EAA 2023: Abstract

The period of the second half of the 9th and the beginning of the 10th century in the territory of historical Great Moravia was a time of religious eclecticism. This mixture of pre-Christian (Slavic, Indo-European) religious traditions and new principles brought by Christianity can be observed very well in the burial rites of the early Middle Ages in the area of Central Europe. Excellent study material are the church cemeteries and the so-called settlement dispersion burial grounds, which were investigated in the central fortified settlement of Pohansko near Břeclav. The question is what was the relationship between the population buried in the churches and the population buried in the burial grounds in the frame the settlement structures. The number of more than 480 graves discovered outside church cemeteries (559 graves have been discovered in church cemeteries to date) suggests that the relationship between the two populations was mutually tolerant. The conference paper will discuss how burial practices were organised in both populations and how these practices may have been influenced by religious, social, health or chronological aspects. Both classical archaeological, historical and religious approaches will be used, as well as findings from the natural sciences (anthropology, palaeopathology, genetics, stable isotope studies, etc.).

Pohansko, burial rite, pagans, Christians, early Middle Ages, Great Moravia

Oral presentation

  Abstract (PDF)

Renáta Prichystalová²

Petr Dresler²
Denisa Zlámalová²
Vladimír Sládek¹
Kateřina Kalová²