scholarly journals ANTROPOLOGIA GROBÓW CIAŁOPALNYCH CMENTARZYSKA DZIEKANOWICE 22

2021 ◽  
pp. 171-191
Author(s):  
Anna Wrzesińska ◽  
Jacek Wrzesiński
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Eastern Coast ◽  
Field Site ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Bone Material ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Burial Rite

The article presents the analyses and descriptions of two graves in the Dziekanowice grave field, site 22 (dated back to the late 10th – the late 13th centuries) located on the eastern coast of lake Lednica, approx. 90 m from the eastern bridge leading to Ostrów Lednicki. The isle hosts a hillfort regarded a seat of the then ruler, the sedes regni principales. Within the gord, in the second half of the 10th century, a complex of residential and sacral buildings was raised: a baptistery, a palas and a church. The burial rite as of the late 10th and the early 11th centuries, which appeared in what is now Poland’s territory, is typically associated with Christianity encroaching the area. The issues under discussion, which are not fully explained, include both the ways in which the dead were buried before skeletal burials were introduced and popularised, the methods used to promote the changes, acceptance thereof, the rate and the prevalence of the new mode of burying the dead. In the course of extended excavations in the Dziekanowice 22 grave field, 1,665 graves have been discovered with preserved bone material, among them two graves where cremated bodies were laid (cremation burial). The graves have been dated back to the early Middle Ages (the time of the grave field’s operation).

scholarly journals Byzantium, Byzantine Italy and cities on the eastern coast of the Adriatic: The case of Kotor and Dubrovnik

2001 ◽  
pp. 165-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Stevovic
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Eastern Coast ◽  
Early Middle Ages

This text considers the echoes of the various ties of Byzantium with Kotor and Dubrovnik in the early Middle Ages. Results of studies of the urban nuclei of these cities, the architecture of their churches in the period in question and the cults of especially venerated saints in both cities, indicate that at the beginning of the IX century both Kotor and Dubrovnik were flooded with a great influx of immigrants from the eastern provinces of the Empire.

Atypical Burials in Early Medieval Poland

2020 ◽  
pp. 246-275
Author(s):  
Leszek Gardeła
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Prone Position ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Scientific Institutions ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Archival Documentation ◽  
Critical Overview

Excavations at early medieval cemeteries in Poland often reveal traces of mortuary behavior which deviate considerably from the normative treatment of the dead. Most of these atypical practices involved interring the corpses in prone position, laying or throwing stones on them, or cutting their heads off, but other variants have also been recorded, e.g., covering the bodies with clay or piercing them with stakes and other sharp objects. Graves of this kind have always been difficult to interpret. In the early twentieth century, Polish scholars only mentioned them briefly in their publications, without offering any detailed commentary about their possible meanings, while in the 1970s, the problematic term “anti-vampire burials” was coined, implying that these were burials of vampires. This article provides a critical overview of past and present studies on atypical burials in Poland by drawing on the results of a research project entitled Bad Death in the Early Middle Ages: Atypical Burials from Poland in a Comparative Perspective. The discussion incorporates new and previously unpublished evidence and a reassessment of archival documentation kept in a range of Polish museums and scientific institutions, which challenges the previously accepted “vampire” interpretation and sophisticates our understanding of unusual funerary phenomena.

Visions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan E. Bernstein
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Visual Experience ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
The Dead

This chapter focuses on the visionary otherworld of the early Middle Ages, wherein the damned can improve or even be saved, the living can see death, and the dead can return. In these visions, the percipients and their audience were negotiating the conventions for exchanging merits and demerits, sentiments of contrition for past deeds or wicked thoughts, and the comprehension of otherworld realities. The chapter then looks at six visionary narratives recorded from the mid-seventh to the mid-eighth centuries. These visionary narratives represent the experiences of living persons in the land of the dead. The chapter also discusses the narrative and visual aspects of visions. In the narrative, the soul moves from one scene to the next. Some areas they visit have names, others physical descriptions. As a visual experience, the soul sees the victims suffering and the environments or agents that inflict it.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document