The dissertation is devoted to reconstruction of ethno-cultural situation through the research of burial practices. The analysis of funerary sites indicates the presence of heterogeneous ethnic groups, who represent the Lipica and Przeworsk cultures as well as some groups of Dacian’s. The lettest mostly found in Transcarpathian region. Lipica culture is one of the major cultures in the Subcarpathian region during the Early Roman period. There is no doubt that the main part of its population came from Dacia and neiborhood regions. However, the question of origin and development of the Lipica culture is still open. There are two basical suggestions, which deal with that issue. The first one is that the Lipica culture was developed on the Dacian component, and subsequently influenced by its immediate neighbors – the Przeworsk and Sarmatian cultures. The second one concerns the point whether it was formed on a multicomponent basis, where the Dacian and Przeworsk components became the main ethnic markers during the genesis of the Lipica culture.
The relevance of the research is determined by the necessity of studying funeral sites for the purpose of complex analysis of burials, including the use of anthropological data, identifying of the main ethnic components in the genesis of the Lipica culture and their correlation with synchronous population of neighboring regions, typological analysis of the archaeological data, the definition of the chronology of the burials and the main chronological indicators for the Subcarpathian region, elaboration and adaptation of the method of anthropological and archaeological research of cremations.
The analysis is based on the archaeological and anthropological data of 12 burial grounds (185 burials). Typologically 167 instancies of pottery and 302 instancies of grave goods have been identified. For comparison, materials from 55 funeral sites from the territories of Romania, Moldova, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland have been included.
The investigation of the burials of that time suggests that the population of Lipica culture was originally formed on the basis of the dacian carriers who had came from the south. In particular, the earliest dacian burials are represented by individual graves (Chyzhykiv, Kolokolyn, Rozhnevi Polia) and earliest graves carried out on the cemetery of Bolotnia (from the beginning of the 1st century AD). At the same time, there was a migration of a part of the Przeworsk population from the territory of modern Poland to the east. On the territory of Ukraine, the Przeworsk burials are located somewhat west Bolotnia marshes – on the cemeteries of Hruniv and Zvenyhorod. The earliest of them belong to the second third of the 1st century AD. Most of the discovered graves are dated by the phases B1-B2a, and among them the highest percentage is formed by Przeworsk and heterogeneous burials. Two burials of the sarmatian carriers date back the same period. The mentioned period, probably, marks the powerful migration wave of the Przeworsk population.
The analysis of the northern group of burial grounds (Bolotnia, Hruniv and Zvenyhorod) reveals the specific ritual actions that were practiced in the funeral rite by the Przeworsk population of Central, Northern and North-Eastern Poland (Mazovia, Wielkopolska, Kujawy), as well as carriers of the basin territory of the upper and middle Warta (Malopolska, Southeast Poland). The stated cemetries mark the buffer zone, the border area: the Pszeworsk burials and the mixed graves are fixed on the cemetery of Hruniv and Zvenyhorod, whereas in the Bolotnia, which is further east, the percentage of such burials is much smaller comparing to the dacian. The buffer zone is confirmed by the presence of various cultural and variety of items found here.
The southern group includes the Verhnia Lypytsia and Zavallia cemetries, which began to function later than the graves of the above mentioned group. From the B1 phase, the Verhnia Lypytsia burial ground began to function, and it was in Zavallia from B2b (2nd century AD). The number of Przeworsk and mixed burials on these southern cemetries is insignificant – eight complexes (10-15%), compared with 50-60% of the Przeworsk graves in Zvenyhorod or Hruniv. Such data confirm that it is the northern cemeteries that designate the border area between the Przeworsk and Lipica populations. In particular, their relative homogeneity in the ethnic aspect can also be a confirmation of the unicomponentness of the Lipica culture population, which was subjected to pressure and influence of the Przeworsk groups, but this influence probably did not have a strong impact.
