Original scientific paper

Fragments of a Chain Mail as Amulets in the late Roman Cemetery at Štrbinci near Đakovo

Branka Migotti ; Department of Archaeology, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Art, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

Around a hundred skeletal graves have been excavated so far at the provincial-Roman cemetery at Štrbinci near Đakovo from the 2nd half of the 4th and the 1st half of the 5th century. Among the majority of grave goods, average in terms of the frequency of presence in the late Roman cemeteries in Pannonia, there were several that can be considered exceptional by virtue of their material, status and/or cultural rarity, value or singularity. Among these finds are two fragments of iron chain mesh, both deposited in children’s graves. These finds are interpreted in this work as pieces of a chain mail, and their role in the funerary cult as a ritual-apotropaic procedure connected with premature death. The custom of depositing such objects in a provincial-Roman millieu probably arrived from the barbarian cultural circle, most likely the Gepid or Gothic one.

Keywords

Pannonia; Štrbinci; late roman cemetery; chain mail; amulet

Hrčak ID:

25721

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/25721

Publication date:

9.7.2008.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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