Asseria, Vol. 7 No. 7, 2009.
Original scientific paper
NADIN – LIBURNIAN CULT OF THE DEAD, RESEARCH CAMPAIGNS 2004–2006, 2009
Sineva Kukoč
; University of Zadar
Abstract
The author presents the latest results of the excavations of Liburnian Nadin (Nedinum) in the context of current knowledge about the Nadin archaeological complex with continuity of life from the Early Bronze Age to the 17th century. Burial mound 13 was completely explored as well as the grave area (measuring 14 x 6,8 m) designated as “cella I” within a flat necropolis at the foot of Gradina (Nedinum).
Burial mound 13, dated from the 9th to 6th centuries BC, has 19 circularly (concentrically) distributed graves with 37 identified individuals (16,2% of which were children). This burial mound contributes significantly to the study of Liburnian burial mounds: their planimetry, certain constructional, ritual and social aspects. Following the discovery of cremation of the dead from the Bronze Age (Podvršje – Matakov brig, Nadin, Ervenik, Duševića glavica – Krneza) in northern Dalmatia, burial mound 13 from Nadin, with the greatest number of buried individuals in Liburnian society, yielded first Liburnian cremation burials in northern Dalmatia, along with grave 4 from Dragišić.
Cella I which is a typical sample of great Nedinum flat necropolis, is a complex consisting of graves and architecture; it is the first of the kind to be investigated in the Liburnian culture. Two basic building phases of the cella were identified: the Liburnian phase, from the Iron Age, and the Liburnian–Roman phase from the Romanization period. Enclosing walls of the cella belong to the second phase as well as a rectangular base of a great monument (?) or aedicule (?), cremation burials and a multitude of movable monuments.
In the Roman period cella was a part of a regular scheme of Liburnian–Roman necropolis of the planned type “near the roads”. It only partially “negated” and destroyed the structure of the old Liburnian cemetery above which it was raised. Namely most of the graves belong to the Liburnian phase of burials with prevalence of crouched position of the deceased. Most grave goods can be dated from the 6th century onwards. Liburnian enclosing of rectangular grave parcels with a kind of wall confirms certain premeditation and monumentality of Liburnian necropolis from the “Early” Iron Age.
Keywords
Nedinum; Liburni; Bronze Age; Iron Age; burial – incineration; inhumation; burial moud; cella – flat necropolis
Hrčak ID:
74992
URI
Publication date:
2.4.2009.
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