Face urn
The face urn is a funeral urn with a face-like decoration on the body of the vessel. Representations of faces and allusions to ceramics are widespread geographically and chronologically. They already appeared on the Balkan Peninsula in the Neolithic . One focus is their use in the European Iron Age , when vessels decorated with faces were used to deposit the corpse burns. The Etruscan culture in Italy and the Pomeranian face urn culture in the east of Pomerania , named after the vessel type, stand out. In the neighboring areas of these cultures there are also anthropomorphic or face-decorated vessels.
Face urns of the megalithic graves
In the large stone graves of the Stone Age there are sometimes special vessels, the so-called "ansigtskar". On them there are depictions of two eyes with eyebrows. The eye motif occurs in Europe in connection with the megalithic systems . In Denmark they are decorated in the so-called Bundsø style, which reached its peak around 3300-3200 BC. Around the time when the construction of dolmens began.
Face urns in the Pomeranian face urn culture
Their geographical distribution extends over the middle Oder and Vistula region on the edge of the Lausitz culture and its successor cultures . In terms of time they are mainly placed at the beginning of the Iron Age in this area ( Hallstatt HA D1-3, beginning of LaTène A), around the 7th – 5th centuries . Century BC The ashes of the deceased in the face urns were kept in stone box graves.
The urn bodies themselves are bulbous to bottle-shaped clay vessels of various sizes with a conically raised neck section, on which sculptural brow and nose areas as well as incised eyes and mouth lines are shown so that a human face is visible.
The “mouth” is rarely shown. The "ears" can be perforated as vertical strips next to the "face" and provided with bronze and iron rings (as "earrings"). The shoulder and stomach part are mostly decorated with incised patterns that are repeated all around. On the whole, the faces appear expressive despite the simple design, some seem to be smiling, others "look" very seriously. Other decorations are carved into the shoulder area of some vessels, rarely as scenic representations, more often indicated necklaces (ring neck collars) or typical early Iron Age forms of dress pins. Due to some parallels in grave finds, Wolfgang La Baume believed he could distinguish female (two needles) from male (one needle) urns. The grave finds and some of the urns themselves show that behind the incised “decor” of the urns with jewelery and robe pins hints of actual contemporary fashion are hidden. Remnants of fabric could be recovered from the metal robe pins in the shoulder area. These urns were probably wrapped in fabric (the "robe"). This corresponded to the way people carried the urn in the "chest area" with needles. The opening of the vessel was usually closed by a lid, also made of clay, which is sometimes reminiscent of a headgear (cap lid, folded lid).
La Baume (1932), encouraged by the high individuality of the facial representations and the obvious effort to equip the vessels with traditional costume elements just like people, saw in the urns the representation of the deceased himself. In the course of his far-reaching investigations, however, he changed his mind (La Baume 1963), because despite the high degree of individuality, the most typologically similar urns can be found on the same or a neighboring burial ground , i.e. H. The most obvious interpretation is workshop or master circles who shaped the appearance of the urns through their own technical ability and aesthetic sensibility.
In addition to these typical Pomeranian face urns, the distribution of which is largely limited to the area of the culture of the same name, there are other, mostly simpler forms.
Northern Germany - the "Cimbric face urns"
The term was coined by La Baume, as the distribution of the urn type ( Jutland , Schleswig-Holstein ) overlaps with the presumed break-up area of the later Cimbri . The time of occurrence only partially coincides with that of the Pomeranian face urns. The earliest forms are occupied from Period IV of the Nordic Bronze Age in Northern Jutland, isolated facial polls running up to the Jastorfstufe I .
Most of the time, the vessels are simply tied, with a puncture or a dent on the left and right of the handle - this acts as "eyes" and the handle acts as a "nose". The "mouth" is shown extremely rarely.
Central German face urns
The pieces from the early Iron Age ( Hallstatt C / D1) are limited in geographical and temporal extent to the area of the house urn culture , eastern Lower Saxony , the northern Harz foreland to the Elbe and in the south to the area of Halle (Saale) .
The variety of shapes is probably reaching its prime in this area. The simplest pieces consist of a ceramic vessel with the usual cultural character, in which two holes were made close to each other near the edge ( eye urns ). Of course, with such pieces there is always the risk that the holes are not just eye-catching but functional perforations - for the purpose of closing the lid, for example. There are also unambiguous depictions of faces similar to those on the Pomeranian pieces. The unique piece of the spherical face urn from Menz can be considered at least inspired by this .
Also remarkable are the mixed forms of house and face urns, in such a way that a rectangular opening (“door”) was made in the wall of a vessel with a local shape and above this two indentations or punctures as “eyes” - the typical for house urns "Door" can be interpreted as "mouth" at the same time. As with the usual house urns, the actual mouth of the vessel is usually tightly closed with an indicated lid. The lids sometimes resemble the caps or hat lids of the Pomeranian urns. As a further parallel, workshop or master circles can also be assumed here, because three very similar facial urns of a local type came to light on the cemetery of Eilsdorf .
Interpretation of the face urns
As noted above, La Baume abandoned the idea of depicting people as individuals; instead he later, like Oelmann (1929), favored the view that these were apotropaic decorations. In particular, the mixed forms with the house urns, which they regard as storage vessels, are justified by them - the storage facilities should be protected by means of face or eye representation. The memory concept of the house urn can, however, be refuted from both a genetic and a functional point of view. A satisfactory attempt at interpretation that goes beyond simple ethnographic conclusions by analogy of individual features is therefore still lacking.
See also
literature
- J. Kneisel: Anthropomorphic vessels in Northern and Central Europe during the Bronze and Iron Ages. Studies on the face urns - contact zones and social context. Bonn 2012.
- J. Kneisel: The face urns between the Oder and the Baltic Sea. In: A. Lang, V. Salač (eds.): Remote contacts in the Iron Age. Dálkové kontakty v dobĕ železné. Prague 2000.
- Rosemarie Müller: Face urn culture. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 11, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1998, ISBN 3-11-015832-9 , pp. 543-547.
- T. Malinowski: Face urns from the early Iron Age in Poland and the question of their connection with the face urns from the area of Central Germany. Nordharzer Jahrbuch 1965/66 (Vol. II), Halberstadt 1967. P. 11ff.
- Wolfgang La Baume : Design and meaning of the facial representation in the Hallstatt era face urns of the Nordic Circle. Kölner Jahrbuch 2, Cologne 1956. P. 102ff.
- Wolfgang La Baume : The Pomeranian face urns. Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz, Catalog 17, Mainz 1963.
- Wolfgang La Baume : On the meaning of the images on face urns from the early Iron Age. Prehistoric magazine XXXIV / V (1949/50), Berlin 1950. P. 158ff.
- Wolfgang La Baume : Face urns and home urns. Archive for Anthropology, NF XXIII / 1, 1932. (Reprinted as: Message from the State Museum for Natural History and Prehistory in Danzig. Prehistoric series No. 10, undated)
- F. Oelmann: House urns or storage urns? Bonner Jahrbücher 134, Bonn 1929. S. 1ff.
