A Non-Wandering Soldier's Grave? The Seventh-Century Burial in Davidovac (Southern Serbia)
Abstract
In the course of rescue excavations in 2011 a grave was found at the Davidovac-Gradište site. The locality is situated in the southernmost part of present-day Serbia, in the South Morava valley, on the route of the Roman Via publica. In the grave, a 30–40 year old male was buried with his belt and a battle axe. The belt consists of pressed bronze sheet strap-ends and a cast bronze buckle. Alongside them there was a purse buckle, also a characteristic early seventh-century Byzantine product. The anthropological analysis indicates that the deceased had military training. Such graves are rarely found throughout the Byzantine Empire. Being very different from the sixth-century Roman burials, they were commonly attributed to migratory mercenaries of the Empire. Having surveyed similar burials of that date from Corinth, Pergamon, present-day Albania and Sardinia, we are in favour of interpreting them in the context of social changes which occurred at a time of crisis in the Empire, and not i...n ethnic terms.
Keywords:
Davidovac-Gradište site / 7. century / deceased had military trainingSource:
GrenzÜbergänge: Spätrömisch, frühchristlich, frühbyzantinisch als Kategorien der historisch-archäologischen Forschung an der mittleren Donau, 2016, 247-272Funding / projects:
- Romanization, urbanization and transformation of urban centres of civil, military and residential character in Roman provinces on territory of Serbia (RS-MESTD-Basic Research (BR or ON)-177007)
- Urbanisation Processes and Development of Mediaeval Society (RS-MESTD-Basic Research (BR or ON)-177021)
Collections
Institution/Community
Археолошки институт / Institute of ArchaeologyTY - CHAP AU - Petković, Sofija AU - Bugarski, Ivan AU - Miladinović-Radmilović, Nataša PY - 2016 UR - http://rai.ai.ac.rs/handle/123456789/1083 AB - In the course of rescue excavations in 2011 a grave was found at the Davidovac-Gradište site. The locality is situated in the southernmost part of present-day Serbia, in the South Morava valley, on the route of the Roman Via publica. In the grave, a 30–40 year old male was buried with his belt and a battle axe. The belt consists of pressed bronze sheet strap-ends and a cast bronze buckle. Alongside them there was a purse buckle, also a characteristic early seventh-century Byzantine product. The anthropological analysis indicates that the deceased had military training. Such graves are rarely found throughout the Byzantine Empire. Being very different from the sixth-century Roman burials, they were commonly attributed to migratory mercenaries of the Empire. Having surveyed similar burials of that date from Corinth, Pergamon, present-day Albania and Sardinia, we are in favour of interpreting them in the context of social changes which occurred at a time of crisis in the Empire, and not in ethnic terms. T2 - GrenzÜbergänge: Spätrömisch, frühchristlich, frühbyzantinisch als Kategorien der historisch-archäologischen Forschung an der mittleren Donau T1 - A Non-Wandering Soldier's Grave? The Seventh-Century Burial in Davidovac (Southern Serbia) EP - 272 SP - 247 UR - https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_rai_1083 ER -
@inbook{ author = "Petković, Sofija and Bugarski, Ivan and Miladinović-Radmilović, Nataša", year = "2016", abstract = "In the course of rescue excavations in 2011 a grave was found at the Davidovac-Gradište site. The locality is situated in the southernmost part of present-day Serbia, in the South Morava valley, on the route of the Roman Via publica. In the grave, a 30–40 year old male was buried with his belt and a battle axe. The belt consists of pressed bronze sheet strap-ends and a cast bronze buckle. Alongside them there was a purse buckle, also a characteristic early seventh-century Byzantine product. The anthropological analysis indicates that the deceased had military training. Such graves are rarely found throughout the Byzantine Empire. Being very different from the sixth-century Roman burials, they were commonly attributed to migratory mercenaries of the Empire. Having surveyed similar burials of that date from Corinth, Pergamon, present-day Albania and Sardinia, we are in favour of interpreting them in the context of social changes which occurred at a time of crisis in the Empire, and not in ethnic terms.", journal = "GrenzÜbergänge: Spätrömisch, frühchristlich, frühbyzantinisch als Kategorien der historisch-archäologischen Forschung an der mittleren Donau", booktitle = "A Non-Wandering Soldier's Grave? The Seventh-Century Burial in Davidovac (Southern Serbia)", pages = "272-247", url = "https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_rai_1083" }
Petković, S., Bugarski, I.,& Miladinović-Radmilović, N.. (2016). A Non-Wandering Soldier's Grave? The Seventh-Century Burial in Davidovac (Southern Serbia). in GrenzÜbergänge: Spätrömisch, frühchristlich, frühbyzantinisch als Kategorien der historisch-archäologischen Forschung an der mittleren Donau, 247-272. https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_rai_1083
Petković S, Bugarski I, Miladinović-Radmilović N. A Non-Wandering Soldier's Grave? The Seventh-Century Burial in Davidovac (Southern Serbia). in GrenzÜbergänge: Spätrömisch, frühchristlich, frühbyzantinisch als Kategorien der historisch-archäologischen Forschung an der mittleren Donau. 2016;:247-272. https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_rai_1083 .
Petković, Sofija, Bugarski, Ivan, Miladinović-Radmilović, Nataša, "A Non-Wandering Soldier's Grave? The Seventh-Century Burial in Davidovac (Southern Serbia)" in GrenzÜbergänge: Spätrömisch, frühchristlich, frühbyzantinisch als Kategorien der historisch-archäologischen Forschung an der mittleren Donau (2016):247-272, https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_rai_1083 .