Journal:Archaeologia Baltica
Volume 19 (2013): Societies of the Past: Approaches to Landscape, Burial Customs and Grave Goods, pp. 31–47
Abstract
Several Estonian burial places with cremations were investigated in the period 1997 to 2011. During the research, various descriptive and metric data on cremated bone materials was observed. The present paper is an attempt to systematise and interpret the data collected, in order to provide some generalisations on Estonian cremations. A comparative study of graves on the basis of the minimum number of buried individuals and the number of determined bone finds in graves, as well as bone fragmentation, is presented. Radiocarbon dating (AMS method) of burnt human bones from six investigated graves was conducted in order to specify the usage time of the graves. Some conclusions on possible temporal changes and cultural differences in burial practices are made on the basis of these characteristics.
Journal:Archaeologia Baltica
Volume 17 (2012): People at the Crossroads of Space and Time (Footmarks of Societies in Ancient Europe) I, pp. 91–100
Abstract
The article gives a brief overview of recent achievements in the study of Djakovo-type sites located in the Moskva river basin. The chronological time frames are from the eighth to seventh centuries BC to the sixth to seventh centuries AD. The most important inferences are based on the results of the excavations of the Djakovo hill-fort carried out from 1981 to 1987. The abundant finds correspond well to the radiocarbon dates. Two peaks of human activity at Djakovo-type sites occurred in the fifth to the third centuries BC and the first to the fourth centuries AD. Agriculture and cattle breeding formed the economic basis. Bronze ornaments and clay cult artefacts prove the idea that the population of the Moskva river basin had a tribal identity in the first half of the first millennium AD.