UN GRUP DE MORMINTE DIN EPOCA BRONZULUI DESCOPERIT LA ROMAN – ARHIEPISCOPIE. ABORDĂRI PLURIDISCIPLINARE

The present study describes several burial complexes, dated to the Bronze Age, as they were recently discovered in Roman (Neamţ County, Romania). Four tombs represent inhumation rites, and two of them are possible cenotaphs, which were identified during the research of a medieval necropolis (dated to the 15th-17th centuries). The archaeological inventory consists mainly of pottery (whole or fragmented vessels), with features of different neighboring cultural environments. Considering the geographic area within which the tombs were discovered‚ we presume they represent burial complexes of a Monteoru culture community, which also sustained contacts with representatives of the Komarov culture. Aiming to obtain further data regarding the burial ritual, several sediment samples were taken to be analyzed from an archaeobotanic perspective, for pollen and phytoliths. This type of analyses was also used in order to obtain data regarding the vegetal environment contemporary with the funerary context of that time. It was determined anthropologically that the skeletal remains come from four male individuals, of ages ranging from 20 to 50 years. The traits of these individuals suggest a mixture of nordic and europoid elements. Only in one case we identified mongoloid elements. The archaeological materials discovered within this funerary suggest a dating to a final stage of the Middle Bronze Age period or even the beginning of the following one.