DOI Artikel:
Popović, Ivana: Jewelry as evidence of the presence of the autochthonous population in the settlements on Middle and Lower Danube Limes
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41866#0135
Ivana Popovic
Beograd
JEWELRY AS EVIDENCE OF THE PRESENCE OF
THE AUTOCHTHONOUS POPULATION IN THE SETTLEMENTS
ON MIDDLE AND LOWER DANUBE LIMES
The finds of jewelry at the various sites along the Middle and Lower Danube
limes yield information not only about the style and fashion of decoration in the
certain epoch but also about the relations between local population and newly
arrived Romans. The jewelry, especially that from gold and silver had been long
treasured in the families as valuables. Thus single chance finds are not chronologically
distinctive and it is even more emphasized by the fact that in manufacturing of
certain types of adornments during long time period almost unchanged forms
had been reproduced. However, as jewelry as well as money had been part of
family’s fortune, these precious objects had been hidden in the moments of crisis
so such hoards could be precisely dated according to their monetary part. Jewelry
character in these finds makes it possible to distinguish two basic horizons of
jewelry hoards. They differ not only according to its contents but also yield data
about the changes of relations between the autochthonous and newly arrived
population in the camps and settlements surrounding them.
First horizon of jewelry hoards comprises the period from Roman conquest
until the final decade of the 1st century and is represented by closed associations
of silver jewelry that could be linked to the last phase of the Dacian hoards of
silver objects, whose upper chronological limit is defined by the Domitian denars
from the end of the year 81, that are present in the hoards found on the right
bank of the Middle Danube, in Tekija {Transdierna) and at Bare near Viminacium
(fig. 1). Both hoards are of heterogeneous contents although in them predominates
massive silver jewelry, of the so called Dacian style: bracelets and rings with
overlapping and spirally wound ends with sometimes suspended pendants shaped
as axes, wedges and other tools (fig. 2), then twisted torques with variously
executed finials (fig. 3), bracelets of serpent shape or spirally wound ring with
ends depicting stylized snake’s head. Dacian goldsmithery developed under strong
Hellenistic influences originating from the Black Sea centers first of all Olbia
and some adornments show this influence clearly especially by their shape and
style of decoration. On one silver torque from the Bare hoard two of 23 strungs
Beograd
JEWELRY AS EVIDENCE OF THE PRESENCE OF
THE AUTOCHTHONOUS POPULATION IN THE SETTLEMENTS
ON MIDDLE AND LOWER DANUBE LIMES
The finds of jewelry at the various sites along the Middle and Lower Danube
limes yield information not only about the style and fashion of decoration in the
certain epoch but also about the relations between local population and newly
arrived Romans. The jewelry, especially that from gold and silver had been long
treasured in the families as valuables. Thus single chance finds are not chronologically
distinctive and it is even more emphasized by the fact that in manufacturing of
certain types of adornments during long time period almost unchanged forms
had been reproduced. However, as jewelry as well as money had been part of
family’s fortune, these precious objects had been hidden in the moments of crisis
so such hoards could be precisely dated according to their monetary part. Jewelry
character in these finds makes it possible to distinguish two basic horizons of
jewelry hoards. They differ not only according to its contents but also yield data
about the changes of relations between the autochthonous and newly arrived
population in the camps and settlements surrounding them.
First horizon of jewelry hoards comprises the period from Roman conquest
until the final decade of the 1st century and is represented by closed associations
of silver jewelry that could be linked to the last phase of the Dacian hoards of
silver objects, whose upper chronological limit is defined by the Domitian denars
from the end of the year 81, that are present in the hoards found on the right
bank of the Middle Danube, in Tekija {Transdierna) and at Bare near Viminacium
(fig. 1). Both hoards are of heterogeneous contents although in them predominates
massive silver jewelry, of the so called Dacian style: bracelets and rings with
overlapping and spirally wound ends with sometimes suspended pendants shaped
as axes, wedges and other tools (fig. 2), then twisted torques with variously
executed finials (fig. 3), bracelets of serpent shape or spirally wound ring with
ends depicting stylized snake’s head. Dacian goldsmithery developed under strong
Hellenistic influences originating from the Black Sea centers first of all Olbia
and some adornments show this influence clearly especially by their shape and
style of decoration. On one silver torque from the Bare hoard two of 23 strungs