Dacian traditions

On Trajan’s Column, the Dacians wear a shirt down to the knees, tied with a belt, wide trousers tied at the ankles, a cloak and, on some, a pointed cap. Jordanes speaks of two ranks of people: the nobles, called “pileati” after the hat they wore, and the common people, the “hairy” ones, with bare heads. On the Column, it is precisely the pointed cap that distinguishes the nobles. The bronze and silver fibulae found in settlements show that clothes were fastened with carefully made pieces.

The dress of the Dacians

The dress of the Dacians

A reconstructed costume: a long shirt with a belt, a cloak, a leather cuirass and a dagger; the nobles wore the pointed cap.

Dacian settlements were scattered farmsteads or groups on terraces, while the fortresses in the mountains housed the rulers. Archaeologists have found millet, barley and wheat, large storage vessels, hand mills and iron tools: the hoe, the sickle, the scythe. The Getae raised cattle, sheep and horses. Strabo says that king Burebista ordered the vines to be cut down, which shows that the Dacians knew the vine and wine, and that an order of this kind was considered worth remembering.

Herodotus describes the belief of the Dacians in immortality and the sending of the messenger to Zalmoxis, then the gesture of shooting arrows at the sky during a storm. These customs are the oldest we have in writing. The sanctuaries of Sarmizegetusa Regia, with rows of pillars and andesite discs, show that the rituals had a place of their own; what was done there exactly we do not know, and the explanations (calendar, astronomical observatory) are interpretations, debated among specialists.

In the Dacian cemeteries studied, cremation predominates: the ashes were placed in an urn or directly in the pit, together with vessels and, sometimes, weapons or ornaments. In the area of the Orăștie Mountains, burials under tumuli were also found. The custom fits with the idea, written by Herodotus, that death was not an end.

Ovid, banished to Tomis, describes in Tristia the harsh winters and the frozen Danube, and the Getae appear in his verses with fur, bows and arrows. In Ex Ponto he says that he composed a poem in their language. The description is that of a sad man, hostile to the place, so it must be read with caution.

It is debated whether some elements of the folk costume, of carols or of the crafts of Romanian villages come from the time of the Dacians. Ethnologists can show similarities; direct continuity cannot be proved for every custom. That is why, on Explore Dacia, we keep the distinction between “attested among the Dacians” and “similar to what is preserved today”.