stacul 1971 pakistan cremation graves

Cremation Graves in Northwest Pakistan and Their Eurasian Connections: Remarks andHypothesesAuthor(s): Giorgio StaculReviewed work(s):Source: East and West, Vol. 21, No. 1/2 (March-June 1971), pp. 9-19Published by: Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente (IsIAO)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29755643 .Accessed: 23/12/2012 01:38

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Cremation Graves in Northwest Pakistan and Their Eurasian Connections: Remarks and Hypotheses

by Giorgio Stacul

In an earlier study that examined various culture phases present in the Swat Valley

during protohistory, we noted the different components that distinguish certain periods,

especially the most ancient fades in the cemeteries of Loebanr I, K?telai I and Butkara II,

fairly datable to the second half of the 2nd millennium B.C. C). We saw, in fact, that in the period indicated, the rite of inhumation coexists along with that of cremation, while the graves have different groupings and different kinds of furnishings according to the burial rite practiced (2). We deduced from that a probable differentiation of the tribal

groups settled in the Valley in that period; this differentiation might be explained by the various influences ? or actual waves of migration

? to which the region may have been

subjected in the epoch under examination.

What are the origins of the different cultural components present in the Sw?t Valley in the last three or four centuries of the 2nd millennium B.C.?

While examination of the inhumation graves has shown various resemblances to north?

ern Iran, especially to the fades referred to the 1st period of the Iron Age, it is much harder to establish similarities for the graves marked by the cremation type of burial, since for the moment no cultural aspects that resemble them have been found in nearby areas, above all those near the northwest regions of the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent (3).

(*) For the cemeteries of Loebanr I, K?telai I and Butkara II, see G. Tucci, La via dello Svat, Bari, 1963; Id., ? The Tombs of the Asvakayana Assakenoi ?, EW, XIV, 1963, pp. 27, 28; C. Silvi Antonini, ? Preliminary Notes on the Excavation of the Necropolises Found in Western Pakistan?,

EW, XIV, 1963, pp. 12-26; G. Stacul, ?Pre? liminary Report on the Pre-Buddhist Necropolises in Sw?t (W. Pakistan) ?, EW, XVI, 1966, pp. 37 79; E. Castaldi, ?La necropoli di Katelai I nello Swat (Pakistan) ?, Memorie della Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, XIII, 7, 1968, pp. 485-641; C. Silvi Antonini, G. Stacul, The Protohistork Graveyards of Sw?t (Pakistan) (IsmeoRepMem, VII, 1), Rome, in press.

(2) G. Stacul, ?The Gray Pottery In the Sw?t Valley and the Indo-Iranian Connections (ca. 1500-300 B.C.)?, EW, XX, 1970, pp. 97 ft.

(3) Cremation graves dated to the Late Bronze

Age have recently been discovered in the cemetery at Tulhar, in southern Tadjikistan, near the confluence of the Kafirnigan River and the Amu Darya: see A.M. Mandel'stam, Pamjatniki epohi bronza v juznom Tadzikistane {MIA, 145), 1968. Nevertheless, the furnishings and other distinctive elements of these graves do not seem to show correlations with the cremation graves of North?

west Pakistan that are being examined here. The presence of solar emblems and swastikas (formed with rows of stones on the floor of the graves) in the cremation graves at Tulhar, has suggested that this fades of southern Tadjikistan may be derived from the Andronovo culture of Siberia, in which the cremation rite connected with swastika emblems can be found (see G. Frumkin,

Archaeology in Soviet Central Asia, Leiden-K?ln, 1970, p. 68).

9


Apart from frequent evidence of crematory rites going back to neolithic times, we can

distinguish two different cultural areas in Eurasia where true cemeteries with cremation

graves dated to the chalcolithic period can be found: an area in southern Anatolia, where

recent excavations have brought to light graves with crematory urns earlier than the Hittite

period (4); and an area in the Middle Danubian Basin, where the same rite was widely prac? ticed by the peoples of the Baden-Pecel Culture between the end of the 3rd and the begin? ning of the 2nd millennium B.C. (5). Another concentration of cemeteries with cremation

graves appears later in the area between the lower Volga and the southern Urals, during the Classical Timber-grave period (6).

It is perhaps no accident that these different areas in which we find the rite of crema? tion prevail, well in advance of the impressive European phenomenon of Urnfields, were

along with the Caucasian region, the most important metal-producing areas of that time:

hence the hypothesis, proposed some time before, that the first important conquests of

metallurgy and the consequent capacity for innovation recognized in fire were determining factors in the change in burial customs (7).

The strong Anatolian component in the Danubian culture of Baden-Pecel has been

emphasized on various occasions; it can probably be explained by movements of expansion in a S-N direction, which took place at the end of the 3rd millennium B.C. and had Asia

Minor as their centre (8). Some scholars have suggested the possibility that the cremation

rite may have been introduced into this area by tribal groups that originated in Anatolia, and this hypothesis is supported by the recent discovery of cremation graves in Asia Minor dated to the second half of the 3rd millennium B.C. (*).

The Middle Danube area also had a strong concentration of cemeteries with cremation

graves in the Early and Middle Bronze Age, till past the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C., when this type of ritual prevailed more or less thoroughly among the various cul? tures settled in the Great Hungarian Plain, that is, among the Caka-Nagejev, Hatvan, Kisa

postag, North Pannonian Encrusted Pottery and Vatya cultures. These are partly contem?

porary, variously differentiated and correlated to one another, and have a highly significant element in common: they seem to be fundamentally extraneous to that cultural strain that

goes back to the traditions of the so-called Kurgan peoples, that is, to that vast movement

of expansion of the tribal groups native to the steppe area, distinguished, among other

things, by the habit of inhuming and strewing the bodies with a layer of ochre powder.

(4) U.B. Alkim, ? Excavations at Gekikli (Ka rah?y?k): First Preliminary Report ?, Bell, XXX, 1966, pp. 27-57; Id., Anatolien I (Archaeologia

Mundi), Genf, 1968, pp. 98 ff. (5) J. Banner, Die Peceler Kultur, Budapest,

1956; N. Kalicz, Die Peceler {Badener) Kultur und Anatolien, Budapest, 1963.

(6) K.V. Sal'nikov, ? Hvalynsko-Andronovskie

kurgany us. Pogromnogo ?, SA, XIII, 1950, pp. 311 319; M. Gimbutas, The Bronze Age Cultures

in Central and Eastern Europe, The Hague, 1965, pp. 541 f.

(7) P. Laviosa Zambotti, II Mediterraneo r Euro pa V Italia durante la preist or ia, Torino, 1954, p. 211; Id., ? Le origini della civilt? di Villano va ?, Civilt? del Ferro, Bologna, 1960, pp. 85 f.

(8) G. Childe, The Danube in Prehistory, London, 1929, p. 211; Kalicz, op. cit..

(9) See note 4.

10


This custom had a great effect on various parts of Europe in the second half of the 3rd millennium B.C. (10).

We have thought it opportune to dwell on these characteristics, and especially on

those typical of some of the Danubian regions of Central Europe, because this important area of cultural concentration and divulgation furnished the impulse development

? in the

Middle and Late Bronze Age ? for migratory movements of expansion destined to have

deep repercussions not only in Europe and the eastern basin of the Mediterranean, but

most likely even within Asia itself, as far as the northwest regions of the Indo-Pakistan

sub-continent, as would seem to be shown by certain data we shall now present.

In the Pakistan valleys of the Swat and Panjkora Rivers, where the Italian Archaeo?

logical Mission (IsMEO) and the University of Peshawar (21) have carried out many excava?

tions in recent years, the rite of cremation probably takes root after the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C. and lasts for a long time, through successive cultural phases (12). But only in the initial phase does this rite seem dominant (in the last three or four centuries of the 2nd millennium B.C., and perhaps at the very start of the following millennium), that is, in

what corresponds in the Swat Valley to our cultural Period V (13).

In the cremation graves referred to the above period, the most common type of cine?

rary urn is a large vase with a globular-oval body, wide mouth, flaring rim and disk base (14). Antecedents for this type of urn can be found in the cemetery of Gedikly in Ana? tolia (15) and later in various crematory cemeteries of the Middle Danube, referred to the

Hatvan and Kisapostag cultures (T?szeg B phase), datable to about the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C. (16).

A distinctive trait common to a large part of these Pakistani urns is the presence of

plastic decoration, of clearly anthropomorphic inspiration, found on the body and near the neck of these containers. These are the so-called ? face-urns ?, known in various types, where the essential features of the human face are shown with holes (eye and mouth indi?

cations) and sometimes with relief modelling too (bridge of nose, eye-sockets) (figs. 1, 3). It is significant that anthropomorphically inspired ? face-urns ? containing cremation remains

have been found in the Middle Danubian Basin, even dating back to the end of the chal colithic period, in a final phase of the Baden-Pecel culture dated to about 2000 B.C. (17).

(10) N.J. Merpert, ?Eneolit stepnoj polosy evropejskoj casti SSSR?, L'Europe a la fin de Vage de la pierre, Praha, 1961, pp. 161 f.; Gim butas, op. cit.y pp. 188 ff.; S. Piggot, Ancient Europe, Edinburgh, 1965, pp. 81 ff.

C11) On excavations in the valley of the Panj kora River carried out by the Department of Archaeology of the University of Peshawar, see A.H. Dani, ed., Timargarha and Gandhara Grave

Culture (= Ancient Pakistan, III, 1967, special number), Peshawar, 1968.

(12) Stacul, ? Preliminary... ?, cit., p. 66.

(13) G. Stacul, ?Excavations near Gh?ligai

(1968) and Chronological Sequence of Proto historical Cultures in the Sw?t Valley (West Pa? kistan) ?, EW, XIX, 1969, p. 84.

(14) Stacul, ? Preliminary... ?, cit., fig. 68a.

(15) Alkim, Anatolien I, cit., fig. 47 (on the left).

(16) N. Kalicz, Die Fr?hbronzezeit in Nord? ost-Ungarn, Budapest, 1968, pi. XCI 10; A.

Mozsolics, ?A Kisapostati korabronzkori irna

temet??, Archeologia Ungarica, 1942, pis. I 84; II 29; XII 2, 7, 10.

(17) Kalicz, Die Feeder..., cit., pis. I-IV.

11


This type of urn is most likely derived from earlier Anatolian prototypes, especially com? mon in the phases of Troy II-V (18); but we should not underestimate the fact that in the area of the Balkans and the Middle Danube the use of anthropomorphic vases traditionally goes back to the late neolithic period, when the use of this kind of container does not as

yet seem to have been related to burial rites (19).

In cultural Period VI of the Sw?t Valley, we still find crematory urns decorated with anthropomorphic motifs, clearly based on the ? face-urns ? of the preceding period. The latter is in fact followed by the so-called ? eye-bearing urns ?, where all reference to

the human figure is limited to the eyes, expressed only with a pair of holes (figs. 2, 5). It should be noted that the anthropomorphic urn is widespread in cremation graves in Central

Europe, going back to the Early and Middle Bronze Age; in these, the eye and breast motifs placed near the neck or rim of large jars are shown in a pair of indentations or

protuberances {figs. 4, 8) (20). Similar anthropomorphic examples, specifically linked to the

concept of the ? eye-bearing urns ?, are common in Central Europe itself and, at a later

date, in Northern Europe; we find them mainly in the Early Iron Age or Haistatt C Period, when they spread from Moravia to the Baltic, but are present above all in Pomerania (21). These last cinerary urns are more or less contemporary with the later ? eye-bearing urns ?

of the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent, with which they seem to share the shape of the con?

tainer as well (compare fig. 5 with fig. 6).

Apart from burial in jars after cremation, we also find burial in earthenware box-shaped urns in the Sw?t Valley, usually with a sequence of three or four holes on one side (figs. 11-14). We have already stated the fact that rectangular urns containing cremation remains

and based on the idea of a hut, are thought to have been used in Palestine far back in time, perhaps at the end of the 4th millennium B.C. (22). But apart from these remote archetypes, we find there is a significant parallel between the above-mentioned Sw?t urns (cultural Period V) and similar cinerary urns from two different graves in northwest Hungary (North Pan nonian Encrusted Pottery Culture), dated to about the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C.

(fig. 15) (23). These Hungarian examples do not have hole sequences on the sides, as the Sw?t urns always do. It should be noted, though, that other finds from Hungary itself

supply us with highly interesting chances for comparison, apart from the different uses to which the objects themselves were put: we are referring to a terracotta cart model with a

sequence of four holes on two opposite sides, like the Sw?t box-urns (except for the tiny

(18) W. Blegen, Troy and the Trojans, London, 1964, pis. 31, 32.

B. Jovanovic, ? La ceramique antropomor

phe de l'eneolitique des Balcans et du BasJDa nube ?, Archaeologia lugoslavica, V, 1964, pp. 9 18; N. Kalicz, Dieux d'argile, Budapest, 1970.

On the subject see also C. Renfrew, ? The Autono? my of the South-East European Copper Age?, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, XXXV,

1970, pp. 12 ff. (20) Kalicz, Die Peceler..., cit., pp. 43, 45, 47,

49, 51. (21) T. Malinowski, ?Early Iron Age Face

Urns in Poland ?, Archaeology, 19/2, April 1966, p. 121.

(22) Stacul, ? Preliminary... ?, cit., note 24.

(23) E.B. Thomas, Arch?ologische Funde in Ungarn, Budapest, 1956, pp. 98 f.

12


handles at the ends of the base, that correspond to the points for attaching wheels) (24); and to the walled hearths with fairly rectangular bases (T?szeg C phase), at times decorated with ornaments of raised ridges on their sides (25).

There is still another type of urn, common in the Danubian cemeteries of the Early and Middle Bronze Age, which can be compared to the cultural horizon of nortwest Pa? kistan mentioned above: this is a vase with a high, funnel-shaped neck and a round or

vaguely biconical body, and it is characteristic of the Hatvan, Kisapostag and Vatya cultures

(fig. 10) (26). A similar type of container with a round body is frequently found in the crema? tion graves of Swat dated to cultural Period V, where it is always used as furnishing (fig. 9) (2T). In certain cases, the likeness also extends to decorative motifs, especially to the

multiple small cordon on the neck, to which large modelled semicircles, probably with an

anthropomorphic meaning, are sometimes added on the shoulders (28).

Generally one can note that the modelled motifs with an anthropomorphic meaning are widespread in the Middle Danubian Basin as decoration for cinerary urns going back to the Early and Middle Bronze Age, above all on pottery of the Hatvan-Kisapostag cultures referred to the T?szeg B phase. We find this detail interesting, because a similar preva? lence of modeled decoration with analogous meaning can also be found on the urns and other furnishing-vases of the most ancient cremation graves of northwest Pakistan, which

often have motifs exactly like those met with on earlier Danubian vases. We refer in par? ticular to the groups of two, three or four bosses (fig. 7) (29), which were perhaps indica? tions of breasts symbolizing a female goddess; to the single or paired semicircles that can be interpreted as orbital signs referring to the same goddess (30); and to the vertical seg? ments in groups of three or four, generally accompanied by horizontal cordons, that pro?

bably represented pendants (fig. 1, first to the right) (31). The motifs of incised decoration, present above all on the Sw?t Valley pottery dated

to cultural Period VI, also show significant similarities to vase ornamentation common in

the Middle Danubian Basin in the Early and Middle Bronze Age. This is true for the

tree-shaped motif (32), the W-shaped one (33), the oblique line or V-motif with a row of dots on both sides (34) and the concentric semicircles surrounded by small dots and radial marks,

(24) Kalicz, Die Fr?hbronzezeit..., cit., pi. CXIII 8.

(25) Gimbutas, op. cit., fig. 135. (26) Mozsolics, op. cit., pis. X 29; XI 21, 24,

26; Kalicz, Die Fr?hbronzezeit..., cit., pis. LXXXII 7, 8; LXXXIII 5, 12; LXXXIV 1, 2a, 2b, 6; LXXXV 10; XCIV 7; CVI 9; CVII 7.

(27) Stacul, ? Preliminary... ?, cit., fig. 32. (28) Unpublished examples in the National

Archaeological Museum in Budapest, to be com? pared with the specimen mentioned in the preceding note.

(29) Kalicz, Die Fr?hbronzezeit..., cit., pis. LXXXV 3, 5; XC 9; XCV 20; CIII 17; CXI 12;

Silvi Antonini, Stacul, op. cit., decoration types D67, D67I, D77.

(30) Gimbutas, op. cit., pi. 27c; Stacul, ? Preliminary... ?, cit. fig. 32.

(31) Banner, op. cit., pi. XLII. (32) Kalicz, Die Fr?hbronzezeit..., cit., pi.

CIII 13; Silvi Antonini, Stacul, op. cit., deco? ration types D18, D23.

(33) Kalicz, Die Fr?hbronzezeit..., cit., pi. XCII 10; Silvi Antonini, Stacul, op. cit., deco? ration type D201.

(34) Kalicz, Die Fr?hbronzezeit..., cit., pi. XXIV 7; CVII 12; A. Mozsolic, ? Ausgrabungen in Toszeg im Jahre 1948 ?, Acta Archaeologica

13


perhaps suggestive of a solar ideology (35), apart from more simple and more widespread ornamental schemes.

Let us note that the ? X ? decoration found on the chests of some human figurines

placed at times even inside the cinerary urn, and present in Sw?t Valley graves dated to

cultural Period V (36), is also met with on Danubian idols referred to the Baden-Pecel cul?

ture (37), while earlier examples with similar decoration have appeared in Anatolia and on

the eastern shores of the Mediterranean (38).

Lastly, a separate observation must be made for the small metal objects found inside

the Sw?t cinerary urns; they generally date from cultural Period V and are always of

copper, mostly in the shape of large pins. The relative simplicity of the various types advises caution in assigning them possible resemblances or identity with examples from

other cultures; but it may not be wholly accidental that the main metallic types found in the Sw?t Valley, in the above-mentioned cultural horizon, have antecedents in the area of

the Middle Danubian Basin, referable to the Early Bronze Age or to the Middle Bronze

Age. We are referring in particular to the conical-headed pins (39), those with a disk head (40), with a small loop head (41) and with a broad flat head (42), as well as to small

dagger blades or knives (43); in the period we have mentioned, the main area of European diffusion of the above-mentioned finds seems to be located between northern Hungary and

Slovakia.

-k Jc &

Scholars of prehistory and protohistory are quite accustomed to similarities and affi?

nities, often extremely precise and significant, between noteworthy cultural aspects of re?

gions of Eurasia far distant from one another. As regards the Late Neolithic Period, one need

only mention the resemblances noted between the Ukrainian culture of Tripolje and that of Yang-shao in China, concerning the common use of polychrome vases decorated with a

very special type of spiral-shaped motif (44). Or again, for the Late Bronze Age and Early

Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 1952, pi. XVII 8; Silvi Antonini, Stacul, op. cit., decoration type D.

(35) Kalicz, Die Fr?hbronzezeit..., cit., pi. CXII 14; Silvi Antonini, Stacul, op. cit., deco? ration types D50, D50I, D50II, D50III, D50IV.

(36) From Loebanr, grave 36/5; from K?telai, grave 207/5.

(37) Kalicz, Die Peceler..., cit., pp. 26 ff., 43. (38) Ibid., pp. 27 ff., 43. (39) Compare Stacul, ?Preliminary...?, cit.,

fig. 75 b, e, with Gimbutas, op. cit., fig. 184 (nos. 1-3), pi. 31 (nos. 10-12), and with A. Moz solics, Bronzefunde der Karpatenbeckens, Buda? pest, 1967, fig. 7 (no. 1).

(40) Compare Stacul, ?Preliminary...?, cit.,

fig. 75 a, e, with I. Bona, ?Chronologie der Hortfunde vom Koszider Typus ?, Acta Archaeolo gica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, IX, 1959, p. 215, pl. II (no. 1).

(41) Compare Stacul, ?Preliminary...?, cit.,

type Ma/VI (p. 57) with Mozsolics, ?A Kisa

postati... ?, cit., pl. V (nos. 31, 37, 39). (42) Compare Stacul, ?Preliminary...?, cit.,

type MA/VII (p. 57) with Gimbutas, op. cit., fig. 10 (no. 5).

(43) Compare Stacul, ?Preliminary... ?, cit.,

type Ma/XIII (p. 57) with Gimbutas, op. cit., fig. 10 (nos. 16, 21, 22), pl. 3 (nos. 3, 4).

(44) L. Bachhofer, Zur Fr?hgeschichte Chinas, Berlin, 1937; M. Bussagli, ?Culture proto storiche e arte delle steppe?, Le Civilt? del

14


Iron Age, the various analogies between the metallurgical production of Halstatt and the

Caucasus on the one hand, and that of the Ordos on the other, that have also given support to the hypothesis of the so-called ? Pontic migration ? (45). The isolated presence in Cen?

tral Asia of peoples belonging to Western Indo-European groups ? the so-called Tokha

rians ? has also aroused various suppositions as to the more or less consistent shifting of

human groups from West to East, from the territories of Central-eastern Europe to the

northern oases of the Taklamakan desert, in present Chinese Sinkiang (46).

But these reconstruction attempts can only be expressed with cautious reservation, and

then mainly as temporary work hypotheses, given both the extremely scarce and fragmen?

tary documentation we now have on so many geographical areas (and above all on Central

Asia), and the fact that much of our data is far from convincing or definitive, and there? fore open to further revision.

Only by taking this situation into account can one try, in a wholly preliminary way, to interpret the meaning of the analogies met with between the horizon of northwest Pa?

kistan marked by the presence of cemeteries with cremation graves, and similar cultural

aspects that appear earlier, above all in the Middle Danubian Basin; on the basis of the data presented above, these analogies can be summed up as follows:

a) the practice of cremation;

b) the use of the so-called ? face-urns ?, ? eye-bearing urns ? and ? box-urns ?;

c) the use of plastic and incised decoration, with particular reference to certain spe? cific motifs with an anthropomorphic meaning.

We are definitely not dealing here with completely casual resemblances or with simple analogies derived from coincidental factors of environment; and so we must take into ac?

count the possibility of a relationship of dependence between these manifestations. Various

interpretations can be made of their true nature and consistency. That is, we can assume

we are concerned here with a phenomenon of typological and cultural diffusion derived

from normal trade contacts and slowly developed between neighbouring cultures related to

one another in various ways; or with an actual superimposition of new human groups, not

necessarily massive but weighty enough to dominate to a certain degree. Even this second

possibility might be explained by different kinds of causes: that is, it might be the product of tribal pruning, involving the periodic expulsion of small groups to cut down the number

VOriente, Roma, 1961, pp. 93 f.; W. Watson, China before the Han Dynasty, London, 1963, p. 47.

(45) R. von Heine-Geldern, ?Die Tocharer und die pontische Wanderung ?, Saeculum, 1951, pp. 225-255; K. Jettmar, Die Fr?hen Steppen? v?lker, Baden-Baden, 1964, p. 240; N.R. Banerjee, The Iron Age in India, Delhi, 1965, pp. 55 f.;

M. Bussagli, Culture e civilt? dell'Asia Centrale, Torino, 1970, pp. 69 f.

(46) Heine-Geldern, op. cit.; P. Bosch-Gim

pera, Les Indo-Europeens, Paris, 1961, pp. 229 ff.; G. Devoto, Origini Indeuropee, Firenze, 1962, pp. 359 f.; V.l. Georgiev, Introduzione alia storia delle lingue indeuropee, Roma, 1966, pp. 322 ff.

15


of excess members, a measure supposedly much in use in periods of steady demographic increase such as that which marked the passage from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age in Europe (4T); or it might be a result imposed by phenomena of transformation and move? ment that had vast effects, in other words, by causes similar to those that possibly origi? nated the so-called ? Pontic migration ? a few centuries later.

Let us now examine the elements that support this last hypothesis.

We have already pointed out that in the Middle Danubian Basin during the Early Bronze Age, the cremation rite prevails among cultures that remained basically extraneous

to the superimposition or to the influence of the so-called Kurgan peoples. Not only the

presence of particularly evolved agricultural cultures, but also and above all the control of

important sources of metallurgical production, from Slovakia to Transylvania, may have

favoured the relatively autonomous development of this important area of cultural concen?

tration. Only after the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C. did other tribal groups, in cer? tain respects similar to the Kurgan peoples (48), gain control of the Great Hungarian Plain,

causing the rapid decline of the pre-existent local cultures. We are in fact dealing here

with the emergence of the so-called Tumulus Culture (H?gelgrabenkultur); its violent seizure of these territories is shown in the stratigraphical data that bears witness to impres? sive levels of fire and destruction after the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C. (49).

What was the fate of those tribal groups that survived? The progressive destruction of the large settlements, which reached its peak at the

end of the 14th cent. B.C., was accompanied by a so-called period of migration; this was

a long phase of cultural adjustment that may have led tribal groups native to the Hun?

garian Plain and other surrounding territories to carry out widespread migration in many directions (50).

In our opinion, it is still difficult to decide to what degree these movements, that

helped to spread the crematory rite to different European regions, should be referred to

groups belonging to the old Middle Danubian substratum that tried to escape from the pres? sure of the warriors with the ? long swords ?, or should be considered the expression of a new culture that arose from the fusion of that same substratum with the peoples of the

H?gelgrabenkultur (51). The fact remains that these expansive migratory movements, which had the Middle

Danubian Basin as their centre, were in all probability not only directed towards the West

(47) S. Ferri, ? Antiche teorie sulla protostoria dTtalia nel confronto delle esigenze moderne?, Atti del primo simposio internationale di proto storia italiana, Roma, 1969, p. 197.

(48) Gimbutas, op. cit., pp. 250 ff. (49) A. Mozsolics, ? La stratigraphie, base de

la Chronologie de Tage du bronze de la Hongrie ?, Origini, III, 1969, pp. 275-294.

(50) A. Mozsolics, ?Arch?ologische Beitr?ge zur Geschichte der grossen Wanderung?, Acta

Archaeologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, VIII, 1957, pp. 119-156; Gimbutas, op. cit., pp. 329-339; Jettmar, op. cit., pp. 234 ff.

(51) On the continuity in the Bronze Age of those Central European cultures that practice the cremation rite, see T.G.E. Powell, ? The Inception of the Final Bronze Age in Middle Europe?, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, XXIX, 1963, pp. 214-234.

16


Fig. 1 -

Cinerary urns from cemeteries in the Sw?t Valley (cultural Period V). From left to right: from Loebanr, grave 141/1; from Loebanr, grave 32/1; from K?telai, grave 88/1; from Loebanr,

grave 47/2.

Fig. 2 - Cinerary urn from

K?telai (Sw?t), grave 170/1.


Ie awb Or , IP jq

Fig. 3 -Cinerary urn from Loebanr (Swit), grave 142/1.

Fig. 4 -

Cinerary urn from Hradisko (Moravia), Middle Bronze Age.

Fig. 5 - Cinerary urn from Loebanr (Swit), grave

13/2. FIg. 6

- Cinerary urn froim Reskowo (Poland), Early

Iron Age.


Fig. 7 - Jar from K?telai (Sw?t), grave 118/10.

^^^^^^^^^^

Fig. 8 - Jar of the Vatya culture (Hungary).

Fig. 9 -

Jar from K?telai (Sw?t), grave 243/1. Fig. 10 - Jar of the Vatya culture (Hungary).


Fig. 11 - Box-urn from K?telai (Sw?t), grave 130/5. Fig. 12 - Box-urn from K?telai (Swat), grave 130/1.

Figs. 13, 14 . Box-urn from K?telai (Sw?t), grave 230/1.

^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^Q^^^H^BT^ .^^^^^C^^^^^^^^^^Hfefer- ^^^^^HHP^*

Fig. 15 - Box-urn from Cs?r (Hungary), with the vases of the grave furnishing.


or towards the shores of the Mediterranean. Various resemblances suggest the wisdom of

taking another possibility under consideration: that of migration towards the East, which

might also have been justified by the minor cultural density in that area and therefore by the minor resistence that eventual migratory groups would have faced as they crossed the

Eurasian steppes.

The way of the steppes towards Central Asia was probably not unknown to the tribal

groups that lived in the Great Hungarian Plain in the early metal age; in fact, this area is the furthest western point of that immense strip of prairie and desert that stretches to the

east as far as Manchuria. Some significant similarities have already been noted between

typological aspects peculiar to the Baden-Pecel culture and to that of Sh?h Tepe in nort? hern Iran (52). Other signs let us presume the possibility of earlier relations between Sh?h

Tepe itself and the Danubian culture of Lengyel, to be dated to about the middle of the 3rd millennium B.C. (55). An anthropological examination has also suggested the chance that

there may have been sizeable settlements of Danubian peoples in the southern area of Turk?

menistan from the first neolithic period (54). The propelling forces of expansion that brought the cultures of the Middle Danubian

Basin towards the steppes of the East, are also confirmed for the Middle and Late Bronze

Age by the various discoveries of metal objects of the ? Hungarian ? Koszider type (Ko marov culture) in many areas of the Ukraine, and especially along the Lower Dnieper and

the coasts of the Sea of Azov (55). One current stemming from this same western origin

may have settled later in the area of the Srubnaja culture located in the zone of the Lower

Volga D.

As regards the spread ? in the same period ? of the metallic types typical of Eastern

Europe into various regions of the Middle East, the possible derivation of the ? antennae ?

swords and daggers of the upper plain of the Ganges from Caucasian and probably Balkan

prototypes has already been underlined (57). The bronze sword found by chance at Rajanpur in the Panjab, dated to the second half of the 2nd millennium B.C., probably shares the

(52) V. Milojcic, ? Die Askoskanne und einige andere ?g?ischbalkanische Gef?ssformen?, Mittei? lungen des Deutschen Arch?ologischen Instituts, Berlin, III, 1950, pp. 116418; Kalicz, Die Peceler... cit., p. 25.

(53) Formal elements common to the ceramics of Sh?h Tepe III-II and of Lengyel, are given by the recurrence in the respective productions of vases in which the lower part of the body has a convex profile (compare T.J. Arne, Excavations at Shah Tepe, Stokholm, 1945, figs. 188-192, 369 374, with J. Dombay, Die Siedlung und das Gr?berfeld in Zeng?varkony, Budapest, 1960, pls. LXXXV 12, 15, 21; LXXX 7, 8, etc.); chalice shaped vases or offering stands with narrow necks (compare Arne, op. cit., figs. 345, 346a, with

Dombay, op. cit., pi. CXII). (54) O. Reche, Rasse und Heimat der Indo

germanen, 1936, pp. 180 ff.; for other comparisons, see Piggot, op. cit., p. 44.

(55) T. Sulimirski, Prehistoric Russia, Dublin, 1970, pp. 159 (map XV) and 160.

(56) Ibid., p. 260. (57) R. Heine-Geldern, ? The Coming of the

Aryans and the End of the Harappa Civilization ?, Man, LVI, 1956, p. 151. On this subject see also: S. Piggott, Prehistoric India, Harmonds worth, 1950, pp. 236 f.; Sir M. Wheeler, Early India and Pakistan, London, 1959, p. 129. For the ?antennae? swords of Balkan origin, see:

N.K. Sandars, ? Later Aegean Bronze Swords ?,

AJA, 67, 1963, pp. 117-155.

17


same Caucasian and perhaps Danubian origin (58). Further possible confirmation of such

Eurasian correlations, the result of migratory or trade currents datable to the Middle or Late

Bronze Age, might be the significant resemblance between certain flat copper anthropo?

morphic figurines from the upper plain of the Ganges (59) and the various spiral-shaped pendants of the ? Hungarian ? Koszider type, also thought to be a derivation of the sacred

ivy-life motif (60). There is also the significant fact that a ? Hungarians ? Koszider type of circular pendant, with cruciform decoration and embossed reliefs (61), can be found with

certain variants in the Caucasus (62) and later in Iran (63) and in Northwest Pakistan (64).

As regards in particular the appearance of the crematory tradition in the regions of

Northwest Pakistan, if we admit the possibility of a relation of dependence on the area of the Middle Danubian Basin, we must presume that the circumstances that originated these relations go back to a period earlier than the 13th cent. B.C., that is, to the period

usually considered to have seen the start of the European phenomenon of Urnfields. In fact, we have noted that the typological and cultural aspects common to the oldest Pakistani

fades marked by the presence of cremation graves, finds resemblances above all in the main

cultures of the Early and Middle Bronze Age in the Middle Danube: the late Hatvan, Kisapostag, North Pannonian and Vatya Cultures, the definitive disappearance of which, after the rise of the Tumulus Culture, can probably be placed within the 14th cent. B.C. (65). But that same Pakistani fades does not show other aspects that might indicate

contacts with the Late Bronze Age Danubian cultures; as for example, in regard to the

pottery typology, the almost baroque style with recurring spirals and twining volutes, the

vases with large breast-shaped bosses, the biconical urns, etc., even taking into account the

inevitable impoverishment these shapes must be subjected to in a different cultural environ?

ment (there is a significant lack of handles in all the protohistoric pottery of the Indo? Pakistan sub-continent, even when involving shapes derived from prototypes with handles).

There are certain hints, though, that make us think possible the existence of relations

of dependence in a later period, after the end of the 2nd millennium B.C. We might inter?

pret in this way the presence in the Sw?t Valley, in the horizon that corresponds to cul? tural Period VI, of elements that clearly imitate derivations from the Central European tradition of cord pottery, or else the recurrence of motifs of incised decoration

? suggest?

ing a solar ideology as well ? that are known in the cultures of the Early Bronze Age in

(58) Piggott, op. cit., p. 236. (59) B.B. Lal, ? Further Copper Hoards from

the Gangetic Basin and a Review of the Problem ?, AI, VII, 1951, figs. 2.1, 5, 8; 4.2; pis. V 1, VI A, IX, X A.

(60) Bona, op. cit., p. 213, fig. 5 (25-28, 32, 33).

(61) Ibid., p. 225, fig. 6; Thomas, op. cit., p, 103.

(62) C. Schaeffer, Stratigraphie comparee et

Chronologie de l'Asie Occident ale, Oxford, 1948, fig. 298 (nos. 4-6).

(63) R. Ghirshmann, Fouilles de Sialk, pres de Kashan, 1933, 1934, 1937, Paris, 1939, II, pis. XXVIII 4, LV (S.597), from grave no. 15 ("Necropole B").

(64) From the cemetery of K?telai, grave no. 81/11 (see Silvi Antonini-Stacul, op. cit.).

(65) Moszolics, ? La stratigraphie... ?, cit., pp.

288, 290.

18


the Middle Danubian Basin and that are later widespread in European Urnfield cultures. There is also a certain significant synchronism in the recurrence of the so-called ? eye-bear?

ing urns ? in specific regions of Europe and northwest Pakistan.

This data definitely tend to suggest the possibility that repeated movements of ex?

pansion that radiated from Central Europe may have been able to penetrate deeply towards

the East, perhaps following a common migratory iter. These shifts may not have been

isolated, given the particular moment in which they took place: that is, corresponding to

those vast and prolonged phenomena of movement with the consequent new cultural arran?

gements, that had the Middle Danubian Basin as their centre. They were destined to have

deep effects not only on continental Europe, with the spread of the various Urnfield cul? tures, but also on Anatolia, Syria and Egypt as well (66).

At least for the moment, a crucial lack of data relative to vast geographical areas

prevents a more precise formulation of our assumption. Even the archaeological documen?

tation to which we refer, regarding the Pakistani fades, is still far from thorough in its basic data (67). At any rate, we are convinced that further research into the problems broached

here cannot limit itself to data collected by archaeological investigation: even though the

typological correlations of the finds may be suggestive and precise, they will have to be

integrated with the research contribution of other fields of inquiry, such as that of linguistics, as it is more than likely indeed that the supposed migratory thrusts, at the origin of the cor? relations we have established, cannot be considered outside those movements of tribal

groups that introduced Indo-European idioms into the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent and

Central Asia

stacul 1971 pakistan cremation graves

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