Considerații privind prezența cerceilor și a mărgelelor în morminte de bărbați din cimitirele avare din Transilvania
Considerations on the presence of earrings and beads in the graves of men from the avar cemeteries in Transylvania

Summary/Abstract: The first consideration refers to the fact that Avar male graves where earrings and beads were discovered are also present in Transylvania. The number of these funerary complexes is small (Tab. 1). The number of cemeteries in which these graves were discovered is also restricted (Gâmbaș, Sâncrai, Teiuș, Șpălnaca, Unirea 2/Veresmort) as compared to the total number of Avar necropolises recorded in Transylvania. I have established five types of positions of earrings inside the graves in connection to the human body and two types of places of discovery of beads inside the funerary complexes (Tab. 2). Earrings belonging to nine typological categories specific to the Avar Period in the Carpathian Basin were discovered in male graves from Transylvania (Tab. 3-4). The discovered beads are also of different types, with analogies in the same geographic area and chronological period. What is important at this stage of research is to signal the phenomenon of depositing earrings and beads in the graves of Avar men in Transylvania, like elsewhere in the Avar Khaganate. Avar communities in which men displayed their social status through wearing earrings or their families deposited such artifacts in their graves with the same purpose, also existed in Transylvania. Another phenomenon among the Avar funerary practices that is also encountered in Transylvania, like in the neighboring regions, consists of the deposition of beads,with apotropaic function, in male graves.

• Details
• Contents