17 Description of the Cemetery, Organization of the Burial Space, the Burial Rites in the Light of the Cultural and Historical Determinants

Abstract

The Bodzia cemetery is one of the few early medieval cemeteries from the area of modern Poland that have been completely excavated with modern archaeological methods. It was located in a prominent place, in a similar manner to other early medieval cemeteries from the area of Slavic settlement in central-eastern Europe. Two burial zones were identified within the cemetery. Both zones, although spatially connected, differed in their chronology and burial rites. In the light of the comparative materials, the tendencies in the burial rites of men and women buried at the earlier cemetery at Bodzia recorded were a phenomenon common to most of barbarian Europe in the Early Middle Ages. The fact that knives were deposited in burials regardless of the sex and age of the deceased was probably the outcome of the belief generally shared at that time that the objects had effective apotropaic properties. Keywords: Bodzia cemetery; burial rites; burial zones; Early Middle Ages; knives; Poland