A double burial of the Baden culture from Tatabánya–Delphi (northern Transdanubia, Hungary) – A case study of the Dentalium beads of the Baden culture and their interpretation
2020
Horváth, Tünde | Cseh, Julianna | Barkóczy, Péter | Juhász, Laura | Gulyás, Sándor | Bernert, Zsolt | Buzár, Ágota
A double burial of the Baden culture from Tatabánya–Delphi (northern Transdanubia, Hungary) – A case study of the Dentalium beads of the Baden culture and their interpretation.In 2016, Julianna Cseh excavated a small settlement part of the classical Baden culture in the inner city area of Tatabánya. The excavated features included a double burial furnished with a rich array of grave goods, particularly of beads made of Dentalium shells.The crouched man and woman interred in the grave embraced each other tightly. The woman wore an ornate funerary garment and shell jewellery (headdress, veil, necklace, girdle). A triangular arrowhead of Úrkút radiolarite was found in her abdomen.Dentalium beads have been found in the burials of the formal/extramural cemeteries investigated at Alsónémedi and Budakalász in Hungary, and at Ratzersdorf in Austria. Their archaeological occurrence, geological sources, shapes and different use has been interpreted variously, ranging from special grave goods, prestige goods, luxury items and adornments of funerary costume to the measure of value in local communities and Late Copper Age society – a commodity used as currency in exchanges. Our interdisciplinary research is but a small contribution to the vast literature on the huge Baden complex; however, it reports on the first modern in situ observation of shell finds, enabling a detailed reconstruction of female funerary costume and its possible role.
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