176 Aurel Rustoiu a long sword and two spear heads 79 . Very probably from the same grave comes a curved dagger having an intricate <strong>de</strong>coration on the bla<strong>de</strong> 80 (Fig. 9/1). The <strong>de</strong>coration has close analogies on a curved dagger discovered in a grave from Mala Vrbica-Ajmana 81 (Fig. 9/2), on the right bank of the Danube, in the Iron Gates region, and on another coming from Popitsa 82 in north-western Bulgaria (Fig. 9/3). The structure of ornamentation indicates the distribution across a wi<strong>de</strong>r area of an elaborated iconographic repertoire, having symbolic and i<strong>de</strong>ological meanings specific to the mentioned warlike elites. The wi<strong>de</strong>spread distribution of these symbols was <strong>de</strong>termined by the mobility which characterised this group, but also by the mobility of the craftsmen who followed the aristocratic ‘courts’ and created the entire panoply of arms and the prestige insignia of the military elite. Recently another funerary inventory was also recovered from Piatra Craivii. The assemblage consists of a spear head, a curved dagger, a late La Tène (Vincovci type 83 ) brooch and a hybrid brooch, all of them ma<strong>de</strong> of iron. The inventory might have inclu<strong>de</strong>d a long sword of La Tène type, probably lost 84 . The hybrid brooch is chronologically very important (Fig. 9/4). The spring and the bow are morphologically similar to those of the Jezerine brooches, whereas the shape of the foot and catch-plate is encountered on the late La Tène brooches. Due to these morphological characteristics the brooch from Piatra Craivii cam be dated to the end of the 1 st century BC, the respective grave being one of the latest dated funerary discoveries of this kind, thus representing a chronological reference point for the end of the Pa<strong>de</strong>a-Panagjurski kolonii group in Transylvania. Lastly, the recent discoveries from Malaja Kopanja in Trans-Carpathian Ukraine have to be mentioned. A series of cremation burials in pit, many of them <strong>de</strong>stroyed, have been found in the close vicinity of the Dacian fortified settlement, on Cellenitza site. Their inventories (Fig. 10) consist of weaponry and military equipment (La Tène swords, spear heads, curved daggers, shield bosses, a fragment of a chainmail etc), riding equipment (‘Thracian’ and ‘Getic’ horse-bits, buckles, rings, spurs etc) and garment accessories (the brooches of middle La Tène scheme being important for dating), which can be ascribed to the first half of the 1 st century BC (Fig. 10). Graves containing artefacts belonging to the feminine costume were also found 85 . In another closely located find-spot (Seredni Grunok) were discovered other cremation graves in pit, containing goods of local origin and others specific to the Przeworsk culture (including typical weaponry: shield bosses, swords etc). These graves are dated to the second half of the 1 st century AD and the first half of the following century 86 . Thus, <strong>de</strong>spite the summarily published archaeological reports, it can be noted that the cemetery from Malaja Kopanja began in the first half of the 1 st century BC. The ol<strong>de</strong>st graves belonged to individuals who used panoplies of arms resembling those from the area of the Pa<strong>de</strong>a-Panagjurski kolonii group. This fact may suggest that the appearance of the Dacian fortress from Malaja Kopanja was <strong>de</strong>termined by the northward expansion of the military elites during the reign of Burebista. Still, unlike the situation from the rest of Dacia, as it is known today, a significant number of graves containing feminine inventories appear here, pointing to a regional feature of this cultural phenomenon characterising the northern extremity of the area of the Pa<strong>de</strong>a Panagjurski kolonii group. Later in the 1 st century AD, in the same region arrived groups of Germanic populations, bringing artefacts belonging to the Przeworsk culture, and interring their <strong>de</strong>ceased in the close vicinity of the ol<strong>de</strong>r cemetery. From this point of view the situation is similar to the one encountered in the cemetery at Zemplin 87 . 79 POPA 2008. 80 RUSTOIU 2007b, 83–84, Fig. 1/1. 81 STALIO 1986, 33, Fig. 42. 82 TORBOV 1997, Pl. 3/1; TORBOV 2005, 695 Pl. 2/3. 83 For the type see MAJNARIĆ-PANDŽIĆ 2009, 238–240 and DIZDAR 2003. 84 RUSTOIU/GHEORGHIU 2009; RUSTOIU/GHEORGHIU 2010. 85 KOTIGOROŠKO 2007; KOTIGOROŠKO 2011. 86 KOTIGOROŠKO ET AL. 2000–2004; KOTIGOROŠKO ET AL. 2006–2007. 87 BUDINSKÝ-KRIČKA/LAMIOVÁ-SCHMIEDLOVÁ 1990; SÎRBU/RUSTOIU 2006, 205, Fig. 13–15.
Commentaria Archaeologica et Historica (I) 177 5a 2 1 0 5 cm (1) 5b 3 0 5 cm 4 (3) Fig. 10. Weapons and horse-bits from the cemetery at Malaja Kopanja (after KOTIGOROŠKO 2011).
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