Glinoe barrow cemetery
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| Glinoe barrow cemetery | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Country | Moldova |
| District | Slobozia District |
| Site | |
| Type | Burial mound |
| Culture | Scythian |
| Period | Late Scythian |
| In use | 3rd–2nd century BCE |
| Excavated | From 1995 |
| Excavated by | Archaeology research laboratory of the Pridnestrovian State University |
| Cannabis finds | |
| Found | Seeds, Plant remains |
| Charred hemp seeds in most of 27 censers from 22 barrows; mats of hemp stalks under some of the dead | |
| Dated | c. 300–100 BCE |
| Dating | Typology |
| Identified by | Morphology |
The Glinoe barrow cemetery is a burial ground of the late Scythian period near the village of Glinoe, in the Slobozia district on the left bank of the Dniester, dated by its finds to the third and second centuries BCE.[1] Charred hemp seeds were identified in most of the 27 censers examined from its graves. Some of the dead lay on mats made of hemp stalks.[1]
Site
The cemetery was found in 1995 and has since been excavated by the archaeology research laboratory of the Pridnestrovian State University. Aerial survey shows more than 50 mounds. They stand close together on a plateau of the second terrace above the Dniester floodplain, bounded by the Krasnaya gully to the north-east, Lake Krasnoe to the south-east and the lower Dniester valley to the north-west and south-west. They form part of the wider barrow field of the Tiraspol area. The mounds have been almost entirely ploughed out. Most of the graves are catacombs, with burial chambers usually more than 3 to 4 metres deep.[1]
The graves held pottery of their own kind, including bowls, fruit stands, censers, lamps and cups, together with wheel-made vessels of the classical world. Ornaments and weapons were found in almost every burial. Some held the bones of dogs, horses and other animals. On this material I. A. Chetverikov dated the cemetery to the third and second centuries BCE.[1]
The finds
A study published by V. M. Kishlyaruk in 2010 examined the contents of 27 censers from burials in 22 of the barrows. They held about 90 stones of nine kinds of rock, mostly sandstones and other pebbles from the bed and terraces of the Dniester. Soot and cracking on the stones led him to conclude that they had been heated in a fire and then put into vessels already holding plant matter, to burn it. Round soot marks on some stones suggested to him that a liquid, probably oily, had been poured onto the hot stones.[1]
N. N. Kuzminova examined the fill of the censers under a binocular magnifier and identified seeds of emmer, hemp and 17 kinds of weed. Hemp was the most widespread: its remains were found in the great majority of the censers. In most cases the hemp seeds formed a fused, charred mass, the result of heating. Some censers also held charred grains of cereals.[1] The weeds were of many species, most of them represented by only two or three seeds.[1]
In some graves the mats laid under the dead were made of hemp stalks, which A. G. Negru identified.[1]
Interpretations
Kishlyaruk took the wide use of hemp seeds in the censers as evidence that hemp had an important place in the burial rite of the Scythian population of the lower Dniester. He took the hemp-stalk mats as confirmation. He found it hard to judge whether the hemp was grown or gathered wild. The mass of hemp remains suggested to him that it was grown, but the range of weeds would then point to poorly tended crops. He judged the gathering of wild plants more probable.[1]
Ants and woodlice were found in some censers without any trace of burning. Kishlyaruk concluded that they had entered the vessels after their contents had cooled. Since the chambers were sealed with clay after the burial, he proposed that the burning censers were set in the chamber before the body was brought in and that the catacomb was left open for at least a day, perhaps for mourning and other rites. He suggested that the smoke may have served to cleanse the chamber of evil forces and that the activity of the insects showed burials in three of the mounds to have taken place between mid-spring and mid-autumn. He also concluded that hemp and other local plants were mixed with aromatic plants, evidently bought in from other regions.[1]
John McPartland and William Hegman list the site in their review of the European evidence under the name Slobozia, with a date of 250 BCE. They quote Kishlyaruk's doubt whether the hemp was cultivated or wild.[2]: Online Resource 2
See also
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 Kishlyaruk, V. M. (2010). Влияние природных условий на погребальный обряд варварского населения Нижнего Приднестровья (III–II вв. до н. э.) [The influence of natural conditions on the burial rite of the barbarian population of the Lower Dniester (3rd–2nd centuries BC)]. Kratkie soobshcheniya Instituta arkheologii (in русский) (224): 266–284.
- ↑ McPartland, John M.; Hegman, William (2018). "Cannabis utilization and diffusion patterns in prehistoric Europe: a critical analysis of archaeological evidence". Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. 27 (4): 627–634. doi:10.1007/s00334-017-0646-7.