Preliminary communication
Results of Excavations at the Veliko polje Cemetery in Zvonimirovo in 2005
Željko Tomičić
Marko Dizdar
Abstract
In the excavations of 2005, whose aim was defining the eastern boundary of the central part of the La Tène cemetery, two graves (LT 64 and LT 65) with cremation remains of the deceased along with burial goods belonging to the northern part of the group of graves, partly excavated in 1998 were examined.
In grave LT 64 (Fig. 1), at the bottom of the rectangular grave pit with rounded angles, north-south orientation, the cremation remains of a man armed with two spears were arranged in a pile. On top of the pile of cremation bones, an iron fibula of the Middle La Tène scheme was laid with a small ball at the point where the long overhanging leg and trapezoid arch meet. To the east of the cremation bones there was a dark-grey ceramic pot with an S-profile, with an inverted rim and horizontal grooves on its shoulder, while under it concentric circles arranged in pairs were stamped. To the north of the pile of cremation bones, a bent iron spear was leaf with a willow-shaped web and a rather long sheath. On the northern periphery of the pile, there is an iron spear butt. Another rectangular grave with round angles, northsouth orientation, was also found in the vicinity, in grave LT 65 (Fig. 2). Cremation bones are scattered in the northern half of the grave pit and under the dark-grey, S-profile bowl made on a wheel and positioned in the central part of the grave. Even though only two graves were found in the excavations of 2005, the discovery of a pot in grave LT 64, with shoulders decorated by concentric circles arranged in pairs − a motif which is held to be characteristic of the Early La Tène and the older stage of the Middle La Tène of the Mokronog Group (Božič 1987, 870; Božič 1999, 153) − is of particular signifi - cance for chronological analysis. Variously organised motifs of concentric circles, often organized into complex compositions, decorate pots and kantharoi whose presence in graves in the northern part of the Zvonimirovo cemetery suggest their emergence at an earlier stage of the later phase of Middle La Tène, i.e. the end of the third and the beginning of the first half of the second century BC (Majnarić-Pandžić 2001, 87, T. IV-V). The discovery of an ornamented pot in grave LT 64 moves this ornament style up into the middle and beginning of the second half of the second century BC, as finds of fragments decorated by concentric circle motifs suggest, which were found in fortified settlements of the Scordiscs, erected probably already in the first half of the second century BC (Dizdar 2001, 71; Popović 2003, 312). One of the issues yet to be resolved in connection with concentric circle motif decorations pertains to identification of pottery workshop centres in the Sava, Drava and Danube interfluve, in which such vessels were manufactured, and whose trade network probably covered the markets of a broader area.
The recent understanding of the chronology of the La Tène part of the cemetery which was excavated in 2005 was confirmed by analysis of grave goods from the warrior’s grave LT 64 that can be dated to the later phase of Middle La Tène (LT C2), i.e. most probably in the middle of the second century BC.
Keywords
cemetery; Zvonimirovo; La Tène Culture; Mokronog group; LT C
Hrčak ID:
9163
URI
Publication date:
11.11.2006.
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