Memoirs of the Scientific Sections of the Romanian Academy (Dec 2021)
Weapons – killing tools. Testimony of old and new mass graves
Abstract
The discovery of the mass graves from Horlești and Iași at “Casa Pogor”, in the county of Iași, is a testimony of the turbulent history of these places. The weapons and killing tools discovered are both deadly, although they come from different eras. The bones bear witness in this respect, as a manifest evidence of the use of weapons. The mass grave from Horlești was chronologically framed using 14C, being dated between 1400 and 1800 AD. The excessive fragmentation of the osteological material made difficult the paleoanthropological analysis but, much to our surprise, we discovered amazing things. The deceased, aged between 20-50 years, had a violent death, as shown by the injuries detected on the cranial and post-cranial bones. The minimum number of individuals that could be registered is 99. The large majority of the buried ones is formed of males, which indicates a typological picture similar to that found in the synchronous necropolises of the reigns of Petru Rareș. The fatal injuries were caused by sharp weapons, arrows and projectiles. The burial was hasty, without funeral material and little attention given to the deceased, the individuals being deprived of the goods that could survive in time. Most probably, the dead are the losers of a military confrontation. The presence of specific equipment and the Gymnastiorka type summer shirt buttons may attest that the deceased from the mass grave at “Casa Pogor” in Iași are soldiers of the Soviet Union, whose death occurred in the spring-summer of 1944, during the fightings carried on north of Iași. The anthropological analysis of the 11 individuals indicates a typology that confirms the eastern origins of the soldiers, highlighting the existence of a wide range of injuries caused by firearms (shrapnel, bullets or blast waves), attesting that their death was extremely violent, during the fights, and not at a later stage, as a result of injuries. The anthropological analysis has also highlighted the young age of the deceased, only one individual being over the age of 50.
