ANCIENT CERAMIC POT WITH DISH LID FROM THE BRONZE AGE LUSATIAN URNFIELD CULTURE *URN40

Product Description

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This set of TWO ancient ceramics comes from the Urnfield Lusatian (Lausitz) Culture of Central Europe, and dates to the Bronze Age.  The main vessel is shown with the included dish that was placed over the top, serving as the lid.  This is a common practice in Urnfield Culture burials - dishes and plates that are placed over deep vessels to double in function as a lid.  While a single piece is rare to acquire, a set like this is even more rare.  Both pieces show a matching clay composition and with crude substance and form.  The main vessel has smooth walls than end in a flat base.  The dish bowl fits in the typical overlapping fashion and accompanies the lower vessel in the assemblage.  

Advanced collectors will appreciate this unique opportunity to acquire some EXTREMELY RARE European Bronze Age ceramic pieces we will be offering from the former private German collection of H.S. Hesse.  These are not just ordinary "everyday life" ancient ceramics but are European Urnfield burial ceramics of exquisite condition and preservation, from the European Lusatian Culture.  Usually only found in museum collections in Europe, Urnfield pottery of fine condition is extremely rare!  These are fascinating specimens, not of everyday ancient life, but of ancient death and the ritual, religion and burial practices of ancient European peoples of the Bronze Age, into the Early Iron Age.  The majority of Urnfield pottery excavated and exhibited in museums is reassembled from mere fragments and requires EXTENSIVE restoration and fabrication.  The condition of these ceramics from this very limited collection, are of much finer preservation than typically seen! 

Once this limited number of pieces is gone, we will never again have the chance to offer any more.  These ceramics are INFINITELY MORE RARE THAN ANY ANCIENT ROMAN OR GREEK POTTERY.

HISTORY

The Urnfield Culture describes a tradition of Late Bronze Age central European societies dating back from 1300 B.C. to 700 B.C..  It gets its name from the practice of cremating the dead, placing the ashes in ceramic pots accompanied by other ceramic vessels, and then burying these pots in fields.  These fields became ancient cemeteries and some included hundreds of burials while others were limited to only a few dozen per field.  The practice of cremation is believed to have originated from the Balkans.  Urnfield societies were based on economies of agriculture and animal husbandry. 

The earliest Urnfield Culture societies cremated their dead and then dug graves whereby the ashes were simply scattered in the grave.  Later, the practice changed to putting the ashes and bones in a large urn accompanied by other smaller ceramic vessels such as cups, bowls and small dishes.  It is possible that food was also placed in this urn, all to be present with the deceased in the afterlife.  Occasionally, jewelry is found in the urn which was worn by the deceased and survived the fire, but this is rare.  Rich burials included grave gifts of spectacular objects in bronze such as elaborate spiral motif jewelry, fibulae, razors, hammered sheet armor, weapons such as swords, daggers, axes, spears and arrowheads, and vessels.  In some cases, the objects like swords, are purposely destroyed as part of a ritual of the burial.  The most prized bronze weapon was a sword.  Other luxury grave gifts included amber or glass beads, and beautiful gold jewelry and appliqués reserved for the most wealthy and noble classes.  Some burials have been found with entire wagons interred with the deceased!

One interesting member of the greater Urnfield Culture was the Lusatian Culture of eastern Europe.  In Germany, the culture is known as 'Lausitz', named for the Lusatia area of eastern Germany where sites were first described in the 1800's by German pathologist and archaeologist, Rudolf Virchow (known today as the father of modern pathology).  The Lusatian Culture peoples' interred cremated remains in pots to a time beyond central European societies, from the Late Bronze Age 1300 B.C., into the Early Iron Age around 500 B.C..  Lusatian Culture burials usually consist of a main urn that can range from modest sizes up to very large dimensions.  In most cases, secondary ceramic vessels are included in the burial urn.  The people of the Lusatian Culture were mainly farmers with domestication of animals and supplementing their diet with hunted game.  Their settlements existed in both open and fortified plans.

The importance of the European Urnfield Culture is that it displays an ancient human concept of the existence of an afterlife and the cherishing of remains of deceased by loved ones.  The placing of remains in a vessel demonstrates care of the deceased by the living.  The inclusion of other vessels, accessories and gifts in the burial urn with the ashes, demonstrates the beliefs of these ancient peoples and helps us to delve into their mind, an invaluable insight since no written language existed in their societies at this time.

References:

- Coles, J. A., Harding, A. F., The Bronze Age in Europe, 1979

- Jażdżewski, Konrad, Urgeschichte Mitteleuropas, 1984

- Mallory, J.P., In Search of the Indo-Europeans, 1989

- Piggott, Stuart, Ancient Europe from the Beginnings of Agriculture to Classical Antiquity, 1965

- Seidel, Ute,  Bronzezeit. Württembergisches Landesmuseum Stuttgart, 1995

- Weber, G.,  Händler, Kieger, Bronzegießer, 1992