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BEAR‐CLAWS IN GERMANIC GRAVES
Author(s) -
SCHÖNFELDER MARTIN
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
oxford journal of archaeology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.382
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1468-0092
pISSN - 0262-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0092.1994.tb00040.x
Subject(s) - grave goods , prestige , archaeology , ethnic group , ancient history , history , contact zone , geography , ethnology , anthropology , philosophy , sociology , linguistics
Summary. The remains of bear‐skins for cremation burials of the late pre‐Roman and early Roman Iron Age are a long neglected ‘grave‐good'. This is because of their scattered occurrence in graves on the continent in Sweden, north Germany, Bohemia and in the Celto‐Germanic ‘contact‐zone’ as far west as England. Their distribution and connection with many high‐status graves marks them as Germanic‘prestige goods'. This raises the question of ethnicity in these graves.