AEB_115 Early medieval Cemeteries

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2011
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Šimon Ungerman, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. PhDr. Zdeněk Měřínský, CSc.
Department of Archaeology and Museology – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Jitka Dobešová
Timetable
each odd Thursday 10:50–12:25 C42
Prerequisites (in Czech)
AEA_25 Slavs in Central Europe && AEA_58 Early med. material Culture
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 45 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 1/45, only registered: 0/45, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/45
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 13 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
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 acquire modern methods of burial grounds analysis and a critical approach to older literature the conclusions of which 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.
Syllabus
  • The concept of “ritual”. Transitory rituals. Extra-chronological factors influencing the form of a burial. Slavic burial rite: grave pit – its shape and interior modifications, coffin, orientation, position of the body. The so-called anti-vampyrical measures and non-ritual burials. Tombs in churches and near churches. Burials of horses and other animals. Cemeteries of Avars, Hungarians and Belo-brdo culture. Post-deposition processes and their distorting influence – destruction of organic material items, the influence of a hollow space, collapsing into older graves and layers. Anthropological data, “missing children” The concept of “grave gift” – traditional division on the grounds of a (hypothetical) relation to the deceased person. Motivation for placing of items into graves. Gradual decreasing of grave gifts to the resulting absence in the graves near churches; a repeated occurrence of grave gifts in modern times. Traditional Great Moravian chronology (Hrubý, Poulík) and its drawbacks. Relative and absolute chronology, the relation of archaeology and history. Methods for creation of relative chronology. Analysis of mistakes in the processing of concrete burial grounds. The latest knowledge on the chronology of early medieval material culture. Non-utilitary and symbolic importance of selected kinds of items. Social arrangement of the basis of cemeteries: hitherto opinions and newer methodical approaches.
Literature
  • KALOUSEK, František. Břeclav - Pohansko. Brno: Universita J.E. Purkyně, 1971, 221 s. URL info
Teaching methods
lectures
Assessment methods
Active participation, knowledge of literature, test
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught once in two years.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2009, Spring 2014, Spring 2017, Spring 2020.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2011, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2011/AEB_115