Inhumation Graves

Denkmäler der Schnurkeramik (ca. 2800–2500 vor Chr.) in Vliněves gehören wie in der Menge, so in der Qualität zu den bedeutendsten Komplexen dieser Kultur in Böhmen. Noch dazu beschränken sich diese nicht nur auf die üblichen Gräberquellen, aber bestehen gleichzeitig auch aus zahlreicheren Siedlungsbelegen, im böhmischen Milieu durchaus nicht üblichen. Diese stammen von der Grabung des Archäologischen Instituts in Prag, die 1999 bis 2008 in der dortigen Sandgrube realisiert wurde, und welche auf einer Fläche von 70 ha durchgeführt wurde. Zwei Gräber wurden auf der Fundstelle schon an der Wende des frühen und des älteren Äneolithikums deponiert (Michelsberg-/Trichterbecherkultur; 39.–38. Jh. vor Chr.). Weitere Äneolithische Gräber von der Fundstelle gehören der Schnurkeramik (75 Gräber mit 76 Bestattungen). 26 Bestattungen gehörten den Männern (34 % von der gesamten Anzahl der 76 Bestatteten), 36 den Frauen (48 %) und 14 Bestattungen blieben nicht bestimmt (18 %). In Vliněves sind Gräber von allen drei Fundgruppen vertreten, wobei Funde der dritte (typologisch jüngste) Fundgruppe zahlenmäßig dominiert. Spuren der schnurkeramischen Siedlung oder von Siedlungen kamen in Vliněves im Prinzip auf zwei Weisen zum Ausdruck. In erster Reihe handelte es sich um Komplexe, in welchen das zuständige Material kulturell ganz dominierte, in zweiter Reihe um zahlreiche Intrusionen in anders datierten Objekten.

One important issue in the central European Eneolithic is the Baden culture burial rite, which is documented quite well in the eastern part of its territory, though worse in the western region, including Bohemia. The subject of this article is the presentation of the first satisfactorily documented inhumation graves from the specified area investigated in Holubice in the Prague-zapad district. In addition to a thorough evaluation of the find situation and all of the acquired sources, the article also provides a set of radiocarbon dates. The work establishes the detailed chronological position of the graves and the degree of their similarity to the manifestations of burials in other areas of the Baden complex.

This dissertation focuses on Early Medieval and Medieval (c. AD 900–1400) inhumation burial customs in Upper Satakunta and Häme regions in Finland. The aim is to clarify the find contexts of Early Medieval inhumation burials in Finland, and to explore the research potential of studying the variations in burial customs. The methodology is based on archaeothanatological analysis which aims at distinguishing the human and natural taphonomic processes in burials. Although some of the burials have been considered atypical in previous research, the studies on the contexts of all the graves in the area reveal that there has been significant variation in Early Medieval inhumation burial customs. This variation is likely explained by individual choices at different stages of the burial ritual. These choices may have been influenced by different social motives, beliefs, and local events. Therefore, the variations in burial practices emphasize the impact of individual agency. In addition to general variation, a possible slight increase in double and multiple burials around AD 1200 was observed. This is also a period when “antique” spearheads were occasionally struck into the coffin structures – a habit previously considered dramatic and unusual. Based on environmental studies and recent molecular studies in the Baltic countries and Scandinavia, it is possible that crop failure and epidemic outbreaks caused a mortality crisis at the time, leading to an increase in double and multiple burials. However, the political instability of the
period could also have also provoked local power struggles, which could have emphasized the ritual meaning of ancestors. This could explain the various usage of “antique” objects and older cremated bones in the inhumation burials. When the graves are studied in detail, it will become possible to raise new questions on gender roles and identities, local rituals, commemoration, and the meanings of objects and sites. In general, the contextualization of graves widens the possibilities to study and interpret Finnish archaeological material and help integrate this material in wider geographical, temporal, and theoretical discussion.

This publication comprises a comprehensive account of the features and artefacts relating to a Roman Iron Age cemetery, excavated between 1988 and 1994 at the village of Brudager, 3.5 km southwest of Gudme in Southeast Funen. With its content of 168 graves, the burial site is one of Funen's largest. Chronologically, it covers the period between early B2 and the transition between C3 and D; in all about 330 years.
The publication is in two volumes: Volume 1 contains sections on the research history, excavation methods, definitions, analyses and perspectives of the cemetery's features and artefacts. Further to these are appendices providing reference material and a bibliography. Volume 2 comprises a catalogue providing descriptions and illustrations of features, structures and artefacts from the Brudager cemetery.
Volume 1 of the publication is divided up into seven main chapters, each of which deals with an overall theme:

Chapter 1 Introduction
sketches the long tradition of research into Iron Age remains from the Gudme area, with particular focus on the importance of N.F.B. Sehested and E. Albrectsen for the investigation, documentation and publication of the burial finds. This chapter defines and delimits the aims and objectives of the publication. It also explains its structure and the analytical methods and the chronology employed.

Chapter 2 Investigation of the cemetery and formation processes
begins with a description of the technical approach adopted in the investigation and documentation of the Brudager cemetery in particular, but also includes critical considerations concerning Iron Age graves in general. There is a special focus on the diversity of the formation processes associated with, respectively, inhumation and cremation graves, and the significance of this for the interpretation of the archaeological record.

Chapter 3 The cemetery and its features
contains a description of the burial site's relationship to the local topography and soils as well as to the contemporary settlement, and these observations are discussed in a regional context. An account is given of the grave forms found at the Brudager cemetery, and these are defined on the basis of an evaluation of the treatment of the corpse remains, pyre material and grave goods – and not the immediate appearance of the graves as has been the usual practice to date. It is demonstrated that, whereas cremation pits and urn cremation pits were the preferred grave form during the first half of the cemetery's period of use, urn graves and inhumation graves dominate during the later part. An account is then given of the presumed grave-related feature- and structure types found at the burial site, for example pottery deposits and cooking pits. Based on the demonstration of presumed post-built cremation-pyre frames there is a discussion of Danish cremation sites (cremation pyres) from the Iron Age and Viking times.

Chapter 4 Burial rituals
contains discussions of the treatment of grave goods in relation to the various grave forms, including the use of primary and secondary grave goods, destructive treatment of artefacts and the very widespread use of pars pro toto deposition. Similarly, the handling of the corpse remains from cremation graves, and their partial deposition, are discussed. There then follows an account of the organisation of, respectively, inhumation and cremation graves, with the demonstration of patterns in the location of grave goods and (corpse) remains. Finally, the practice of depositing grave goods outside grave features at Roman Iron Age burial sites is touched upon.

Chapter 5 The contents of the graves
is the publication's longest chapter, and it comprises a detailed account of – and perspectives on – the artefacts from the graves, including the results of scientific analyses carried out on burnt bone, sheet bronze from Roman cauldrons and pottery and plant macro remains, including wood from the funeral pyres. Selected artefact types, thought to contribute in particular to an illumination of social, ritual and chronological circumstances during the Roman Iron Age, are subjected to specially detailed analysis. These are, specifically, imported artefacts, weapons and various prestige implement types (e.g. scissors, iron combs, so-called razor knives). The reference material employed in the analyses is presented in the appendices at the end of volume 1.

Chapter 6 The structure of the cemetery
and the development from the transition B1/B2 to the end of the Late Roman Iron Age are accounted for cluster by cluster and within an overall perspective. Then the burial intensity (number of burials per year) is examined in a regional context. On the basis of this it is concluded that the Brudager cemetery belongs to a small group of burial sites with cluster structures and containing more than 150 graves from the Roman Iron Age. It is noted, furthermore, that this type of burial site is associated, in particular, with the parts of the Funen Archipelago having concentrations of various status symbols, including Roman imports. Similarly, in a regional perspective, there is a discussion of the dates for the cemetery's establishment and its cessation of use. The establishment date for the Brudager cemetery, and many other Roman Iron Age burial sites on Funen, at the transition between B1 and B2 is explained by a contemporaneous change in settlement structure. The cessation of burials at many of the cemeteries at the end of C3, or at the beginning of the Germanic Iron Age (Migration Period), is explained through changes in the form of graves in the time around AD 400.

Chapter 7 The Brudager burial site put into perspective
begins with an account of the sex and age determinations for a selection of the graves on the basis of osteological investigations and the artefacts, respectively. Subsequently, there is a discussion of the symbolism of the various artefact types in grave contexts throughout the Early Iron Age. It is pointed out that, whereas the graves from the Late Pre-Roman, Early and the first part of the Late Roman Iron Age reflect, in particular, the masculine universe, the graves from the middle and the end of the Late Roman Iron Age are dominated by artefacts from the feminine world. There then follows an analysis of the complexity of the grave goods (NAT analysis) and their quality relative both to the various grave forms and to the chronological development of the cemetery. It is concluded that both the quantity and quality of the grave goods are greatest in graves from the end of the Early Roman Iron Age and the beginning of the Late Roman Iron Age. Furthermore, inhumation graves and urn cremation pits generally contain more complex equipment than cremation pits and, especially, urn graves. On the basis of these observations there is a discussion of the changes in the patterns of social investment and religious manifestation during the Roman and Early Germanic Iron Age (Early Migration Period). This includes particular focus on the fact that the decline in investment in the grave sphere is replaced by the deposition of, especially, precious metals in association with settlements and in marginal areas of the Iron Age cultural landscape. On the basis of the distribution of various prestigious artefact types, in graves and on settlements and in offerings, it is pointed out that a centre-periphery-marginal structure arose in the Funen Archipelago during the second half of the Early Roman Iron Age. This had its basis in the Gudme area, and in the course of the Late Roman Iron Age sub-centres arose at Ringe and Odense. The distribution and composition of the gold deposits show that this centre structure with minor modifications continued in existence throughout the Germanic Iron Age (Migration Period).
Chapter 7 ends with an evaluation of the research potential inherent in the Brudager cemetery, in particular, and Iron Age burial sites on Funen, in general, and the challenges it presents to further study.

During 2005 it has been developed an archaeological intervention of punctual character in the environment of Virgen de la Sierra Sanctuary (Villarrubia de los Ojos, Ciudad Real), with the exhumation of a sarchofagus made of limestone, with a Visigothic chronology. The tomb contained a male adult person. In this area a rural necropolis is located, still waiting for research. The C-14 and anthropologic analyses realized, as well as the typology of the grave, allow, nowadays, to give one more step in the knowledge of funeral habits of the Meseta Sur for this historical period

The Vače Situla was discovered in March 1882 by Janez Grilc, a peasant boy from Klenik near Vače. It was not found in the Nad Lazom fallow, as has appeared in the literature since 1981, but in the Ronkarjeve drage fallow. According to Dragotin Dežman's 1883 report, a fragmented hollow bronze spiral bracelet was discovered next to the situla. Several unpublished manuscripts, written in 1882 and kept in the Prehistoric Department of the Natural History Museum in Vienna, provide testimony that the situla and the bracelet belonged to a warrior grave, excavated on August 11, 1881. It also contained a double-crested helmet, two spearheads, a socketed axe, a rectangular belt plate, a bone cylinder and a spindle whorl.

The Vače Situla was discovered in March 1882 by a peasant boy Janez Grilc from Klenik near Vače. It was found in the fallow Reber. According to the data in the study of the curator of the Regional Museum of Carniola in Ljubljana, Dragotin Dežman, printed in 1883, next to it a fragmented bronze spiral hollow bracelet was discovered. Several unpublished manuscripts, written in 1882 and kept in the Prehistoric Department of the Natural History Museum in Vienna, testimony that the situla and the bracelet belonged to a warrior grave, excavated by Ferdinand Schulz on 11th August 1881. It contained also a bronze double-crested helmet, two iron spearheads, an iron socketed axe, an undecorated  bronze rectangular belt plate, a decorated bone cylinder and a spindle whorl. The chronological analysis of the finds showed that the first part of the grave inventory, kept in Vienna (weapons, the belt plate, the cylinder and the spindle whorl), was contemporaneous with the situla and the spiral bracelet, kept in Ljubljana. The reconstructed grave group thus can be dated to the later part of the Certosa phase.

Knapp zehn Gräber der Kugelamphorenkultur aus Nordwestböhmen bilden ein Ensemble, das zusammenfassend und formalisiert bisher noch nicht publiziert wurde. Dies ist das Hauptziel der vorliegenden Arbeit, einschließlich einer Revision der Grabfunde der KAK in Böhmen. Des weiteren bietet sich die Möglichkeit einer Lösung von relativchronologischen und räumlichen Beziehungen der KAK zu zeitlich nahestehenden Kulturen nicht nur in Böhmen, sondern im gesamten Verbreitungsgebiet der Westgruppe der KAK, einschließlich einiger Bemerkungen zum Problem ihrer Genese.

When the woman with three kernoi from Novo mesto was buried and on the timing of the appearance of indented pottery in Dolenjska

The exceptional female grave 20 from tumulus IV at Znančeve njive in Novo mesto, which contained three kernoi with indented walls, was discovered and excavated on August 3,,1968, during the excavations of Dolenjski muzej, directed by archaeologist Tone Knez. The inhumation grave was in a pit measuring 2.15 x 1.00 m and contained a necklace of large amber beads with diameters up to 3 cm, two earrings made of golden wire, a pair of bracelets of thick bronze sheet, a pair of ribbed anklets with overlapping ends, and three kernoi. Until now, the grave has been dated very differently, e.g. by Biba Teržan three times to the Stična 2 phase, by Stane Gabrovec to the Serpentine Fibulae phase, and by Hermann Parzinger to the Certosa Fibulae phase.
The earrings and the bracelets undoubtedly are typical forms from the Stična 2 phase. The amber necklace, the ribbed anklets, and the kernoi, however, are much later and must be assigned to the Certosa phase. That means that the woman with three kernoi was buried in the Certosa phase and that she wore very old earrings and bracelets.
With the correct dating of this grave and of some other graves with indented pottery (e. g. grave 3 from Volčje Njive in the Mirna Valley in Dolenjska and grave I/26 from Hrib at Metlika in Bela krajina), we have proof that indented pottery in Dolenjska did not appear before the Certosa phase. The same conclusion is reached using the reliable grave groups from tumulus 48 in Stična, excavated under the direction of Jože Kastelic and Stane Gabrovec. 

Ljubljana, April 28, 2015

Three double-crested helmets were discovered in the Hallstatt period cemeteries around Vače. All three were lying in rich warrior graves. The first of these, discovered in August 1881, also contained the Vače Situla, found later. The excavator Jernej Pečnik succeeded in finding the third grave in August 1889.
In this paper we present the second grave. It was found by France Peruci, a teacher from Vače, on December 7, 1887.
The reconstruction of the find circumstances and the grave group is enabled by numerous written sources. Near the skel¬eton, in addition to the helmet, an iron socketed axe, a leather strap, two bronze, and two pottery vessels were found. A hollow bronze bracelet was found on one arm. Next to the skeleton there was a horse skeleton without a skull, on which an iron Scythian bit and four bronze strap-distributors were found. When Ignacij Hribar, the owner of the field, learned about the rich finds, he chased Peruci away and continued to excavate by himself. One fathom from the horse skeleton its skull was found along with two iron spearheads, a bronze belt plate, an iron knife, four iron rings with a loop and an iron bell, similar to the Scythian ones.
All three graves from Vače with a double-crested helmet can be dated to the later part of the Certosa phase.

The excavator Jernej Pečnik excavated hundreds of graves from the Iron Age and the Roman period for the Regional Museum for Carniola in Ljubljana at the end of the 19th century at numerous sites in Dolenjska and Bela krajina. He excavated at the important Iron Age site of Vače near Litija mostly in 1889. This site produced extremely well preserved finds. In the forest of Terezija Poljanec he found a skeleton of a warrior with a double-crested helmet. Since the finds from Vače, like those from other sites, were inventoried typologically by Alfons Müllner, curator of the Regional Museum for Carniola, they appear as single finds with unknown grave provenance in the France Stare’s 1955 catalogue of the Hallstatt grave finds from Vače, kept in the National Museum in Ljubljana.
In 1982 Davorin Vuga published a ground plan of the helmet grave from 1889, drawn by Pečnik's son Franc, and ascribed to it the bronze double-crested helmet and the bronze belt plate decorated with six animals. Several unpublished manuscripts and some reports published soon after the discovery in Vienna and in Ljubljana, not known to Stare, but collected by the author mostly before 1979, made it possible to also assign a pair of richly decorated iron spearheads to the helmet grave, as well as two rectangular belt attachments, a conical iron rod, and probably also two belt loops. Andrej Preložnik finally succeeded in determining the right pair of bronze crossbow Certosa fibulae.

We have known since 1883 that Janez Grilc, a peasant boy from Klenik near Vače, found a fragment of a hollow spiral bracelet next to the Vače situla. Considering the graves from Magdalenska gora, Dolenjske Toplice and Novo mesto, which contained related bronze situlae, we would expect that if the situla belonged to a man we would also find associated weapons and in case the situla belonged to a woman, we would expect more jewellery. The only reasonable explanation for the absence of other objects in the grave is that Grilc only found the remains of the objects deposited in the grave with the Vače situla. This explanation is confirmed by some unpublished manuscripts, kept in the Prehistoric Department of the Natural History Museum in Vienna, which testify that the situla lay in a grave of a young warrior, not entirely excavated on the 11th of August, 1881.  The warrior possessed a double-crested helmet, two spearheads with a facetted socket, a socketed axe, an undecorated rectangular belt plate, a spindle-whorl and a decorated hollow bone cylinder in addition to the situla and the hollow bracelet. In the inventory book of the Prehistoric Department it is stated: “Zu diesem Skelete gehört auch die im Frühjahre 1882, knapp neben der Fundstelle des Helmes, ausgegrabene getriebene Situla, im Laibacher Museum (aus Bronze).”

Link
http://arheoportal.si/nova-odkritja/vasko-situlo-je-imel-vojscak-s-celado
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Následující řádky se věnují funerálním památkám kultury nálevkovitých pohárů odkrytých při záchranném
výzkumu v Kopidlně. Nedílnou součástí příspěvku je antropologické vyhodnocení nalezených
kosterních ostatků. / The following lines are dedicated to funerary remains of the Funnel Beaker culture which were
unearthed during a rescue excavation at Kopidlno. An integral part of the paper is an anthropological
evaluation of the discovered skeletal remains.

A richly illustrated version of the paper, published in the supplement Znanost (Science) of the daily Delo (Work) from the 19th September 2013, page 14.

We have known since 1883 that Janez Grilc, a peasant boy from Klenik near Vače not far from Litija in the Sava Valley (Slovenia), found a fragment of a bronze hollow spiral bracelet next to the Vače situla. Considering the graves from Magdalenska gora near Šmarje-Sap, Dolenjske Toplice and Novo mesto, all three sites lying in the Dolenjska region, which contained related bronze situlae, we would expect that if the situla belonged to a man we would also find associated weapons and in case the situla belonged to a woman, we would expect more jewellery. The only reasonable explanation for the absence of other objects in the grave is that Grilc only found the remains of the objects deposited in the grave with the Vače situla. This explanation is confirmed by some unpublished manuscripts, kept in the Prehistoric Department of the Natural History Museum in Vienna, which testify that the situla lay in a grave of a young warrior, not entirely excavated on the 11th of August, 1881. This grave was first published in 1883 in Vienna by Ferdinand von Hochstetter in a study presenting the newest Hallstatt period grave finds from Vače (German Watsch) and Šmarjeta (German St. Margarethen). In the same year the curator of the Regional Museum of Carniola in Ljubljana Dragotin Dežman alias Karl Deschmann in another journal of Vienna presented the Vače situla.
The warrior possessed a double-crested helmet, two spearheads with a facetted socket, a socketed axe, an undecorated rectangular belt plate, a spindle-whorl and a decorated hollow bone cylinder in addition to the situla and the hollow bracelet. In the inventory book 4 of the Prehistoric Department it is stated: “Zu diesem Skelete gehört auch die im Frühjahre 1882, knapp neben der Fundstelle des Helmes, ausgegrabene getriebene Situla, im Laibacher Museum (aus Bronze).” Only the skull of the relatively well preserved skeleton was brought to the Natural History Museum in Vienna. It is still preserved in the anthropological collection of the Department of Anthropology and now bears the inventory number 5050.

Presentation of the catalogue of the permanent exhibition The Soklič collection. “Here’s the Illyrian chief”. Archaeology and numismatics, published in February 2016 by the Carinthian Regional Museum in Slovenj Gradec. The most important contribution by the author is in this publication the chapter on the Podzemelj 2 phase, which includes the reconstruction of two important warrior cremation graves, discovered near Šmarjeta in the Dolenjska region around 1883 and in 1901. The cremation grave, excavated around 1883 by the local Anton Kunstek, contained a footed bowl with triangular holes in the foot, a cup, decorated with bronze studs, and a large intentionally damaged bronze winged axe. Ferdinand Schulz found in 1901 in barrow 7/1901 at Gradenjska hosta above Gradenje near Šmarjeta a cremation grave with four ceramic vessels, one animal bone, remains of a bowl helmet, a decorated iron hilt of a curved sword, an iron trunnion axe, as well as one bronze and one iron spearhead. Both graves can be dated to the Podzemelj 2 phase, defined by professor Stane Gabrovec as early as in 1963, so as several graves from Kranj, Brezje pri Trebelnem, Mengeš, Molnik, Novo mesto, Budinjak, Velike Malence, Metlika, Sajevce and Legen near Slovenj Gradec. Textile remains were preserved on some iron finds from Legen, Brezje pri Trebelnem and Vače.