Bronze Age Amber Finds from Cemeteries at the Glasinac Area

Apstrakt

The prehistoric tumuli of Glasinac and the surrounding area, in the southeastern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has yielded one of the largest collections of amber finds known from the European Bronze and Iron Ages. The continuous use of amber jewellery as
grave goods is evidenced in the area by multiple burials, spanning a period of almost one thousand years between the mid-2nd and mid-1st millennium BC. Even though this phenomenon has generally been recognized by many scholars, there are still numerous
problems connected with chronology and formal characterization of the amber artefacts. This paper sets out to clarify these issues in respect to the graves containing amber, hitherto dated to the Bronze Age (phases Glasinac II to III). The temporal position of amber assemblages was evaluated by verification of co-occurring finds’ chronologies and, in some cases, the formal characteristics of the beads themselves. Examination of the latter aspects formed the basis for the revision of previous typological attributions of the discussed artefacts. As a consequence, four graves with amber were reliably dated to the Bronze Age, whereas three others were excluded from this group, due to the fact that they bore insufficient evidence for such classification or were proven to be younger. Additionally, in the case of several artefacts, a new typological definition was suggested.