engleski

Rich grave goods, bad health? The preliminary results of the bioarchaeological study of the Middle Bronze Age cremation burials from Jagodnjak, Eastern Croatia

The paper presents preliminary results of the bioarchaeological analysis of the remains recovered from 29 cremation burials from Jagodnjak in Eastern Croatia. The archaeological rescue excavations of the Jagodnjak-Krčevine site (AN 7) in the Osijek- Baranja County in Eastern Croatia carried out in 2014 and 2015 revealed the presence of the cemetery dated to the final periods of the Early and to the Middle Bronze Age, the so called Transdanubian Encrusted Pottery culture (ca 2000-1500 BCE). All recovered burials were quite “rich”, and alongside human remains, each grave contained numerous pottery vessels accompanied by large quantities of cremated and non-cremated animal remains and some metal (mostly bronze) objects. Approximately one third of all studied burials were double – all of these contained the remains of at least one child, and in some cases, both individuals were children. At least 37 individuals were present in the sample: 18 subadults, three females, six males, and ten adults whose sex could not be established. Although the human remains were well-cremated, based on the bone coloring and fragmentation, most of them exhibited traces of various pathologies such as multiple cases of cribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis, vertebral osteophytosis, ante-mortem tooth loss and abscesses, as well as one case of new periosteal bone formation. Based on the presented data, we argue that the “richness” of grave goods does not necessarily have to indicate good health and quality of life in a certain population as seen on the example of the Bronze Age burials from Jagodnjak.

Middle Bronze Age ; Croatia ; cremations

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