166 Aurel Rustoiu different dimensions, being ma<strong>de</strong> for a crippled man, are a significant example 28 (Fig. 5/1). At the same time the dimensional variations of the greaves discovered in different geo-cultural areas, previously mentioned, also support their ma<strong>de</strong>-to-or<strong>de</strong>r manufacturing. It is less probable that a Greek artisan could have ma<strong>de</strong> such objects in the Carpathian Basin to or<strong>de</strong>rs of some local aristocrats, since the greaves from Ciumeşti are unique not only in this region but across the whole Celtic area. The activity of such a specialised Greek artisan would have left more archaeological traces in the region. Thus it is almost sure that the warrior from Ciumeşti or<strong>de</strong>red and got the greaves from a Greek workshop in the Mediterranean area. This was possible only because the warrior himself travelled in the mentioned region. In the 3 rd century BC the mobility of certain groups from temperate Europe was often related to the mercenary activities. Due to this reason my presumption is that the warrior from Ciumeşti went to the Mediterranean as mercenary and this happened in the second half of the 3 rd century BC 29 . Recently E. Teleagă has published a vast work regarding the Greek imports recovered from cemeteries of the 6 th –3 rd centuries BC in the lower Danube basin. The author catalogued and classified numerous artefacts discovered in funerary contexts, also bringing into discussion the finds from other archaeological contexts (settlements, <strong>de</strong>positions etc) and from outsi<strong>de</strong> the mentioned area, for example those found in graves from Transylvania 30 . The book, <strong>de</strong>spite some errors regarding the cultural i<strong>de</strong>ntification and chronology probably resulting from the huge quantity of data collected 31 , will remain a reference work for this subject. Writing about the grave with helmet from Ciumeşti, E. Teleagă has suggested a dating around 300 BC, <strong>de</strong>spite the general dating of the cemetery at the end of the La Tène B2 and in the La Tène C1 32 . This dating is leading to an earlier dating of the funerary inventory and implicitly of the greaves, which are dated after 450 BC 33 . Thus the proposed dating is wrong, as it will be shown below. The presence of some Greek artefacts in contexts which are later dated than their regular period of use is theoretically possible. An episo<strong>de</strong> from 274 BC is relevant in this context. During the campaign of Pyrrhus in Macedonia against Antigonos Gonatas, Celtic mercenaries of the king of Epirus pillaged the royal Macedonian cemetery from Aegae (Plutarch, Pyrrhus 26. 6) 34 . Through such actions a Celtic mercenary could have gained some ol<strong>de</strong>r prestige objects, brought afterwards home. Still, as previously <strong>de</strong>monstrated, the grave from Ciumeşti belongs to the second half of the 3 rd century BC and the greaves were ma<strong>de</strong> in the same period by a Greek artisan who measured the anatomic characteristics of the person who or<strong>de</strong>red the objects. Thus the dating proposed by E. Teleagă is incorrect, so the interpretation has to turn to another direction. 28 ANDRONICOS 1984, 186–189, Fig. 150. 29 RUSTOIU 2006; RUSTOIU 2008, 36–49. 30 TELEAGĂ 2008. 31 For example TELEAGĂ 2008, 256–257 no. 2, Karte 45, wrongly localizes Bene (nowadays Dobroselie in Trans-Carpathian Ukraine) in Transdanubia (in Hungary). More than that, probably the bronze vessel discovered at Bene, which arrived in the Museum of Cluj at the beginning of the 20 th century, was found in a funerary context (see POPOVICH 1995–1996, 86). At the same time, while the funerary inventories from the Carpathian Basin are discussed, a series of important discoveries are missing, for example the oenochoe dated to the end of the 4 th century BC and coming from a grave from Pećine cemetery (PAROVIĆ–PEŠIKAN 1993, 1243, Fig.: 1/4; 3/23) etc. 32 TELEAGĂ 2008, 15 no. 49. 33 TELEAGĂ 2008, 249, 442 no. 953, Pl. 133/1–4. 34 “… And after getting Aegae into his power, besi<strong>de</strong>s other seventies exercised upon its inhabitants he left as a garrison in the city some of the Gauls who were making the campaign with him. But the Gauls, a race insatiable of wealth, set themselves to digging up the tombs of the kings who had been buried there; the treasure they plun<strong>de</strong>red, the bones they insolently cast to the four winds.” (Translation PERRIN 1920). Plutarch. Plutarch’s Lives. with an English Translation by Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1920. See also GRIFFITH 1968, 63.
Commentaria Archaeologica et Historica (I) 167 1 2 3 4 5 Fig. 5. 1 – Greaves from the ‘grave of Philip II’ from Vergina (after ANDRONICOS 1984). 2 – Silver plaque from Letnica. 3, 4 – Greaves from Agighiol. 5 – Greave from Vraca (all after KULL 1997). 6 – Greave from Malomirovo (after SÎRBU 2006).
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