Archaeologia BulgaricaXVII, 3 (2013), 1-16

Celtic Lifestyle – Indigenous Fashion. The Tale of an Early Iron Age Brooch from the North-Western Balkans

Aurel RUSTOIU

Introduction From prehistory until today the northern and north-western Balkans has been characterised by a wide diversity of linguistic, ethnic and social-political groups having different origins and traditions, and in-teracting in many ways, from the establishing of economic contacts to the creation of complex regional networks and political relationships. During the Late Iron Age, more precisely at the end of the 4th century and the beginning of the 3rd century BC, the Illyrian and Thracian populations that already inhabited the region were joined by new ac-tors involved in the successive Celtic colonization of the eastern and southern parts of the Carpathian Basin. The appearance of new com-munities resulting from the cultural amalgamation of the newcomers with the local populations, which also led to the construction of new communal identities, is a consequence of this colonization (Rustoiu 2008; 2012; 2013). At the same time the relationships established with the neighbouring populations from the Balkan Peninsula led to a cer-tain degree of cultural hybridization which can be sometimes noted in the use of certain symbolic elements that contributed to the construc-tion and reiteration of different collective identities (Džino 2007).

From this point of view the way in which some sets of garment ac-cessories were assembled is important and also relevant for particular manners of constructing and expressing various collective identities. For example the inhumation graves # 63 and 67 from the cemetery at Belgrade-Karaburma very probably belonged to some indigenous women, as their costume sets combine in an original manner the sil-ver jewellery of local tradition with garment accessories of La Tène type (Ljuština / Spasić 2012, with previous bibliography). On the other hand, in the same period a series of garment accessories frequently en-countered in the region inhabited by Celtic communities also reached the local populations from the northern (Emilov 2010; Anastassov 2011) and north-western Balkans (Popović 1996; Dizdar / Potrebica 2002; Rustoiu 2012, 358-361). Furthermore, some silver jewellery pro-duced in indigenous “Thracian” and “Illyrian” workshops were placed in La Tène burials or deposits from the Carpathian Basin (Szabó 1991; 2006; Rustoiu 2012, 366-367). These regional exchanges reflect the establishing of some complex social-political and economic networks that might have defined the relationships between these communities having different origins and traditions, and at the same time point to

the mobility of certain individuals who contributed to the circulation of these “visible” products, but also of others which were apparently “invisible” (knowledge, practices, ideologies, beliefs etc.).

Thus the scope of this article is to discuss the symbolic role of cer-tain garment accessories in the assertion of local traditions within the cultural practices brought over by the Celtic “colonists”. The analysis is bringing into discussion a brooch of western Balkans origin belonging to an Early Iron Age type, but found in the La Tène rural settlement from Cicir (Arad County), in western Romania.

The brooch from Cicir (fig. 1): description, typology and chronologyThe aforementioned brooch is made of bronze and has a hinged fas-tening system (the pin and the fitting rivet are missing). The brooch’s end towards the hinge is shaped as a nearly triangular plate incised with a stylised snake head. The bow has an oval cross-section. The foot’s end is decorated with a knob. The fragmentary preserved catch-plate is tall, has a rectangular shape and is decorated with four rows of three dots in relief each, made in the au repoussé technique, and sur-rounded by a border consisting of two incised lines following the edge. The total length of the brooch is of 64 mm (fig. 1).

Typologically the artefact from Cicir is a bow hinged brooch with a rectangular catch-plate1. Such brooches were made of silver and bronze, the percentages of finds made from the two metals be-ing almost even. From the morphological point of view they combine the general shape of the brooches having a spring and a rectangular catch-plate, with the fastening system of the hinged brooches specific to the Balkan Peninsula at the end of the Early Iron Age. For example, the decoration of the catch-plate is nearly similar to that encountered on some finds belonging to the Marvinci – Gogoşu and Novi Pazar – Atenica types (fig. 2/1), whereas the tall shape of the catch-plate and its decoration with rows of successive dots, as in the case of the brooch from Cicir, are also known from the finds belonging to the Trebenište type (fig. 2/2) (for all of these types see Vasić 1999a). As concerning the end towards the hinge, it is shaped either as a palmette or as a stylised animal head (usually a snake), as in the case of the “standard” hinged brooches (fig. 2/3-4) (Vasić 1999a).

The bow hinged brooches having a rectangular catch-plate are more frequent in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula, in Herzegovina and northern Albania (fig. 3). Some examples are also known from western and central Serbia, whereas southward they ap-pear in Pelagonia. Lastly, a certain concentration of finds can be noted in the Iron Gates region. The piece from Cicir is the northernmost discovery of this kind. The distribution area might suggest that these brooches first appeared in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula under the influence of some Macedonian or Greek prototypes, and later their fashion and technique of manufacturing spread eastward and north-eastward. On the other hand, it might be possible that their manufacturing started nearly simultaneously in a few workshops from different regions under the influence of similar prototypes.

As concerning the chronology, this is a less precise matter. T. Bader has opted for a wider dating in the 6th – 5th century BC (Bader 1983, 118). Afterwards R. Vasić, analysing both the morphology of these brooches

1 In the German specialist literature they are listed as Bogenscharnierfibel mit viereckiger Fußplatte (Bader 1983), as Fibeln mit viereckiger Fußplatte und Scharnier (Vasić 1987), or as Scharnierfibel mit rechtwinkliger Fußplatte (Vasić 1999a).

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and their connections with other types, as well as their contexts of dis-covery, has considered that they can be dated between the middle of the 5th century and the middle of the 4th century BC (Vasić 1987, 53, 63; 1999a, 86-87; also Dimitrović / Ljuština 2008, 86, 91-92, Pl. 6/1-4, date the brooch from Guča within the same chronological range). The same specialist has considered that the examples from the Iron Gates region were used in the second half of the 5th century BC, concomitantly with the first hinged brooches from this area (Vasić 1999b, 35-36).

The brooch from Cicir has a tall catch-plate, different from those of the brooches belonging to the Novi Pazar type, which is shorter, but quite similar to the examples belonging to the same hinged type that were found in Herzegovina, like those from Gorica (fig. 2/6), Radimlja (fig. 2/7) or Kačanj (fig. 2/5) (Vasić 1987, Pl. 5/1-2, 5). On the other hand the plate on the opposite end has a triangular shape, clearly defined, while the decoration is closer to that of the “standard” hinged brooches. The incised motif consisting of a horizontal register of crisscrossed lines and other two vertical registers, slightly curved and suggesting, together with the lateral “eyes”, a zoomorphic head, is compositionally nearly similar to the decoration of the silver brooch-es from the Čurug hoard (fig. 2/3) (see Vasić 1999a, 116, # 1067-1070, Pl. 57; Ljuština 2010, 61, Pl. 3-4), or of the four silver brooches coming from the village of Staliiska mahala (Lom district), in north-

Fig. 1. The bronze brooch from Cicir (drawing: Narcisa Şugar; photo:

Aurel Rustoiu)

Fig. 2. Brooches belonging to the Novi Pazar (1), Trebenište (2), hinged (3-4) and hinged with a rectangular catch-plate (5-7) types: 1 Červenbreg; 2 Trebenište; 3 Čurug; 4 Liubcova; 5 Kačanj; 6 Gorica; 7 Radimlja; 1, 3, 5 silver, all others bronze; 1-2, 5-7 after Vasić 1987; 3 after Ljuština 2010; 4 after Gumă et al. 1999. Different scales

CELTIC LIFESTYLE – INDIGENOUS FASHION. THE TALE OF AN EARLY... 3

western Bulgaria (Николов 1965, 179, фиг. 19/d; Димитрова 1966, 117-118, фиг. 4-5), a feature that might suggest the use of a common decorative pattern. Since the Čurug hoard is probably dated towards the middle of the 4th century BC (La Tène B1 according to Božič 1981; middle of the 4th century BC according to Tasić 1992, 12; second half of the 4th century BC according to Vasić 1999a, 117), the brooch from Cicir can be dated between the end of the 5th century and the first half of the 4th century BC.

The context of discovery The analysed brooch has been found in the La Tène settlement at Cicir – “La Gropi” (Arad County), which was located on the first terrace of the right bank of the Mureş River, upstream from the modern city of Arad in western Romania. The site has been systematically investi-gated from 1965 until 1969 by the late I. H. Crişan from the Institute of Archaeology and History of Art in Cluj-Napoca (on that time the Institute of History in Cluj-Napoca), but it remained unpublished2. The entire archaeological inventory recovered during the excavations, as well as the technical documentation, is preserved in the archives of the Institute.

From the stratigraphic point of view, the La Tène settlement was superposed by a Roman settlement (dated to the late 2nd – 3rd centuries AD), which was in turn succeeded by a late medieval settlement. The aforementioned brooch comes from the archaeological horizon cor-responding to the Late Iron Age settlement.

The dwelling structures from the La Tène settlement consist of six sunken huts (reaching a depth of 0.80 to 2 m) belonging to two distinct groups identified within the general layout of the site (fig. 4). This type of rural settlement organization has been already noted in other situa-tions, for example at Ciumeşti, in north-western Romania, in this case the dwellings being organized in three groups (Zirra 1980), a pattern which might suggest the delimitation of the communal space accord-ing to a social structure based on families or clans.

The ceramic inventory of the settlement contains both vessels spe-cific to the Central European La Tène repertoire and others belonging

Fig. 3. The distribution of hinged brooches having a rectangular catch-plate in the Balkans (black dots – see list 1) and of the Illyrian helmets northward of the Danube (black squares – see list 2)

2 Brief mentions of the La Tène settle-ment in Crişan 1968; Crişan / Pădureanu / Hügel 1999, 53-54, # 5. The Roman settlement succeeding the Late Iron Age one has been recently analysed by K. Sidó (2012).

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to the local traditional range of forms. The inventory of the hut # 9 pro-vides a group of forms that is relevant for the entire settlement (fig. 5).

Thus the kitchenware consists of handmade vessels having a coarse fabric and comprising forms that are specific to the indigenous settle-ments from the eastern part of the Carpathian Basin and from the areas inhabited by Thracian populations southward and eastward of the Carpathians: jars having flattened or cylindrical handling knobs connected by stripes with alveoli or rows of impressions (fig. 5/10-11). Aside from them, wheel-made vessels of La Tène type have also been found, for example pots containing graphite in their fabric, usually decorated with striations (fig. 5/4, 8-9).

The category of storage vessels comprises local handmade vessels having handling knobs and being decorated with stripes in relief with alveoli, as well as large and medium-sized wheel-made vessels having a fine grey fabric and a bi-truncated shape, both features being specific to the La Tène Celtic environment (fig. 5/6).

The tableware is also characterised by the same mixture of local and Celtic forms. This category consists of handmade dishes and bowls having a straight or inverted rim, made of a semi-fine fabric (fig. 5/12-13), and which are frequently found in the local northern Balkans en-vironment, as well as of a series of wheel-made carinated and deep bowls of La Tène origin, made of a fine grey fabric (fig. 5/1-3, 5). The drinking vessels include mugs and beakers with one handle, usually wheel-made of the same fine grey fabric (fig. 5/7).

The pottery discovered in La Tène B2-C1 settlements from the Great Hungarian Plain and Transylvania illustrates, similarly to the situation from Cicir, the mixture of local traditional forms and ves-sels brought over by the Celtic newcomers (the latter forms indicat-ing the presence of Central European potters who accompanied the groups advancing eastward). Amongst the most eloquent examples can be listed the large manufacturing centre at Sajópetri – Hosszú dűlő (Szabó 2007), the rural settlements at Polgár, in north-eastern Hungary (Szabó et al. 2008) and Ciumeşti, in north-western Romania (Zirra 1980), as well as the settlements in Transylvania, at Moreşti (Berecki 2008), Şeuşa or Lancrăm (Ferencz / Ciută 2000; Popa / Totoianu 2000; Ferencz 2007).

This mixture of local and La Tène ceramic forms, including both tableware and kitchenware, points to the appearance of some hybrid culinary practices, a phenomenon which is frequently encountered in multi-ethnic regions. At the same time, this feature also illustrates the degree of cohabitation and cultural symbiosis of the local populations with the Celtic newcomers.

Fig. 4. Plan of the La Tène settlement from Cicir (drawing: Narcisa Şugar)

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The presence of local traditional pottery was also identified in some funerary inventories from eastern Hungary (Almássy 2010) and Transylvania (Rustoiu 2008, 70-80). However, these vessels can-not be interpreted as a direct ethnic marker. The grave # 10 from the cemetery at Fântânele – Dâmbul Popii (Bistriţa-Năsăud County), in Transylvania, dated to the La Tène B2 (fig. 6) and already thoroughly analysed (Rustoiu 2008, 77-78, fig. 35), provides a relevant example. The ceramic offering placed in the grave consists of three local hand-made vessels, but the funerary rite and rituals have analogies in the La Tène cemeteries from the middle Danube region and south-western Slovakia.

It can be therefore concluded that the settlement from Cicir illus-trates, similarly to other sites from the eastern part of the Carpathian Basin, the cohabitation of the local populations with the Celtic new-comers, which led to the construction of new communal identities that were different from the previous local ones, or indeed from those spe-cific to the regions from which the “colonists” originated. On the other hand, the evidence recovered from the contemporaneous cemeteries indicates that the newcomers frequently managed to impose their own rules and practices related to the funerary rite and ritual, even if the indigenous people continued to influence, during a few generations,

Fig. 5. Wheel-made (1-9) and hand-made pottery (10-13) from the hut # 9 at Cicir (drawings: Narcisa Şugar)

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some elements of the material culture, amongst which the traditional pottery is one of the most visible. The cemeteries located in the area surrounding Cicir, close to the modern city of Arad, provide several relevant examples (Crişan 1974).

As concerning the chronology of the settlement at Cicir, it can be established with greater accuracy by analysing a series of small-finds recovered from the huts or from the layer of habitation. For example a bronze brooch, quite corroded but completely preserved, was recov-ered from the hut # B 14 (fig. 7/2). The artefact belongs to the middle La Tène type, having a short bilateral spring (with 2 + 2 spires) with an external chord, a bow decorated with X-shaped incisions and a folded foot decorated with a small knob. Such brooches are frequently found in cemeteries from the Carpathian Basin, and J. Bujna is dating the type in the La Tène C1c (Bujna 2003, 57-59, Type BF-Hx2-A).

Another recovered artefact is a fragmentary bracelet made of blue glass (fig. 7/1), which belongs to the 8a group of the most commonly used typology (Haevernick 1960, 53-54). Such bracelets have a wide European distribution area, albeit they are most commonly encoun-tered in Central Europe. The type was usually dated in the La Tène C1b, although some finds are also attested in La Tène C2 contexts (Venclová 1990, 123-124; Gebhardt 1989, Pl. 10/154; Karwowski 2004, 77).

Some sapropelite bracelets, having an oval or semicircular cross-section and internal diameter of 4.7 to 5.7 cm, have been found in dif-ferent structures and in the layer of habitation (fig. 7/3-5). Such items, usually manufactured in Bohemian workshops (Venclová 2001), are also known from cemeteries (Szabó / Tankó 2012, 103; Németi 1989,

Fig. 6. The grave # 10 from the cemetery at Fântânele – Dâmbul Popii. Different scales (after Rustoiu 2008)

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108; Vaida 2000, 142) and settlements from eastern Hungary, western Romania and Transylvania (Szabó 2007; Zirra 1980). They have been dated in the La Tène B2-C1 (Venclová 2001, 119, 293, Tab. 18; 2002, 76). One of the bracelets from Cicir has been found in the hut # B 14, together with the brooch of middle La Tène type already discussed, which might suggest a similar dating.

The aforementioned artefacts, as well as the general characteristics of the ceramic inventory, point to a dating of the settlement at Cicir in the La Tène C1, more precisely in a period between 260/250 and 190/175 BC.

In spite of its rural features the settlement at Cicir seems to have had different relations with other communities from the same re-gion, and also with others from more distant areas. Its location on the Mureş valley must have played an important role, as the river was an important route of communication from prehistory to the mod-ern times. According to Herodotus (IV, 48) the Mureş (Marisos) River is flowing directly into the Danube and not into the Tisza River as it is actually happening. This erroneous description must have come from the merchants who provided information to the Greek historian and who used the commercial network connecting the Danube, the Tisza and the Mureş, reaching Transylvania. The latter region has rich mineral resources, including salt, and supplied several areas on the Great Hungarian Plain and up to the middle Danube, as well as re-gions in the north-western Balkans (Medeleţ 1995). This commercial

Fig. 7. Glass (1) and sapropelite brace-lets (3-5), and bronze brooch (2) from the settlement of Cicir (drawings: Narcisa Şugar)

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route also led to the Transylvanian areas inhabited by the Agathyrsi Scythians who were said to wear gold jewellery but to have customs similar to those of the Thracians (Herodotus IV, 104). Thus, the role of the Mureş River as an important route of communication might have generated the impression that it was a direct tributary of the Danube (Mărghitan 1977, 203-207).

The geographic location allowed the community from Cicir to in-tegrate into a network of economic relations as a transit place along and across the Mureş River. This characteristic also explains the pres-ence of sapropelite bracelets probably originating from Bohemia, and which circulated towards the eastern part of the Carpathian Basin along the same routes followed by the supplies of raw graphite used in the manufacturing of specific ceramic vessels (Rustoiu 1993; Havancsák et al. 2009). These distant contacts must have implied the integration of the local elite from Cicir into the regional social-political and econom-ic networks which played an important role in the individual mobility and also in the circulation of certain goods, customs and ideas. Thus, the aforementioned brooch produced somewhere in the Balkans to-wards the end of the Early Iron Age, and then discovered in the La Tène settlement at Cicir, in which it must have been lost several generations later, can be seen as part of a wider perspective regarding the complex inter-communal interactions that functioned across time and space.

DiscussionThe use of garment accessories for a longer period, sometimes much later after they became out of fashion, is far from unusual. For exam-ple five silver hinged brooches of the end of the Early Iron Age (dated to the 5th – 4th centuries BC in Vasić 1999a, 113-114) were found in

Fig. 8. The grave # 3 from the cemetery at Remetea Mare in Banat (after Rustoiu 2008)

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the feminine burial # 22 in the cemetery at Gostilj (Vele Ledine), in Montenegro. From the same burial came a few coins from the begin-ning of the 2nd century BC, which provide the dating of the context (Basler 1972, 15, 34-35, Pl. 5/22:7-11). A silver brooch of the same type was found at Tărnava (north-western Bulgaria), in a tumulus burial containing weapons belonging to the Padea-Panagjurski Kolonii group, dated in the La Tène D1, more precisely from the end of the 2nd century to the beginning of the first half of the 1st century BC (Николов 1965, 178-179, фиг. 19). Lastly, a bronze hinged brooch was found in the Dacian fortified settlement from Liubcova, in the Iron Gates region (fig. 2/4), the artefact coming from an archaeological context dated between the second half of the 2nd century and the first half of the 1st century BC (Gumă / Rustoiu / Săcărin 1999, 65, fig. 1/1; Rustoiu 2005, 62, 70-71, fig. 46/1). These are only a few examples of the brooches which were popular at the end of the Early Iron Age and remained in use for a longer period in spite of the fashion changes that must have happened during the subsequent generations. Although some older objects were occasionally rediscovered later (even centuries later) more or less accidentally, and were reintegrated into new and different functional and cultural contexts3, the preservation of certain garment accessories of the type discussed above is mostly related to the charac-teristics of the costumes to which they belonged.

The costume has an important symbolic role in social communi-cation, being the visual (and carefully coded) expression of the indi-vidual or collective belonging to a particular ethnic, religious, gender, age, professional etc. group. Furthermore, from both the symbolic and functional point of view, various costumes can be identified, each be-ing adapted to a particular social context: civilian, ritual, military etc.

The status-related insignia, which are important for the discus-sion regarding the brooch from Cicir, can be also classified according to the social structure to which they were related. Thus the costumes belonging to the elites were usually accompanied by sets of garment accessories which visually underlined a certain status of the owners and were commonly made of precious metals. These sets of garments accessories were subsequently imitated by other members of the com-munity belonging to lower social ranks and the imitated artefacts were made of metals that were financially or socially accessible to them, the bronze being commonly used. Unlike these “profane” costumes, the sets of garment accessories and jewellery worn in ritual contexts were frequently made of precious metals and were never imitated us-ing common metals, since such objects were considered taboo and the un-initiated people were forbidden to wear them. These ritual-related costumes were only destined to the initiated individuals and served as markers of their status and function as masters of the sacred within the community. This is, for example, the case of the Dacian silver jewel-lery sets of the 1st century BC, which were highly individualised but also unitary from the structural and functional point of view, and were never imitated in bronze or iron; such sets were always destroyed and ritually buried upon the death of their owners, and were never passed over to the next generation (see further comments in Medeleţ 1994, 199-201, 215-220).

Returning to the elite’s costumes, they were sometimes inherited by successors together with their symbolic meaning as signs of status.

3 For example Plutarch (Pyrrhus 26, 6) mentions that the Celtic mercenaries of King Pyrrhus pillaged in 274 BC the Macedonian royal cemetery of Aegae, thus bringing into circulation some ob-jects belonging to older funerary inven-tories. Strabo (VIII, 6, 23) also writes that the veterans settled by Julius Caesar in Corinth pillaged old burials and sold in Rome the ceramic and bronze vessels taken over, some of them being hundreds of years old. A series of artefacts is also providing relevant examples: a prehistor-ic stone axe was reused in a magic tool-box discovered in a La Tène burial from Remetea Mare, in Banat (unpublished); another was rediscovered at Sucidava in the Roman times, being then inscribed in Latin (Bărbulescu 2001); a necklace discovered in the grave # 154 from the Avar cemetery at Kisköre (Hungary) in-cluded two amphora-shaped glass beads (Garam 1979, 31, Pl. 24/26), these be-ing typical La Tène B1-B2 artefacts (see for example Rustoiu 2011a) which were probably reused after being taken over from a destroyed Celtic grave etc.

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In other situations, the passing over of certain elements of costume from one generation to another might have had a magic meaning, or just a sentimental one, while the intention to preserve the memory of the ancestors or particular traditions for various scopes can be also taken into consideration. At the same time the symbolic and func-tional role of some garment accessories might have been transformed over time. An early La Tène anthropomorphic brooch discovered at Slovenské Pravno, in Slovakia, is a relevant example. The artefact was produced in a western European workshop in the 5th century BC and was used over a longer period in another geographic and cultural en-vironment, being later transformed into a pendant (perhaps due to the magic meaning of the human image). The transformed brooch was discovered in a context belonging to the Puchov culture, dated to the 2nd century AD (Megaw 1982, 7; Pieta 2000, 337, fig. 14/3).

In this context it has to be also noted that the brooch from Cicir is decorated with a stylised snake head. This zoomorphic motif was very popular in the northern Balkans during the Iron Age, although it was absent from the Celtic repertoire in the Carpathian Basin. The snake head is present, for example, on the brooches belonging to the Mramorac type from the end of the Early Iron Age (Garašanin 1991), and also on the silver spiral bracelets from the Jakimovo hoard, dated to the 1st century BC (Маразов 1979, 18, фиг. 7). Such motifs prob-ably had an important symbolic role (magic or/and religious) in the imaginary of the local populations in the Balkans. This feature might partially explain the longer lifespan of the brooch from Cicir.

Another problem raised by the mentioned artefact concerns the manner in which it arrived in a La Tène settlement that was inhabited in the second half of the 3rd century BC. Two different explanations can be suggested.

The first explanation begins from the fact that a series of distant contacts were established at the end of the Early Iron Age between the communities from the western and central Balkans and those from south-western Romania and Transylvania. These connections are demonstrated by some prestige goods coming from the Balkans and discovered in different Romanian sites, for example the developed variants of the Illyrian helmets (fig. 3) (Blečić 2007; Blečić Kavur / Pravidur 2012; Vasić 2010). These helmets come from Gostavăţ, in Oltenia, Berzovia (formerly Jidovin) and Govăjdia, both in Banat, and Ocna Mureş, in Transylvania (see list 2), all of them being dated to the 5th century BC (Gumă 1991, 92-93). The shield-boss from Sviniţa, in the Iron Gates region, can also be added to this group of finds (Teržan 1995, 126-127, fig. 11). The arrival of the aforementioned helmets northward of the Danube might be the result of some raids carried out by “Illyrian” warriors (acting much like the “condottieri”, according to Vasić 2010, 40), or of the adoption of certain symbols of status by the local elites, who compared themselves with the elites of the Balkans, thus imitating their prestige insignia. In both situations the connec-tions between the two geo-cultural areas required the establishing of certain social-political relationships between the communities and their leaders, which implied diplomatic contacts, gift exchanges, mat-rimonial alliances etc., and which led to a certain degree of individual and group mobility. In this context, it is possible that certain garment accessories from the Balkans arrived in south-western Romania at the

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end of the Early Iron Age, being integrated into the local costumes and later passed over from one generation to another in spite of the new customs, fashion and practices resulting from the cohabitation of local populations with the Celtic newcomers.

The second possible explanation of the aforementioned problem brings into discussion the possibility that the brooch was used dur-ing several generations somewhere in the Balkans, much like those from Gostilj. The artefact was subsequently brought over to Cicir as a result of the contacts between the populations from the south and the north of the Danube after the arrival of the Celtic groups in the Carpathian Basin. An argument in favour of this hypothesis can be the grave # 3 from the La Tène cemetery at Remetea Mare, in Banat (fig. 8). According to the funerary rite, ritual and inventory, the grave must have belonged to a woman coming from the south of the Danube (Rustoiu 2004-2005; 2008, 127-128; 2011b). This burial points to the existence of certain matrimonial alliances between the Celtic communities established in Banat at the end of the 4th century and the beginning of the 3rd century BC and their southern neighbours. Accordingly, the community from Cicir might have also had similar connections with a local community from the Balkans which, amongst other things, might have led to the arrival of an old-fashioned brooch that was passed over from one generation to another.

In conclusion, the Early Iron Age brooch from Cicir, discovered in a middle La Tène context, illustrates both the transmission over time of certain traditional elements and the phenomenon of cultural hy-bridization that characterised the eastern and southern parts of the Carpathian Basin after the Celtic “colonization” from the beginning of the Late Iron Age.

AcknowledgementsI am thankful to Marija Ljuština (Belgrade) for reviewing the list of Early Iron Age brooches, and to Sándor Berecky, Vincent Megaw and Lyudmil Vagalinski for comments and bibliographic references.

4 The brooch is now in the collec-tions of the Museum of Banat from Timişoara and it was previously part of the Pongrácz collections. Imre Pongrácz, formely a major of hussars and com-mander of Orşova garrison, collected several antiquities at the end of the 19th century, most of the finds coming from the Serbian right bank of the Danube in the Iron Gates region. His collection was acquired in 1903 by the Museum of Timişoara shortly after his death (Medeleţ / Toma 1997, 75-76; Medeleţ ms.). Thus the brooch listed as coming from “Banat” might have also been dis-covered in Serbia, either in the Iron Gates region, or in the southern Serbian Banat. It has to be noted that T. Bader also con-sidered that the brooch might have come either from the Serbian Banat, or from the Romanian part of the mentioned re-gion: Bader 1983, 118, # 374.

5 The brooch was found before 1918, probably in Oltenia (south-western Romania): Popescu 1941-1944, 485, 487, # 5.

Preliminary List of the Illyrian Helmets Discovered Northward of the Danube(after Gumă 1991 with completions)

Preliminary List of the Bow Hinged Brooches with a Rectangular Catch-Plate

(after Bader 1983; Vasić 1987; 1999a with completions)

Bosnia and Herzegovina1. Gorica2. Gosinja3. Kačanj4. Ljubomir5. RadimljaAlbania6. Valley of Mati RiverRepublic of Macedonia7. Gradešnica

Serbia8. Burovac9. Guča10. Leskovac: Stojić 2007, 178-

181, fig. 30-31.11. “Banat”4

Romania12. Cicir13. Ostrovu Mare14. “Older Romania”5

1. Berzovia2. Găvojdia: Medeleţ / Cedică

2002-2003.

3. Gostavăţ4. Ocna Mureş

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Келтски начин на живот – местна мода. Историята на една ранножелязна фибула от северозападните БалканиАурел РУСТОЮ

(резюме)

Настоящата статия обсъжда бронзова фибула със западнобал-кански произход, датирана в ранножелезния период и открита в латенско селище край Чичир (област Арад) в западна Румъния. Анализът взема предвид символичната роля на определени ак-сесоари от облеклото за запазване на местни традиции в новите културни практики, донесени от келтски „колонисти“ в източния и южния дял на Карпатския басейн в края на IV в. пр. Хр. – нача-лото на III в. пр. Хр.

Типологично безопасната игла от Чичир е дъговидна фибула с шарнир и правоъгълен иглодържател. Фибулите от този тип се датират на Балканите във втората половина на V в. пр. Хр. – пър-вата половина на IV в. пр. Хр. Морфологични детайли на екзем-пляра от Чичир насочват, че той е изработен и използван през втората част на този период. Що се отнася до разпространението им, тези фибули са чести в западните Балкани на териториите на Херцеговина и северна Албания. Познати са примери също от за-падна и централна Сърбия, както и в южна посока – Пелагония. Концентрация на подобни фибули е регистрирана в района на Железни врата. Екземплярът от Чичир е най-северната находка от този тип фибули.

Тя е открита е открита в латенско селище край Чичир – „Ла Гропи“, което е разположено на първата тераса на десния бряг на река Муреш нагоре по течението спрямо съвременния град Арад в западна Румъния. Обектът се датира в латен C1, тоест 260/250

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– 190/175 г. пр. Хр. Керамиката от селището включва съдове, из-работени на ръка в духа на местната традиция, и такива, източе-ни на грънчарски кръг и принадлежащи на централноевропей-ски тип. Това съчетание подчертава наличие на смесени готвар-ски практики, което е често явление в мултиетнически области. Същевременно тези особености на селището разкриват съжи-телстване и културна симбиоза на местното население с келтски заселници.

Използването на аксесоари на облеклото дълго след като са излезли от мода не е изключение – известни са многоброй-ни примери от древността. Предаването на такива предмети от поколение на поколение може да има разнообразна мотивация – например, за да се подчертае индивидуална или групова иден-тичност, или заради вменено им магическо значение, или дори поради сантименталната им стойност.

Фибулата от Чичир поставя и друг въпрос – как е попаднала в латенско селище, обитавано във втората половина на III век пр. Хр. Предлагат се две обяснения.

Първото предполага серия от далечни контакти, установе-ни в края на ранножелезния период между жителите на запад-ните и централните Балкани и тези от югозападна Румъния и Трансилвания. Разпространението на илирийски шлемове е сред аргументите за тези връзки. Контактите между тези две гео-кул-турни области изискват наличие на определени социално-поли-тически отношения между обществата и техните водачи, което означава дипломатически връзки, размяна на дарове, брачни договори и пр. Всички те водят до мобилност на лица и групи. В такъв контекст е възможно някои аксесоари от облеклото да попаднат от Балканите в югозападна Румъния в края на ранно-железния период, като се включат в местния костюм и сетне се предават от поколение на поколение въпреки нови обичаи, мода и практики, оформили се в резултат на съжителстване между местно население и новодошли келтски заселници.

Второто обяснение допуска, че фибулата е използвана от ня-колко поколения някъде на Балканите, след което е донесена в Чичир в резултат на контакти между общности, северно и южно от Дунав, след пристигането на келтски групи в Карпатския басейн.

В заключение, ранножелязната фибула от Чичир, намерена в среднолатенски контекст, илюстрира както предаването през ве-ковете на традиционни елементи, така и културна хибридизация, характерна за източния и южния дял на Карпатския басейн след келтската „колонизация“ в началото на късножелезния период.

Aurel Rustoiu PhDInstitute of Archaeology and History of Art12-14 M. Kogălniceanu St. RO-400084 Cluj-Napocaaurelrustoiu@yahoo.com

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