Csányi Marietta et al. (szerk.): Tisicum - A Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Megyei Múzeumok Évkönyve 25. (Szolnok, 2016)

Régészeti tanulmányok - Csányi Marietta: Amiről a sírleletek szólnak. A társadalmi rétegződés jelei a jánoshidai késő bronzkori temetőben

CSÁNYI MARIETTA: AMIRŐL A SÍRLELETEK SZÓLNAK. A TÁRSADALMI RÉTEGZŐDÉS JELEI A JÁNOSHIDAI KÉSŐ BRONZKORI TEMETŐBEN

TORBRÜGGE, Walter

1957. Die Bronzezeit in Oberpfalz. Materialhefte zur Bayerischen Vorgeschichte. Heft 13. Im Verlag Michael Lassleben Kallmünz/Opf.

TROGMAYER, Ottó

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WILLVONSEDER, Kurt

1937. Die mittlere Bronzezeit in Österreich. Wien.

Marietta Csányi

What the grave goods talking about

Traces of Social Stratification in a Late Bronze Age

Cemetery at Jánoshida

A total of two hundred seventy-eight Late Bronze Age Tumulus culture burials of a biritual cemetery were unearthed at Jánoshida (Jász- Nagykun-Szolnok County) during the excavations between 1974 and 1979. The paper is focusing on traces of social hierarchy in the period through classical analytical methods.

The method is based on the grave goods, taking into account the burial rite as a fundamental factor affecting the status of the objects. (Tables 1-2)

The number, the quantity and the quality of the grave goods were the main starting point, which examines the motives on the following aspects. (Tables 3-5)

1. The way of caring the dead individual, which is not necessarily a function of the financial position, but rather a manifestation of the signs of relatives’ emotions. Such objects are the locally produced clay pottery, but their amount - in our opinion - is not the expression of wealth.

2. The deserved treatment for the dead individual as a social actor during the funeral, which can be determined by the quantity and quality of the grave goods. Such object are the rank expressing metal objects (gold, bronze), costume pieces and object of everyday use, weapons and particularly the high-prestige objects (amber, sea snails, pearls etc.).

3. Grave robbery as a contemporary profane form of behaviour, which may surprisingly reveal a lot about the social position of the individual buried in a robbed or unrobbed grave. (Who robs, what does he take as a loot and what does he leave in the grave, which grave is left untouched?)

4. Special status individuals (special objects in the grave, graves without grave goods).

While the natural scientific approaches in the Hungarian and the international archaeology increasingly predominate, this social archaeological analysis demonstrates the future-proof nature of the traditional archaeological methods too.

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