P O L AN D New map to come
U K R A I NE
Păru
Unr avelling the secrets of the dead in
Romania’s largest Bronze Age cemetery
In his epic poem The Iliad, Homer vividly describes a hero's burial.
Now Florin Draşovean and Sorin Tincu have discovered the
archaeological evidence for such complex funeral rituals.
I
t was pure luck that the route of the
new motorway, linking Timişoara
to Deva in south-west Romania,
cut a 4ha swathe near the village
of Păru, on the Bega River plains
of Timiş County. For, in our search for
signs of archaeological remains before
the road-building could begin, it was
in this area that we came across a major
settlement – along with the largest Bronze
Age necropolis yet discovered in Romania.
Survey work in the region has identified
more than 30 settlements so far, dating
28 CurrentWorldArchaeology
S L O VA K I A
Budapest
H U NGA R Y R O MAN I A
P Ă R U Bucharest Black
Sea
Belgrade
SE R B I A B U L GA R I A
from the Neolithic in the 6th millennium
BC through to post-Roman sites of the 3rd
and 4th centuries AD, and Early Medieval
remains from the 8th-10th centuries.
However, the greatest excitement came
when we uncovered evidence for one
of the largest unfortified settlements
belonging to the Bronze Age Balta Sărată
culture yet found, and its burial ground.
About 200 structures were found, of which
some 80 were dwellings: rectangular
wooden structures measuring about 10m
× 6m. The graves contained cremation
main image Păru, in south-west Romania, is
providing archaeological evidence for Homer's
evocative descriptions of complex burial rituals.
inset A Bronze Age funerary vessel, discovered at
Păru, that contained liquids, such as honey or wine.
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Sărată culture were also found at Valea

Timişului and Caransebes (Caraş-Severin
County) before our discovery at Păru.
Homer in his poem The Iliad (Book
23), describes the burial process. Here,
Patroclus pleads with his friend Achilles
to carry out the necessary burial rituals
that will ensure his spirit is freed:

Let my pale corse the rites of burial know,

And give me entrance in the realms below:
Till then the spirit finds no resting-place,
But here and there the unbodied spectres chase
The vagrant dead around the dark abode,
Forbid to cross the irremeable flood.

above Excavation of one of the cremation Rites of passage According to Homer, the act of
burials at Păru.
All the graves at Păru were cremation cremation released the soul from the body,
burials that dated towards the final period burials. We first see cremation burials allowing it to enter the realm of shadows.
of the Balta Sărată culture, about the 14th- appearing in south-eastern Europe Only those deemed guilty of committing
13th centuries BC. during the Late Neolithic period, and a truly heinous deed were denied this
The Balta Sărată culture influenced an by the Bronze Age they had replaced right as punishment for their crime. We
area that stretched from north-western inhumations entirely. We have plenty of see evidence for this in the cemetery at
Banat to south-west Transylvania (Ţara evidence for cremation burials from the Peciu Nou, about 75km west of Păru,
Haţegului), and is usually split into four large cemeteries of Dubovac-Žuto Brdo- where of about 200 graves, only one was
stages – though some scholars recognise Gârla Mare and Cruceni-Belegiš cultures an inhumation: this individual, a male,
only three divisions. The culture emerged dating to the second half of the 2nd had been killed by a dagger that pierced
towards the end of the first half of the millennium BC: so far, more than 2,000 the base of his skull, and then buried in
2nd millennium BC in north-eastern Banat graves have been discovered. More than a crouched position.
and continued up to the beginning 700 have been investigated and recorded Our investigations at Păru allowed
of the Iron Age, around 1600-1200 on burial sites at Cruceni, Voiteni, Peciu us to pinpoint each stage of the burial
BC, when the Susani communities Nou, Timişoara, and Bobda in the Banat
below This burial pit contains incinerated
begin to appear in the region. The region. A number of graves holding human remains with fragments of the funeral
archaeological evidence recovered from cremation burials belonging to the Balta bier and vessels for ritual libations.
Păru, particularly the distinctively styled
ceramics found only in Banat here in
south-west Romania, suggests the site
belongs to its latest stage. And, while
we have well-documented evidence
for the culture from this period, little
was known about the funerary customs
of these ancient communities. Our
discovery of the cemetery at Păru,
therefore, has proved to be one of the
most astounding of recent times, offering
us an unprecedented insight into the
society’s burial rites and practices.
The result is that we can now trace
in detail what happened between the
actual death of an individual and social
acknowledgement of their passing. An
elaborate series of farewell ceremonies,
rituals that reflected the community’s
spiritual ideology and belief systems,
ensured the dead were given a smooth
passage to their afterlife.

www.world-archaeology.com CurrentWorldA rchaeology 29


above Evidence of earth being placed on the broken
fragments of libation vessels was found in this grave at
Păru, along with clay weights used for weaving.
ceremony. Funeral preparations began as
soon as a person died. A circular or oval
grave was dug while the deceased was
prepared for the funeral ceremony. The
grave itself was significant: not only was
it the place where all the burial rituals took
place, it was also where the earthly remains
of the deceased would stay after their
spirit left the community of the living.
Thus the grave had a well-established
function, which began from the moment
it was dug: it was the new home for the
deceased. Placing the person in the grave
marked the moment at which the final
separation between the living and the
dead was made.
below A selection of reconstructed Bronze Age libation
vessels used during the burial rituals at Păru. They were
deliberately smashed after the ceremony and included
with the cremated human remains in the grave.
30 CurrentWorldArchaeology
In The Iliad, Homer gives us a
detailed account of preparations
for a funeral pyre:
A hundred foot in length, a hundred wide,
The growing structure spreads on every side;
High on the top the manly corse they lay,
And well-fed sheep and sable oxen slay:
Then jars of honey, and of fragrant oil,
Suspends around, low-bending o’er the pile.
Four sprightly coursers, with a deadly groan
Pour forth their lives, and on the pyre
are thrown.
We noticed that fire played an
important part in the ceremonies that
took place at Păru. There was evidence of
layers of ash and charred wood on the
bottom of the grave as well as within
the infill, suggesting the burning of
the wood for a funeral pyre. The large
quantities of charred fragments tell
us that rather than the remains being
brought from a funeral pyre further
afield, the pyre was built close to the
grave itself. The Păru burial site, then,
was also a sacred space in which the
funeral rituals took place.
As well as containing incinerated
debris, six of the graves were found with
fragments of burnt clay, with impressions
made from wood on one side. These are
evidence of clay platforms that were
constructed over a wooden structure, used
as the funeral bier on which the deceased
was placed and then cremated. Further
proof was provided by the vitrification of
these clay fragments: tests showed they
were burned at very high temperatures
of over 800°C, as the fire consumed the
body of the deceased and parts of the
funeral offerings.
The spectacle of the funeral pyre
is vividly described by Homer:
The structure crackles in the roaring fires,
And all the night the plenteous flame aspires.
All night Achilles hails Patroclus’ soul,
With large libations from the golden bowl.
As the funeral pyre burned, the
participants were involved in libations
for the soul of the deceased. Pots
containing liquids – wine or honey
– used during the ceremony, were
deliberately smashed, and their
fragments were thrown into the grave. The
ritual breaking of funeral dishes was to
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prevent the deceased from coming back
among the living, and it symbolised the
journey of no-return that the deceased’s
soul must embark upon. A layer of earth
was then was placed on top of these
fragments, possibly while praying for
the soul of the dead person. We found
evidence for this stage of the ritual in at
least six of the graves at Păru.
Homer relates the final stages of the
funeral ceremony:
weights were the only grave goods included
with the cremated skeletal remains. Their
presence in the grave may signify the
gender, occupation, or status of the dead
person. Or perhaps there is some ritualistic
significance, as we know that in Greek
mythology spinning and weaving were
activities associated with the Moirai (or
the Fates), the three daughters of Zeus who
spun, fixed, and cut the strings of life that
controlled the lives and fates of mortals.

First let us quench the yet remaining flame
With sable wine; then, as the rites direct,
The hero’s bones with careful view select:
Apart, and easy to be known they lie
Amidst the heap, and obvious to the eye:
The rest around the margin will be seen
Promiscuous, steeds and immolated men.
Once the fire burned out or was
extinguished and the body cremated, the
skeletal remains were mixed with the ashes
and the rest of the funeral furniture. The
highly fragmentary state in which the
bones were found suggests that they were
crushed and then placed in the grave above
the layer of dirt that covered the libation
pots. The ashes from the funeral pyre, the
debris from the bier, and fragments of
pots that had been placed next to the pyre
containing offerings, were then gathered
together along with the bones.
Prism-shaped clay loom-weights, some
deliberately broken, were also found in six
burials, placed on top of the pot fragments
that had been used during the ceremony.
However, in a further two burials, the clay
Sealing the grave
Once the fragments of pots used for
libations, the calcined bones, the remains
of the funeral furniture, and ashes from
the pyre were placed in the grave, they
were covered with earth. In two examples,
burials 269 and 333, large river stones were
placed on top. These not only sealed the
grave, they also marked its place.
They to his friends the immortal charge
shall bear;
His friends a tomb and pyramid shall rear:
What honour mortals after death receive,
Those unavailing honours we may give!
There are no mounds of earth above the
grave, so these stones would have served
as reminders to subsequent generations
of where their ancestors lay.
The burials at Păru are clustered in groups
of five and eight, rather than laid out
source Professor Florin Draşovean, Muzeul Banatului Timişoara/Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca.
Dr Sorin Tincu, Corvins' Castle, Hunedoara, Romania.
above Heavy river stones were placed over Burial
333, both to seal the grave and to act as a marker.
in organised rows. This suggests they were
placed according to kinship, social status,
age, or even gender. Unfortunately, we
will never know: the high temperatures at
which the bones were burned means the
collagen has been destroyed and therefore
DNA testing, which might have identified
kinship links or sex, is impossible.
Despite these limitations, the results of
our archaeological investigations at Păru
in Timiş County represent an important
step towards our better understanding of
the funerary customs and spiritual beliefs
of a culture on the cusp of the Bronze and
Iron Ages in south-eastern Europe – a time
when, beneath the walls of Troy, heroes
praised by Homer fought their way into
legend and immortality.

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