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    Problem 12: The Cemetery of Bilj: Background Information

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    An amateur archaeologist excavated a cemetery from the transition period between the Bronze and Iron Ages in a village in the Balkan mountains. He discovered 20 graves, 6 of which contained cremated remains in urns. Accompanying the remains were various artifacts and grave goods. While the archaeologist provided descriptions of the excavation, he did not attempt to determine characteristics of the individuals buried or place the burials in chronological order. The cemetery likely served both local tribes inhabiting the mountains during this time period over 500 BC, but the specific identities and lives of those buried remain unknown.

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    Problem 12: The Cemetery of Bilj: Background Information

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    An amateur archaeologist excavated a cemetery from the transition period between the Bronze and Iron Ages in a village in the Balkan mountains. He discovered 20 graves, 6 of which contained cremated remains in urns. Accompanying the remains were various artifacts and grave goods. While the archaeologist provided descriptions of the excavation, he did not attempt to determine characteristics of the individuals buried or place the burials in chronological order. The cemetery likely served both local tribes inhabiting the mountains during this time period over 500 BC, but the specific identities and lives of those buried remain unknown.

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    An amateur archaeologist excavated a cemetery from the transition period between the Bronze and Iron Ages in a village in the Balkan mountains. He discovered 20 graves, 6 of which contained cremated remains in urns. Accompanying the remains were various artifacts and grave goods. While the archaeologist provided descriptions of the excavation, he did not attempt to determine characteristics of the individuals buried or place the burials in chronological order. The cemetery likely served both local tribes inhabiting the mountains during this time period over 500 BC, but the specific identities and lives of those buried remain unknown.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    2K views5 pages

    Problem 12: The Cemetery of Bilj: Background Information

    Uploaded by

    2feed1face
    An amateur archaeologist excavated a cemetery from the transition period between the Bronze and Iron Ages in a village in the Balkan mountains. He discovered 20 graves, 6 of which contained cremated remains in urns. Accompanying the remains were various artifacts and grave goods. While the archaeologist provided descriptions of the excavation, he did not attempt to determine characteristics of the individuals buried or place the burials in chronological order. The cemetery likely served both local tribes inhabiting the mountains during this time period over 500 BC, but the specific identities and lives of those buried remain unknown.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 5

    Problem 12: The Cemetery of Bilj

    S. Daniels and N. David, The Archaeology Workbook (Philadelphia 1982) 98-104.


    BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
    The Ruritanian Hac Mountains, sometimes called the cockpit of the Balkans, have throughout history
    been a cultural backwater into which ideas filtered only slowly. Their picturesque inhabitants (see
    International Geographical Magazine, No. 769) are the descendants of the many refugee populations
    who, in flight before invaders of the lowland plains, have sought sanctuary in the hills. So it was in
    prehistory. In a little-known fragment of his Ges Periodos (A Voyage Around the World), Hekataios (fl.
    500 B.C.), the grandfather of history, described the situation as it must have existed some two
    generations before his time:
    The Chroesnes mountains [as they were known to the Greeks] are inhabited by two tribes, the
    Botachoi and the Iardames, who having been much harried by raids of the riders of the steppes
    north of the Euxine [Black] Sea there live in perfect amity one with another. Alone among
    barbarians these peoples are said to worship the setting Sun and to abhor rosy-fingered Dawn.
    ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA:
    Dr. Matlo, an enthusiastic amateur prehistorian and man of letters, discovered and excavated a cemetery
    at Bilj, a small village below the provincial town of Foksul. He found a total of 20 graves, 6 of which
    contained cremations in urns. He has published a short paper containing a list of grave furniture (table
    12.1), drawings of a number of finds (figure 12.1), and a plan (figure 12.2). The plan is semischematic
    and shows the urns in a cross section with the cremated remains (including artifacts buried with the body)
    represented inside the urns, and any other grave goods depicted outside as they were found in the pit
    containing the urn. He noted that bones were very poorly preserved; only in a few cases was it possible to
    determine the sex or other physical characteristics of the burials.
    Dr. Matlo attributes the cemetery to the transition between the Bronze and Iron Ages, which he
    was here able to date to the first half of the sixth century B.C. on the evidence of a Cimmerian horse
    bridle bit of the late seventh century (Grave 7) and a Scythian horse cheek piece of the sixth century B.C.
    (Grave 20). Although he suggested that the cemetery may have served a village occupied by both
    Botachoi and Iardames, Dr. Matlo made no attempt to place the burials in chronological order and did not
    assign individuals to one or the other ethnic group. Nor, except on the basis of the fragmentary biological
    evidence, did he try to determine their ages, sexes, craft, or other occupations or social status. His paper
    ends with a quote from Sir Thomas Brownes Hydriotaphia, Urne Buriall:
    What song the Syrens sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among
    women, though puzling Questions are not beyond all conjecture. What time the persons of the
    Ossuaries entred the famous Nations of the dead, and slept with Princes and Counsellours, might
    admit a wide solution. But who were the proprietaries of these bones, or what bodies these ashes
    made up, were a question above Antiquarism.*
    1
    Do you agree? After all, the contingency table below suggests that there may be
    many significant associations requiring interpretation.
    NUMBER OF FIBULAE
    ONE MORE THAN ONE
    PRESENT 10 2
    WEAPONS
    (including dagger, knives) ABSENT 1 6

    1
    Sir Thomas Browne, Urne Buriall and the Garden of Cyrus, ed. John Carter (Cambridge: Cambridge University
    Press, 1958), p. 44.
    Problem 12: The Cemetery of Bilj
    S. Daniels and N. David, The Archaeology Workbook (Philadelphia 1982) 98-104.
    Problem 12: The Cemetery of Bilj
    S. Daniels and N. David, The Archaeology Workbook (Philadelphia 1982) 98-104.
    Problem 12: The Cemetery of Bilj
    S. Daniels and N. David, The Archaeology Workbook (Philadelphia 1982) 98-104.
    Problem 12: The Cemetery of Bilj
    S. Daniels and N. David, The Archaeology Workbook (Philadelphia 1982) 98-104.

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