Practici depoziţionale non-funerare La Tène târziu în sud-vestul României. Descoperirile de la Glogova şi Desa / Non-funerary depositional practices during the Late La Tène in southwestern Romania. The discoveries from Glogova and Desa
Authors: Spânu Daniel 
Published: November 2020

Two recent discoveries offer new insights concerning the diversity of non-funerary practices in southern Romania, in Late La Tène period : the tools deposit from Glogova (Gorj County) and the spearheads deposit from Desa (Dolj County). In the upper part of a hill with steep slopes on the territory of the village of Glogova, two treasure hunters discovered a deposit of iron tools. The inventory consists of a share (Henning type B1), two flesh forks (gr. κρεάγρα) and three sickles (Henning type H6/ Babeş type I). These types of tools have been used for a long time, but north of the Lower Danube such items are most commonly found in contexts from the 1st century BC – 1st century AD. The relatively small number of the items is not specific to Roman time sets of tools. Although it cannot be fully confirmed, the synchronization hypothesis between the Glogova deposit and the Padea – Panagjurski Kolonii group should not be lost of sight. The burial place of Glogova items on a steep hill recalls the pre-Roman depositions of tools from mountain contexts (e. g. Cetăţeni, Grădiştea de Munte – Strâmbu, Râpa cu Galbeni and others). The question may be asked whether these deposits represented votive offerings buried in the natural environment, dedicated to deities of the wild nature, as indicated by e. g. the “ Dacian” hoards. In any case, tool and utensil deposits are not an isolated local practice specific exclusively to pre-Roman Dacia, but must be understood in the broader context of tool deposits in Central and Eastern Europe during the Middle and Late La Tène periods. The inventory discovered at Glogova reflects the acculturation of a “ barbarian” world still free to the Mediterranean technology and customs mediated by the Roman economic and political system since the Republican era. The archaeological excavations undertaken in the year 2019 on Castraviţa site at Desa have led to the discovery, among other things, of two iron spearheads. No human cremated remains or ashes were found next to the spearheads, as e. g. in the case of Late La Tène grave 12. The find circumstances suggest the deliberate burial of the two weapons but exclude the hypothesis of a secondary filling or funeral deposition. The non-funeral burial of the two spearheads in a synchronous funeral area could be interpreted as a votive deposition or a cenotaph. The discoveries from square unit 14/ 2019 at Desa – Castraviţa also reveal other suggestive aspects for ancient depositional behaviours. The two iron spearheads were kept in a good state of conservation. The position in which they were found, horizontally and next to a relatively well preserved Late Eneolithic/ Early Bronze Age amphora, indicates however that the wooden shafts of the spears have been broken before their burial. Thus, the local Late La Tène phenomenon of deliberate destruction of wealth had a larger magnitude than reflected by the bent, broken or hit weapons. The lengths of the two spearheads (37.73 and 37.31 cm) are close to the regional average (40.84 cm). By comparison with examples from other regions of Iron Age Europe, the Late La Tène spearheads in the lower Danube region exhibit tendencies of gigantism. A similar trend is illustrated by some local Late La Tène fibulae. Thus, the votive significance of their burial is all the more explicit. By contrast, a miniature replica of a sica-type knife was discovered in grave 12. The burial of miniature items is also part of the Late La Tène depositional practices, but it is still an unexplored topic in the research of Padea – Panagjurski Kolonii group. A number of findings indicate the possibility of relative synchronization between the spearheads and the fibula from the grave 12 and their chronological framing in Late La Tène period. Due to its proportions and ornamentation, this fibula corresponds to the characteristics of the Corlate – Gura Padinii type. However, specimens of this type are strikingly similar to some fibulae discovered in the Carpathian Basin and closely related to some north-Adriatic and Dinaric fibulae of Kastav and Picugi types. Thus, the Corlate – Gura Padinii type can no longer be considered an original creation of the craftsmen from the Lower Danube Basin. All specimens in this typological “ family” show some general features of Mötschwil fibulae specific to the LT C2 phase. But, unlike Mötschwil type, the foot of the Picugi – Gura Padinii fibulae was decorated twice with the motif of a bead framed by bobbins (fr. perle et pirouettes), inspired by the classical ornamentation. The junction of the foot on the bow next to the spiral, the trapezoidal path of the bow and the increase of the number of windings of the spiral represent other “ deviations” from the typical form of the Mötschvil fibulae and constitute morphological changes whose incidence peaked at the beginning of the Late La Tène period (LT D1). The close analogies between the fibulae of the Coralte – Gura Padinii type and the Picugi type reveal the identity of a morphological and ornamental family in which two main divergent tendencies can be observed. (1) The ornamental refinement of classical inspiration illustrated by some specimens can be depreciated by simplification and geometry, due to the “ barbaric” aesthetic and craft filter from the Danube regions (interpretatio barbarica). (2) In the same “ barbaric” environments, local aesthetic and ritual rigor determined the oversize of the specimens, reaching up to pieces with gigantic dimensions. The spread of a common aesthetic model that formed the basis of the ornamentation of the Picugi and Corlate – Gura Padinii types indicates the same distribution networks illustrated by the late republican imports distributed in the LT D1 phase in the northern Balkan regions. Therefore, the adoption of the beads-andbobbins motif on Middle La Tène scheme fibulae foreshadows probably the prestige of Rome''s expanding cultural models. From the perspective of the findings from Glogova and especially Desa, the definition itself of Padea – Panagjurski Kolonii group as exclusive funeral behaviour could be critically reviewed and nuanced. Padea – Panagjurski Kolonii depositional practices were not restricted to the funeral realm but could also include votive behaviours or cenotaphs. The votive or funeral character of a feature can only be determined by methodical and professional survey.