Content:
Findings of the most characteristic tangible evidence of the acceptance of the new faith and religiousness – crosses, are typical almost exclusively of female burials in the grave equipment; exclusively in the infans or juvenis category and not in the group of mature women. In the rural environment of the central regions of Great Moravia, simple cast lead cross pendants equipped with crosshatching decoration evoking the schematized body of the Savior are associated only with these age groups. They are incorporated into necklaces, the dominant element of which are crescent pendants. The crosses are synchronized with the closing decades of the 9th and early 10th centuries. We believe that their prototypes are the simple popular rhombic pendants – amulets passing through many cultures.It cannot be ruled out that in the period of emerging Christianity, their purpose could have been re-evaluated in a new religious context, so that they were tolerated by the church and could supplant classic cross pendants in personal use. It was most likely the crosshatched ornament that gave the pendants a hallmark of a Christian nature, even though they also continued to bear, at least in the initial phase, their original ethos – their original function and signifikance. As such, one of these primary functions could have been the support and preservation of human reproduction, thus explaining their exklusive occurance in female graves, in the graves of sexually untouched girls. Exceptionally, a pigeon skeleton appears among other equipment with the buried; we don't know for sure if it is a coincidence or an intention, but the dove is associated with the act of baptism. It can be stated that the reasoning that members of the female sex were subjected to Christianization on a larger scale than the male part of the population may have a real basis.