Original scientific paper
The Necropolis at the Velika Mrdakovica Hillfort - Early Iron Age Graves*
Martina Blečić Kavur
Emil Podrug
Abstract
The research presented herein encompassed analysis
of prehistoric graves from the necropolis of the Velika
Mrdakovica Hillfort in the vicinity of Zaton, near
Šibenik. These are five graves from the earliest period
of burials, from the Early Iron Age. Their analysis and
synthesis will serve as the point of departure for fuller
insight into the long, rich and fluctuating history experienced
by its inhabitants and inheritors. Based on the types of burials, the graves generally comply with
rites typical of the Šibenik region and the central Adriatic
coastal belt. However, the placement of the bodies
fully extended deviated from the overriding practices
in this core territory of the Liburnians. Most of the
gathered physical cultural materials consist of personal
attire items and jewellery of the deceased, which have
been ascribed to the Liburnian culture in the broader
sense of typological classification. In line with their
previous cultural interpretation, they have been separated
into men’s and women’s attire, wherein the finds
of pins and fibulae, as well as ring-shaped jewellery
and amber beads, are the most prominent. From the
chronological standpoint, two general burial periods
have been distinguished in their interpretation. Typical
of the older graves is the large fibula with amber bead
on the bow, while the younger graves are characterized
by the predominance of the proto-Certosa fibula with
a small globule at the end of the foot. Despite double
or multiple interments, the materials indicate a certain
chronological framework, which suggests simultaneous
or very brief subsequent interments, interpreted in
the sense of narrower familial graves. Synchronized
with the Liburnian culture periodization, interments in
the older graves proceeded in the II. A and B phases,
while the younger ones proceeded from the end of cultural
phase III and in phase IV according to the classical
periodization scheme. In compliance with the
typological-chronological analysis of the materials in
comparison to coterminous phenomena in the Adriatic
basin cultures, a revised relative and higher absolute
chronological scheme for the Liburnian sphere are
proposed in the synthesis.
Keywords
Dalmatia; necropolis at the Velika Mrdakovica Hillfort; Liburnian culture; attire; jewellery; typological-chronological analysis; culturalhistorical interpretation
Hrčak ID:
133064
URI
Publication date:
23.12.2014.
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