Interdisciplinary approaches to Early Bronze Age burials mounds in Oltenia

Three hair rings, previously mentioned in the archaeological literature but undocumented, were recently identified in the collection of the Oltenia Museum of Craiova. They come from the excavations conducted by C. S. Nicolăescu-Plopșor in the 1920s in the burial mounds of Plenița-"Măgura Mare", Plenița-"Via lui Ion St. Bârțan", and Perișor-"Măgura Cerbului". Taking these artefacts as a starting point, this article presents new results of interdisciplinary research involving restoration and metallographic analyses, radiocarbon dates of graves, and identification of burial mounds excavated in this region on old maps. The aim of this study is to provide an overview of the current knowledge on burial mounds investigated in the plain region of Oltenia, covering the final part of the fourth millennium BC and the first half of the third millennium BC, and to contextualise the discoveries in the wider region of south-eastern Europe. The relative chronology indicates that these funerary monuments emerged in a time frame contemporary to the Coțofeni culture, and continued to be raised and used subsequently. Most burial mounds can be assigned to the Yamna funerary horizon, and illustrate the characteristics of the standardised burial ritual of these communities, as attested in neighbouring areas. However, given our gap in knowledge, research questions on the emergence of burial mounds in Oltenia at the end of the fourth millennium BC and the relation with Coțofeni communities, as well as the arrival of Yamna communities in the region, their interactions with the local environment, and finally, their dissolution, remain unanswered and require new excavations and interdisciplinary research.