Eternal Memory to Warriors! Military Campaigns in Ancient Barbaricum from the Perspective of Funerary Archaeology

Abstract

Degree of recognition of the armament models in Barbaricum allows not only to identify certain cultural areas but also to capture the ordinary findings not exactly matching the indigenous pattern. Their interpretation, although burdened with uncertainty, allows depicting the phenomena on the detailed dynamic level, i.e. not as a manifestation of the cultural processes but a phenomenon of a limited scale or relating to small groups of warriors. Author discusses particular finds from differ- ent parts of European Barbaricum, i.a. a Celtic grave from Ciumeşti in Romania, a warrior cemetery from the 1st c. BC in Mutin on the River Seym, 1st/2nd c. AD dou- ble grave from Káloz in Pannonia, 2nd c. AD necropolis in Kariv (western Ukraine), Sudovian Culture grave from Szwajcaria by Suwałki, barrow 2 (early 3rd c. AD) and late antique necropolis at Čatyr Dag in Crimea. Basing on the chosen archaeological examples from different parts of the Iron Age Europe a mobility of a military char- acter – practice mentioned in the written and ethnographic sources – is exemplified.