Encyclopedia of Prehistory, Volume 4, Europe
.pdfEconomy
Subsistence. Wild Foods. These included wild horse, forest cattle (aurochs), boar, red deer, and mouffion, with rich Danube basin and Black sea fisheries. As in the northwestern zone, overexploitation of uplands, especially for smelt timber and the extension of upland pasturage, placed stress on wild resources. The emergence of an iconography of hunting in elite art may well indicate that a growing premium was placed on access to threatened resources.
Domestic Foods. Sheep, goat, cattle, pig, with secondary products of importance in the pastoral economy. In the lower Danube basin and Moldavia, portable bronze cauldrons of nomadic "Scythian" type, known from a number of isolated findspots, are thought to have been used for boiling meat. Staples include wheat and barley. The painting in the Kazanluk tomb shows a funerary feast in which bread, fruits, vegetables, and meat are served in two portions, one for each of two people.
Utensils. Iron is used for spears, swords, and horseharness, while bronze is retained for tipping arrows. Claims for designating the preceding Ha A2 and Ha B phases as "Iron Age" are based on the widely but thinly spread early appearance of small iron knives and dress fibulae, alongside more numerous bronze versions; this is almost certainly a facet of the increasingly vigorous exploitation of mixed metal ores in the later Bronze Age. Iron becomes the material of first choice for weapons and tools in Ha C, when the Ferigile-Birse§ti group signals the widespread replacement of bronze for the majority of uses, based on the exploitation of rich, redeposited iron ores in locations far removed from copper. Bronze production is thereafter sharply reduced, and there is a developing dependence on imported Greek bronze.
Ornaments. The highly decorated pottery of the Bronze Age continues but with less complexity in the Basarabi culture, and then becomes even plainer, as imports of Greek fine wares increase and the locus of indigenous decorative arts shifts to more mobile media. The classical authors describe high-born Thracians as tattooed, and the depiction of geometric and zoomorphic tattoos on the arms of women in Greek art serves as an ethnic identifier. Hair styles for men are described as top-knotted and are depicted as such in indigenous art.
Trade. The Iron Age is characterized by the development of core-periphery trade relations, centering on the import of wine and the export of slaves, but these things
East-Central European Iron Age 81
are only partly visible in the archaeological record. Greeks colonized the Aegean and Black seacoasts of Thrace and negotiated to establish inland emporia with native Greek personnel (as at Vetren-Pistyros). Imported wine amphorae are widespread on valley sites. Thracian slaving is attested through remarks such as those of Herodotus that the Thracians "carryon an export trade in their own children," and via pricelists from slave sales in Athens (which indicate that life was cheap to the Thracians). The weakness of indigenous regulatory institutions in Thrace meant that it was an economic nett loser.
Division of Labor. Division of labor was extensive, with clear gender and status differentiation, craft specialization, and specialization in subsistence activities. Traders increasingly operated to secure good deals, whether in slaves, raw materials, or finished products. This practice ultimately encroached on the subsistence sphere, and historical sources indicate the emergence of cash-crop- pmg.
Differential Access or Control of Resources. New fortified sites were constructed on lines of communication rather than positioned to defend the boundaries of specific territories, indicating that the control of trade was more important to wealth acquisition than the occupation of resource regions per se. Transhumant pastoralism was probably intimately related to the switch to iron as the predominant functional metal, as it is in the progressively deforested and eroded piedmonts that secondary ore deposits are most in evidence, along with readily available smelt fuel. Wild resources may have been subject to sumptuary rules.
Sociopolitical Organization
Social Organization. In the earlier Iron Age, status was still strongly ascribed, as evidenced in the rich "warrior" cremation cemetery of Ferigile, where all of the bones appear to be of children. Achieved status rose to the fore as prestige exchange and trade systems intensified. The most detailed evidence concerning Later Iron Age society comes from the ethnographic descriptions of Herodotus. Craftspeople and their descendants were socially low, but above agricultural workers; conducting war and living off booty was considered elite. The eventual emergence of ruling dynasties thus implies at least five recognized social levels: slaves, farmers, craftspeople, warriors, and high aristocracy. Thracian groups were polygamous, with substantial bride-price paid to the wife's parents. A wife might be killed to
82East-Central European Iron Age
be buried with her husband (as may be attested at Vratsa).
Political Organization. Local agropastoral communities with their own command structures and long-estab- lished, Bronze Age-style, lineage-based, systems of rank were progressively undermined by the emergence of regional and interregional elite formations who exploited them. There was increased emphasis on charismatic authority, with symbolic and ostentatious displays of wealth. The establishment of the Persian-administered zones appears to have catalyzsed political development among a number of tribes, both north and south of the Danube, and may have been the most important precursor to the consolidation of an Odrysian kingdom.
Conflict. Archaeological and historical data support a picture of endemic warfare. Iconography suggests headhunting was practiced, although physical anthropological evidence is lacking. The Thracians, in their characteristic hats and boots, with fox-fur trimming, had a reputation as archers; chain ring-mail and spurs are both possible Thracian innovations. After the Roman conquest, many served as cavalry auxiliaries in the Roman Gaulish campaign.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Religious Beliefs. Herodotus, using the Greek equivalents of god names, says of the Thracians that "the only deities they worship are Ares, Dionysus, and Arte- mis-though their kings, in contrast to the people generally ... wear by no other deity but Hermes, and claim their own descent from him." An aristocratic cult of Hermes, preeminently a wanderer god, may indicate the nomadic origins and/or symbolic associations that the mobile Thracian elite valued, while indicating that there was no societywide unitary religious expression. There were underworld (chthonic) cults of Zalmoxis and Orpheus.
Religious Practitioners. Religious practitIOners clearly emerge as a specialized group in this period, and there are distinct connections with the development of Pythagoreanism in Greece. The real Zalmoxis was said by the Black Sea Greek colonists to have been a slave of Pythagoras, who returned home to found a cult, although Herodotus believed the cult predated Pythagoras. In the Thraco-Getic area, the influence of steppe shamanism was strong, and figures that may be transvestite Enarees (a class of soothsayer described by Greek
commentators) appear depicted in art on the Poroina rhyton and Gundestrup cauldron.
Ceremonies. Zalmoxis was thought to have constructed a secret underground chamber from which he emerged, as if from the dead, to preach his doctrine of immortality. The central chamber of a burial mound at Svestari was fitted with a sliding door which saw long use, suggesting the possibility that chthonic reenactments took place. Iconography indicates that dancing and ritual feasting were part of funerary ceremonies, while Herodotus says funeral games, including single combat, were standard.
Arts. The Thracian identity of Orpheus and the importance of music is supported by an image of a birdheaded human playing a lyre on a silver repousse shield boss from Panagurishte. There was extensive use of gold and silver, both in drinking sets and in horse harness (although less for personal accoutrement). Thracian art, 2400-2100 B.P., was a vigorous, and at times masterfully expressed, style of figural gold and silver toreutic. It synthesized Greek, oriental, and steppic motifs, and reflected abiding interests in hunting and drinking.
Death and Afterlife. There are broad chronological trends and considerable regional variation, confirming Herodotus's claim that both cremation and inhumation were practiced. Flat cremation cemeteries and rock-cut niche tombs (particularly in the Rhodope) characterize the earlier Iron Age and are followed, from about 2500 B.P., by a fashion for barrow (mogila) construction, although flat cemeteries continue, especially in the hinterland of Greek coastal colonies. Mounds could contain inhumations or be raised over pyres, and were often constructed sequentially in rows of three or four on the perimeters of settlements, perhaps symbolically emphasizing lineage to compensate for the erosion of old certainties. The later Iron Age sees the emergence of Macedonian-style royal burial, which even some intrusive Celtic groups may have bought into (as at Mezek).
Suggested Readings
Archibald, Z. (1998). The Odrysian Kingdom of Thrace: Orpheus Unmasked. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Boardman, 1. (1999). The Greeks Overseas (4th ed.). London: Thames and Hudson.
Berciu, D. (1978). Daco-Romania. Geneva: Nagel.
Fol, A. (1990). Politika i kultura v drevna Trakiya. Sofia: Nauka i Izkustvo.
Hoddinott, R. (1981). The Thracians (Ancient Peoples and Places).
London: Thames and Hudson.
Kristiansen, K. (1998). Europe before History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Piirvan, V. (1982). Getica: 0 protohistorie a Daciei (edited with notes and commentary from the 1926 edition by R. Florescu). Bucharest: Editura Meridiane.
Sulimirski, T., and T. Taylor (1991). "The Scythians." In The Cambridge Ancient History, 2nd ed. vol. III, pt. 2, ed. by J. Boardman, I. Edwards, N. G. L. Hammond and E. Sollberger, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 547-590.
Taylor, T. (1994). Thracians, Scythians, and Dacians. In The Oxford illustrated Prehistory of Europe, ed. B. Cunliffe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 373--410.
Taylor, T. (1996). "Thracian and Dacian Art". In The Dictionary of Art, ed. Jane Turner, London: Macmillan, vol. 30, 767-774.
Wilkes, J. (1992). The Illyrians. Oxford: Blackwell.
SUBTRADITIONS
Eastern Celtic
TIME PERIOD: 2400-1950 B.P.
LOCATION: Eastern Europe, including the middle and lower Danube basins, parts of Poland, the western steppes, Yugoslavia, Serbia, Bulgaria, and northern Greece, through into Northwest Anato1ia.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Defensive settlements;
distinctive pottery types with cordoned and curvilinear motifs; warrior graves showing up as intrusive against various local backgrounds, furnished with heavy weaponry and personal ornamentation in iron and bronze, decorated in the La Tene style.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
As for eastern Hallstatt within the northwestern zone, with local environments as for localized, subtradition entries for the relevant regions of the southeastern zone. As a reflex of their economy, however, intrusive La Tene groups seem to have avoided extensive upland zones, preferring fertile river valleys and plains with good overland communication routes. They expanded into zones in which agropastoral and forest divisions were already well established; by the later Iron Age period, most of the major anthropogenic changes that remain recognizable in surviving enclaves of the medieval and early modern landscape had already begun.
East-Central European Iron Age 83
Settlements
There is a marked split between well-established and often long-lived Celtic settlement in the northwestern zone, and much less distinct traces of permanent occupation in the southeast, Asia Minor, and the steppes, broadly reflecting the division between consolidated communal expansion on the one hand and, on the other, a conflict-based economy of trade and raid. A good example of the former is Sopron-Krautacker, continuing a tradition of defended settlement from the preceding Osthallstatt (Jerem 1991); on-site economic features included permanent kiln emplacements for pottery, as at Cataj in Moravia (Ozd'ani and Heckova 1987), while at Nowa Cerekwia in Poland, large-scale glass bead production took place from LT CIa (yVoz- niak 1992). In the late LaTene period, extensive, protourban oppida developed within the northwestern zone (Biichsenschiitz 1995), and include Leg Piekarski (Great Poland: Wozniak 1990), Zavist and Tfisov (Czech Republic: Motykova, Drda and Rybova 1991), and Velem-St.Vid and Zemplin (Hungary). In the southeast, they are almost nonexistent, with oppidum at Gomolava (Croatia) being a notable exception, connected to the in-migration and settlement of the Scordisci (Jovanovic & Popovic 1991). The absence of easily identifiable Celtic settlement in Bulgaria from the LT B phase onward is likely to be because, by the time they had reached the Balkans, such groups took over local Hellenistic and Thracian structures and architectural modes (Wozniak 1975; Domaradski 1980, 1984).
Economy
While the precise ethnohistorical, linguistic, religious, and social correlates of "Celtic" are disputed, in eastern Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, and western Hungary, the Celts are considered to be the lineal successors to previous Hallstatt groups in same area, who adopt and develop the distinctive symbolism and accoutrements of the emergent La Tene art style: high-profile curvilinear personal jewelery and distinctive sword, shield, helmet, and horse-harness styles (Marton 1933; Powell 1980; Drda and Rybova 1995). Trade developed further in importance, and the clear ethnic designation of slaves as Celtic in classical reports is significant. The dramatic expansion of La Tene Celtic groups eastward and southward into the Carpathian basin and lower Danube basin ("ostkeltische Kultur": Wozniak 1975) began c. 2350 B.P. (Szabo 1988, 1991a), and seems to have been predicated on a combination of trading and raiding, with an import element of merce-
84East-Central European Iron Age
nary activity. Celts fought against Rome for the Carthaginians, for the Greeks in Asia Minor, and for Alexander in India under the Seleucids and under Ptolemy III and Ptolemy IV in Egypt (Hubert 1934);
Szabo describes an "industry" of "professional warmongering" (Szabo 1991 b). Celtic squadrons were valued auxiliaries whose undisciplined ferocity lent weight to shock assaults; La Tene and Italic armor, owned by Celtic mercenaries, is known from graves and stray finds in Serbia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, and the Koban region of southern Russia (Raev, Simonenko, and Treister 1991). To what degree warriors and their camp followers and suppliers (which included extended family groups with women and children) were retained by regularized payment is unknown. Hellenistic coins are found in La Tene contexts throughout the northwestern and southeastern zones of eastern Europe, and their presence seems to have spurred the adoption of indigenous coinages; booty also figured largely, according to the success of a campaign, as did land. The southern Thracian precious metal hoard horizon (c. 22752250 B.P.) may be a reflex of Celtic raids (Taylor 1994). Polybius uses the phrase "negotiated migration" to describe movements from the north into the Cisalpine region, and it is clear that groups brought in as mercenaries could be hard to get rid of at the end of a campaign.
Sociopolitical Organization
The basic unit has been describes as a "tribe." Settlement evidence shows craft specialization, and ranked society is envisaged with ritual specialists and military leaders with charismatic authority (Powell 1980). However, in marked contrast to the preceding Hallstatt D phase, individual "princely" graves are uncommon, suggesting the existence of a broad, homogeneously wealthy elite social class, with both males and females represented (Bujna, 1982, 1989, 1991). Archaeologically speaking, localized groups are recognizable, such as the Tyniec group in Little Poland (Wozniak 1990, 1992), while groups closer to the classical world have ethnonyms. The nature of interaction with indigenous groups varied, with evidence for acculturation and syncretism in areas such as Transylvania and Wallachia (Crisan 1980; Taylor 1992) and complete conquest in eastern Bulgaria, where the kingdom of Tylis was established in LT B (Wozniak 1975); the LT C and LT D phase Padea-Panagiurishte may be the archaeological correlate of the Scordisci (Jovanovic and Popovic 1991). However, Fol has fairly speculated that a Celtic chariot in an Odrysian cemetery
at Mezek may as well indicate prestige exchange and coexistence as conquest (Fol 1991). Groups such as the Moesii, the Celto-German Bastarnae, and the Serdi continued into the Roman period (Shchukin 1989; the Serdi lent their name to Roman Sofia: Serdica).
Religion and Expressive Culture
In Bohemia and Moravia there is evidence for elaborate Celtic arts, such as stone carving (Megaw and Megaw 1988), but further east, grave-goods are the principal means by which their presence can be traced, as in the extensive Transylvanian flat cemeteries of Fintinele (Crisan, 1974) and Piscolt. (Nemeti 1992). The Hungarian sword style is distinctive (Szabo and Petres 1992), as are dress fibulae (Zirra 1991a). Plastic arts reflect interests in wild animals, preeminently wild boar: many cire perdu cast bronze boar helmets and standard mounts are known, from eastern Austria through to the Luncani plateau in Transylvania (Wozniak 1974). The chieftain's grave at <;iumetsti in Transylvania contained a spectacular iron helmet surmounted by a bronze bird of prey with hinged, flapping wings (Zirra 1991b). The depiction of La Tene (?Scordiscan) warriors on the Thracian-made Gundestrup cauldron (later transported to Denmark, probably by the Germanic Cimbri as booty) dramatically displays the extent of artistic and religious interplay (Bergquist and Taylor 1987; Taylor 1992).
References
Bergquist, A. and T. Taylor (1987). "The Origin of the Gundestrup Cauldron". Antiquity 61: 10--24.
Biichsenschiitz, O. (1995). 'The Significance of Major Settlements in European Iron Age society." In Celtic chiefdom, Celtic State, ed. B. Arnold and D. B. Gibson, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
53--63.
Bujna, 1. (1982). "Spiegelung der Sozialstruktur auf latenezeitlichen Graberfelder im Karpatenbecken," Pamatky Archeologicke 63: 312-
431.
Bujna, 1. (1989). "Das latenezeitliche Graberfeld bei Dubnik. I."
Slovenska Archeol6gia 37(2): 245-254.
Bujna, 1. (1991). "Das latenezeitliche Graberfeld bei Dubnik. II. Analyse und Auswertung." Slovenska Archeol6gia 39(1-2): 221-256.
Crisan, I. (1974). "La necropole de Fintinele et son importance pour la probleme des Celtes de I'Europe Centrale." In The Celts in Central Europe, ed. A Fejer Megzei Muyeumok Igazgatosaga, F. leno, Szekesfehervar: 185-197.
Crisan, I. (1980). "Rapports entre la culture geto-dace at la culture celtique." In Actes du If' Congn!s International de Thracologie, vol. I, ed. R. Yulpe. Bucharest: Academiei, 423-427.
Domaradski, M. (1980). "Presence ce1te en Thrace au debut de J'epoque hellenistique (lye_me siecles av.n.e.)." In Actes du If'
Congrl!s International de Thracologie, vol. I, ed. R. Vulpe. Bucharest: Academiei, 459-466.
Domaradski, M. (1984). Keltite na balkanskiya poluostrov. Sofia: Nauka i Izkustvo.
Drda, P., and A. Rybova (1995). Les Celtes de Boheme. Paris: Errance. Fol, A. (1991). "The Chariot Burial at Mezek." In The Celts, ed. V.
Kruta, O. H. Frey, B. Raftery and M. Szabo. London: Thames and Hudson 384-385.
Hubert, H. (1934). The Greatness and Decline of the Celts. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner.
Jena, F. (1975). The Celts in Central Europe. Szekesfehervar: A Fejer Megzei Muyeumok Igazgatosaga.
Jerem, E. (1991). "The Sopron-Krautacker Settlement." In The Celts, ed. V.Kruta, O. H. Frey, B. Raftery and M. Szabo, London: Thames and Hudson, 379.
Jovanovic, B. and P. Popovic (1991). "The Scordisci." In The Celts, ed. V. Kruta, O. H. Frey, B. Raftery and M. Szabo, London: Thames and Hudson, 337-347.
Marton, L. (1933). A Korai La-rene Kultur Magyarorsuigon [Die friihlatenezeit in Ungarn]. Budapest: Archaeologia Hungarica.
Megaw, J. V. S., and M. R. Megaw, (1988). "The Stone Head from Msecke Zehrovice," Antiquity 62: 630-641.
Motykova, K., P. Drda, and A. Rybova (1991). "Zavist." In The Celts, ed. V. Kruta, O. H. Frey, B. Raftery and M. Szabo. London: Thames and Hudson, 180--181.
Nemeti, I. (1992). "Necropola LaTene de la Piscolt, judo Satu Mare. III." ("Das latenezeitliches Graberfeld von Piscolt, Kr. Satu Mare. III"). Thraco-Dacica 13(1-2): 59-112.
Ozd'ani, 0., and J.Heckova (1987). "The La Tene Period Settlement at Cataj." Slovenska Archeol6gia 35(2): 391-412.
Powell, T. G. E. (1980). The Celts. (New edition with an introduction by Stuart Piggott). London: Thames and Hudson.
Raev, B., A. Simonenko, and M. Treister (1991). "Etrusco-Italic and Celtic Helmets in Eastern Europe." lahrbuch des romisch-germanis- chen Zentralmuseums Mainz 38: 465-496; Tafeln 27-38.
Shchukin, M. B. (1989). Rome and the Barbarians in Central and Eastern Europe: 1st century B.c.-1st century A.D. (2 vols). Oxford: BAR.
Szabo, M. (1988). "Les Celtes en Pannonie: contribution aI'histoire de la civilisation celtique dans la cuvette des Karpates." Etudes d'histoire et Archeologie III.
Szabo, M. (199Ia). "The Celts and Their movements in the Third century B.C." In The Celts, ed. V. Kruta, O. H. Frey, B. Raftery and M. Szabo. London: Thames and Hudson, 303-319.
Szabo, M. (199Ib). "Mercenary Activity." In The Celts, ed. V. Kruta, O. H. Frey, B. Raftery and M. Szabo. London: Thames and Hudson, 333-336.
Szabo, M. and E. Petres (1992). Decorated Weapons of the La Tene Iron Age in the Carpathian Basin (Inventaria Praehistorica Hvngariae V). Budapest: Magyar Nemzeti Muzeum.
Taylor, T. (1992). "The Gundestrup Cauldron." Scientific American 266: 84-89.
Taylor, T. (1994). "Thracians, Scythians, and Dacians." In The Oxford Illustrated Prehistory of Europe, ed. B. Cunliffe, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 373-410.
Wozniak, Z. (1974). "Wschodnie Pogranicze Kultury Latenskiej." Wroclaw: Akademii Nauk.
Wozniak, Z. (1975). "Die Kelten und die Latenekultur auf den thrakischen Gebieten." In: The Celts in Central Europe, ed. F. Jena. Szekesfehervar: A Fejer Megzei Muyeumok Igazgatosaga, 177-183.
Wozniak, Z. (1990). "Wroctaw Osada grupy Tynieckiej w Pod1c<Zu woj.Krakowskie. Zaklad Narodwyim." Ossolinskich-Wydawnictwo.
East-Central European Iron Age 85
Wozniak, Z. (1992). "Zur Chronologie der keltischen Siedlungsmaterialen aus Schlesien und Kleinpolen." In Probleme der Relativen und Absoluten Chronologie ab LaTenezeit bis zum Friihmittelalter (Materialen des III. Internationalen Symposiums: Grundprobleme der friihgeschichtlichen Entwicklung im nordlichen Mitteldonaugebiet, Krakow-Karniowice 3.-7. Dezember 1990) 9-17. Krakow.
Zirra, V. (199Ia). "Les plus anciennes fibules lateniennes en Roumanie," Dacia N.S. 35: 177-184.
Zirra, V. (199Ib). "The Cemetery of <;:iumesti and the Chieftain's Tomb." In The Celts, ed. V. Kruta, O. H. Frey, B. Raftery and M. Szabo. London: Thames and Hudson, 382-383.
Northern Thracian
(Thraco-Getic)
TIME PERIOD: 2650---2250 B.P.
LOCATION: Lower Danube basin, including northern Bulgaria and the Dobrogea, parts of Moldavia, and the eastern Carpathian basin.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Defended sedentary
agricultural and trading settlements within a broader framework including transhumant pastoralists, steppeinfluenced elites, and Greek colonists. Rich "kurgan" burials and hoarding behavior. Wide use of precious metal decorated with a distinctive mythological narrative art, but much reduced pottery decoration.
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
Warm to hot summers with a rapid annual transition to typically harsh winters with prevailing wind from the Russian steppe. The period sees the removal of significant areas of postglacial tree cover, both for fuel timber for the emergent dedicated iron industry (which was more localized and widespread than previous Bronze Age iron production based on chalcopyritic ores) and in order to create extensive open grazing in the uplands, with consequent reduction of habitat for wild fauna. Slope wash denuded fragile forest soils at higher elevations. The Danube provided rich freshand salt-water (deltaic) fisheries that were of great economic value (Taylor 1994).
Settlements
The settlement record is complex and variegated, reflecting both the degree of economic and ethnic
86East-Central European Iron Age
differentiation, as well as different forms of seasonal exploitation of microregions (Hoddinott 1981; Taylor 1987a). Of the Greek coastal settlements, the earliest appears to be Histria, formally founded around 630 B.C. at a point just south of the Danube delta, with good access to its portage. Indigenous or Graeco-Thracian trade stations, such as Zimnicea, developed along the Danube and its tributaries. Locally there are strongly defended promontary forts, some of them with mudbrick ramparts including towered castellation, suggestive of Greek influence and related as much to prestige and novel politico-symbolic associations as with physical defense (as at Cotofenii-din-Dos in Oltenia). Smaller open settlements are known, but the elaboration of vertical transhumant pastoralism meant that intermontane settlement is archaeologically elusive.
Economy
The economics of the zone emerged as a nexus of interests involving nomadic steppe Scythian elite groups, Greek coastal colonists and traders, and local sedentary and transhumant agropastoralists (Rolle 1985; Taylor 1987a, 1994; Gavrilyuk 1997; Boardman 1999). Climate and localized resources favor both seasonality and group specialization, but the overall economics of the tradition can only be fully understood in terms of the development of maritime, riverine, and overland trade, principally the export of slaves for wine, with Greek partners. Other potential exports were pastoral products and panned gold, while the craft skills of metropolitan-trained whitesmiths were to become highly valued (Taylor 1996). Imported amphora begin to turn up en masse at the trade station of Zimnicea on the Danube left bank from around 430 B.C. and thereafter pass northward up the Danube tributaries to sites such as Piscul Cnisani (Conovici 1980, 1994). However, the true extent of this trade is difficult to gauge and almost certainly underestimated: massive deposits of amphorae at Cetiitenii din Vale, at the mouth of a Carpathian pass, most probably reflect the transfer of wine into skins (depicted in art, but untraceable by normal archaeological methods) for the passage over into Transylvania (Taylor 1994).
Sociopolitical Organization
Distinctions between southern and northern Thracian populations, and between them and Cimmerian and Scythian elements on the steppe, are a subject of longstanding controversy (Meliukova 1979; Hoddinott 1981; Taylor 1994). The strokeand stamp-decorated pottery of the late Bronze Age Bulgarian Pshenichevo
group has been connected with the Babadag and Insula Banalui groups in Romania to form what Meliukova (1979) termed the "East Balkan culture area," which she thought ancestral to the apparently nonindigenous Sacharna-Soloncheny (or Stoiceni-Cozia) group in Moldova. Il'inskaya (1975), however, argues for authochthenous development from the Chernoles culture. The earlier Iron Age Basarabi culture in the northern lower Danube basin connects to the iron-using FerigileBirsesti group (Taylor 1989). Vulpe (1986) sees its as the archaeological manifestation of the historical Getae, who, along with the Agathyrsae, are one of a number of tribal formations recorded by Herodotus around 2400 B.P. The Getae are considered to have been confederated across both sides of the Danube (Conovici 1980). "Thraco-Getic" culture is expressed in a group of elite inhumation burials of 2300 B.P., occurring under mounds in the vicinity of defended settlements, as at Agighiol in the Romanian Dobrogea. These have been considered in terms of the central European model of paramount chieftains (Fiirstengn'iber and Fiirstensitze: Berciu 1969b, Moscalu et al. 1989; criticized by Kull 1997c). Hoarding of precious metalwork suggests a protomonetary economy prior to indigenous minting (as indicated, for example, by metrological analyses: Vickers 1989; cf. Marazov 1996). The emergence of a uniform style in rich hunting armor and drinking kit c. 2350-2250 B.P. suggests interelite competition. The presence of a pottery version of a metal artifact form (a drinking rhyton) at Piscul Criisani is as suggestive of the emulation of elite practices at lower social levels as it is of specifically ritual practice (cf. Conovici 1994), but determining precise levels of social stratification is hard. Ostentatious elite burials indicate conspicuous consumption and rapid social fractionation in terms of levels of resource access.
Religion and Expressive Culture
The northern Thracians (Thraco-getae or Getodacians) are generally considered to have been polytheistic, and to have worshipped both deities and mythologized heros (Hoddinott 1981; Preda 1994). Urnfield bird and wheel symbolism is present in the Basarabi culture (Moscalu and Beda 1988), but is superseded by "Thraco-getic" art. This distinctive elite toreutic style (figural repousse silver and goldwork) fuses motifs from Achaemenid Persia, Greek narrative notation, the steppic Animal Style of the Scythians, and, arguably, central European Celtic elements (Berciu 1969a,b; Bergquist and Taylor 1987; Moscalu et al. 1989; Schneider 1990; Zazoff 1996; Kull 1997c; cf. Alexandresu 1974). It starts
after Darius's European campagn of c.513 B.C. but its precise dating is disputed (Alexandrescu 1983, 1984; Taylor 1987b, 1988; cf. KullI997a,b). The most striking pieces-five silver-gilt or pure gold helmets with socalled "apotropaic" eyes and scenes of hunting and sacrifice---come from the grave contexts of Agighiol and Peretu, and from the hoards or disturbed graves of Cotofenesti and Poiana Biiiceni. Along with drinking equipment and a studied absence of martial weaponry, it is possible to infer an elite preoccupation with hunting that extended to beliefs about the afterlife (Herodotus claimed that the Getae specifically believed in immortality); the fact that this was symbolized when wealth was increasingly based on aggressive slaving and forest clearance, indicates the rising value of a diminishing resource (the wild), as well as signalling the influence of the Persian idea of the king as huntsman.
References
Alexandrescu, P. (1974). "Un art thraco-gete?" Dacia N.S. 21: 113-137. Alexandrescu, P. (1983). "Le group des tresors thraces du Nord des
Balkans (I)." Dacia N.S. 27: 45-66.
Alexandrescu, P. (1984). "Le group des tresors thraces du Nord des Balkans (II)." Dacia N.S. 28: 85-97.
Berciu, D. (I 969a). Arta traco-getica. Bucharest: Academiei.
Berciu, D. (1969b). "Das thraco-getische Fiirstengrab von Agighiol in Rumiinien." Bericht der Romisch-Germanischen Kommission 50: 209-265.
Bergquist, A., and T. Taylor (1987). "The Origin of the Gundestrup cauldron." Antiquity 61: 10--24.
Boardman, J. (1999). The Greeks Overseas (4th ed.). London: Thames and Hudson.
Conovici, N. (1980). "Les relations entre les Getes des deux rives du Bas-Danube a la lumiere des donnees archeologiques et numismatiques." In Actes du Ir CongYl!s International de Thracologie, Vol. II, ed. R. Vulpe. Bucharest: Academiei, 43-54.
Conovici, N. (1994). "Obiecte pentru cult si magie descoperite la Piscul Criisani ("Objects cultuels et pur la magie decouverts a Piscul Criisani"). Pontica 27: 61-83.
Gavrilyuk, N. (1997). "Ekologo-ekonomichnii aspekt istorii stepovoi skifii." Arheologiya (Kiev): 1997(1): 37-46.
Hoddinott, R. (1981). The Thracians (Ancient Peoples and Places).
London: Thames and Hudson.
I1'inskaya, V. (1975). Ranneskifskie kurgany basseyna r. Tyasmin (VllVI vv. do n.e.). Kiev.
Kull, B. (1997a). "Orient und Okzident: Aspekte der Datierung und Deutung des Hortes von Rogozen." In Xp6vo(: Beitriige zur priihistorischen Archiiologie zwischen Nord-und Siidosteuropa, ed. C. Becker, M. L. Dunkelmann, C Metzner-Nebelsick, H. PeterRocher, M. Roeder and B. Terian. Espelkamp: Marie Leidorf GmbH, 689-710.
Kull, B. (1997b). "Die Siedlung Oprisor bei Turnu Severin (Riimanien) und ihre Bedeutung fiir die thrakische Toreutic (mit einem Fundbericht von Ion Stingii)." Germania 75(2): 551-584.
Kull, B. (1997c). "Tod und Apotheose: zur Ikonographie in Grab und Kunst der jiingeren Eisenzeit an der unteren Donau und ihrer Bedeutung fiir die Interpretation von "Prunkgriibern". Bericht der Romisch-Germanischen Kommission 78: 197-466.
East-Central European Iron Age 87
Marazov, I. (1996). The Rogozen Treasure. Sofia: Secor. Meliukova, M. (1979). Skifiya i frakiskii mir. Moscow.
Moscalu, E., and C. Beda (1988). "Bujoru: Un tumul cu car-cazan votiv apartinind culturii Basarabi." Thraco-Dacica 9(1-2): 23-47.
Moscalu, E., with contributions by C. Coltos, Gh. Niculescu, and M. St. Udrescu (1989). Das Thrako-getische Fiirstengrab von Peretu in Rumdnien, Bericht der Romisch Germanischen Kommission 70: 129-189.
Preda, C. (1994). "Unele consideratii privitoare la religia GetoDacilor" ("Quelques contributions concernant la religion des GetoDaces"). Pontica 27: 84--90.
Rolle, R. (1985). "Der griechische Handel der Antike zu den osteuropiiischen Reiternomaden aufgrund archiiologischer Zeugnisse." In Untersuchungen zu Handel und Verkehr der vorund friihgeschichtlichen Zeit in Mittelund Nordeuropa I, ed. K. Diiwel, H. Jankuhn, H Siems, and D. Timpe, Gottingen: Vandenhoek and Ruprecht, 460-490.
Schneider, L. (1990). "Les signes du pouvoir: structure du langage iconique des thraces." Revue Archeologique 1989 (2): 227-251.
Taylor, T. (1987a). Aspects of Settlement Diversity and Its Classification in Southeast Europe Before the Roman period. World Archaeology 19(1): 1-22.
Taylor, T. (1987b). "Flying Stags: Icons and Power in Thracian art." In The Archaeology of Contextual Meanings, ed. I. Hodder, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 117-132.
Taylor, T. (1988). "The Persian Empire, 6 (d) International craft traditions (ii) "In Europe." In The Cambridge Ancient History Plates to vol. iv (new ed.), ed. J. Boardman, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 78-94.
Taylor, T. (1989). Iron and Iron Age in the Carpatho-Balkan Region: Aspects of Social and Technological Change 1700-400 B.C. In The Bronze Age-Iron Age Transition in Europe, Ed. M.-L. S. Sorensen and R. Thomas. Oxford: BAR International Series 483, 68-92.
Taylor, T. (1994). "Thracians, Scythians, and Dacians." In The Oxford illustrated Prehistory of Europe, ed. B. Cunliffe, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 373-410.
Taylor, T. (1996). "Thracian and Dacian art." In The Dictionary of Art, ed. Jane Turner, London: Macmillan, vol. 30, 767-774.
Vickers, M. (1989). "Rogozen: Questions of Metrology and Status." In
Proceedings ofthe British Museum Rogozen Conference, ed. B. Cook. London: British Museum Publications, 101-111.
Vulpe, A. (1986). "Zur Entstehungen der geto-dakischen Zivilisation. Die Basarabikultur. I Teil: Forschungsgeschichte; Definition; Fundstoff; Verbreitung." Dacia N.S. 30(1-2): 49-89.
Zazoff, P. (1996). "Bildschriften der skytho-thrakischen Kunst."
Hamburger Beitrdge zur Archdologie 18(1991): 167-180.
Southern Thracian (Odrysian)
TIME PERIOD: 2600--1904 B.P.
LOCATION: Present-day Bulgaria and Turkey-in-Europe.
DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Distinctive Greek-in-
fluenced emblematic and iconographic toreutic art style; dynastic sites with urban development; elaborate royal
88East-Central European Iron Age
"mogila", burials; local coinages; wheel-turned and handmade indigenous pottery; imported amphorae and painted wares. Persian, Greek, and Macedonian artistic and architectural influences.
Nebet-tepe-renamed Philippopolis (modern Plovdiv). Celtic influences can be detected in the later phases of sites such as Mezek (with its associated chiefly grave: see Eastern Celts q.v.)
CULTURAL SUMMARY
Environment
The tumbled hill country to the north terminates in a series of loess bluffs to form the lower Danube right bank and is exposed to bitter steppe winds in winter; south of the protective Stara Planina (Haemus), temperature is moderated by the Aegean. Summers are hot on the fertile Thracian Plain, which drains east and south via the Maritsa and Tundza. Colluvial deposits in the upper Maritsa valley indicate phases of extensive upland deforestation during the period, with consequent environmental impoverishment. West, beyond the wooded mountain region of Rila, Rhodope, and Pirin, the Iskur-Struma corridor connects the Aegean and Danube. Wild fauna included the European lion (which may have become extinct in this period), boar, wolf, and cervid.
Settlements
The settlement record includes upland sites with ritual aspects; fortified upland and valley bottom sites; open, village-type settlements; and small urban foundations (CiCikova 1974; Milcev 1980; Taylor 1987a). Some larger settlements provide evidence for specialized metal production (iron, bronze, and silver). The Greek colonization of the Aegean and Black seacoasts of Thrace stimulated native satellite development (Hind 1993; Boardman 1999), while classical models informed the development of urban architecture in the interior (Danov 1969; Hoddinott 1981; Mihailov 1986; Archibald 1998). The Odrysian capital, Seuthopolis, situated on the upper Tundja and named, in overtly Macedonian fashion, after its founder, King Seuthes III, was planned ab initio on the razed site of a preexisting settlement. Bastioned walls enclose 5 ha of spacious town houses, a defended citadel (tyrsis) with colonnaded portico and throne room, and a sanctuary. The general population were probably extramurally housed, but this cannot now be established as the site was excavated in advance of dam construction (Hoddinott 1975, 1981). External influences were diverse: Thracian fortified sites with Bronze Age roots were refortified by invading Macedonians (Hoddinott 1981), as at Krakra (Pernik) and
Economy
Thrace was rich in silver reserves (although there is little evidence for their exploitation prior to the Achaemenid Persian conquest; see below). The subsistence economy was agropastoralism with a transhumant element, and included the exploitation of rich wild resources; the establishment of core-periphery relations with the Aegean-Anatolian world led to export trade, including-according to Herodotus-young female slaves as a specified subcategory, and the cash cropping of cannabis sativa to make hemp cloth in competition with Egyptian linen. Internal relations were characterized by prestige exchange, Thucidides commenting that it was "impossible" to accomplish anything among the Thracians without making gifts. This heralded the establishment of monetary economy and the minting of native coinages (Kolev 1986; Conovici 1987; Yourukova 1992), especially by the Odrysian dynasty, which levied set tributes on both subordinate tribes and on the Greek coastal colonies; the silver hoards of Thrace are a pale reflection of the extent of this (Taylor 1994). The urban site of Vetren-Pistyros acted as trade station (emporion) on the upper Maritsa and has preserved a 46-line text-the surviving Greek portion of a presumed bilingual inscription which would have been publically viewable--granting property and commercial rights to resident ethnic Greeks, and referring to a system of Odrysian-administered customs and excise governing overland trade routes to Greece (Velkov and Domaradzka 1993; Domaradski 1993, 1994; Archibald 1998).
Sociopolitical Organization
The inhabitants of southern Thrace were considered by Herodotus to constitute the "most numerous" nation in the known world, after the Indians, but were chronically disunited. Archaeological evidence supports a picture of endemic warfare consistent with a slaving, trading, and raiding lifestyle. Elite groups sought to establish dynasties but provided little stability (Fol 1972, 1990). The invasion of the Persians in 2463 B.P. (513 B.C.) and the establishment of an Achaemenid administrive district which endured for some 50 years (the Satrapy of Skudra: Hammond 1980) spurred indigenous state development and the emergence of
the Odrysae under King Teres I as the preeminent native tribe (Popov 1980; the Triballi and Getae remained independent): "the satraps, Megabazus and Mardonius, were likely to have delegated considerable power to tribal chiefs, especially no doubt to the Odrysai who had not opposed the Persian arrival and were strategically placed at the eastern end of the Thracian plain." (Hoddinott 1981: 101). After the defeat of Xerxes, Greek interests expanded rapidly in Thrace. Imported Greek pottery occurs both on Thracian settlement sites and in graves, along with wine amphorae (Bozhkova 1989; Shefton 1989; Bouzek 1994; Hind 1996); there is evidence of metropolitan Greek workmanship in drinking sets, weaponry, armor, and architecture, suggesting a role for Greek-trained craft specialists both in coastal colonies such as Odessos and in the interior. Hellenistic influences were continued under a different regime as Macedonia expanded into Illyria. Odrysian power waned until revived by Seuthes III, who seems to have entered an alliance with the Macedonians through marriage. How far the final demise of Odrysian power can be connected to the establishment of the Celtic kingdom of Tylis is a moot point.
Religion and Expressive Culture
Summarizing the variety of southern Thracian religion and cult practice is difficult, due to the diverse influences acting upon it in successive periods and its regional diversity. Chthonic or underworld motifs are frequent, and connect to the philosophic-religious teachings of the demigod Zalmoxis (Popov 1989). Precious metal drinking equipment made in Achemenid Persia, buried in the Odrysian barrow cemetery at Douvanlij, indicate the significance of eastern styles in the origins of the distinctive southern Thracian "animal style" in silversmithing (Taylor 1988). As in northern Thrace, Persian concepts of kingship may have influenced the symbolic expression of power: the pervasive motif of the mounted "Thracian hunter" emerges at this time, clearly connected, via the iconography of gold signet rings, to a propertied elite (Taylor 1987b). Despite female cults, goddesses, and priestesses, a secondary female skeleton in a rich Triballian male burial at Vratsa has been interpreted in terms of Thracian suttee (as described by Herodotus: Hoddinott 1981) and is taken as evidence for the broader economic and political subordination of women. It is consistent with iconographic evidence from an Odrysian tholos tomb at Kazanluk (Taylor 1996). The richly painted ceiling at Kazanluk suggests a Greek-trained artist, while Mace-
East-Central European Iron Age 89
donian influence is explicit in the grave architecture and fittings at Sveshtari (Schneider 1990).
References
Archibald, Z. (1998). The Odrysian kingdom of Thrace: Orpheus Unmasked. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Boardman, 1. (1999). The Greeks Overseas (4th ed.). London: Thames and Hudson.
Bouzek, 1. (1994). "The Distribution of Greek Painted Pottery in the Mediterranean and in the Black Sea Region: A comparison."
Oxford Journal of Archaeology 13(2): 241-243.
Bozhkova, A. (1989). "Aticheska chernofirnisova keramika v Trakiya (Y-II v.pr.n.e.). [La ceramique attique de firnis noir en Thrace (ye_ me s.av.n.ere)]" Arheologiya (Sofia) 31(2): 1-10.
CiCikova, M. (1974). "Fruhthrakische Siedlungen in Bulgarien." In
Symposium zu Problemen der jungeren Hallstattzeit in Mitte/europa, ed. B. Chropovsky, M. Dusek, and Y. PodborskY. Bratislava: Veda, 61-84.
Conovici, N. (1987). Aspecte ale circulatiei drahmelor din Dyrrhachium si Apollonia in peninsula Ba1canicii si in Dacia. Buletinul Societatii Numismatice Romane Anii LXXVII-LXXIX, Nr 131-133: 69-88.
Danov, Chr. (1969). Drevna Trakiya. Sofia: Academy.
Domaradski, M. (1993). "Emporium Pistyros en Thace." Bulletin de Thracologie I: 13-14. (Commission internationale consultative pour la promotion d'etudes Indo-Europeenes et Thraces: Mangalia).
Domaradski, M. (1994). "Emporion Pistiros v Trakiya. In III
Mezhdunaroden simpozium "Kabyle". lambol: Pasmiuen zhivot v Drevna Trakiya, 44-52.
Fol, A. (1972). Politicheska istoriya na trakite. Sofia: Academy.
Fol, A. (1990). Politika i kultura v drevna Trakiya. Sofia: Nauka i Izkustvo.
Hammond, N. G. L. (1980). "The Extent of the Persian Occupation in Thrace." Chiron 10: 53--61.
Hind, 1. (1993). "Archaeology of the Greeks and Barbarian Peoples on the Shores of the Black Sea (1982-1992)." Archaeological Reports of the British School of Athens 39: 82-112.
Hind, 1. (l996)."Traders and ports-of-trade (emporoi and emporia) in the Black Sea in Antiquity." Il Mar Nero 2(1995/96): 113-
126.
Hoddinott, R. (1975). Bulgaria in Antiquity. London: Ernest Benn. Hoddinott, R. (1981). The Thracians (Ancient Peoples and Places).
London: Thames and Hudson.
Kolev, K. (1986). "The Earliest Metal Pre-Coin Forms in Ancient Thrace." Pulpudeva 5: 227-232.
Mihailov, G. (1986). "Le processus d'urbanisation dans I'espace balkanique jusqu'a la fin de I'antiquite." Pulpudeva 5: 5-30.
Milcev, A. (1980). "Thrakische Siedlungen und Festungen in Bulgarien wiihrend des 1. lahrtausends v.u.Z." In Actes du II" Congres International de Thracologie, vol. I, ed. R. Yulpe. Bucharest: Academiei, 343-364.
Popov, D. (1980). "L'institution royale dans la maison dynastique des Odryses." In Actes du II" Congres International de Thracologie, vol. I, ed. R.Yulpe. Bucharest: Academiei, 337-341.
Popov, D. (1989). Zalmoxis. Religiya i obschestvo na trakite [Zalmoxis. Religion et societe des Thraces]. Sofia: Kliment Okhridski University Press.
Schneider, L. (1990). "Les signes du pouvoir: structure du langage iconique des thraces." Revue Archeologique 1989(2): 227-251.
Shefton, B. (1989). "Zum import und einfluss mediterraner Guter in Alteuropa," K6Iner Jahrbuchfur Vorund Fruhgeschichte 22: 207-220.
90 East-Central European Iron Age
Taylor, T. (l987a). "Aspects of Settlement Diversity and Its Classification in Southeast Europe before the Roman Period." World Archaeology 19(1): 1-22.
Taylor, T. (1987b) Flying Stags: Icons and Power in Thracian art." In The Archaeology of Contextual Meanings, ed. I. Hodder, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 117-132.
Taylor, T. (1988). "The Persian Empire, 6 (d) International craft traditions (ii): In Europe." In The Cambridge Ancient History Plates to Vol. iv (new ed.), ed. J. Boardman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 78-94.
Taylor, T. (1994). "Thracians, Scythians, and Dacians." In The Oxford Illustrated Prehistory of Europe, ed. B. Cunliffe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 373-410.
Taylor, T. (1996). "Kazanluk." In The Dictionary of Art, ed. Jane Turner. London: Macmillan, vol. 17, 872-873.
Velkov, V. and L. Domaradzka (1993). "Cotys I et l'emporium Pistyros en Thrace." Bulletin de Thracologie I: 11-13 (Commission internationale consultative pour la promotion d'etuder Indo-Eu- ropeenes et Thraces: Mangalia).
Yourukova, Y. (1992). Monetite na trakiiskite plemena i bladeteli. (Vol 1. of Monelni sukrovishta ot bulgariskite zemi). Sofia: Peter Beron.
TIMOTHY TAYLOR
Department of Archaeological Sciences
University of Bradford
United Kingdom