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Kinship practices in Early Iron Age southeast Europe: genetic and isotopic analysis of
burials from the Dolge njive barrow cemetery, Dolenjska, Slovenia
Abstract
DNA analysis demonstrates that all seven individuals buried in an Early Iron Age barrow at
Dolge njive, southeast Slovenia, are close biological relatives. Although group composition
does not suggest strict adherence to a patrilineal or matrilineal kinship system, the funerary
tradition appears highly gendered, with family links through both the male and female line
being important in structuring communities. We explore the implications for our
understandings of kinship and funerary practices in Early Iron Age southeast Europe.
Key words: ancient DNA; Iron Age; Slovenia; barrows; isotope analysis; kinship
Introduction
The beginning of the Early Iron Age (c. 800–450 BC) in southeast Europe was accompanied
by significant social changes, many of them apparently related to a growing intensity of
contacts and exchange between communities around the head of the Adriatic, and with the
urbanising societies of the wider Mediterranean world. These changes are marked in eastern
Slovenia, as well as in the broader area between the Eastern Alps and Western Pannonia, by
the emergence of new centres of population comprising large hillforts associated with
extensive barrow cemeteries and, in some cases, evidence for iron-working (e.g. Teržan
1990; Mason 1996; Dular & Tecco Hvala 2007; Mason & Mlekuž 2016; Črešnar & Mele
2019; Črešnar et al. 2020). In the Early Iron Age Dolenjska group (southeast Slovenia and
northern Croatia), which is the focus of this paper, funerary rites shifted from cremation
burials in flat cemeteries to inhumation, usually comprising multiple graves under a
substantial earthen barrow, often with significant quantities of grave goods. These new
centres can be linked to the emergence of extended hierarchies that developed to control and
exploit production and inter-regional trade in, for example, iron, salt and amber.
Although it has been suggested that burial in these barrows might have been based on
familial links, with individual barrows being associated with specific lineages (Dular &
Tecco Hvala 2007: 123–6, 237–45; Teržan 2010), this has been hard to demonstrate using
traditional archaeological techniques. As part of the HERA-funded ENTRANS (Encounters and Transformations in Iron Age Europe) Project (Armit et al. 2014; 2016), osteological and isotope analysis was applied to sites in the region, with further aDNA analysis obtained through the COMMIOS (Communities and Connectivities: Iron Age Britons and their Continental Neighbours) Project. This paper details the results of work on one of these sites,the Dolge njive barrow cemetery, and examines their implications for our widerunderstanding of human mobility and family structure during this dynamic period of southeast European prehistory.The Dolge njive barrow cemeteryThe Dolge njive cemetery forms part of one of the largest mortuary complexes of the Early Iron Age Dolenjska group, which stretches over southeast Slovenia and part of northernCroatia (Figure 1). The complex centres on the large (12.68 ha) hillfort at Veliki Vinji vrh and comprises an estimated 145 barrows. Four main groups ascend to the northwestern entrance of the hillfort from the Topličica valley, while a further 45 dispersed barrows,erected individually or in smaller groups, extend across a wider area of over 25 km2. Many of these barrows were excavated in the late nineteenth century with a relatively poor standard of field-recording and documentation; modern excavation has confirmed, however, that skeletal remains in the area are generally very poorly preserved or absent (Dular & Tecco Hvala 2007: 191; Mason & Mlekuž 2016).The Dolge njive cemetery itself is located between two deeply incised valleys at the foot of the Vinji vrh massif, southeast of the hillfort (Figure 2). Excavations in 2002, in advance of motorway construction, revealed the poorly preserved remains of three Early Iron Age barrows. Two of these were constructed on the site of Late Bronze Age cremation platforms,whilst the third was located a short distance to the east and connected to the others by a Late Bronze Age hollow-way with associated deposits of cremated bone (Mason 2005; Mason & Mlekuž 2016). The remains of an Early Iron Age farmstead or small settlement, comprisingtwo cobbled surfaces and two apparently domestic structures, were discovered at Pod Vovkom to the southwest of the site (Križ 2005; Figure 2). Its location was undoubtedly influenced by the proximity of the Krka River, but may also have taken advantage of one ofthe possible route-ways from the valley to the hillfort.Page 2 of 51
Antiquity
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Two of the Dolge njive barrows (2 and 3) had been largely destroyed by a combination of
Roman settlement activity and medieval agriculture, though both contained at least one
inhumation, in each case accompanied by spearheads (Figure 3a; Table 1). Barrow 1,
however, was better preserved, covering the remains of six graves containing seven
inhumation burials (Figure 3b). All six graves contained extended supine inhumations,
including one double burial (Burial 3) comprising two individuals buried head to toe (Table
1). Five of the graves were arranged in a rough circle around the perimeter of the barrow,
while the other (Burial 1) lay more centrally. This latter grave, however, cut the edge of
Burial 3 and cannot therefore be primary. Although central graves in the region tend to be the
earliest within each barrow, there are exceptions in which they belong to the later or even the
latest phases of a barrow (e.g. Križ 2019: 277, 293).
The limited evidence for inter-cutting in Barrow 1 (Figure 3b), and the slight degree to which
the graves intersect, appears to indicate that the later graves were laid out to respect the
earlier ones: this suggests either that the earlier graves were marked on the surface, and/or
that the graves were dug over a relatively short period. All of the graves contained grave
goods, though the number and composition varied (Table 1); they date on typological
grounds mostly to the Stična (I) phase of the Dolenjska Early Iron Age chronology, i.e. Ha
C(1). Coupled with stratigraphic and aDNA information (see below), the bodies were most
likely deposited over a relatively short period in the early/mid seventh centu