The middle- and late Latvian Necropolises in Desa, jud. Dolj, Romania. Contributions to the burial system in the region of the Iron Gate. Part 1

Two La Tene necropolises have been found at Desa: in the Castravia and in Lunculia areas. The necropolis at Desa-Castravia is the first of the Middle and Late La Tene periods in the region of the Iron Gate, for which human and animal remains have been analyzed paleoanthropologically and archaeozoologically. The human remains have only been found in small quantities in six graves; they are highly fragmented and deformed. The corpses were burned at different temperatures, between 600-900 degrees C, in an oxygen-rich environment. Although not all of the bones were take from the pyre, the bones of specific body parts were not selected. A sica was burned at a temperature of 570-900 degrees C and a magnetite layer was created, the preservation of which reveals the decor. The buried individuals were adult, male or of indeterminate gender; only the individual buried in tomb 6 was a youth. The archaeozoological analysis of the animal remains of three graves revealed that they were either burned at a low temperature or buried unburned. Only the three most frequently species from this period could be identified: cattle, sheep and pigs (by their jawbones). The necropolis in Desa-Castravia was created in the middle La Tene period C1 and continued in use until the late La Tene D1 phase; later, probably shortly after the middle of the 1st century AD, a fortification was built there. The incompletely excavated burial ground consists of eleven graves (cremation graves and so-called cenotaphs), which form two groups that developed in parallel. The necropolis of the Lunculita area was discovered by grave robbers and consists exclusively of salvaged metal objects from two graves of the late La Tene period. The archaeological catalogue describes the findings and the grave goods of the eleven graves from Desa-Castravia and the two from Lunculia. The interpretation of the Castravia necropolis, which partly resembles that from Karaburma, will be published in a later edition of this journal.