A Nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum évkönyve 47. (Nyíregyháza, 2005)

Régészet - Sanda Băcueţ-Crişan: The Neolithic rite of cremation in the north-west of Romania

Sanda Bäcuet-Cri§an and 5 recent ones) was unearthed in the settlement, among the houses, seven out of the several graves recently discovered demonstrated that at a certain moment local people tried to separate the funeral and the living area. Those graves were discovered in the outskirts area of the site, grouped in two rows. While the other graves presented differences in the rite (placed into the pit without gravegoods, very large features purified for the burial by burning the walls and bottom of the pit, small pits in which the cremation remains were covered with a pot, usually a pedestalled fruit bowl), the 7 graves from the outskirts of the settlement were nearly identical - small pits (maximum depth 15 cm), the bones laid down in the pit probably with the remains of the funeral pile, covered with an invariable number of pots. In those cases, too, we can distinguish the pedestalled pots - cups or plates that seem to be the favourite forms in the cultic life, being found both in the graves and in house foundations L3/2002. Near the same house there were 5 cups placed by. The cremation rite is known since ever and on all the continents. For some primitive communities which used cremation, the soul could not detach from the body unless using this method. The earliest cremation is known from grave M7 from Gura Baciului (LAZAROVICI-MAXIM 1995, 189). Finds from Aszód (Lengyel Culture) (KALICZ 1975, 37-38), and the two cremation graves from Öcsöd-Kováshalom (Tisza culture) (RACZKY 1987, 80) are closer from chronological point of view. The majority of cremation graves from Suplac and Port „Coräu" were made in pits, ashes being spread throughout the surface. In a single case there was a funeral urn placed into the pit- M

1/ 1984 (IGNAT 1998, 57-58). For two of the cremation graves (ones from Suplac and Tä§nad), anthropological analyses had been conducted, establishing that the grave of Suplac belonged to a young female and that of Ta§nad belonged to a child (IGNAT 1998, 57). Unfortunately, there are no analyses for the rest of the graves. So we are not able to build a hypotheses concerning the connection between the rite and the sex or age of the dead person. Fig. 4 Port "Coräu"; Pottery from grave 18 (Ml 8/2003) 4. kép Porc „Coräu", az Ml8/2003. sír agyagedényei 58