Pregledni rad
Warriors or Hunters? Knives and Arrows in Graves on the Territory of Early Medieval Croatia
Goran Bilogrivić
orcid.org/0000-0002-1108-4380
; Sveučilište u Zagrebu Filozofski fakultet Zavod za hrvatsku povijest, Zagreb,Hrvatska
Sažetak
Knives rank among the most numerous grave goods within the horizon with pagan burial characteristics on the territory of Early Medieval Croatia. They are usually classified into knives for everyday use and battle knives, the main criterium for such a division being the length of a knife. The ones shorter than 20 cm are ascribed to the first category and the ones longer than 20 cm are considered battle knives. The veryrare longer examples (30 cm and more) are usually called saxes or scramasaxes and their appearance in thisarea is associated with Frankish influences. However, such attribution is unjustified, since those are specifictypes of weaponry, a good deal different from the greatest part of Croatian finds. The whole burial context
and other associated grave goods also speak against their warrior attribution. These are most often very simple and common objects – ceramic pots and flint steels, sometimes awls with loop at the base. Grave
goods that could be characterised as warrior equipment (swords, spears, spurs) appear in only a smaller number of graves. Another type of weaponry which often gives rise to characterisations of graves and those buried in
them as warriors are arrows, i.e. their iron heads, which are the only parts to remain preserved. However, not a single arrowhead has been found in a grave containing a sword (nor in a grave with a knife of 40 cm
or longer, for that matter). All this suggests a different interpretation of these finds, in the sense of their primary function – the hunt. Even if arrows/javelins and certain knives had been deposited in a grave with
the meaning of the hunt in mind, that does not necessarily mean that the deceased was simply characterised as a hunter during burial. Following parallels from Late Antique northern Gaul, such grave goods can be
interpreted through the symbolic importance of the hunt in the burial rite context. The hunt is a prestige activity, during which mastery over animals and domination over nature is also exhibited so the deposition
of hunting weapons in a grave can symbolise the right to a certain territory, as well as domination within a community. Through contacts with the Franks during the last quarter of the 8th century and further, such
burial rites are added to and acquire an additional dimension – competition for power on a higher level, for the predminance over a wider territory.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
164509
URI
Datum izdavanja:
23.6.2014.
Posjeta: 1.483 *