Kazanski (Eds) - The Pontiac Danubian Realm in the Period of Great Migration

The Pontic-Danubian Realm

in the Period of the Great Migration

ARHEOLOŠKI INSTITUTBEOGRAD

POSEBNA IZDANJA, KNJIGA 51

COLLÈGE DE FRANCE – CNRS CENTRE DE RECHERCHE D’HISTOIRE

ET CIVILISATION DE BYZANCE

MONOGRAPHIES 36

The Pontic-Danubian Realm in the Period of the Great Migration

edited by

Vujadin Ivanišević & Michel Kazanski

Paris – Beograd 2012

Suivi de la publicationEmmanuelle Capet

Composition et infographieArtyom Ter-Markosyan-Vardanyan

© Association des amis du Centre d’histoire et civilisation de Byzance (ACHCByz) – 201052 rue du Cardinal-Lemoine – 75005 Paris

ISBN 978-2-916716-31-2 978-86-80093-78-9ISSN 0751-0594

ACHCByz Arheološki Institut Beograd

Published with a support of the

Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Serbia

(Project n° 177021)

Вiдповiдальний редактор: Костянтин Цукерман

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Vujadin Ivanišević, Michel Kazanski. Préface .................................................... 7

I. The Balkans and the Middle Danube

Ivan Bugarski. Occupation of the south Pannonian soil during Antiquity and the Migration period: Šajkaška revisited ...................................... 11

Perica Špehar. The Danubian limes between Lederata and Aquae during the Migration period ................................................................................ 35

Vujadin Ivanišević. Barbarian settlements in the interior of Illyricum: The case of Caričin Grad .................................................................... 57

Tina Milavec. Late Antique settlements in Slovenia after the year 600 ........... 71

Federico Montinaro. Byzantium and the Slavs in the reign of Justinian: Comparing the two recensions of Procopius’s Buildings ...................... 89

Jaroslav Tejral. Cultural or ethnic changes? Continuity and discontinuity on the Middle Danube ca A.D. 500 ................................................... 115

Zuzana Loskotova. An early- 5th-century skeleton grave with gold neck-ring from Charváty (Moravia) ............................................ 189

Eszter Horvath. Cloisonné jewellery from the Langobardic Pannonia: Technological evidence of workshop practice ..................................... 207

Dieter Quast. Martial writers – Intellectual warriors: Remarks on a group of Late Antique male graves ............................................................... 243

II. The Occident

Joan Pinar Gil. Ponto-Danubian traditions of dress in early Visigothic Hispania: Chronology, dissemination, contexts and evolution . ........... 265

Eduard Droberjar. A propos des contacts entre l’empire d’Orient et les Germains de l’Elbe au vie siècle ................................................. 297

Dieter Quast. The Alamanni and Byzantium from the 5th to the 7th century ...... 317

III. The Northern Pontus

Aleksandr Ermolin. Džurga-Oba – a cemetery of the Great Migration period in the Cimmerian Bosporus ............................................................... 339

Damien Glad. The Empire’s influence on the barbarian elites from the Pontic region to the Rhine (5th-7th centuries): A case study of lamellar weapons and segmental helmet .......................................................... 349

Alekseï Fourassiev. Byzance et la Crimée du Sud-Ouest au vie siècle : relations culturelles et particularités du costume féminin .................... 363

Michel Kazanski. Radaigaise et la fin de la civilisation de Černjahov .............. 381

MARTIAL WRITERS – INTELLECTUAL WARRIORS

REMARKS ON A GROUP OF LATE ANTIQUE MALE GRAVES*

Dieter Quast

In 1999, Rüdiger Gogräfe and Jawdat Chehadé (1999) published two graves from a Roman cemetery in Hisphin in the Golan. Both burials contained parts of swords: a pelta- shaped sword chape with a mounting suspension of ivory (Grave 14), and a complete spatha with fragments of the sheath fittings and the hilt (Grave 3). These objects along with others suggest for the burials a date in the late 3rd to early 4th century. Weapons as grave furniture are unusual for this period in the Roman Empire (Koster 1993, 295 f; Palágyi, Nagy 2002, 155-157).1 This is why the authors were certain that the deceased must have been foreigners. Circumstantial epigraphic evidence – an epitaph with a Gothic name from 208 found in Imtān (Motha) in South Syria – suggested to Gogräfe and Chehadé (1999, 77 f; cf. Speidel 1977, 712-715) that Hisphin graves with weapons could belong to Goths who served in the Roman army. The Goths, however, buried their males without any weapons (Bierbrauer 1975, 68 f.; 1994, 55, 108, 124, 137).

A few years later Andrzej Kokowski (2003) drew attention to a child’s burial (grave 25) from Ruzycanka in Ukraine dated to the period C 2 (260-300/10). It contained some beads, a ceramic vessel and, most unusually, an inkpot of bronze. This is the only inkpot that I know of from a grave in the Barbaricum. Also for A. Kokowski, this was something un com mon for the Černjachov culture. He thought that the inkpot in this child’s grave was a toy, even though in the Roman Empire, writing utensils were plentiful in the tombs of children, described as “school-children” (Bilkei 1980, 73; Radnóti 1957, 211).

The two examples demonstrate the archaeologists’ penchant for using preconceived no-tions in their interpretations: weapon graves are barbarian, while those with writing utensils are Roman.2 But this seemingly clear-cut division becomes blurred in the rare cases of graves that contain both weapons and writing utensils. I will comment on this curious small group of “exceptions” from Late Antiquity, leaving aside the few first and second century parallels in the West, which do not help in the interpretation of the late antique burials (Amand, Nouwen 1989, 28, fig. 17 [tumulus of Berlingen]; Ambs, Faber 1998, 442 f ).

* I would like to thank Zsolt Mráv, Budapest, for very helpful critical comments and the trans-la tion of Hungarian papers; Katalin Boruzs, Visegrád, for her advice on the Dombóvár grave; Ivan Bugarski, Belgrade, for a general discussion of weapon graves.

1. Against an “ethnic” interpretation of such graves, see Schönberger 1953, 53-55; Parker 1994. For E. Keller (1971, 77 f ), only graves with swords are of Germanic origin.

2. Cf. contra Lichardus 2002, even if the objects from Zliv, Sládkovičovo and Kostolná pri Dunaji might not be stili.

Vujadin Ivanišević and Michel Kazanski eds, The Pontic-Danubian Realm in the Period of the Great Migration (Centre de recherche d’Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance, Monographies 36 / Arheološki institut, Posebna izdanja, Knjiga 51), Paris-Beograd 2012.

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1. Kerch (Crimea, UA) “Messaksoudi-Grave”In 1918, a rich grave was discovered on the southern or southwestern slope of Mount

Mithridates. Through Messaksoudi’s private collection and, later, the Louvre, its contents reached the “Musée des Antiquités Nationales” in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Described as a stone chamber under a barrow (L’Or des princes barbares 2000, 98-101 Cat. No. 5; Beck, Kazanski, Vallet 1988; Rostovtzeff 1923), it contained a gold diadem with the impression of a coin of Commodus (180-192), a belt buckle, a sword with a mounting suspension of jade, a few gold sheets in the form of strap ends and some round sheets with impressions of coins (Pupienus, 238), as well as an inkpot (Fig. 1). The form of the gold brooch is typical for Crimea, Ukraine and northern Caucasus (Almgren 1923, 74 ff, fig. 157; Ambroz 1966, 32 f, pl. 9, 18; pl. 16; pl. 22,2: group 15, series 3), but this is an

1

245MARTIAL WRITERS – INTELLECTUAL WARRIORS

Fig. 1: Kerch (Crimea, UA) “Messaksoudi-Grave”, sample of objects. 1. Horse harness; 2. Ink pot with enamel; 3. Sword mounting suspension of jade; 4. Sword pommel;

5. Sword blade (after: L’Or des princes barbares 2000, 100-101).

2

4

3

5

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3. The list of enamelled ink pots by C. Jones (1993, 164) can be completed with Dövener 1995, 103-104 (Dehlingen-Gurtelbach, dép. Bas-Rhin, F).

“old” type in this context. What determines the dating of the tomb in the last quarter of the 4th century is the horse harness. The inkpot (atramentarium), decorated with enamel (Fig. 2) was produced in the 3rd century, most probably in the Rhineland (Künzl 1995, 46; L’Or des princes barbares 2000, Cat. No. 15; Teegen 1999, 217 f.)3. It may have served not as a writing utensil, but rather as a beautiful old prestigious object.

Fig. 2: Distribution map of ink pots with enamel (after: Jones 1993, 164, with additions). Graphic: Michael Ober, RGZM.


2. Taraneš (near Debar, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)A splendid burial built of large flagstones and spolia was discovered in Taraneš (Ivanov-

ski 1984; 1987; Kaufmann-Heinimann 2003, 129f, with figs. 121-122). Richly fur nished, it contained, among other objects, a large silver dish, a silver jug, a diatret glass (Cermanović-Kuzmanović 1995), a set of gaming pieces (calculli), a silver spur, an axe and a pencil case with a silver stylos and an eraser (Fig. 3-4). The gold crossbow brooch – type 3 c after Keller (1971, 26-55) or type 3/4 after Pröttel (1988; cf. Soupault 2003, 53- 58) – suggests a date between 330 and 420, but the excavator Milan Ivanovski prefers an earlier date based on the silver dish, which he attributes to the reign of Licinius (308-324) in accordance with parallels from Niš. The axe found in the grave could have served as a weapon, though rather unusually for the Roman army, or could also have been a tool.

Fig. 3: Taraneš (near Debar, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia). 1. Plan of the grave; 2-3. Writing utensils; 4. Axe.

(after: Ivanovski 1987, 82, 89, figs. 2, 6).

21 3

4

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Fig. 4: Taraneš (near Debar, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), Sample of objects. 1. Crossbow brooch; 2. Diatret glass; 3. Spur; 4. Silver plate.

(after: Ivanovski 1987, 85, 87-88, figs. 3-5).

1 2 3

4


1 2

3

4

5

6 7 8 9

3. Budapest III, Újlak, Bécsi út 42, Grave 2 In 1993, three late Roman graves built of large flagstones were excavated in Budapest III,

Újlak, Bécsi út 42 (Fig. 5) (Nagy 2005). Grave 2 contained two glass beakers, an “old and used” silver crossbow brooch (Keller type 1/2), a silver belt with balteus buckles and fittings, a follis of Galerius Maximianus minted in Heraclea in 309-310, and a long sword

Fig. 5: Budapest III, Újlak, Bécsi út 42, Grave 2. Sample of objects. 1. Grave plan. 2. Crossbow brooch. 3-4. Buckles. 5. Buckle and belt fittings. 6. Balteus fitting.

7. Strap end. 8. Ink pot. 9. Sword (after: Nagy 2005, 420, 429-430, 434, figs. 11, 18-20).

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of an “eastern” steppe nomadic type with niello decoration suggesting its production inside the Roman Empire (Fig. 5 : 9). In addition to the parallels mentioned by Margit Nagy, the long and small blade fits are known in the context of equestrian weapons, e.g. from Brut in the Caucasus and Tugozvonovo in the Altai (Grabschätze vom Kaukasus 1991, 61, Cat. No. 277; Gabuev 2005, 34, Cat. No. 55; Umanskij 1978, 134, fig. 5; 138, fig. 9). The bronze inkpot (Fig. 5 : 8) of a fairly simple form has analogies in the region (Bilkei 1980, pl. 3-4). Nagy (2005, 476) dated the burial ca. 400, especially because of the belt fittings.

4. Zalaszentgrót (North of Lake Balaton, Hungary) In 1970, a grave made of tiles was discovered in Zalaszentgrót. It was destroyed and

robbed, but a few objects remained in the burial (Müller 1976). Next to the coins of Crispus and Constantinus (the most recent was minted in 322 in Rome), there was a bronze crossbow brooch (Keller type 3c), a sword and a bronze ink pot with inlays of silver and copper (Fig. 6). The ornament of this atramentarium makes it a unique piece (Bilkei, 1980, 70f, esp. 74, thought that the ink pot could be much older than the burial). Róbert Müller (1976, 67, cf. Tejral 1999, 232) dated the grave to the late 4th – early 5th century.

Fig. 6: Zalaszentgrót (Kom. Zala, H). 1. Grave plan . 2. Ink pot. 3. Ring. 4-5. Sword chape. 6. Crossbow brooch.

7. Sword. - 7 without scale; all others see printed scale (after: Müller 1996, 50, 55, 57, figs. 8, 11-12).

2 c 2 a

2 b

3

6

7

1

2 d

4 b

4 a

5 a

5 b

500

500


To sum up, this short list includes only four graves containing weapons and writing utensils (Fig. 7). Since most writing utensils were made of organic materials (papyrus charta, parchment membrana, wooden panel covered with wax tabula cerata, pen calamus), they are obviously missing from the archaeological record (Božič, Feugère 2004, 21-41). But inkpots, when they belong to grave furniture, are detectable without any doubt.

Weapon Writing Utensils

BroochOther Grave

GoodsBurial Form Dating

Type Material

Kerč Sword Ink pot

Almgren157

Ambroz gr. 15, ser. 3

Gold

Horse harnessBelt BuckleGold Sheet Appliques

Tumulus with Stone

Chamber

Late 4th Century

Taraneš AxePencil Case,stylos

Keller3C Gold

Diatret GlassSilver PlateSilver Jug

SpurCalculi

FlagstoneGrave

First Half 4th Century

Budapest Sword Ink pot Keller1B-2A Silver Belt(s)

GlassesFlagstone

Grave

Turn 4th / 5th Century

Zala- szentgrót Sword Ink pot Keller

3C Bronze Destroyed and robbed

TileGrave

Late 4th / early 5th Century

Fig. 7: Graves with weapons and writing utensils discussed in the article.

The only grave on the list from outside the Empire, the one from Kerch, contained an “old” inkpot, possibly no longer in use. Inside the Roman Empire, a distribution map of all weapon graves of the 4th century shows a clear difference between Pannonia and the Balkan Peninsula. The small number of graves with weapons on the Balkans makes it impossible to establish any patterns, but the grave from Tarneš with the axe finds parallels in the burials from Putičevo, Rohatica (both BiH), Kullë and Zgërdhesh (both AL) (List no. 18-19 and 25-26).

By way of contrast, weapon graves are more numerous in Pannonia, and most of those buried have their cloak closed with a crossbow brooch, which identifies them as members of the (military) administration (Bilkei 1980, 75; Schmauder 2002, 76 ff; Kaufmann- Heinimann 2003, 129f; cf. contra Deppert-Lippitz 2000, 52). I. Bilkei (1980, 75) linked the culture of writing in Pannonia with the military: 10 out of 15 late Roman graves with ink pots in this region contain a crossbow brooch. Men with a military cloak (sagum) and writing utensils are depicted on tombstones (Eckhart 1976, pl. 16, no. 51 and 53). The late Roman army employed at all levels of command a substantial bureaucratic apparatus (Le Bohec 2006, 91f.), but the combination of sword and stilus

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was more common in daily life than in graves. At least 15 late Roman graves from well studied Pannonia produced ink pots, but only two also contained weapons, even though weapon graves from the 4th – early 5th century are not so rare (Keller 1971, 77 f.; Márton 2002, 139f with fig. 234; cf. Fig. 8). Axes appear in graves only until the first half of the 4th century, but it is not clear if they were all used as weapons. Alice Sz. Burger (1984, 81) identified the man buried in Budapest II, Pasarét, Grave A as a member of a curia because of the sella curialis and interpreted the axe as part of the fasces. Among the graves with spearheads, many include hunting weapons, like the boar spear from Dombóvár;5 the same may be true for the graves containing arrowheads (Sági 1981, 99 f.). Swords are not

Fig. 8: Distribution map of weapon graves inside the Roman Empire (Barbaricum is not mapped). ▲ Sword. ● Spearhead. ■ Axe. Graphic Vera Kassühlke, RGZM.

4. Some of the graves on this distribution map of weapon graves from 4th century Pannonia should be deleted because of their incorrect dating.

5. List no 4; cf. the so-called Testament of the Lingon, which mentions hunting weapons as part of the grave furniture (Le Bohec, Buisson 1991; Rodríguez 1995).


1. Budapest III, Újlak, Bécsi út 42, Grave 2: cf. Fig. 5. Lit.: Nagy 2005, 416-427 with figs. 12-16. 2. Budapest III, Bécsi út, graveyard no VII,

Grave 7, coffin of limestone, double grave of two infants, spearhead, glass vessels, beads, scissors, small bulla; 4th century

Lit.: Topál 1993, 71f., no 10; pl. 93,10 and 173; Márton 2002, 139 no. 45.

3. Budapest II, Pasarét, Grave A: flagstone grave, axe, silver brooch with niello, around AD 300

Lit.: Burger 1984, 65-70, with figs. 2-22, Márton 2002, 139 no. 46.

4. Dombóvár (Kom. Tolna, H): brickgrave, axe, spearhead, silver belt fittings, glass vessel, 4th century

Lit.: unpubl.; kind information from Katalin Boruzs, Visegrád

5. Dunapentele Intercisa (Kom. Fejér, H) Grave XXII: grave walls made of clay bricks, flagstone cover; spearhead, early 4th century

Lit.: Paulovics 1927, 118. 6. Gamzigrad (SRB) Grave 1/05: cremation grave,

sword, spearhead, shield, horse bit, golden crossbow-brooch, burned coins (second half of the 3rd century); around AD 300

Lit.: Petković 2007, 251-275, esp. 253ff with fig. 12; Živić 2007, 277-307, esp. 277ff.; 295, pl. IIb.

7. Gölle-Alsóhetény puszta (Kom. Somogy, H): accidently destroyed cremation grave with spearhead, bronze belt fittings, crossbow brooch, 4th century

Lit.: Draveczky 1962, 30; Márton 2002, 140 no. 48.

8. Gomolova kod Hrtkovaca (Vojvodina, SRB) Grab 33: inhumation grave, spearhead, lamp, 4th century?

Lit.: Dautova-Ruševljan, Brukner 1992, 183, Taf. 10,2.

9. Hîrşova (Jud. Constanţa, RO): grave, sword pommel, belt fittings, late 4th – early 5th century

Lit.: Goldhelm, Schwert und Silberschätze 1995, 225, no. 94.

10. Igal (Kom. Somogy, H): grave with spearhead, glass and coins (without further information) 4th century

Lit.: Frech 1960, 33; Márton 2002, 140 no. 49.11. Keszthely-Dobogó (Kom. Zala, H) grave 84:

brick grave of a 3-4 year old child, two small iron axes, bronze crossbow brooch, belt, glass beaker, seven coins (t.p.q. AD 320)

Lit.: Sági 1981, 49-51, with Fig. 33.12. Keszthely-Fenékpuszta (Kom. Zala, H),

Gräberfeld Halászrét, cella memoria, Grabkammer? robbed grave; axe (unsure, the axe was probably introduced by the robbers)

Lit.: Sági 1960, 187-256, esp. 194 with Fig. 3,14.13. Majs (Kom. Baranya, H) grave 26 and grave

37: each with an axe Lit.: Burger 1972, 64-100, esp. 82, figs.

28,26:1, 85, fig. 31,37:8; Márton 2002, 140, No. 56.

14. Mosonszentmiklós-Jánosházapuszta (Kom. Győr-Moson-Sopron, H) grave 28 spearhead

Lit.: unpublished, mentioned by E. Keller (Keller 1971, 78, note 448)

15. Papkeszi (Kom. Veszprém, H) Grave 2: spearhead, crossbow brooch (bronze, gilded), glass vessels, coins (latest of Constantine I).

Lit.: Éri et al. 1969, 171f., no 39/10; Márton 2002, 140, no. 57.

16. Pécs Sopianae (Kom. Baranya, H) Grave 291-292: inventories of two mixed 4th century graves including an axe

Lit.: Fülep 1977, 52f; Márton 2002, 140, no. 63

17. Pilismarót (Kom. Komárom-Esztergom) a. Grave 27 (1973-1974): blade fragments from a destroyed and robbed inhumation grave

Lit.: Erdélyi, Salamon 1980/81, 147-161, esp. 151, 155, Pl. 5.

b. Grave 26 (1937) Lit.: Erdélyi, Salamon 1980/1981, 160, note

15. Some authors mention a blade fragment from this grave. Cf. Barkóczi 1960, 111-132, esp. 119, fig. 33,3.

4th – early 5th-century Weapon Graves from Pannonia and the Balkans (the list does not include graves with arrowheads and daggers)

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as rare as one may imagine; they become slightly more common in the second third of the 5th century (not shown on fig. 8) (Kiss 1981, 147 f.). One could also mention the Norico-Pannonian tumuli with weapons from 1st and 2nd century Pannonia (Palágyi 1989; Palágyi, Nagy 2002, 86-91; Mráv 2006), but there is a clear chronological gap between them and the 4th century weapon graves.

The comparison with the West is instructive. In northwestern Gaul, weapon graves of this period are more numerous and much debated (Keller 1971, 77). Are they burials of mercenaries of Germanic origin, as most notably argued by Horst Wolfgang Böhme (2009), or just new forms of self display of the local population during times of crisis (Halsall 2009; Theuws 2009)? While here is not the place to discuss the material from Gaul, we should adhere to a clear distinction between West and East. Only one main characteristic need be mentioned. In the West, most cemeteries have more than one weapon grave, and the deceased are accompanied by females wearing a foreign costume. As far as I know, none of the western weapon graves contains writing utensils.

18. Putičevo (BiH): (uncertain, the preservation and the spectrum of complete objects suggests a cemetery) two axes without context

Lit.: Truhelka, Patch 1895, 227-247, esp. 234, Figs. 17-18.

19. Rohatica (BiH): cremation grave, two axes, 4th century

Lit.: Fiala 1897, 259-262, esp. 261, Taf. 68,1-2.

20. Silistra Durostorum (BG): carriage grave, two swords, golden crossbow brooch, belt, finger ring, carriage fittings; around AD 300.

Lit.: Vasilev, Mitanov 1974, 27-43; Atanasov 2001, 130-136; Dumanov 2005, 310-315.

21. Szamar-Somodorpuszta (Kom. Komárom-Esztergom) Grave 23 and Grave 36: grave 23: spearhead – Grave 36: shieldboss, spearhead, sword

Lit.: Burger 1974, 64-101, esp. 68, Fig. 4,23-23, 71, Fig. 7,36; Márton 2002, 140, Nr. 59-60.

22. Šarkamen (SRB) tumulus (object C) grave 6: cremation grave, spearhead, pottery fragments, early 4th century

Lit.: Popović 2005, 171, Cat. no. 90.23. Taraneš (near Debar, Former Yugoslav

Republic of Macedonia): cf. fig. 3-4. Lit.: Ivanovski 1984, 219-226; 1987, 81-90.24. Zalaszentgrót (Kom. Zala, H): cf. fig. 6. Lit.: Müller 1976, 33-68.25. Zengővárkony II (Kom. Baranya, H) Grave

4: inhumation grave, spearhead, iron horse bit, pair of bronze spurs, crossbow brooch, coins of Constantius

Lit.: Dombay 1957, 181-330, esp. 195ff., fig. 12, Taf. 6-8; Márton 2002, 140, no. 66.

26. Kullë near Durrës (AL) “grave with an axe and a knife”

Lit.: Hoti 1987, 261; 274f. Taf. 11,12.16; 12,7.27. Zgërdhesh (AL) inhumation grave, axe,

dagger, crossbow brooch, glass vessels. Lit.: Karaiskaj 1977/78, 212 Taf. 1.

Svilengard (BG), mapped by M. Schulze-Dörrlamm (1985, 565, list 3, no. 56), is not listed because it is dated to the 2nd century AD (Velkov 1937, 117-170, esp. 170).


6. The grave of Epöl in Pannonia, noted in fig. 33, is younger in fact and belongs to the first half of 5th century, cf. Bemmann 2006. Swords are missing in the Černjachov – Sîntana-de-Mureş culture on the lower Danube, which is connected with the Goths who did not furnish their male graves with weapons (Bierbrauer 1975, 68f; 1994, 55, 108, 124, 137).

While weapon graves with writing utensils in Pannonia and the Balkans are few, they share salient features, which call for interpretation:

• the burials are found inside the Roman Empire• the graves are part of late Roman grave groups• the form of the grave is local/provincial Roman• the burial customs fit the provincial Roman standards (for exceptions, see below)• most of the objects in the graves are Roman products• all the graves contain crossbow brooches• some objects seem to be unusual as grave goods in an Empire context

All other late Roman weapon graves in Pannonia and the Balkans share the same characteristics. People who buried the deceased used crossbow brooches, ink pots and weapons to demonstrate their status. The last item has long been interpreted as a “barbarian element”. This is, indeed, the impression produced by the maps published 25 years ago by Mechthild Schulze-Dörrlamm (1985, 550, fig. 33-34), showing sword graves from Barbaricum, many of them, especially from the second half of the 4th century, being inhumation graves.6 But if the sword graves from Pannonia and the Balkans were added to the map, this burial custom would lose its barbarian conspicuousness and become one of the “provincial” standards. Rather than be explained as barbarian and foreign, they can be related to the late antique “barbarised” army personnel, who developed a specific form of self-presentation not only in lifetime but also in burial (von Rummel 2007, 342-353). Among the symbols of high social status found in the graves, weapons could appeal to a barbarian and more generally military audience, possibly testifying to military rank, while crossbow brooches and writing utensils would be more meaningful for provincial Roman dignitaries. Ink pots, however, could also have been meaningful for people of a barbarian background as a symbol of education, which was the main divider between barbarian and Roman elites in Late Antiquity (Geary 1996, 40 f.). An inscription from Budapest underlines the mentality of these foederati: Francus ego, cives Romanus, miles in armis / egregia virtute tuli bello mea dextera sem[p]er (CIL III/1 1873, 453, no. 3576; Desjardins, Rómer 1873, 84, no. 175, with pl. 30). On the underside of the 2.38m long inscription, this Francus is portrayed in a typically provincial Roman manner with a crossbow brooch and a sagum (Fig. 9) (Nagy 2007, 174).

In the eastern part of the Roman Empire, weapon graves were always an exception. The most probable explanation is that existing regulations or laws did not authorise such burial practice. The fact that weapons belonged to the state rather than to private soldiers could be a contributing factor (Schönberg 1953). Other regulations applied in regions controlled by barbarians, especially from the second half of the 5th century; therefore, weapon graves are much more numerous, e.g., in Lombard or Avar Pannonia and in parts of the former Western Empire. While the elites in these regions were acquainted with writing (Moreau 2008, 242-243; Gillett 2008 a-b), they attributed no symbolic value to writing utensils. The few writing utensils found in graves in the Merovingian Empire

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are not associated with weapons. They seem to be usually (Quast 1994, 618), but not exclusively (von Petrikovits 1967, 460-464; Aouni 1992, 87-89) connected with clerics.

Fig. 9: Budapest, tomb stone 2.38 m long with inscription on the right side and a male figure on the underside (after: Nagy 2007, 174).

2

1


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Kazanski (Eds) - The Pontiac Danubian Realm in the Period of Great Migration

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