Some remarks on the spatial arrangement of the Michałowice cemetery. Interpretation of the function of groove-type feature Cover Image

Uwagi na temat rozplanowania przestrzennego cmentarzyska w Michałowicach. Możliwości interpretacji funkcji obiektów rowkowych
Some remarks on the spatial arrangement of the Michałowice cemetery. Interpretation of the function of groove-type feature

Author(s): Jacek Pikulski, Joanna Zagórska-Telega
Subject(s): Archaeology
Published by: Łódzkie Towarzystwo Naukowe
Keywords: Przeworsk culture; Roman Period; cemetery; groove-type features

Summary/Abstract: Spatial arrangement and development of cemeteries have long attracted the interest of archaeologists. One of the questions asked was whether the cemeteries developed in a planned manner and within a fixed space or, on the contrary, did they expand successively when necessary. The excavations conducted on the Przeworsk culture cemetery at Michałowice can perhaps provide new data for this discussion. The mentioned cemetery yielded 20 groove-type features characterised by a regular, rectangular shape. All these structures were oriented according to the four cardinal directions and arranged close to each other in rows along the north-south line. Along with groove-type features, an inhumation grave and cremation burials were discovered, both within the area encompassed by the arms of the grooves and outside it, and forming no detectable clusters. Based on the hitherto studies it can be assumed that groove-type features themselves were not graves, nor were they enclosures around the burials of high-ranking individuals. Their function was rather to delimit the area where the deceased belonging to one family or clan were buried, being a kind of “family quarters”. The burials proper might have been very shallow or even put on the surface, thus being prone to damage. At the same time, the arrangement of groove-type features in Michałowice around an empty central area seems planned rather than coincidental. It is also very likely that all these features were used simultaneously and over a longer period of time.

  • Issue Year: 2014
  • Issue No: 60
  • Page Range: 69-79
  • Page Count: 11
  • Language: Polish