The Nitrica I: Funeral deposit of proto-Lusatian warrior from Western Slovakia

Abstract

Abstract The genesis of Lusatian culture is not sufficiently understood due to the demanding nature of its funeral ideology, which suddenly makes the highest social group invisible in the eyes of archaeologists. The elite proto-Lusatian burial of Nitrica I (Bz C2/D – ca. 1350–1300 BC) points to a persisting warrior-chief component of the Middle Bronze Age origin, which survived here from the previous period and probably contributed to the spread of Lusatian-style pottery. It reveals the diachronic acculturation of ending Tumulus facies, which has retained the habits of depositing votive wealth in graves, while the community of the Urnfield facies have decided (or been forced) to drastically reduce the importance and investment in funeral deposits. Typologically, this is the richest burial of Lusatian cultural zone with a significant continental importance, and offers an excellent case for the integration of multidisciplinary approaches in chronology, sociology, cultural development, and others. Selection of the location of the central burial and its position in the landscape was not accidental, and later began to function as a ritual centre/territorial marker with a high occurrence of metal hoards – which raises several implications in social archaeology and points to a sophisticated spiritual thinking of the Lusatian communities.