Population of Viminacium during the Migration Period: Segment without artificially deformed skulls

Abstract

– In the 1980s, at the site of Viminacium – Vi{e Grobalja, 31 artificially deformed skulls were discovered at the necropolis ascribed to the Gepids. These skulls attracted much attention from anthropologists as they represent the largest series of artificially deformed skulls in this part of Europe. Another 63 skulls, showing no traces of artificial deformation have, thus far, been disregarded, hence they will now be published in more detail and those best preserved, illustrated in this paper. In 2006, the published archaeological analysis confirmed that this site is, in fact, a case of two necropolises from the Migration Period, which were, however, spatially and chronologically linked. They were named as Viminacium II, specifically Vi{e Grobalja 1 and Vi{e Grobalja 2. The older necropolis (1) contained 36 skeletons, and the younger (2), 58 skeletons. This paper includes another two Viminacium necropolises from the Migration Period – the necropolis of Burdelj (i.e. Viminacium I) with 66 graves and the necropolis of Lanci (i.e. Viminacium III) with 15 graves. Simply stated, the anthropological characteristics of the skeletons from these four necropolises of Viminacium from the Migration Period – Burdelj, Vi{e Grobalja 1, Vi{e Grobalja 2 and Lanci, excluding the previously published artificially deformed skulls, demonstrate a low degree of heterogeneity.