• THE

    P R O J E C T

    The database aims to encompass grave goods recovered from the part of the Carpathian Basin east of the Danube, dateable to the 1st–5th centuries AD. Sarmatian sites constitute its core, complemented with sepulchres from the Hunnic era and the Chernyakhov / Sântana de Mureș / Marosszentanna culture. Its goal is to render burial customs and grave goods complemented with anthropological data of this era easily accessible and manageable. Individual finds are entered into the database on a typological basis, complete with photographs, dimensions and additional significant features. An important feature of the database is seriation, which enables a more precise dating.

 

The forerunner of the database available on the Barbaricum website was the Unified Museal Informatics System („Egységes Múzeumi Informatikai Rendszer – EMIR”), which we developed in collaboration with several museums, based on our experiences acquired during the development-led excavations preceding the construction of the Hungarian motorway network. The idea of designing an evaluation tool for a large set of finds from a predefined spatial and temporal framework arose during the use of the EMIR. And thus, the database for registering, systemizing and evaluating Sarmatian burials was born, within the framework of Grant Nr. K 104980 of the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund („Országos Tudományos Kutatási Alapprogramok – OTKA”) titled “Internet database and seriation of Sarmatian burials”. We deemed it important to include a seriation modul into the application.

 

In the course of Grant Nr. 124944 of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office („Nemzeti Kutatás, Fejlesztés és Innováció – NKFI”) titled “Online publication of Roman Age and Early Migration Period burials from the Barbaricum of the Carpathian Basin” we expanded the database with graves from the Hunnic era and Chernyakhov / Sântana de Mureș / Marosszentanna culture, which provided insight into the latest horizon of Sarmatian finds and their connections. The second grant also enabled incorporating anthropological data into the database.

 

Our unconcelaed purpose with publishing this database is to convince all archaeologists who excavated graves from this period to join this initiative, which plainly facilitates publishing their findings, while simultaneously broadening our knowledge. We believe this upcoming collaboration to be effective. With this mind we kindly invite enterprising researchers for uploading, using and evaluating this database!