allstatt period, the th ird (ill. XVII, 1) is ra re and seem s to have come into exsistence un d er Scythian influence. Among th e p rac[1]tical objects two awls from burials 8 and 10 as w ell as a p air of tw eezers from b u rial 20 m ay fu rth e r be m entioned. The metal objects found in women’s burials do not differ from the usual material of the later younger Hallstatt period. Particularly frequent are the types which extend far into the Latène period in the Illyrian area which remained intact from the arrival of the Celts. The same m aterial w hich typologically still belongs to the H allstatt period is found also la te r in connection w ith m arkedly L atène m aterial. The same fibulae that we find a t V olčje njive often occur together w ith the so-called anim al-head fibulae — a type to which M erhart (52) already called attention and w hich he described as typical of the 4th century in those Illy rian areas w hich had at the tim e rem ained untouched b y the Celts. V ery interesting are the ear-rings that have been found. The first ty p e (ill.1 V ili, 1, 2) w as in use all over the Slovene are a since e a rly H allstatt D period. The second (ill. VI, 1; XV, 6) and the th ird type (ill. X, 1, 2) a re less know n in literatu re b u t occur in g rea t num bers and in m any v arian ts at M okronog and S m arjeta. The articles th a t have been found are young, it is true, b u t typologically we can trace them back to th e urn-field civilization an d even to the bronze age (57). In neck ornam ents glass an d am ber prevail; only one bronze neck-ring has been found. T he form er tw o m aterials are ab undantly represented in the younger H allstatt period (and also later on) in the area of the E ast Alps. Typologically th e archaeological finds of V olčje njive belong to the last phase of the younger H allstatt civilization, w hich had been developed by the Illy rian s before the a rriv a l of the Celts into tie M irna valley. M okronog the C eltic settlem ent situated 2 kilom etres aw ay, dates from about 300 A. D. and does not yet exercise an y influence on the m aterial of Volčje njive. This fact w ould p u t the tum ulus in to the second half of the younger H allsta tt period (Vače II b according to Stare) (450—350 B. c.). In so fa r as it is possible to p ro ­ nounce a judgem ent before a thorough exam ination of the finding-places of M okronog and M arjeta, tow ards w hich V olčje n jiv e tends in the first place, we could even take into consideration a younger phase of this period, nam ely th e tim e som ew here about 400, the fourth ce n tu ry being m ore likely than the fifth. Thus the finds in the tumulus of Volčje njive give us a picture of the way of life of the Illyrians in the last certury before the arrival of the Celts intothe Mirna valley. The material as well as the burial custom are closely connected with Mokronog, Šmarjeta and Magdalenska gora and through these with whole material of the southern East Alpine region. Sv. Lucija, Bohinj and the Ca[1]rinthian finding-places were mentioned when we were dealing with the finding-places which show identical material. The southern East Alpine area is at the time still an undivided complex and has a uniform development. Its characteristic is a continuance of hereditary tradition, which, loses, however, its former richness. The Illyrian Hallstatt civilization is no longer creative and even the heritage becomes more primitive and is on the decrease. The once so rich toreutic handicraft disappears almost completely, influences of foreign cultural spheres are scarcely felt. On the frontières of the East Alpine area new political forces spring up or already exist (the Celts and the Japods), which encroach upon the former trade relations. The one-time great differences in wealth are disappearing. It is possible that also within the southern East Alpine area a shifting of political forces and wealth ownership takes place at the time.