Δύο νέοι τάφοι «πολεμιστών» της Ύστερης Χαλκοκρατίας από την Ήπειρο

Christos Kleitsas In Κ. Soueref, E. Kotzabopoulou, K. Liampi, S. P. Morris & J. K. Papadopoulos 2017 (eds), Σπείρα. Επιστημονική συνάντηση προς τιμήν της Αγγέλικας Ντούζουγλη και του Κωνσταντίνου Ζάχου, Athens: 251-264.

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On the occasion of discovering two new tombs with weapons of the Late Bronze Age from Kato Konitsa in the plain of Konitsa and Pedini in the basin of Ioannina, an attempt is made to investigate the burial customs of possible “warrior” graves in the broader cultural context of Late Bronze Age Epirus. The prevalence of burials in simple pit- or cist-graves with similar offerings rather corresponds to the collective mode of action that the hard geomorphologic relief requires, than leaves room for the discrimination of social stratification, which is rarely found (tholos tomb from Kiperi near Parga). On the other hand, we can hardly answer the theoretical problem, whether burial gifts reflect the position of the dead to the social reality of their time or express the subjective perception of the living for them. Impressive remain the quantity and quality of bronze weapons (various types of Minoan/Mycenaean or Balkan/European swords and daggers, leaf-shaped and lanceolate spearheads) from the area compared to the bulk of local handmade pottery production and consumption, characterizing the material culture of prehistoric and protohistoric Epirus. Particularly, context of bronze weapons is investigated for the determination of use or symbolism, typological classification for the chronological definition, manufacturing technology for the tracking of common traditions, commercial exchanges and social processes, which are currently theoretically approached. After ca. 1200 BC Epirus enters a new era, as possibly evidenced by the establishment of some new settlements (Glava at Pogoni, Liatovouni at Konitsa and Krya at Ioannina) and the gradual elimination of bronze weapons from recent heroic past.