AES_502 Early medieval Cemeteries

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2023
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Šimon Ungerman, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. Šimon Ungerman, Ph.D.
Department of Archaeology and Museology – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Jitka Šibíčková
Supplier department: Department of Archaeology and Museology – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Tue 16:00–17:40 M22
Prerequisites (in Czech)
Absolvování kurzu AEB_A14f Early Middle Ages in Central Europe nebo AEM_03f Early Middle Ages of Europe výhodou.
Předmět je určen zájemcům o problematiku.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 30 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 3/30, only registered: 0/30, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/30
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The goal of the course is to understand the principles of interment in the Early Middle Ages and the development of cemeteries from 6th to 11th century, to become familiar with modern methods of burial grounds analysis and apply a critical approach to older literature, whose conclusions are often cited to this day although the methods used are obsolete. It is necessary to realize that burial grounds cannot be directly identified with the living society as the appearance of archaeologically surveyed cemeteries is an outcome of numerous distorting influences of both natural and cultural character.
Learning outcomes
After completion of the course, student will be able to:
- describe the basic characteristics of burials and attitude to death in the Early Middle Ages and the main differences in comparison with present
- define the transformation processes which have impact on archaeological sources, particularly burial grounds
- describe basic characteristics of methods used to create relative chronology and compare their benefits and weaknesses
- critically evaluate a selected archaeological publication with regard to analytical methods used.
Syllabus
  • The concept of “ritual”. Transitional rituals. Non-chronological factors influencing the form of a burial.
  • Slavic burial rites: grave pit – its shape and interior modifications, coffin, orientation, position of the body. The so-called anti-vampire measures and non-ritual burials. Tombs in churches and in their vicinity. Burials of horses and other animals.
  • Cemeteries of the Avars, Magyars and the Bijelo Brdo Culture.
  • Post-depositional processes and their distorting influence – destruction of objects from organic materials, the influence of a hollow space, collapsing into older graves and layers.
  • Anthropological data, “missing children”.
  • The concept of “grave gifts” – traditional division based on a (hypothetical) relation to the deceased person. Motivation for placing various objects in graves. Gradual decrease in the amount of grave goods through to the resulting absence in the graves near churches; repeated occurrence of grave goods in modern times.
  • Traditional Great Moravian chronology (Hrubý, Poulík) and its drawbacks. Relative and absolute chronology, the relation between archaeology and history.
  • Methods for creation of relative chronology. Analysis of mistakes in evaluation of individual burial grounds.
  • The latest knowledge of the chronology of early medieval material culture.
  • Non-utilitarian and symbolic importance of selected types of objects.
  • Social structure on the basis of cemeteries: existing opinions and new methodical approaches.
Literature
  • Ariès, Ph. 2000: Dějiny smrti I, II. Praha.
  • Gurevič, A. 1978: Kategorie středověké kultury. Praha.
  • Navrátilová, A. 2004: Narození a smrt v české lidové kultuře. Praha.
  • Fichtenau, H. 1984: Lebensordnungen des 10. Jahrhunderts. Studien über Denkart und Existenz im einstigen Karolingerreich. Monographien zur Geschichte des Mittelalters 30. Stuttgart.
  • Effros, B. 2002: Caring for Body and Soul. Burial and the Afterlife in the Merovingian World. University Park, Pennsylvania.
  • Härke, H. 1993: Intentionale und funktionale Daten. Ein Beitrag zur Theorie und Methodik der Gräberarchäologie. Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 23, 141-146.
  • Brather, S. 2004: Kleidung und Identität im Grab. Gruppierungen innerhalb der Bevölkerung Pleidelsheims zur Merowingerzeit. Zeitschrift für Archäologie des Mittelalters 32, 1-58.
  • Härke, H. 2003: Beigabensitte und Erinnerung: Überlegungen zu einem Aspekt des frühmittelalterlichen Bestattungsrituals. In: Jarnut, J. – Wemhoff, M. (Hrsg.), Erinnerungskultur im Bestattungsritual. Archäologisch-Historisches Forum. München, 107-125.
  • Prokeš, L. 2007: Posmrtné změny a jejich význam při interpretaci pohřebního ritu (ke vztahu mezi archeologií a forenzními vědami). Archaeologia mediaevalis Moravica et Silesiana – Supplementum 1. Brno.
  • Eggert, M. K. H. 2001: Prähistorische Archäologie. Konzepte und Methoden. Tübingen – Basel.
  • Chorvátová, H. 2004a: Niekoľko poznámok k otázke „milodarov“ v hroboch včasného stredoveku. In: Fusek, G. (ed.), Zborník na počesť Dariny Bialekovej. Nitra, 143-149.
  • MACHÁČEK, Jiří, Petr DRESLER, Renáta PŘICHYSTALOVÁ and Vladimír SLÁDEK. Břeclav - Pohansko VII. Kostelní pohřebiště na Severovýchodním předhradí (Břeclav - Pohansko VII. The Church Cemetery in the North-eastern Suburb). Vydání první. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2016, 506 pp. Spisy Filozofické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity ; 455. ISBN 978-80-210-8455-1. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.5817/CZ.MUNI.M210-8455-2016. Digital Library of the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University English Čeština info
  • GALUŠKA, Luděk. Uherské Hradiště - Sady : křesťanské centrum říše Velkomoravské. Brno: Moravské zemské muzeum, 1996, 183 s. ISBN 8070280808. info
Teaching methods
lectures
Assessment methods
Active participation, knowledge of literature
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught once in three years.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2020.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
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