ZEPTERTRÄGER – HERRSCHER DER STEPPEN. DIE FRÜHEN OCKERGRÄBER DES ÄLTEREN ÄNEOLITHIKUMS IM KARPATEN-BALKANISCHEN GEBIET UND IM STEPPENRAUM SÜDOST- UND OSTEUROPAS, by BLAGOJE GOVEDARICA
2004. Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften Internationale Interakademische Kommission für die Erforschung des Vorgeschichte des Balkans. Monographien Bd. VI. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern. 369 pp text, 56 line-drawings, 8 pages of photos. ISBN 3-8053-3365-X.
Once upon a time, not so very long ago, it was widely accepted
that steppe nomads from the North Pontic zone invaded the Balkans, putting an
end to the Climax Copper Age society that produced the apogee of tell living,
autonomous copper metallurgy and, as the grandest climax, the Varna cemetery
with its stunning early goldwork. Now the boot is very much on the other foot
and it is the Varna complex and its associated communities that are held
responsible for stimulating the onset of prestige goods-dominated steppe
mortuary practice following the expansion of farming.
In fact, it is not so simple as that, as Blagoje Govedarica’s latest monograph
reveals in a new twist to the continuing saga of relations between settled
Climax Copper Age communities and mobile steppe pastoralists. The author charts
a series of evolving 5th millennium cal BC interactions in a vast social
network linking the steppe and the sown in an area stretching from the
Hungarian Plain in the West to the Caspian shores of Kalmykia in the East. He
does this in a thoroughly systematic manner, where every claim is fully
documented by text and pictures - a trifle reminiscent of Bognár-Kutzian’s
(1963) Tiszapolgár-Basatanya monograph. It was Govedarica’s recognition that
the three principal models for their interaction - Gimbutas’ invasion model,
Lichardus & Lichardus-Itten’s peaceful interaction/acculturation through
movement of people and Renfrew’s autonomy of the South East European Copper Age
- had led to a cul-de-sac by the 1990s that led him to a re-evaluation of one
of the most complex problems of Balkan – steppe prehistory: the origins and
social significance of the Early Ochre Grave complex – seemingly the first
mortuary manifestation of farmer – steppe interactions in the Balkan Copper
Age.
There are not many sites classifiable as part of the Early Ochre Grave complex
– currently 38 mortuary sites and seven stray finds of polished stone sceptres,
maybe totalling 100 graves with the inclusion of all ambiguous sites – and this
is not many in a time-span of 650 years (4650-4000 cal BC) and an area of
10,000 km2 (or one burial act per 65,000 km2/years!). Moreover, the local
socio-cultural milieu where such burial acts took place were extremely varied,
ranging from fully sedentary agro-pastoral tell-dwellers in South East Bulgaria
to semi-mobile hunter-gatherers in the steppe East of the Don. This point has
led to an important debate over the spatial scale at which these burials should
be viewed: while Gimbutas placed all the Ochre Graves in her 1st Kurgan Wave,
Mallory interpreted them as a mobile group trading lithics and copper; others,
such as Alekseeva, grouped these graves into local units, while, by contrast,
Necitajlo conceived of a meta-cultural entity of the North Pontic – North
Caspian zone, with smaller sub-units relating to different regional cultures.
This problematic has led Govedarica to formulate research questions in which
typology and chronology are more prominent than social structure and economy.
The aims of book are to define the cultural content and context of Early Ochre
Graves, using a detailed comparison of the Ochre-Graves with local mortuary
traditions. In this, the author is notably successful, with one proviso. The
majority of the graves lack AMS 14-C dates and there are many graves with red
ochre that are thought to be later than these graves: how can Govedarica be
sure that those graves usually dated to the Transition Period or even the Early
Bronze Age do not form part of this complex?
The Ochre Graves are divided into five groups, defined on the basis of visual
location:- a Carpathian group consisting of six sites (five
sites in Western Transylvania and one in the GHP), with one cemetery, three
isolated graves and two single finds; a NW and W Pontic group,
consisting of 11 sites between the Dniestr and the Marica, with three grave
groups, six isolated graves and two single finds; a North Pontic – Azov
group, consisting of 11 sites between the Dniepr and the Don, with
six grave groups and five isolated graves; a Volga – Caspian group,
consisting of six sites between the Lower Volga and Kalmykia, with one grave
group and five isolated graves; and, finally, a North Caucasian group,
consisting of 11 sites from Caucasian lowlands and mountains, with one grave
group, seven isolated graves and three single finds. For each group, site
descriptions are provided by way of geographical location, history of
investigations and grave-by-grave descriptions, though, unfortunately, no
summary is presented at the end of each group description. This is a valuable
part of the book, since the materials are widely scattered and published
unevenly. The most important part of this chapter is the first detailed
publication, for the first time, of the key mortuary site of Giurgiulesti,
previously presented in outline by Haheu & Kurciatov in 1993. The discovery
of rich Early Copper Age finds under Tumulus 2, in the context of two ‘cult
places’ and five rich graves (3 catacomb graves and 2 shaft graves), has
shifted perceptions of Ochre Graves in favour of the Eastward spread of
prestige grave goods from Varna.
Unfortunately, no AMS dates are published for Giurgiulesti but the author
publishes two new dates for other important sites: an AMS date for Grave 12,
Decea Muresului, with a stone sceptre, flint blade, copper needle, Unio
necklace & one vessel (5380±40 BP: 4335-4085 cal BC at 2 sigmas:
KIA 368); and an AMS date for the grave at Cainari (5580±50 BP: 4511-4339 cal
BC at 2 sigmas: KIA 369). Both dates confirm the position of the Ochre Grave
complex in the early- to middle- 5th millennium cal BC.
In Chapter III, the author turns to the investigation of Early Ochre Grave
mortuary practices. The 38 well-defined sites contain 82 graves with 92 bodies,
making a mean number of burials per site a low 2.2. The commonest type of
mortuary site was the isolated grave, with 24 examples, then the grave groups
(containing 2 – 5 graves) and lastly the three cemeteries of Decea Muresului,
Petro-Svistunovo and Jama. Three grave types were utilised: tumulus burial,
flat grave with a catacomb and flat grave with a pit. Grave pits can be 5m deep
but mostly shallow (0.20 – 0.70m deep). Shallow rectangular pits were found
mostly under tumuli. Exceptionally, a stone stele was found at Capli, while a
monumental stone slab was excavated at Novodanilovka.
Over 90% of bodies were buried as extended inhumations on the back; in only one
grave were burnt bones found (Mariupol Grave 21a); this was the only grave
lacking red ochre strewn over the body. Unfortunately, few modern physical
anthropological investigations have been carried out: of the 92 bodies, 10
adult males, two adult females, 18 children and one newborn were identified.
Using diagnostic artifactual criteria, this count rises to 39 males (34 adults)
and 17 females (15 adult). In view of the male chauvinist title, reminiscent of
Fol and Lichardus’ ‘Macht, Herrschaft und Gold’, it is important to underline
that all major age/sex categories - adult females, adult males and children –
were buried in the Early Ochre Grave complex, often sharing the same grave
goods.
Setting aside the seven inhumations without grave goods, a relatively high
number of grave goods occurred in most graves:- between five and ten objects
(mean 7.3), with the highest number 38 objects at Reka Devnja. Three categories
of grave goods were distinguished: usable tools and weapons, ornaments and
‘power and cult symbols’ (p. 179). The weapons were buried only with males and
children but tools were found with all age/sex categories. Ornaments form ¼ of
all grave goods, being deposited equally with both sexes and with children
(about 1/3 of graves in each category). Symbols of power and cult included the
13 polished stone sceptres and 7 mace-heads, as well as pieces of ochre, animal
skulls, shells (all found in children’s graves) and burnt animal bones placed
in offering pits.
One of the most disappointing parts of the monograph was the section on raw
materials (pp. 197 – 202). No scientific characterisation research was quoted
for lithics, copper, gold, shell or stone, despite the act that this has been a
growth area in Balkan Copper Age research for the past 15 years.
The conclusions on Early Ochre Grave mortuary practices was used, in Chapter
IV, to make typological comparisons of all grave goods with datable finds from
the Balkan Eneolithic. Four finds categories (16 finds classes) were found to
date to Pre-Cucuteni III – Cucuteni A, while two finds categories (5 finds
classes) dated much later - to Cucuteni AB – B – Tripolye C. This is in harmony
with the AMS 14-C evidence, suggesting that the Early Ochre Graves lasted
approximately 500-600 years from c. 4650-4000 cal BC. A more detailed internal
chronology (Chapter V) enabled a division of the complex into 3 periods: Period
I (pre-sceptre period, subdivided into A (Giurgiulesti) and B
(Capli - Cainari)) – an important period found only in the West, North and
Northwest Pontic; Period II (mace-head period) – a short,
transitional period found only in the Carpathian, North Pontic and North
Caucasus areas; and Period III (sceptre and flint axe period)
– an important period found in all five regions. This internal chronology shows
that the stone sceptres were in use for only about two centuries, although
presumably their biography could have been extended as heirlooms for several
centuries more.
The main approach to situating Early Ochre-Grave mortuary practices in the
wider social context is the systematic comparison of their mortuary practices
with those of coeval groups in neighbouring areas. The source material for this
comparison is the summaries of major Balkan Copper Age and steppe cemeteries,
including the principal characteristics of their mortuary practices, together
with a comparison of intra-mural burials in the Cucuteni-Tripolye world.
However, it is methodologically hazardous to isolate individual mortuary
practices for comparative study, since each practice has an inner logic in its
own cultural context. The approach of using socially significant data for
purposes of origins research is outdated and is not particularly helpful.
Culture-historical questions, social implications and the cultural and overall
meaning of Early Ochre Grave mortuary practices in the Eneolithic period as a
whole are treated in the last two chapters (VIII and IX). The author makes a
persuasive case for the importance of the East Balkan Eneolithic for the
transmission of farming (Cucuteni) and high-status exotic mortuary deposition
(Varna I) into the forest steppe and steppe zones. In Period IA, Giurgiulesti
is a key burial at the contact zone between the Cucuteni and Bolgard-Aldeni
networks near the Black Sea, while, by comparison, Krivoj Rog is the first sign
of the expanding Balkan system in the steppe zone. Later, in Period IB, Early
Ochre Grave practices influenced the Dniepr-Donets group in the form of
Decea-type sceptres, copper bracelets and extended inhumations on the back.
Later still, in Period II, local metal objects, such as shell-shaped pendants,
at Capli were made in Balkan copper, in comparison with other examples of
Balkan copper in the Chvalynsk cemetery. At the same time, there is the
formation of a Decea Muresului enclave in Western Transylvania, with seemingly
very few connections with the local Tiszapolgár group. It is in Period III that
we can see the greatest regionalisation of the Ochre Grave complex. At this
time, Ochre Graves emerge as burials of the social elites in their own local
milieux. Stone sceptres became important status symbols in this Period,
symbolising earlier horse hunting practices. Also in Period III, the first
demonstrable steppe influences can be seen in the Balkans, such as the
so-called ‘Cucuteni C’ shell-tempered wares.
The major weakness of this otherwise interesting and well-documented volume is
the lack of a consistent approach to the social structure of the sown and the
steppe. A brief discussion of the three possible interpretations of rich graves
- as community war leaders, rich craftspeople or mobile traders – is not really
sufficient. In this period, we are told, there are clear signs of social
differentiation – hardly a revolutionary conclusion. To what extent were there
categorical differences in the grave goods buried with different age/sex
categories? How different were the uses to which different communities put the
‘same’ grave goods? The author notes the paucity of parallels for small grave
groups (between 2 and 5 graves) outside the Early Oxchre Grave complex. But
this small size may well have been the mortuary equivalent of the unsuccessful
tell that did not grow beyond 1m in height: time, residential stability, a
growing commitment to place and a successful lineage structure are all needed
for grave groupings to grow into cemeteries – even small ones such as Decea
Mureslui, the existence of which indicates that the conditions for long-term
social reproduction were occasionally met. The small number of Early Ochre
Graves may well have resulted from social instability or from a different kind
of attachment to place in this period, mediated by ancestors linked by
long-distance networks rather than by local enchainment.
It is the merit of Blagoje Govedarica’s volume that we can investigate those
social questions that he does not himself raise because of his excellent
documentation and presentation of the full corpus of Early Ochre Grave
materials. This is a valuable addition to the Heidelberg series of research
into South East and Eastern Europe and the author is to be congratulated for
his timely and time-consuming research.
John Chapman
University of Durham
Review Submitted: January 2005
References
Bognár-Kutzian, I., 1963. The Copper Age cemetery of Tiszapolgár-Basatanya.
Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó.
Haheu, V. & Kurciatov, S. 1993. Cimitirul plan eneolitic de linga satul
Giugiuleshti. Revita Arheologica 1, 101 - 114.
The views expressed in
this review are not necessarily those of the Society or the Reviews
Editor.
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