BONDS OF BLOOD Inter-Ethnic Marriage in

the Iron Age

A number of exceptional archaeological discoveries from southeastern Europe have

thrown new light on the social and cultural relations between the various barbarian
peoples who inhabited this region in the pre-Roman period.
One example of this phenomenon was discovered in the Celtic burial complex at
Remetea Mare in the Banat region of western Romania, which evolved from the period
over LT B2 and the start of LT C1 (i.e. from circa 280 BC to the end of the 3rd c. BC). In
terms of funerary rites and rituals, the cemetery at Remetea Mare illustrates the
cultural mix specific to Celtic cemeteries in the east and south of the Carpathian Basin
with one notable exception.

Burial #3 at the site, which dates to the same period, is a female inhumation burial
which contained a handmade bowl, a small bi-conical wheel-made vessel, iron tweezers
that when discovered still preserved attached fabric pieces of the womans clothing, a
segment of an astragal belt reused as a pendant, and a bronze Thracian brooch (Rustoiu
2011, 2012). The Thracian brooch belongs to the IIb variant according to Zirras
typology and is dated to the first half of the 3rd century BC (Zirra 1998). Both the
funerary rite (inhumation rather than cremation unique at the cemetery) and
inventory illustrate that the woman came from a community markedly different from
the one in which she died, in this case probably from a Thracian group south of the
Danube, and reached the Celtic community at Remetea Mare following a matrimonial
alliance established between the Celts and the Thracians, sometime in the first half of
the 3rd century BC.
A similar case has been recorded recently at Aradu Nou in the Banat region, where the
inhumation burial of an Illyrian woman, dating to the late 4th/early 3rd c. BC, was
discovered in the Celtic burial complex.

Female Inhumation Burial (#3) from Remetea Mare (after Rustoiu 2011)

Burial of an Illyrian woman in the Celtic cemetery at Aradu Nou (Banat) in western
Romania (late 4th/early 3rd c. BC).

Dating to the initial phase of Celtic expansion into this area, her interment in a Celtic
cemetery again indicates a matrimonial alliance contributing to the cementing of intercultural relations during this period. Such alliances also logically contributed to the
creation of complex social networks between the elites of different communities.
(after Rustoiu A., Ursuiu A. 2013)

Dating to roughly the same period as the Aradu Nou example are two female
inhumation burials in graves # 63 and 67 from the Celtic (Scordisci) burial complex at
Karaburma, Belgrade. In this case the women have been identified as of Pannonian
origin (Ljutina M., Spasi M. (2011).

Material from the burials of two Pannonian women in the Celtic burial complex at Karaburma,
Belgrade. (1-5 = Duchcov fbula, biconical iron fragment, silver earrings, glass beads and ceramic
bowl from burial #63; 6-7 = sliver earrings and glass beads from burial #67).
(after Ljutina, Spasi 2011)

Another example of such matrimonial alliances between the indigenous Balkan tribes
and the Celts comes from a cremation grave, discovered by chance in 1977 at Teleti in
the Oltenia region of Romania. Its inventory consisted of a fragmentary bronze belt, two
fragmentary bronze brooches (probably a pair; one destroyed on the pyre), four glass
beads and fragments of a blue glass bracelet, an iron horse-bit and two iron elements
which probably belonged to a ceremonial cart. The entire assemblage is characteristic
for the Celtic environment dating from the Lt C1 phase (second half of the 3rd century
and the beginning of the 2nd century BC). The funerary inventory from Teleti represents
the burial of a Celtic woman in a Thracian context. As is the case at Remetea Mare, this

burial also points to the existence of an inter-ethnic matrimonial alliance. Her belt, as
well as other garment accessories, suggests that the deceased came from a Celtic area,
probably in Transylvania or Scordisci territory in Serbia/Bulgaria (Rustoiu 2012).

THE WOMAN IN GRAVE 9

Direct testimony to such matrimonial alliances is also recorded at the beginning of the
2nd c. BC. In this case the Macedonian king Philip V, in order to secure a military
alliance with the Celto-Scythian Bastarnae tribes, arranged for his son to be married to
a Bastarnae princess:
The envoys whom he had sent to the Bastarnae to summon assistance had returned and
brought back with them some young nobles, amongst them some of royal blood. One of
these promised to give his sister in marriage to Philips son, and the king was quite elated at
the prospect of an alliance with that nation (Livy 40:5).
In relation to the aforementioned Bastarnae, of further significance is the inhumation
burial of a woman in the Celtic burial complex at Pelczyska in southern Poland. Dated
to La Tne D2/late 1st c. BC, once again the woman came from outside the community
and is believed to have reached the Celtic settlement at Pelczyska through a marriage
arrangement between the local Celts and the Bastarnae. Extensive contacts between the
settlement at Pelczyska and the Bastarnae have been confirmed by the large number of
Bastarnae silver tetradrachms of the Hui-Vovrieti type found at the settlement
(Rudnicki 2003). There also exists the possibility that the coinage represents part of the
womans dowry.

Skull and facial reconstruction of a Celto-Scythian (Bastarnae) woman found in the

Celtic burial complex at Pelczyska, Poland (1st c. BC). The skeleton is that of a mature
female (adultus maturus), circa 30-35 years of age (loc cit).
(after Rudnicki, Piasecki 2005)

Bastarnae Hui-Vovrieti type tetradrachms from Pelczyska (after Rudnicki 2003)

Well recorded in the Hellenistic world, the aforementioned burials from Romania,
Serbia and Poland represent the first direct archaeological testimony that such
matrimonial alliances were also common among the barbarian peoples of Europe.
Such marriages would logically have had both a major social and political significance.
It is worth noting that in each case these women, although living in an alien
environment, retained their own cultural identity, and upon their deaths their respective
customs and burial rites were respected by their host tribe. Such inter-ethnic marriages
undoubtedly acted as a catalyst for the development of the symbiotic relationship which
evolved between the local tribes and the Celts, resulting in close social, cultural, and
political ties. This phenomenon is to be observed in the material culture, and manifests
itself, for example, in the development of a mixed Celto-Thracian culture in Thrace, and
military alliances formed against Rome during the Scordisci Wars of the late 2nd/1st c.
BC.

LITERATURE CITED

Ljutina M., Spasi M. (2011) Celtic Newcomers between Traditional and Fashionable: Graves 63 and
67 from Karaburma. In: Iron Age Rites and Rituals in the Carpathian Basin. Proceedings of the
International Colloquium Trgu Mure 79 October 2011. P. 367-375.
Rudnicki M. (2003) Celtic Coin Finds from a Settlement of the La Tne period at Pelczyska. In: Polish
Numismatic News VII, 2003. P. 1-24.
Rudnicki M., Piasecki K. (2005) A Late La Tne Inhumation Grave from Pelczyska: Comments on the
Cultural Situation in the Upland Area of Little Poland (with an analysis of the anatomical remains by
Karol Piasecki). In Celts on the Margin Studies in Euopean Cultural Interaction 7th Century BC 1st
Century AD. Krakow 2005. p. 195 206

Rustoiu A. (2011) The Celts from Transylvania and the eastern Banat and their Southern
Neighbours. Cultural Exchanges and Individual Mobility. In: The Eastern Celts. The
Communities between the Alps and the Black Sea. KoperBeograd 2011. p. 163-171
Rustoiu A. (2012) The Celts and Indigenous Populations from the Southern Carpathian Basin.
Intercommunity Communication Strategies. In: Iron Age Rites and Rituals in the Carpathian
Basin. Proceedings of the International Colloquim from Trgu Mure 79 October 2011.
(Trgu Mure 2012).
Rustoiu A., Ursuiu A. (2013) Indigenous and Celtic Garment Assemblages in Banat and the
Surrounding Areas at the Beginning of the La Tne Period (Observations Regarding the Silver
Spiral Earrings). In: Archaeological Small Finds And Their Significance. Proceedings of the
Symposion:costume as an identity expression Cluj-Napoca 2013. p. 77-88
Zirra V. (1998) Bemerkungen zu den thraco-getischen Fibeln, Dacia N. S., 4042, 1996
1998, 2953

Mac Congail