Percolation of the Past in the Middle Ages? Case-Study of the Necropolis Ravna–Slog near Knjaževac

Abstract

The things surviving into the present from the previous epochs have under- gone the processes of selection and fragmentation.Therefore, the elements from the past that penetrate into another time are fragmented and represent a (material) memory of the previous practices, events, lifestyles, or an unknown that easily raises mystical ideas about the other worlds. Gavin Lucas describes this phenomenon of past penetrating into the present as percolation (lat. percolatio). The term is derived from chemistry, where it denotes filtration or drainage, i. e. the passage of fluid through a filter and separation of substances The archaeological perspective is capable to deal with the coexistence of sets of material culture from various times in thepresent. On the other hand, the polychrony of archaeological assemblages has often been purified and separated through scientific practices – as if the present is not always filled with the past. The interpretation of the mutual relations among the past times andtheir usage/ meaning in the new contexts is not susceptible to simple solutions. It is hard to explain why a certain event or an objectdisappears from the memory and usage, while others endure into the present or occur again. The paper analyses the Early Medieval funerary contexts from the necropolis Ravna–Slog in which the artefacts originating from the Roman or prehistoric periods are registered along with the Medieval ones. The similar phenomenon is registered in the case ofthe Avar-Period graves. The mixed contexts from Ravna are interpreted as the consequence of the need to construct the link to the past, with the aim to legitimize the presence in the new territory.

Keywords

• percolation
• mixed contexts
• Middle Ages
• necropolis
• re-use
• Avar-Period practices