The First Cremation Traces in the Eneolithic Period North of the Carpathian Mountains

Sprawozdania Archeologiczne, 2017, 69, s. 353-371 SPRAWOZDANIA ARCHEOLOGICZNE 69, 2017 PL ISSN 0081-3834 DOI: 10.23858/SA69.2017.014 Stanisław Wilk*, Anita Szczepanek** THE FIRST CREMATION TRACES IN THE ENEOLITHIC PERIOD NORTH OF THE CARPATHIAN MOUNTAINS ABSTRACT Wilk S. and Szczepanek A. 2017. The fi rst cremation traces in the Eneolithic period north of the Carpathian Mountains. Sprawozdania Archeologiczne 69, 353-371. The subject of this article is the fi rst eneolithic cremation burial in south-eastern Poland which was discovered on the cemetery of the Lublin-Volhynia culture at site 2 in Książnice, voiv. świętokrzyskie. Grave 14 was unearthed while exploring the western part of the necropolis in August 2012. The burial pit, 122 x 75 cm, was shaped like a rectangle with rounded corners, elongated along the north-south axis. In the southern part of the grave, at the depth of 40-45 cm, a concentration of charred human bones was found belonging to an individual at the age of maturus. The grave goods consist of two clay vessels (a pear-shaped cup with knobs on the larger bulge of its body, and a miniature pot with a gooseneck profi le and notched spout) and twelve fl int artefacts. The analyzed burial is another example of the intense cultural infl uences of the Hunyadihalom-Lažňany horizon to the late younger Danubian communities inhabiting Lesser Poland at the turn of the 5th and 4th millennia BC. Keywords: Copper Age, burial rites, cremation, Lublin-Volhynia culture, Carpathian Basin, Hunyadihalom- -Lažňany horizon, Lesser Poland Received: 01.03.2017; Revised: 18.04.2017; Accepted: 14.06.2017 * Karkonosze Museum, Jana Matejki 28, 58-500 Jelenia Góra, Poland; [email protected] ** Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Sławkowska st. 17, 31-016 Kraków, Poland; [email protected] 14_12_Wilk_Szczepanek.indd 353 2017-09-05 13:21:25 354 Stanisław Wilk, Anita Szczepanek 1. INTRODUCTION Research on the burial ritual of the younger Danubian cultures on Polish territory has remained a focus of attention for archaeologists for nearly 100 years. Despite the relatively small amount of sources we can rather accurately characterize the principles of the burial rituals of Lengyel and Polgar societies living on the territory between the Odra and Bug ri- vers, and between the Baltic Sea and the Carpathian and Sudety Mountains. The most im- portant practice is inhumation, with the prevailing orientation of pits along the N-S axis with slight variations, with skeletons arranged with their skull to the south; and, in the Brześć Kujawski culture, Jordanów, Lublin-Volhynia cultures, and the Wyciąże-Złotniki group – with clearly different arrangements of bodies, depending on their sex (the left side – female, the right side – male), and various amounts of prestigious burial goods made of copper, fl int, horn and shells (Czekaj-Zastawny 2009; Grygiel 2008; Seger 1906; Gediga et al. 2012). Among younger Danubian societies the Lublin-Volhynia culture, which fl ourished in south-eastern Poland and western Ukraine in the second half of the 5th and the fi rst half of the 4th millennium BC, is of particular importance. Burial rituals of this group belong to the best recognized in the entire Eneolithic on Polish lands. As a result of many years of research on the problems related to burial practices of the Lublin-Volhynia culture, a mono- graph on the burial ritual of this culture was published by Anna Zakościelna in 2010, con- taining a compendium of knowledge about the burial practices, anthropology and charac- teristics of artifacts unearthed in over 150 Lublin-Volhynia graves (Zakościelna 2010). Nowadays, the best studied cemetery of the Lublin-Volhynia culture is the necropolis at site 2 in Książnice, Świętokrzyskie province, with its 17 certain and 4 probable burials, which have been systematically excavated by the author of this article since 2001. The cemetery, located on top of a small hill in the eastern part of the Pińczów Hum- mock (Fig. 1), consists of two burial areas, clearly separated by several dozen meters: one eastern, and one western, together comprising an oval, elongated along the NW-SE axis. The eastern part, consisting of 8 well-preserved burials, is rectangular in shape, elongated on the N-S axis. The western part consists of 8 burials, which are more poorly preserved and more chaotically located. Between the western and eastern areas, lies grave 17 (Fig. 2; Wilk 2016; Wilk and Diakowska-Kufel 2016). The relics of sepulchral practices discovered in Książnice are not vastly different from rules of rituals found on other cemeteries of the Lublin-Volhynia culture. In most cases, the burials are skeletal, pits are oriented on the N-S or NW-SE axis, and the dead are equipped with similar sets of burial goods, usually consisting of several (mostly, 2-3) vessels, and – depending on the sex – copper ornaments or fl int and copper tools (Wilk 2004; 2006; 2014). In addition, there were two cenotaphs (graves 6 and 9) discovered on the cemetery, and a partial burial with a copper axe of the Şiria type (grave 3). Only one grave widely differs from the described norm because the remains of the de- ceased found there had been cremated. 114_12_Wilk_Szczepanek.indd4_12_Wilk_Szczepanek.indd 335454 22017-09-05017-09-05 113:21:263:21:26 Fig. 1. Location of the Lublin-Volhynian culture cemetery at site 2 in Książnice, Świętokrzyskie province 114_12_Wilk_Szczepanek_cmyk.indd4_12_Wilk_Szczepanek_cmyk.indd 1 22017-09-04017-09-04 114:21:334:21:33 Layout of graves at the Lublin-Volhynian culture cemetery at site 2 in Książnice Layout of graves at the Lublin-Volhynian Fig. 2. 114_12_Wilk_Szczepanek_cmyk.indd4_12_Wilk_Szczepanek_cmyk.indd 2 22017-09-04017-09-04 114:21:334:21:33 Fig. 3. A - Grave 14 at a depth of 45 cm; B - Close up of the location of fl int artefacts in the north part of the burial pit; C - Pear-shaped cup; D - Miniature gooseneck pot, photo by S. Wilk 114_12_Wilk_Szczepanek_cmyk.indd4_12_Wilk_Szczepanek_cmyk.indd 3 22017-09-04017-09-04 114:21:334:21:33 Fig. 4. A – Grave14, plan at the level of the burning bones, at a depth of 45-50 cm; B - close up of the burning bones; C – burning bones after dissection, A, B - photo by S. Wilk; C – photo by A. Szczepanek 114_12_Wilk_Szczepanek_cmyk.indd4_12_Wilk_Szczepanek_cmyk.indd 4 22017-09-04017-09-04 114:21:344:21:34 The fi rst cremation traces in the Eneolithic period north of the Carpathian Mountains 355 2. GRAVE 14 AND ITS BURIAL GOODS 2.1. Description of the burial Grave 14 (feature 4/2012) was unearthed while exploring the western part of the necropolis in August 2012. The roof of the feature was visible at the depth of 40 cm within part C of trench I/12. The burial pit, 122 x 75 cm, and with a fi ll consisting of grey and brown soil, was shaped like a rectangle with rounded corners, elongated along the north- south axis. To the north-east, the pit was damaged by feature 6/12 of the Funnel Beaker culture (Fig. 3). In the southern part of the grave, at the depth of 40-45 cm, a concentration of charred human bones, belonging to an individual at the age of maturus, was found. Single charred Fig. 5. A – Grave 14, plan with grave goods at a depth of 45–50 cm, drawing by S. Wilk 114_12_Wilk_Szczepanek.indd4_12_Wilk_Szczepanek.indd 335555 22017-09-05017-09-05 113:21:263:21:26 356 Stanisław Wilk, Anita Szczepanek bones were also found in the close vicinity of the grave, and its northern part (Fig. 4: A). In the main concentration, there were burnt bones exhibiting black and white color (Fig. 4: B), among which it was possible to distinguish, in some places, long bones and bones with fl at surfaces (cranial bones). Grave goods consist of two clay vessels and twelve fl int artefacts. The vessels (a pear- shaped cup with knobs on the larger bulge of its body, and a miniature pot with a gooseneck profi le and notched spout) were found in the southern part of the burial pit, ca 15- 20 cm to the east and to the south of the concentration of burnt bones (Fig. 5). As regards the fl int artefacts, the three biggest specimens were discovered in the southern part of the pit, several dozen centimeters to the south of the concentration of burnt bones. Two chocolate fl int blades with retouched notches, which were found stuck perpendicularly in the ground, while there was another chocolate fl int blade lying fl at several dozen centimeters to the west. Several centimeters to the east of the miniature pot, a small core made of er- ratic fl int was found. The remaining fl int artefacts were unearthed in the northern part of the pit. Separately found, closer to the eastern edge of the pit, there was a burin spall made of Świeciechów fl int, while a retouched fl ake, a blade, a fl ake with proportions of a blade, and a fragment of a blade (all made of chocolate fl int) were found in the concentration, ca 20 cm off the northern edge of the burial pit. The only arrowhead of the Sośnia type, found in this assemblage and made of chocolate fl int, was unearthed near the western edge of the burial pit (Fig. 5). 2.2. Description of burial goods 2.2.1. Pottery 1. Miniature gooseneck pot, with the largest circumference in the upper part of the ves- sel and a short, leaning to the outside neck crowned with a notched spout (fi g.

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