Abstract

The article deals with one of the leading types of funeral ceramic vessels in the Prussian archaeological culture, biconical “temporary” urns. Fragments of calcified bones were brought in these vessels from the funeral pyre and emptied in the grave. In the sixth and seventh centuries, the “temporary” urns were thrown in the grave after the bones and probably deliberately smashed. The typological analysis, a standard typology method in the archeology of the Prussians, helps establish the seriation of biconical vessels. They were dated, first relatively and then absolutely, when juxtaposed to the seriation of crossbow-shaped brooches from the archeological complexes with specific vessels. The shapes of these brooches give indications for such dating. Thus, the forms and parameters of brooches, as well as the forms of vessels are chronological indicators. The author has come to the following conclusions. First, the use of biconical vessels by a group of the Western Balts during funeral ceremonies dates back to the era of Roman influence. Second, from the early fifth century, when the archaeological culture of the Old Prussians had been molded, the inhabitants of Sambia switched from urn cremation to the cremation of subtypes 1.2 and 2.1 (bones, not placed in the urn or scattered in the remains of a funeral pyre). These rituals, like some earlier urn cremations, suggest the use of “temporary” urns, i. e. biconical vessels, to bring bones from a pyre to a grave. Third, biconical vessels lose their ornamentation, their height increased and the neck narrowed during the sixth and seventh centuries. These changes were of ceremonial significance that still remains unclear. Fourth, biconical vessels on the funeral sites of the Prussian archaeological culture date to not later than the early seventh century. The Prussians employed bronze dishes as “temporary” urns at the final stage of the Viking era and until the thirteenth century as has been evidenced by the excavations of the burial ground “Kl. Kaup”.