Deposits in the Embankments of Late Iron Age Thracian Tumuli: Evidence of Rituals, Chronology, and the Connection to the Architectural Monuments (20 min)

Presenters

Hristomir S. Hristov, Naval Museum Varna

Abstract

This paper examines and reexamines the deposits in the embankments of those tumuli in Thrace in which architectural monuments were registered. Nowadays we are aware of more than 100 tumuli of this category, dating from the first half of the fifth century B.C.E. to the early first century C.E. The majority of the architectural structures have already been thoroughly studied and are usually interpreted as tombs, although in some cases a definition as heroa (specifically regarding the early Hellenistic monuments, taking into account the term of the so-called honor heroes established by earlier scholarship) seems possible. On the contrary, not all embankments were excavated. Nevertheless, in some of them were registered hearths and bothroi containing a variety of objects—bones, ceramics, metal items, and so on. In the paper these deposits are discussed, first with the aim to determine whether they really represent pieces of evidence of rituals performed and possibly to estimate the exact purpose of the rituals. Then attention is drawn also to the chronology of the deposits. Both the evidence of rituals and the date of hearths and bothroi are finally set against the architectural facilities themselves in order to establish whether there is a connection between the deposits and the architecture and thus to clarify further the function and character of the monuments or the whole tumuli and their surroundings respectively. In all parts of the paper comparisons to Thracian graves, sanctuaries, and more, but also to sites in Greece and other neighboring lands play an important role.