Burs (Dacia)


The Burs were a Dacian tribe living in Dacia in the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D., with their capital city at Buridava.

Name

According to Wilhelm Tomaschek, the root bur- is well known with the Dacian Thracian names: i.e. Burus, Bουρχέντιος, Burebista.

Historical evidence

The Dacian tribe Buredeense / Buri is attested by the ninth tabula of Europe of Ptolemy's Geography, Cassius Dio and inscriptions.
Before the battle of Tapae (101) the Dacian tribe, the Buri, sent Trajan a message to the effect that he should withdraw from Dacia and restore peaceful relations. Their message to him was inscribed on the smooth top of a very large mushroom, in Latin. This message was unusual enough to become part of a frieze on Trajan's Column.

Identity and distribution

According to Shchukin, Bichir the tribal union of Buri were part of the Dacian state of Burebista, besides the Daci, the Getae, and the Carpi.
They allied with other tribes in the region to support the efforts by Decebal, the Dacian king, to turn back the Romans. There were two Dacian tribes Buri: one in the later Roman Dacia centered on Buridava and other located to the North West of Dacia in the Upper Basin of Tisza.
The socio-political formation of the Dacians Buri / Buridavensi that was centered on Buridava was located to the North East of Oltenia and Muntenia and also on the other side of the Carpathians, in the regions of Sebeş and Făgăraş mountains. This tribal union is documented by the archaeological monetary findings Aninoasa Dobresti. Among other evidences, a fragment of a vase carrying the inscription BUR, discovered at Ocnița, Muntenia, Romania, indicates the name of the tribe or union of tribes, the Buridavensi Dacians.
The Buri of the Upper Basin of Tisza is a part of the Buridavensi that migrated towards North West, where they neighbored the Germanic Quadi. At the new location, ancient sources also list other Dacian tribes: Piegetae, Biessi, Carpians, Arsitae, and Racatae.
The material culture of a mixed Dacian-Germanic origin, known in Slovakia ever since the beginning of the first century AD, could represent the population named Buri in historical sources.