Ozdoby kobiece we wczesnośredniowiecznych grobach z bronią – wyposażenie czy dar?
Female decorations form early-Medieval graves with weapons – equipment or gift?

Summary/Abstract: During a funeral the dead becomes excluded from the world of the living and transferred to the world of the dead, by many considered a reflection of the world of the living. In the grave pits everyday use objects, arms, decorations and costume elements are found – they are things the person used during the lifetime. But also gifts are found, deposited with the body during the funeral. In the graves various objects strictly related to the gender were deposited. In female graves they were headband ornaments, “kaptorgas” (containers for magical or religious content), bead necklaces. In male graves they were mainly weapon elements. While presence of some ornaments (for instance clips or rings) in male graves, along with the weapons, can be explained by the fact they were carried with or on clothing during the lifetime, some of them can be evidence of specific equipping of the burial (gifts?). It seems that in order to consider them as gender attributes they must be found at an adult skeleton, in a place where they were carried during the lifetime. An attempt to carry out a detailed analysis of correlation of early-Medieval graves with weapons with the person’s gender encounters, however, many obstacles. For many, especially archival, sites there is no detailed anthropological analysis and gender definition is based on archaeological factors (sic!). In case of many studies there is no topographic analysis of object layout either, and it would be often helpful in finding answers to the question if we are dealing with equipment or grave gift.

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