Cercetări arheologice în cimitirul din epoca bronzului târziu de la Câmpina (jud. Prahova) – campaniile 2011 şi 2012

Abstract

Archaeological research in the Bronze Age cemetery from Câmpina started in 2008. We published the first three archaeological campaigns in detail in a volume and synthetically in scientific studies, archaeological reports, catalogues and exhibition foldings. In this paper we aim to present the results of the archaeological research carried out in 2011 and 2012, completing for the interested ones the information already known. The research, that was initially a rescue one, consisted of five successive campaigns, from 2008 to 2012. We discovered 57 graves ; some of them already disturbed and isolated human bones coming from several individuals found in inhumation graves strongly affected by late medieval or recent complexes. We also identified a series of complexes similar to graves that contained pots or ceramic fragments, but without human bones. They seem to be symbolic graves. We investigated both inhumation and cremation graves. The predominant funerary rite is inhumation, covering about 80% of the total number of identified individuals. The grave inventories suggest the presence of elements specific to Noua and Monteoru cultures. Moreover, three inhumation graves contained pots decorated in a manner specific to Tei culture. Some cremation graves contained pots difficult to assign to a culture, but a series of correlations, analogies and other details concerning the rite and ritual (the typology of complexes, the presence of upside down pots, the sandy paste, the distribution within the plan etc.), show they were contemporary with the other graves. Radiocarbon dates and relative chronology elements indicate the evolution of this cemetery during the Late Bronze Age.

Keywords

• bronze age
• cemetery
• graves
• inhumation
• cremation
• pots
• stones
• absolute chronology