image/svg+xml149XI/2/2020INTERDISCIPLINARIA ARCHAEOLOGICANATURAL SCIENCES IN ARCHAEOLOGYhomepage: http://www.iansa.euAnimal and Plant Remains from Two Kalenderberg Group (Hallstatt Culture) Cremation Graves in Devín-Záhrady, SlovakiaZora Bielichováa, Mária Hajnalováb*, Petra Kmeťovác, Peter BartadaInstitute of Archaeology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Akademická 2, 94921 Nitra, SlovakiabDepartment of Archaeology, Constantine the Philosopher University, Hodžova 1, 94974 Nitra, SlovakiacThe Monuments Board of the Slovak Republic, Cesta na Červený most 6, 81406 Bratislava, SlovakiadDepartment of Archaeology, Comenius University in Bratislava, Gondova 2, 81102 Bratislava, Slovakia1. IntroductionThe Kalenderberg Group (for review see Nebelsick, 1997) was part of the Eastern Hallstatt Culture or Northeastern Alpine Hallstatt region. It formed in eastern Austria (Lower Austria, Burgenland), the westernmost part of western Hungary (Lake Neusiedl area), and the western part of southwestern Slovakia, developing out of the local Late Bronze Age Urnfeld Culture. What is known at present about the graves and burial rituals of the Kalenderberg Group is mostly based on excavations of large barrows, the resting places of the elite (Nebelsick, 1997, pp.50–62; Pichlerová, 1969; Preinfalk, 2003; Rebay, 2002; Studeníková, 1994; 1996), while published information on more modest, so-called “simple” or “fat” graves, once perhaps associated with small mounds, is rare (e.g. Lochner, 1988; Rebay, 2006). Previous studies show that traditional cremation burial ritual predominated. The human cremation remains were placed in graves along with sets of pottery vessels, food, jewellery and components of clothing, tools, and occasionally also symbolic objects. Graves were frequently covered with burial mounds of various sizes. Large barrows, several meters in height, were constructed for individuals on the top of the social hierarchy. Rich grave goods suggest that oferings of meat (Müller-Scheeßel and Trebsche, 2007; Kmeťová, 2017a) and drinks stored mainly in ceramic vessels (e.g.Nebelsick, 2000) were commonly placed in graves. Detailed descriptions of meat oferings or animal remains refecting other purposes in graves are discussed only sporadically in the literature. Very little is also known about plant remains from graves. What Volume XI ● Issue 2/2020 ● Pages 149–176*Corresponding author. E-mail: mhajnalova@ukf.skARTICLE INFOArticle history:Received: 16thJune 2020Accepted: 19thNovember 2020DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24916/iansa.2020.2.2Key words:Early Iron AgeEastern Hallstatt CultureKalenderberg Groupcremation gravesburial ritualsarchaeozoologyarchaeobotany14CresidualityintrusionABSTRACTThe fotation of deposits from two recently excavated Kalenderberg Group cremation graves in Devín-Záhrady (SW Slovakia) yielded a plethora of archaeozoological and archaeobotanical remains, including small, otherwise overlooked, ecofacts. The results of our analysis in the context of contemporary data show that animals clearly constituted an unambiguous part of funerary ritual activities. Pig, fsh, red deer, cattle and caprines were all exploited at Devín-Záhrady. These animals represented both food and symbolic oferings, with a preference for pig and fsh. Cattle, red deer, pig and caprines astragali found in grave 2 were all associated with one of the urns. The age of perinatal piglets was used to indicate the season when the funerals took place. Plant macro-remains are much less common than bone remains and are not associated with the burial. The results of the analysis change what is known about the array, quantity and way animal and plant oferings from Kalenderberg Group cremation graves were prepared for the burial ritual. Their study also permitted residual and intrusive materials to be detected, allowed reconstruction of the deposit’s formation processes and establishment of the connections (or absence of connections) between these ecofacts to the funeral and/or burial ritual.
image/svg+xmlIANSA 2020 ● XI/2 ● 149–176Zora Bielichová, Mária Hajnalová, Petra Kmeťová, Peter Barta: Animal and Plant Remains from Two Kalenderberg Group (Hallstatt Culture) Cremation Graves in Devín-Záhrady, Slovakia150has been discovered are thought to represent food-oferings burned on the pyre (Hladíková and Kmeťová, 2019; cf.also Stadler, 2010, pp.81–82). The systematic sampling of deposits and fotation as a means of extracting organic remains (including seeds, charcoal, small vertebrate bones, fsh remains, mollusc shells, insects etc.) still rarely takes place and/or the research results are not published.The aim of this study is to present and interpret the animal and plant specimens retrieved by fotation of archaeological deposits from two “fat” graves unearthed in 2014/2015 in Bratislava-Devín, at the site of Záhrady (further referred to as Devín-Záhrady) and preserved in a charred (wood and seeds) as well as an uncharred state (mammalian and fsh bones, mollusc shells, seeds and plant roots).Following the cultural model of cremation of human bodies and their burial (e.g.Kuijt et al., 2014), we assume that grave goods originate from two sets of ritual activities which might have been distinct in time and space and were either connected or not connected to the transformation through fre that accompanies cremation burial. In this paper, the detailed quantitative, spatial and taphonomic analysis of organic remains is presented, as well as a discussion of the identifcation of the origin of such ecofacts. As our intention was to improve understanding of the role and meaning of animals and plants in cremation burial rituals in this period and region, the results are presented against the backdrop of previous studies from the region of the Kalenderberg Group and Eastern Alpine Hallstatt Culture, the majority of which were written at a time when organic fnds did not have a place at the centre of the excavator’s attention.2. Site and investigated archaeological contextsDevín is a southwestern borough of Bratislava at the confuence of the Danube and Morava rivers. An important multiphase archaeological site, the Castle Hill of Devín (Figure 1), rises above the meeting point of the two rivers. The Castle Hill and adjacent area of the present-day borough have been inhabited since the Early Neolithic (Farkaš, 2012). During the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages, Castle Hill seems to have been occupied continuously and the site has yielded strong evidence of fourishing long-distance contacts (Studeníková, 1993; pp.119–131; 2012, pp.137–138; Harmadyová, 2012a; 2012b; 2016; Kmeťová and Stegmann-Rajtár, 2014, pp.156–160).Until recently, apart from sporadic stray fnds associated with Late Bronze and Early Iron Age funeral activities (Harmadyová, 2006; 2012a; 2012b), two discoveries suggested the presence of one large or possibly a few small necropoli. The frst is an Early Iron Age grave found on Kozičova Street (Novák et al., 2008) and the second is an assemblage of fnds thought to come from a grave dating to the turn of the Bronze and Iron Ages in the Lower Castle Figure 1.Bratislava-Devín. Location of sites dated to the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age (HaC-D1). 1 – the site of Devín-Záhrady, two of the Early Iron Age graves presented here; 2 – the site on Kozičova St., an Early Iron Age grave; 3 – the site on Brigádnická St., Late Bronze Age graves; 4 – Devín-Lower Castle, an Early Iron Age grave (?) and settlement; 5 – Devín-Middle Castle, Early Iron Age hilltop settlement.