OCCUPATIONS. SOCIETY

Menu:



OCCUPATIONS. SOCIETY


OCCUPATIONS


1. Agriculture


- The main occupation of the Dacians was aggriculture.
- The archaeological discoveries have reveaaled a great number of farming tools.
- The Dacians cultivated cereals, fruit treees and vines.
- Most of the fields were community propertty, but there existed also individual properties. From the Latin poet Horatio we know that the Dacians didn't like to cultivate the same field for more than one year.
- During his expedition north of the Danubee, Alexander the Great had to cross wide fields of wheat.
- We know that, during the war with Trajan,, Decebalus charged a part of the noblemen with defending the citadels and the other part with organizing agriculture.
- The Roman writer Columella (in his work DDe re rustica) places the Dacians are among the peoples expert in the cultivation of crops.
- The geographer Strabon tells how the Daciians obeyed their king Burebista, who ordered them to destroy the vines and live without wine.
- The Dacians were raising large herds of ccattle or sheep. The use of horses in the military actions is often mentioned by the ancient writers.
- Other important activities were apiculturre and fishing.


2. Metal working


- The local deposits of iron have first beeen exploited around the 8th century BC. The metallurgy of iron penetrated the Carpathian-Danubian area partly from the Balkan Peninsula and partly from the tribes of the Cimmerians (that lived north of the Black Sea). With iron the Dacians made weapons and a great variety of tools, which were superior to those of bronze.
- The metallurgy of iron contributed a lot to the development of the Dacian civilization between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD. In the Orastie Mountains had been discovered, isolated or in deposits, hundreds of iron tools.
- In the Apuseni Mountains (Western Carpathhians) the Dacians exploited gold and silver, of which they worked vessels and jewelry. We know that after the war of 105-106 AD, Trajan brought to Rome great amounts of gold (165 tons) and silver (331 tons).


3. Pottery


- Ceramics was a wide-spread handicraft. Thhe potter's wheel, which began to be used from the 5th or 4th century BC, determined an increased number and a better quality of the vessels. The Dacians worked large vessels for food reserves, pots, lamps, jugs with one handle, cups with large handles, etc. The vessels were decorated with incised lines, relief belts, painted motifs (floral or geometric). On the territory of Dacia have also been discovered imported vessels, especially of Greek origin, that were sometimes imitated by the Dacian craftsmen.


4. Commerce


- The first Dacian coins were emitted in thhe 4th century BC. These were silver coins, imitating the coins from Greece and Macedonia. Many hoards containing this kind of coins were discovered. At the end of the 2nd century BC the silver coins are replaced by bronze coins.
- Of course that, besides the Dacian coins,, on the territory inhabited by the Dacians circulated foreign coins, too, like the Greek and Macedonian ones, and from the 2nd century BC the Roman coins (dinars), that circulated a lot at the north of the Danube, between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD.
- The circulation of coins is a proof that the Dacian communities traded with one another and with other communities. The Dacians exported cereals, fish, wax, honey, slaves, furs, salt, and wood.
- Initially there were the trades with the Greek colonies on the Black Sea coast, which were for a short time part of the kingdom of Burebista. Greek vessels, tools, ornaments have been discovered everywhere on the territory inhabited by the Dacians. The Dacians also imported wine, oil, fine textures for the noblemen and for the king. After the fall of Sarmizegetusa, the valuable clothes and materials of Decebalus were discovered inside a cave.
- At the end of the 2nd century BC begin thhe contacts with the Romans. This is proofed also by the archaeological discoveries: fine Roman pottery, bronze vessels, weapons, ornaments arrived in Dacia.


SOCIETY


5. The family


- The family represents the basic unit of the Dacian society.
- The man had absolute powers. The Roman pooet Ovid wrote about the obedience of the Dacian women, and the poet Horatio about their fidelity (because otherwise they were severely punished).
- The women, as they appear on Trajan's Collumn, were tall, slender and beautiful. All the Dacian men had beard. On the Column we can see the Dacian men, together with their wives, returning to the homes that they had left during the wars with the Romans.
- It is possible that the noblemen and the kings had more wives but the greatest majority of the population was monogamous.


6. The village communities


- A village community grouped a number of families. The members of the community obeyed a council of elders and a chief of the village. The village community owned a certain territory: cultivated fields, forests, pastures - that were used by the whole community or individually.
- The Dacians were not a nomad people; theyy were going to war only with their army, and not with their women, children and old men (like the Scythians or Germanic populations that lived on the territory inhabited by the Dacians, did).


7. The tribes


- The numerous people of the Dacians was diivided into a number of tribes. A tribe inhabited a certain territory, having a citadel as capital.
- The ancient geographer Claudios Ptolemaioos mentions twelve Dacians tribes.
- The best-known Dacian tribes are:
- the apuli
-- lived in central Transylvania;
-- their capital: Piatra Craivii (Apulum, iin ancient times);
- the buridavenses
-- northen Moldavia;
-- citadel: Buridava;
- the costoboci
-- northen and north-eastern Dacia, reachinng the territory of modern Ukraine and Moldova;
-- they raided the Roman Empire (in the 2ndd century AD); we know one of their kings, Pieporus;
- the carpi
-- east of the Carpathians, west of the Dneestr river;
-- the name of the Carpathian Mountains derrives, probably, from the name of this tribe;
-- raids in the Roman Empire (2nd and 3rd ccenturies AD);
- the calipizi
-- between the Dnestr and the Bug rivers; <
- the crobobizi and the trizi
-- in Dobruja;
- the tyragetae
-- the mouth of the river Tyras (Dnestr); <
- the suci
-- citadel: Sucidava (at the mouth of riverr Olt);
- Other Dacian tribes were:
-- predavenses, biephi, albocenses, saldensses (Banat and Crisana), ratacenses, potulatenses, keiasigi (Transylvania), caucoenses, sienses, piephigi (Moldavia and eastern Muntenia);
- The name of Dacians, the name of the entiire people, come, probably, from one of their tribes, an important one, situated in north-western Dacia, where the Romans met them.
- In the time of the Scythians, as well as in the time of Dromihetes or Burebista, the Dacians were a numerous people; this explains their continuity and the inhabitation of such a large territory.


8. Social groups


- The social groups of the Dacian society aare mentioned in the writings of Iordanes (6th century AD), Cassius Dio (2nd-3rd centuries AD), Dion Chrysostomos (40-120 AD).
- The noblemen were called tarabostes (in tthe Dacian language) or pileati - some noblemen became the headmen of the unions of tribes, and then the kings. They were fighting on horseback. The common people were called comati or capillati.
- The noblemen were distinguished from the common members of the community because the wore a cap on their heads. The common people had long hair (as they also appear on Trajan's Column).
- In the Dacian society existed slaves, butt only in a small number.


9. The settlements and the citadels


- The settlements and the citadels of the DDacians were large in size, opened or defended by ditches, earthen waves or stone walls (depending on their location). There existed:
a. civil settlements;
b. fortresses.
- The role of the fortresses was to defend the members of the community in case of military conflicts with the neighbor tribes or other populations;
- From 8th-2nd centuries BC date the citadeels with stone walls at Zimnicea (Dobruja), Poiana (southern Moldavia), Popesti (Muntenia).
- From the period of maximun development off the Dacian civilization date:
- civil settlements defended by eartheen waves and ditches: Barbosi (southern Moldavia), Pecica, Cugir, Breaza (Transylvania);
- in the regions of hills or plains, ccitadels fortified with ditches, earthen waves and palisades: Piscul Crasanilor, Popesti (Muntenia), Stancesti (Moldova);
- if the natural conditions had been ffavorable there would have also been stone walls: Cetateni (Muntenia), Capalna (Transylvania), Batca Doamnei (Moldavia);
- beginning with the reign of Burebistta, until the Roman conquest, the fortresses in the area of the Orastiei Mountains formed a real defence system for the capital of Dacia, Sarmizegetusa;
- The geographer Ptolemaios indicates a greeat number of Dacian settlements and citadels (most of them have the termination "dava", which in the Dacian language means citadel, fortified settlement): Dokidava, Patridava, Petrodava, Ziridava, Singidava, Piroboridava, Tamaridava, etc.
- Many of the cities of the Roman province of Dacia existed also before the conquest: Porolissum, Apulum, Potaissa, Germisara, Azizis, Berzovia, Acidava, Napoca, Drobeta, Dierna, Sucidava.
- Yet, most of the Dacians lived in villagees, located along the river courses and in sheltered places.


10. The houses


- In the plain areas, the houses were made of wattle, worked on wooden uprights and glued with clay. Many of them were half below the ground and half above.
In the mountain or hill regions the material used was wood. The roof was also made of wood (it was seldom made of tiles or thatch).
- Some of the dwellings were rectangular, oothers round or polygonal. Many of them were built on stone blocks, in order to prevent the rotting of the wood in contact with the earth.
- The houses had one or two rooms. The flooor was made of trodden ground. The houses of the noblemen had a massive door, ornamented with iron pegs.


11. Unions of tribes. The Dacian state


- The unions of tribes grouped together a number of tribes. Dromihetes was the headman of such a union. The archaeological discoveries proofed the existence of many unions of Dacian tribes before the Dacian state of Burebista. (in Muntenia, in south-western Transylvania, western Oltenia, in Banat, in central Moldavia).
- The kingdom of Burebista included all thee Dacian tribes (and even other populations).
- The head of the Dacian state was the kingg. He reigned with the help of a council of noblemen and with the advices of the high priest. The succession at the throne was hereditary and elective; Acornion from Dionysopolis says that before Burebista, his father was the king of the Dacians (the hereditary principle); Cassius Dio wrote about how king Duras offered the throne to Decebalus (the elective principle). Dion Chrisostom tells us that the Dacians choose one of the noblemen to be their king.
- The Dacian flag had a dragon shape and thhe head of a wolf with an open mouth, which was made of iron; it seems that when the air passed through the wolf head, a whistling sound was being heard.