The interrelations between burial orientations and astronomy in the balkan region

The paper is trying to point out the existence of a possiblecorrelation between the position of the skeletons in the Neolithic time ofRomania and the Balkan region and the Sun. Most of the largecemeteries considered here, with numerous skeletons, were excavatedsome decades ago (in the 50’s and 60’s of the 20th century) so that, theonly instrument employed in the measurements was a simple compass.It means that no precise figures could be given, with regard to theorientation of the individuals under study; this is why some biasescould appear. Even today, we have very few possibilities to determinethe exact position of the skeletons in a necropolis; some of the possiblecauses being also the pressure of the earth upon the bones, which couldsomehow modify their initial position. In certain cases, somedisturbances could be also determined by the landslides, floods orearthquakes, being known, for a long time, that Romania is situated intoa region with high seismic risk. None at the least, the subsequent humanintervenes, plundering for instance, have changed the initial situation.That’s why there are some controversies regarding the issue of theskeletons orientation to the Sun. Some scholars considered it as a truefact (Cantacuzino Gh., Morintz S., 1968), while others were reluctant tothis hypothesis (Bacvarov K., 2002, 260). Yet, in Central and EasternEurope, the mentioned issue is considered to be very topical today(Lichter C., 2001).