Archaeobotanical components of grave goods in prehistoric tumuli 6 and 7 at the archaeological site of Kaptol-Gradci, near Požega (Croatia)

Abstract

The Iron Age site of Kaptol-Gradci belongs to the south-eastern periphery of the Hallstatt cultural complex, dominated primarily by the Kaptol cultural group, and encompasses a hillfort settlement and necropolis. During the investigation campaigns organized to date, 25 tumuli have been identified and 17 of them investigated. This paper presents the first results of the analysis of plant remains from a Hallstatt necropolis in Croatia, from tumuli 6 and 7, identified as an integral part of the complex burial ritual. In both tumuli, the predominant finds were of cereal grains (83% in tumulus 6 and 96.9% in tumulus 7). Besides the cereal grains, a very small quantity of weeds representing accidental associations have also been identified, as well as remains of wild fruits collected in the countryside. On the basis of the first results obtained from the archaeological site of Kaptol-Gradci and the scarce archaeobotanical research into Hallstatt necropolises in Europe, the conclusion can be drawn that a potential pattern can be observed, an element of a complex burial ritual in which cereal grains (overwhelmingly dominant in terms of their relative proportions) played an important role, together with various fruit deposits, whose type and quantity probably depended on the season, their availability in the environment and/or the possibility of their storage/preservation.

Arheologija okoliša i paleoekologija

“…Orah (Juglans) i kesten (Castanea) vjerojatno su se proširili u rimsko doba (Schmidt i sur. 2000;Šoštarić 2005). Razvoj vegetacije posljednjih 2000 godina u sredozemnom dijelu Hrvatske nije najbolje istražen, no detaljnije je bio analiziran na vlažnom području Blatuša (botanički rezervat Đon, srednja Hrvatska), gdje su prije dva tisućljeća prevladavale bukovo-hrastove šume.…”

Ethnobotanical and faunistic aspects in the archaeological interpretation of the 17th and 18th century coffin burials in the Basilica of the Holy Trinity in Strzelno (Kuyavia, Poland)

“…Systematic studies of plant remains found in burials have a long tradition (Jacomet, Kreuz 1999), but in Poland such studies are still scarce so far; they have only become more popular in recent years (among others Pińska et al 2015;Pińska, Drążkowska 2020;Badura et al 2022). Meanwhile, the results of botanical analyses significantly enrich the ethnographic information on funeral customs in various regions and periods of human history (Lempiäinen-Avci et al 2017;Šoštarić et al 2017;Riera Mora et al 2018) and on plant symbolism in funeral contexts (Dafni et al 2006;Galera et al 2013;Badura et al 2022). They often provide information concerning the timing of burial and the status of the deceased (Nadel et al 2013, p. 11776;Kelso, Miller 2016, p. 166;Ives 2021).…”