Page 64 - Lazar, Irena, Aleksander Panjek in Jonatan Vinkler. Ur. 2020. Mikro in makro. Pristopi in prispevki k humanističnim vedam ob dvajsetletnici UP Fakultete za humanistične študije, 1. knjiga. Koper: Založba Univerze na Primorskem
P. 64
mikro in makro: pr istopi in pr ispevki k humanističnim vedam ob dvajsetletnici up fhš
Summary
Life on the border is dangerous and hard
Communities of the Dead, Societies of the Living: The Late Bronze
Age cemetery in Zavrč
Zavrč is a long-lasting archaeological site, where a Late Bronze Age ceme-
tery was discovered under the road leading to the border crossing between
Zavrč and Dubrava Križovljanska. It is not unique among the Late Bronze
Age cemeteries solely because of the number of uncovered graves and the
richness of several burials, but also due to the long period during which
people were buried there. It is a testament to the extraordinary long-last-
ing temporal integration of the location into the mental patterns and spe-
cial perception of the Late Bronze Age (and Early Iron Age) societies in the
region. Due to the variability of material culture itself, as well as burial rites
and the concept of death, considered in a local as well as a global perspec-
tive, the cemetery opens up opportunities to understand the social dynam-
ics of this extraordinary time in the human past. Therefore, changes in the
composition of material culture in the graves of Zavrč can be understood as
reflections of social changes, which at the subsystem level were not so influ-
entially powerful to change the system, but still enough to create a variabil-
ity within the uniform perception of the functioning of societies in space.
In other words, if the continuities of burial in other cemeteries changed,
they did not change in Zavrč, if the composition of grave goods in other
cemeteries in the region changed, they changed differently in Zavrč – so-
cieties of the living created different “concept of death” in the Zavrč com-
munity of the dead.
62
Summary
Life on the border is dangerous and hard
Communities of the Dead, Societies of the Living: The Late Bronze
Age cemetery in Zavrč
Zavrč is a long-lasting archaeological site, where a Late Bronze Age ceme-
tery was discovered under the road leading to the border crossing between
Zavrč and Dubrava Križovljanska. It is not unique among the Late Bronze
Age cemeteries solely because of the number of uncovered graves and the
richness of several burials, but also due to the long period during which
people were buried there. It is a testament to the extraordinary long-last-
ing temporal integration of the location into the mental patterns and spe-
cial perception of the Late Bronze Age (and Early Iron Age) societies in the
region. Due to the variability of material culture itself, as well as burial rites
and the concept of death, considered in a local as well as a global perspec-
tive, the cemetery opens up opportunities to understand the social dynam-
ics of this extraordinary time in the human past. Therefore, changes in the
composition of material culture in the graves of Zavrč can be understood as
reflections of social changes, which at the subsystem level were not so influ-
entially powerful to change the system, but still enough to create a variabil-
ity within the uniform perception of the functioning of societies in space.
In other words, if the continuities of burial in other cemeteries changed,
they did not change in Zavrč, if the composition of grave goods in other
cemeteries in the region changed, they changed differently in Zavrč – so-
cieties of the living created different “concept of death” in the Zavrč com-
munity of the dead.
62
