[gothic-l] Re: Heruls and Archaeology

[faltin2001]

--- In gothic-l at y..., george knysh <gknysh at y...> wrote:
>
> --- faltin2001 <dirk at s...> wrote:
>  bi-ritualism is also
> > observable in the
> > Niemberger and Grossbadegaster Gruppe in middle
> > Germany. Have you
> > heard anything about this custom of placing the dead
> > on their face in
> > the grave and other 'unusual' positions.
>
> *****GK: Sorry for the delay in replying. Thousands of
> 150-450 AD Chernyakhiv graves have been analyzed in
> recent years by Soviet and Ukrainian archaeologists.



I have the article by Schmidt now in front of me. He lists (by name)
48 Chernyakhov/Sintana de Mures cemetaries in modern Germany (i.e.
Thuringia). Schmidt writes that from the 380sAD the Germanic people in
Thuringia adopted body graves instead of, or along with, cremations.
Thus, bi-ritual cemetaries start to occur.


> Apparently what you or your source refer to as "on
> their face" inhumation burials were very rare. (Ukr.
> arch. describe these as "on their bellies" burials).


As stated earlier Schmidt also calls them 'on the belly' graves
(Bauchlage). He also stated that nothing is known about the religious
believes behind this practice, adding that this practice is completely
 absent from Thuringian prior to this time and remains alian compared
to surrounding groups.



> Only two locations seemed to have them (Maslove,
> Kompanijtsi) both located close to the Dnipro/Dnepr
> about halfway between contemporary Kyiv/Kiev and
> Dnipropetrovsk. They are assumed to have "Sarmatian"
> roots, but the reasons for the position remain
> obscure.
> I have no specific information on hand about
> burial practices in inhumation graves of Transylvania.
> BTW were "face/belly" burials also found in Silesia?
> What percentage (approx.) of the Thuringian burials
> were of this type?===



I checked the article and Schmidt does not give a percentage share of
this type of burial. But he said that this burial type is also found
in Silesia in the cemetary of Gross-Suerding (now Zerniki Wielkie in
Poland) and Liebersee/Torgau (German part of Silesia).






 As for "unusual" inhumation
> postures. In Ukraine the overwhelming majority of
> people were buried on their backs, stretched out,
> occasionally with legs crossed plus other minor
> things. Extremely rare were not just the "belly/face"
> burials, but "elevated knee" burials, or "couched on
> the side" burials.



As stated earlier, Schmidt also describes and illustrates the 'couched
on the side' burials in the Niemberger group. He also mentiones 'many'
derivations of the 'couched on the side burials' as well as 'multiple'
graves, which contained more than one body. He states that these
burial types directly link the Niemberger and Grossbadegaster groups
with the western Chernyakhov and Sintana de Mures cultures. He says
that the Thuringian burials are virtually identical to those  between
Danube and Dnjestr, e.g. at Tirgosor, Spantov, Indepedenta,
Marosszentana (=Sintana de Mures) and Oinac.





> Archaeologists tend to classify
> inhumation burials here not so much by the posture of
> the cadavers (since it is overwhelmingly the same) as
> by the orientation of the head (north? west?) and by
> the type of grave shaft plus inventory.******




Schmidt said that with the influx of the Chernyakov/Sintana de Mures
people to Thuringia the orientation of the head of the dead started to
vary. Thus, while most graves are oriented north-south, we also get
south-north, west-east and east-west.
About the possible ethnicity of these people, Schmidt states only that
the Niemberger and Grossbadegaster groups in Germany were constituted
out of the 'Konkursmasse' (i.e. left-overs) of the Gothic empire at
the Black Sea.

cheers,
Dirk






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