Urnfield phenomenon of the late Bronze and early Iron ages is defined by the presence of vast urn cemeteries. And here we have three most unified elements of the phenomenon: cremation as a one and the only way of dealing with the dead, a pot as a container for the ashes and flat grave. There is also a complementary list of secondary features that should be present to include a unit in question into urnfield phenomenon. However, looking deeply into the detailed characteristic of cultural sets and comparing them from region to region there always some ”but”. There are the exceptions in funeral practice - like inhumation, or barrow grave, wooden coffins and so on. Lower Oder region shows slightly different dynamics and characteristics. The Bronze Age here has started with delay gaining full expression within the Urnfield period. Similarly, the end of the Bronze Age is also shifted here into the end 1 half of I millennium BC. The beginning of the Urnfield period brings cremation as a sole funeral rite, but urn with ashes is placed under burial mound and equipped with numerous bronze objects. Based on Lower Oder late Bronze and early Iron Ages material I’m going to test different ways of defining a cultural phenomenon according to typology and definition applied in archaeology.
Author(s): Slusarska, Katarzyna (University of Gdańsk)
