Ancient Amber

 Despite fanciful descriptions by some ancient sources like Nicias (470-415 BCE) that amber "is a liquid produced by the rays of the sun, and that these rays, at the moment of the sun's setting, striking with the greatest force upon the surface of the soil, leave upon it an unctuous sweat, which is carried off by the tides of the Ocean, and thrown up upon the shores of Germany", Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder cited sources who were well aware of amber's actual origin from tree resin.

In Book 37, section XI of Natural History, Pliny wrote:

"Amber is produced from a marrow discharged by trees belonging to the pine genus, like gum from the cherry, and resin from the ordinary pine. It is a liquid at first, which issues forth in considerable quantities, and is gradually hardened [...] Our forefathers, too, were of opinion that it is the juice of a tree, and for this reason gave it the name of "succinum" and one great proof that it is the produce of a tree of the pine genus, is the fact that it emits a pine-like smell when rubbed, and that it burns, when ignited, with the odour and appearance of torch-pine wood."

Pliny says that the German name of amber was glæsum, "for which reason the Romans, when Germanicus Caesar commanded the fleet in those parts, gave to one of these islands the name of Glæsaria, which by the barbarians was known as Austeravia". 

As an important commodity, sometimes dubbed "the gold of the north", amber was transported from the North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts overland by way of the Vistula and Dnieper rivers to Italy, Greece, the Black Sea, Syria and Egypt over a period of thousands of years. The oldest trade in amber in antiquity originated from Sicily. The Sicilian amber trade was directed to Greece, North Africa and Spain. Sicilian amber was also discovered in Mycenae by the archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann. This amber also appeared in sites in southern Spain and Portugal and its distribution is similar to that of ivory, so it is possible that amber from Sicily reached the Iberian Peninsula through contacts with North Africa. After a decline in the consumption and trade of amber at the beginning of the Bronze Age, around 2,000 BCE, the influence of Baltic amber gradually took the place of the Sicilian one throughout the Iberian peninsula starting around 1000 BCE. 

From at least the 16th century BC, amber was moved from Northern Europe to the Mediterranean area. The breast ornament of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen (c. 1333–1324 BCE) contains large Baltic amber beads. Amber was also sent from the North Sea to the temple of Apollo at Delphi as an offering.

In Roman times, a main route ran south from the Baltic coast (modern Lithuania), the entire north–south length of modern-day Poland (likely through the Iron Age settlement of Biskupin), through the land of the Boii (modern Czech Republic and Slovakia) to the head of the Adriatic Sea (Aquileia by the modern Gulf of Venice). Along with amber, other commodities such as animal fur and skin, honey and wax were exported to Rome in exchange for Roman glass, brass, gold, and non-ferrous metals such as tin and copper. As this road was a lucrative trade route connecting the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, Roman military fortifications were constructed along the route to protect merchants and traders from Germanic raids.

Amber occurs in a range of different colors. As well as the usual yellow-orange-brown that is associated with the color "amber", amber itself can range from a whitish color through a pale lemon yellow, to brown and almost black. Other uncommon colors include red amber (sometimes known as "cherry amber"), green amber, and even blue amber, which is rare and highly sought after. As amber ages, however, it often becomes opaque and crackled. 

Amber has been crafted into jewelry and pendants since the Stone Age, from 13,000 years ago. Amber ornaments have been found in Mycenaean tombs.  However, it has also been used in folk medicine for its purported healing properties. Hippocrates and other ancient physicians used amber extracts for a wide variety of treatments. In ancient China amber was heated under specific conditions to produce oil of amber that, when combined with nitric acid, was used to produce artificial musk.

 

Amber head of a woman or goddess, Roman, 1st - 2nd century CE, now in the collections of the National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Sailko.

Amber figurine of a dog, Roman, from a tomb in Aquileia, 90-110 CE, now in the collections of the National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Sailko.

Amber ring with the form of a female bust, 1st century CE, in the collections of the National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Sailko.

Amber figural sculpture from a tomb in Aquileia, 90 CE, now in the collections of the National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Sailko.

Amber figural sculpture of a woman with a melon hairstyle from a tomb in Aquileia, 90 CE, now in the collections of the National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Sailko.

Amber head of a satyr, Roman, 1st - 2nd century CE, now in the collections of the National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Sailko.

Amber sculpture of winged figures, Roman, 1st - 2nd century CE, now in the collections of the National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Sailko.

Carved amber bow of a fibula depicting a couple reclining on a couch, with attendant and bird at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. While numerous details are Etruscan, it is impossible to identify where the artist came from and whether the figures are mortal or divine.

Amber pendant in the form of a sphinx, from south Italy, Taranto, late 6th century BCE now in the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Weight with Ram and Tiger, Early Western Han Dynasty, 3rd-2nd century BCE, Bronze inlaid with gold silver and amber that I photographed at the Portland (Oregon) Art Museum.

Amber amulet depicting a boar between two lion heads, Italic, 500-400 BCE, that I photographed at the Getty Villa.

Amber Amulet depicting a Boar's Head, Italic about 500 BCE that I photographed at the Getty Villa.

Amber amulet depicting a woman holding a child (Kourotrophos), Italic or Etruscan, 500-400 BCE, that I photographed at the Getty Villa.

Amber pendant in the form of a Satyr Head in profile, Etruscan, 525-480 BCE now in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, image courtesy of the museum.

Amber bead and pendant necklace, Italic, 700-475 BCE, BCE now in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, image courtesy of the museum.

Amber Gorgoneion (Medusa Head), Roman, 1st - 2nd century CE now in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, image courtesy of the museum.

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Golden Mummies of Egypt through July 11, 2021 at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, North Carolina

This exhibition uses mummies from the collections of the Manchester Museum (England) to allow visitors to examine life for the wealthy in multicultural Roman Egypt, where diverse Egyptian, Roman, and Greek communities and cultural influences were blended. The exhibition journey traces expectations for the afterlife and introduces cultural constructions of identity, strikingly demonstrated by haunting painted panel portraits. The practices of preservation and decoration of the body, and the transformation of the deceased into a god, are explored by the mummies on display.

Eight gilded mummies  and more than 100 related objects are presented in the display, including papyri, jewelry, ceramics, and artworks depicting deities that connect the daily lives of these Greco-Roman Egyptians to the religious world of the gods in a series of lavishly illustrated thematic sections covering the period from 300 BCE to 200 CE. The youngest of the preserved individuals is a 2 or 3 year-old child wrapped in strips of linen in an intricate diagonal pattern adorned with golden studs. Elaborate wrappings and decorated cartonnage were popular during the Roman period because sarcophagi were no longer used for many inhabitants. Interactive radiographic studies and multidirectional CT scans from three of the mummies will allow visitors to see underneath the wrappings.

 “Using art and science together, we’re able to explore concepts around humanity, divinity, and ideals of eternal beauty,” explains Museum Director Valerie Hillings.

Visitors are also encouraged to explore the Greco-Roman objects in the North Carolina Museum of Art's own collection that includes a gilded mummy covering, circa 300 B.C.E, an Aphrodite-Isis sculpture from the first to second century CE, and the plaster portrait head of a coffin, circa 100 to 150 C.E. 

For those (like me) that will be unable to attend the exhibit, I hope to post images taken by my friend Allan Gluck who will be exploring the exhibit shortly.

A large cache of gilded mummies were found in The Valley of the Golden Mummies at Bahariya Oasis in the Western Desert of Egypt, dating to the Greco-Roman period. Discovered in 1996 by Zahi Hawass and his Egyptian team, approximately two hundred fifty mummies approximately two thousand years old were recovered over the period of several seasons. Excavations have continued and  the excavator estimates the site contains a total of more than ten thousand such mummies.

Many of the mummies were still in good condition when they were discovered by Hawass and his team. They were decorated in different styles. There were four general styles of the mummies at Bahariya. The first style, which was found on approximately sixty mummies, has a gilded mask covering the face and a gilded waistcoat depicting different scenes of gods and goddesses across the chest. The second style is covered with cartonnage, depicting scenes of gods such as Anubis, the god of mummification, and his four children. The third style was not decorated with gold or cartonnage, but rather was placed inside an anthropoid, a pottery coffin. The fourth style was covered in linen.

I found Dr. Hawass' book, "Valley of the Golden Mummies," absolutely riveting! 

Egyptian, from Hawara, Mummy of a woman called Isaious, 1st century C.E., human remains, linen, plaster, and gold leaf, Manchester Museum, © 2019 Manchester Museum / Michael Pollard Photographer

Egyptian, from Lahun, Mummy mask for a woman, circa 50 C.E., gilded and painted cartonnage JULIA THORNE 2020/TETISHERI MANCHESTER MUSEUM, UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER

Egyptian, from Hawara, Mummy mask, 332–30 B.C.E., plaster and linen, Manchester Museum. This is one of a series of mold-made masks, built up from layers of linen and plaster. Michael Pollard 2020 Manchester Museum

Egyptian, possibly from Hawara, Portrait of a woman, circa 138–160 C.E., wood, Manchester Museum, © 2019 Manchester Museum/Michael Pollard Photographer

Gilded Mummy Covering, 300 BCE, Linen with gesso, paint, and gilding, now in the collections of the North Carolina Museum of Art, image courtesy of the museum

Greco-Roman Plaster Portrait Head from a coffin, 100-150 CE, now in the collections of the North Carolina Museum of Art, image courtesy of the museum

Aphrodite-Isis, copper alloy, 1st-2nd century CE, now in the collections of the North Carolina Museum of Art, image courtesy of the museum

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Professional mourners in the ancient world

 

Statues of Mourning Women, South Italian (Apulian, Canosan), 300-275 BCE Terracotta, now in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa venue, Pacific Palisades, California

This group of mourning women, often understood as female figures in prayer (orantes), was likely produced in the area of Canosa in south-eastern Italy. Although there are considerable differences in terms of clothing, poses and hairstyles, the four statues seem to depict a type of youthful female figure, probably envisioned as one of the mourners who expressed their grief during funerary ceremonies. The group was intended to be placed around a funerary couch (kline), and was probably produced for a fairly prestigious client who, in the context of Romanization in the area, aspired to underscore his economic prosperity, personal identity, and native traditions. The figures were made not with molds, as has been previously conjectured, but rather through a modeling process over a fairly thick conical structure. Working from the bottom up, clay pieces were laid over this hollow structure to define the anatomy and iconographic details of the figure. The forearms, created separately, and the head, made with a bivalve mold, were inserted in holes specially made by the craftsman. The tubular structure was then modeled from within to establish the round shapes of knees and breasts, and from the exterior, through the application of clay parts, to depict the details of the chiton and himation. A spatula and other sharp tools were used to define the hair, eyes, and various details of clothing. Colors were applied after the firing over a preparatory layer of white slip, which has been preserved in several areas. The palette shows little variety, consisting of pink, red, white, possibly dark brown, and black. - J. Paul Getty Museum

These sculptures probably represented women who were known by the Romans as praeficiae, professional mourners, who followed musicians in the funeral procession and sang a funeral song praising the deceased. Paying mourners to attend your funeral showed society the importance of your social status.

The practice of hiring professional mourners has been documented in ancient Egypt, China, and the Middle East as well as in Greece and Rome.  In ancient Egypt only childless women could become professional mourners as it was considered unseemly for men to weep in public. These women could not have any body hair and had the names of goddesses tattooed on their shoulders.

Mycenaean larnakes, burial chests, depict mourners performing ritual laments. During the Greek Archaic Period, greater simplicity in burial practices coincided with  the rise of democracy and the egalitarian military of the hoplite phalanx.  But during the 4th century BCE,  the decline of democracy and the return of aristocratic dominance was accompanied by the return of more elaborate funerary rituals.

"Ancient Romans honored their dead through extended mourning. Men would typically mourn for a period of a few days, during which they would always wear black and would not cut their hair or beards. Women would wear white and might not cut their hair as well. However, while formal mourning usually only lasted a few days for men, when a woman lost a husband or parent, it wasn’t uncommon for her to mourn for a year. Adopting traditions from the ancient Greeks, many Romans also periodically visited their deceased loved one’s tombs or burial sites to offer gifts and sacrifices. Toward the end of February, ancient Romans sometimes celebrated Feralia as well. This was a general festival for honoring the dead. Romans would traditionally celebrate by bringing food to the sepulchers of the deceased." - Joe Oliveto, State University of New York at New Paltz

Statue of Mourning Woman, South Italian (Apulian, Canosan), 300-275 BCE Terracotta, now in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa venue, Pacific Palisades, California

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Etruscan funerary banquet figurines

"The banquet was one of the most popular and consistent funerary motifs in ancient Etruria. The earliest banquet scenes depict people sitting, whereas later representations show banqueters reclining on couches. The deceased is either depicted at a meal or ancestor figures are shown welcoming the newly deceased to the banquet. The characterization of the deceased at a meal is a funerary theme that also finds expression in the earlier tomb groups of the Villanovan period." - Anthony S. Tuck, The Etruscan Seated Banquet: Villanovan Ritual and Etruscan Iconography

One of the earliest representations of a seated banquet was found in the Tomb of the Five Chairs at Cerveteri. A terracota figure was originally placed on each of five rock-carved thrones in a side chamber of the cruciform tomb.  Two stone tables were placed in front of the chairs  and classicist F. Prayon further describes the setting as including a large basket, libation table, and a rectangular base used for two additional cylindrical thrones.

The five figures were identified as three males and two females based on the style of the fibula worn by them. All figurines are constructed in the ritual pose, however, with the left arm hidden beneath a cloak or shroud and only the hand visible.  The right arm is extended with the palm up. Archaeologist Anthony S. Tuck states that this common gesture suggests that the scene represents more than just a simple scene of people eating and should be construed as one of welcoming and acceptance representing the induction and elevation of the newly deceased to the honorific status of the ancestors themselves.

The garments worn by the figures are quite similar to the robes of figures from a slightly earlier Tomb of the Statues at nearby Ceri. Although not well preserved these figurines hold a scepter topped with a lotus palmette which parallel enthroned figures from Asia Minor depicted on ivory plaques from Nimrud.   So scholars conclude that these works were created by Near Eastern immigrant artisans or copied by Etruscan carvers familiar with Near Eastern imports but manipulated to convey a specifically Etruscan idea.

Banquet figurine from the Tomb of the Five Chairs at Cerveteri, Etruscan, 625-600 BCE, terracotta, at the British Museum.

Banquet figurine from the Tomb of the Five Chairs at Cerveteri, Etruscan, 625-600 BCE, terracotta, at the Capitoline Museum in Rome

 

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The psychological cost of warfare in the ancient world

Then said Achilles, "Son of Atreus, king of men Agamemnon, see to these matters at some other season, when there is breathing time and when I am calmer. Would you have men eat while the bodies of those whom Hector son of Priam slew are still lying mangled upon the plain? Let the sons of the Achaeans, say I, fight fasting and without food, till we have avenged them; afterwards at the going down of the sun let them eat their fill. As for me, Patroclus is lying dead in my tent, all hacked and hewn, with his feet to the door, and his comrades are mourning round him. Therefore I can think of nothing but slaughter and blood and the rattle in the throat of the dying." - Iliad 19.226

As some of you know, I am the spouse of a veteran who has suffered from PTSD since service in Vietnam back in 1967-68. Although the psychological trauma suffered by those who have experienced a traumatic event now has a very modern-sounding diagnosis, it is not a recent phenomenon but has been a plague upon mankind, probably since men began engaging in warfare to wrest the territory or possessions from a competing group or avenge the losses incurred in such actions.

Some scholars have proposed PTSD is a modern phenomenon brought on by the use of explosive weapons like IEDs, land mines, or booby traps and the concussions that resulted from their use.  

In her paper, Caesar in Vietnam: Did Roman Soldiers Suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?, classicist Aislinn Melchior admits that concussion is not the only risk factor for PTSD but says it is so strongly correlated that it suggests the incidence of PTSD may have risen sharply with the arrival of gunpowder, shells, and plastic explosives.

"In Roman warfare, wounds were most often inflicted by edged weapons. Romans did of course experience head trauma, but the incidence of concussive injuries would have been limited both by the types of weapons they faced and by the use of helmets," Melchior observes. Melchior also speculates that death was so common in the ancient world that it desensitized many of its residents to the prospect of unexpected death. 

But in his 1999 paper entitled "The Cultural Politics of Public Spectacle in Rome and the Greek East in 167-166 BCE"  Jonathan C. Edmondson points out that when King Antiochus IV introduced Roman-style gladiatorial combats in Syria in 166 BCE, the Syrians were terrified rather than entertained.

"In time gladiatorial contests came to be accepted and even popular, but only after Antiochus had instituted a local variation whereby fights sometimes ended as soon as a gladiator was wounded."

This hardly sounds like people desensitized to death.

Recently, scholars studying cuneiform medical texts left behind by ancient Mesopotamians point to passages describing mental disorders expressed by soldiers and even a king during the Assyrian Period (1300–609 BCE) when military activity was extremely frequent and brutal. The King of Elam is said to have had his mind changed.  Soldiers were described as suffering from periods where they were forgetful, their words were unintelligible, they would wander about, and suffer regular bouts of depression.

I also think scholars dismiss too readily the psychological aspects of PTSD in the ancient world because of their observations that the ancient world was a far more brutal environment than we have now (outside of inner city ghettos).  They point out how people were surrounded by death because of disease, accidents without proper medical treatment, and entertainments that featured the orchestrated deaths of both people and animals.  I propose that observed deaths occurring in a venue where the observer and the participants are separated both by physical barriers and social hierarchy (most human victims were criminals, prisoners of war, "Others" so to speak, or slaves, those whose social status separated them from the vast number of citizens in the audience) are distinctly different when compared to violent deaths of friends, family members, and comrades, your "band of brothers," fighting right beside you in a person-to-person battle scenario.

Furthermore, ancient executions were designed to further distance the audience from the victim through the use of mythological reenactments or by placement outside the city.

"Crucifixions were usually carried out outside the city limits thus stressing the victims rejection from the civic community. Because of the absence of bloodshed out of an open and lethal wound, which evoked the glorious fate of warriors, this type of death was considered unclean, shameful, unmanly, and unworthy of a freeman. In addition the victim was usually naked. Essential, too, was the fact that the victim lost contact with the ground which was regarded as sacrilegious." - J.J. Aubert, "A Double Standard in Roman Criminal Law?" from "Speculum Juris: Roman Law as a Reflection of Social and Economic Life in Antiquity"

We also cannot forget the medical personnel either.  The medical environment of an ancient treatment facility following a major battle was far worse than in a modern field hospital.  Ancient surgeons attempted to treat often thousands of wounded in a relatively short time compared to only handfuls at a time during the Vietnam conflict.  Ancient physicians were surprisingly quite skilled, especially Roman military surgeons, but they had little but herbal compounds (and honey if the Romans listened to the Egyptian physicians) to ward off infections.  Their patients' mortality rate was much higher than the relatively low mortality rate experienced in Vietnam. 

I sometimes wonder, though, if modern scholars think that ancient people just didn't value their lives as much as we do, since they did not shrink from casualties as high as 50,000 in a single military engagement or investment of an enemy city.  But if you've ever looked at some of the poignant grave goods found in ancient burials or studied the reliefs and inscriptions on ancient funerary monuments, I think you will conclude that we are only separated by time, not by our shared human nature.

This post is a condensed summary of a paper I wrote, "Concussion and PTSD in the Ancient World" back in 2013.  You can read the full article at:

https://ancientimes.blogspot.com/2013/01/concussion-and-ptsd-in-ancient-world.html

Terracotta plate, ca. 510 B.C.E. Greek, Attic, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  The weight of the wounded or dead Amazon is beautifully conveyed by the lowered spears and shield carried by her companion.

Terracotta kylix (drinking cup), ca. 500 B.C.E., Attributed to a painter of the Thorvaldsen Group at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Sober depiction of a warrior. While his attendant looks on, he discards his shield and helmet and leans on his spear with a pensive, downcast face. 

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Cremation or Inhumation?

During the Ptolemaic period a distinctive type of subterranean tomb for multiple burials proliferated in the cemeteries around the city of Alexandria. Underground chambers cut into the living rock radiated from a central courtyard open to the sky. Most chambers contained a number of loculi, long narrow niches cut into the walls, which served as burial slots. Some loculi were sealed with painted limestone slabs in the form of small shrines. - Metropolitan Museum of Art

Roman columbaria were often built partly or completely underground as well. Most columbaria were managed by funeral societies and used by the lower and middle-classes. Niches could be quite simple or elaborately decorated with inscriptions, paintings, and mosaics depending on each family's economic means.  

The Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas is a 1st-century CE Roman columbarium, situated near the Porta Latina on the Via Appia, Rome, Italy. It was discovered and excavated in 1831 by Pietro Campana. Though its name derives from Pomponius Hylas, who lived in the Flavian period (69-96 CE), the building itself has been dated to between 14 and 54 CE due to inscriptions on two of its niches (one dedicated to a freedman of Tiberius and the other to a freedman of Claudia Octavia, daughter of Claudius and Messalina). It was later bought by Pomponius Hylas for himself and his wife.

 Inhumation was practiced regularly in archaeic Rome although cremation was gaining acceptance and a practice known as os resectum ("cut-off bone") was developed to satisfy both economy and spiritual traditions. According to Plutarch, King Numa Pompilius (r. 715-673 BCE) had forbidden cremation so perhaps in at least partial obedience to this prohibition, and perhaps on the understanding that "a part implies the whole", a complete finger was sometimes cut from the corpse before cremation and buried separately, unburnt, to complete the household's purification, return the deceased to mother Earth and make the grave inviolable. 

But, cremation became the most common burial practice in the Mid- to Late Republic and the Empire into the 1st and 2nd centuries. Interestingly, this appears to correspond to the military expansion of Rome and the increasing lack of ability to return intact war dead from distant battlefields.

Patrician members of the gens Cornelia seem to have resisted this change, though, and continued inhumating their dead until the first century BCE. In 79 BCE, the dictator Sulla was the first patrician Cornelius to be cremated, perhaps because he feared his body would be defaced by his former enemies.

Eventually, however, cremation remained a feature of imperial deification funerals, and very few others.  Building columbariums was finally halted during Hadrian’s rule from 117 to 138 CE as inhumation once more preferred.

Painted limestone funerary slab with a man controlling a rearing horse, 2nd half of 3rd century B.C.E. at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Here, a lively depiction of a Thessalian man named Pelopides trying to bridle a horse, while a boy stands behind him, commemorates a man from Thessaly in Northern Greece, who must have been one of the many foreigners who congregated in the wealthy, cosmopolitan Ptolemaic capital.

Painted limestone funerary slab depicting a soldier and two girls from Alexandria, 2nd half of 3rd century BCE at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Painted limestone funerary slab with a soldier taking a kantharos from his attendant girls from Alexandria, 2nd half of 3rd century BCE at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Painted limestone funerary slab with a soldier standing at ease, 2nd half of 3rd century B.C.E. at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A soldier wearing a long blue cloak stands alone, with a spear in his right hand and a tall ovoid shield at his left. Celtic groups from Europe migrated eastward in 279 B.C. and established independent kingdoms in Thrace and central Asia Minor. Known as Galatians, they were used extensively as mercenary soldiers. Inscriptions identifying at least three Galatian soldiers who must have served under the Ptolemies occur on loculus slabs in a rather simple tomb found in 1884.

Interior of the Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas (Rome, Italy) courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Tyler Bell. 

 

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Burial of a Celtic Prince

The Hochdorf Chieftain's Grave is a richly-furnished Celtic burial chamber dating from 540 BCE near Hochdorf an der Enz (municipality of Eberdingen) in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Beginning in 1968, a volunteer at the State Antiquities and Monuments Office in Baden-Württemberg, Renate Leibfried, kept coming across stone fragments plowed up in the field. She reported her observations and the Archaeological Preservation Office identified what had been a large burial mound.  Dr. Jörg Biel led a complete excavation of the site between 1978 to 1979.

The grave contained a Celtic prince, roughly 40 years of age and 6 ft 2 in tall, who was laid out on a bronze recliner with eight wheels.  He wore a gold-plated torc on his neck, a bracelet on his right arm, a hat made of birch bark, a gold-plated dagger made of bronze and iron, rich clothing, amber jewelry and the remains of thin embossed gold plaques which once decorated his now-disintegrated shoes. Other grave goods included a razor knife, a nail clipper, a comb, fishing hooks, and arrows. At the foot of the funerary couch was a large cauldron decorated with three lions around the rim. This cauldron was originally filled with about 100 gallons of mead. The east side of the tomb contained an iron-plated wooden four-wheeled wagon holding a set of bronze dishes.  A collection of drinking horns hung on the walls was enough to serve nine people.  

A reconstruction of the burial can be viewed at the Hochdor/Enz Celtic Museum which opened in 1991.  The original finds of the Hochdorf princely burial are to be found in the Württemberg State Museum in Stuttgart’s Old Palace although both are currently closed due to the pandemic. 

Reconstruction of the Celtic Hochdorf Chieftain's Grave in the museum nearby the location of the original grave courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor, Magnus Hagdorn

Celtic-style bronze lion replacement on the Hochdorf cauldron, 540 BCE, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Xuan Che.

Hochdorf cauldron with drinking horns courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Dr. Bernd Gross.

Greek-style Bronze lion on the Hochdorf cauldron, 540 BCE, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Xuan Che.

Gold fibulae of the Hochdorf Celtic Prince courtesy of Harry Meinhardt. Two identical brooches, one of which has been slightly compressed, are composed of seven parts. The body is of solid gold, the hoops have been hammered out in a square cross-section. The garment hooks were joined with a piece of fluted sheet metal.

Reconstruction of the Hochdorf Celtic prince with his gold burial goods courtesy of Pinterest.

Gilded in preparation for the afterlife, this 42cm long, bronze and iron dagger was carried by the prince in life. The blade was protected by a richly decorated sheath. The gold coating made for the burial consisted of 16 parts, all precisely fitted onto the dagger without any fold, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Rosemania.

Gold shoe plaques from the Hochdorf Chieftain's Grave, Germany, c. 540 BCE, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Rosemania

Hochdorf gilded drinking horn, 540 BCE, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Xuan Che.

Reconstruction of the grave good chariot of a Celtic prince in Hochdorf, Germany, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor NobbiP

I saw this beautiful miniature of a Celtic prince riding into battle in a chariot accompanied by his body guard and hound in my image search. The Celtic Chieftain Chariot is in 75mm scale and it is a scrathbuilt, the sculptor of this figure is Andrea Jula while the painter is Fabrizio Russo. Image courtesy of https://sergeantblackart.wordpress.com/.../showcase.../

 

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Phoenician mortuary practices of the Achaemenid Period

The Phoenicians as a politically, religiously, and perhaps even ethnically distinct entity on the Levantine coast emerged at the end of the Late Bronze Age about 1200 BCE, as one of the successor cultures to the Canaanites.  From their homeland on the coast of the Levant, the Phoenicians spread throughout the Mediterranean and its islands including Cyprus, Sicily and Malta. Some scholars have observed that Iron Age Phoenicia was not a nation, but rather a collection of cities built around natural harbors along the coast. While they shared a common culture, these small states remained independent, competing with each other in the international marketplace. 

"Depending on how evidence is weighed [based on Ugaritic texts and classical sources], Phoenician religion might be presented on the one hand as inclusive and diverse – a “conservatively” polytheistic society easily able to incorporate or syncretize new deities, customs and traditions or on the other hand as highly place-specific – a model in which Phoenicians were devoted to city-gods only, with little shared pantheon above the local or regional scale," Helen Dixon, University of Michigan, observes.

This variety in religious practices initially resulted in the use of both cremation and inhumation in mortuary practices and funerary art often expressed influences by non-Phoenician ruling administrations like New Kingdom Egyptians, Assyrians, and Achaemenid Persians.  By the Achaemenid period, however, adult cremation abruptly disappears from sites in the Phoenician cultural sphere.  This corresponds with the increasing importance of Zoroastrianism in the 5th century BCE. In Zoroastrianism, water (aban) and fire (atar) are agents of ritual purity, and the associated purification ceremonies are considered the basis of ritual life. A corpse is considered a host for decay. Consequently, scripture enjoins the safe disposal of the dead in a manner such that a corpse does not pollute the good creation.

For inhumation burials, the use of sarcophagi during the Achaemenid period along with epigraphic evidence points to a consistent and insistent emphasis on the integrity of the burial. Deities, including Astarate, are invoked to assist with the procurement of blessings and to enforce curses and righteousness is defined by political accomplishments or the building of religious shrines.  Although Egyptian iconography persisted, it was supplemented by Persian iconography. A paucity of grave goods was referenced in inscriptions as a deterrent to grave robbing and what few ceramic vessels have been found in Phoenician burials have been ceremonially broken. Wealthier burials, though, apparently included the use of expensive resins such as myrrh to anoint, perfume or preserve the body and the deceased were dressed in special garments with head ornaments, particularly royal women whose head ornament was described as a gold bridle. However, there apparently were no extensive preparations for a “next life,” no large quantities of food or drink on which to survive or any biographical depictions or texts to accompany the dead. With the exception of the occasional appearance of amulets or other possibly apotropaic items, there was no preparation for an encounter with an underworld deity or space or expectation of  a future meeting one's deceased ancestors.

Read more about it in Dixon's dissertation, "Phoenician Mortuary Practice in the Iron Age I – III (ca. 1200 – ca. 300 BCE) Levantine “Homeland”:

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/99972

Sarcophagus made from Greek marble. burial grounds of Antarados, northern Lebanon. 480-450 BCE courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor McLeod

Anthropoid sarcophagi, from Sidon, 5th century BCE, National Museum of Beirut, Lebanon courtesy of Carole Raddato.

Phoenician sarcophagus of the fifth century BCE, from the Carthaginian colonization of Sicily. Discovered in Palermo. Regional Archaeological Museum of Palermo, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Giovanni Dall'Orto.

Sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II, king of Sidon, Phoenicia, ca first quarter of the 5th century BC.E. at The Louvre courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Fred Romero.

Marble anthropoid sarcophagus, last quarter of the 5th century B.C.E., Graeco-Phoenician found on Cyprus at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Phoenician sarcophagus of the fifth century BCE, from the Carthaginian colonization of Sicily. Discovered in Palermo. Regional Archaeological Museum of Palermo, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Giovanni Dall'Orto.

Marble anthropoid sarcophagus, last quarter of the 5th century B.C.E., Graeco-Phoenician found on Cyprus at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Phoenician marble sarcophagus found in Cádiz. Spain, 5th century BCE, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Professor Ángel M. Felicísimo, University of Mérida.

Phoenician marble sarcophagus found in Cádiz. Spain, 5th century BCE, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Professor Ángel M. Felicísimo, University of Mérida.

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