Mortuary Practices of the Vanished Medieval Village of Gać in Poland

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Life and Death in Medieval Poland" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper is focused on the results of three seasons of archeological excavation in the vanished village of Gać, located in the central part of Greater Poland. More than 300m2 of the medieval cemetery were examined, revealing 159 burials. The vast majority of the dead were buried according to the Catholic rite. However, a few deviated significantly from it. These graves had extra skulls placed in the pelvic area. Their late dating suggests that the funeral rite may have changed after the liquidation of the parish. An important discovery was finding the physical boundary of the cemetery in the form of a ditch. This will allow the identification of social outcasts located beyond the holy ground or representatives of the lower social classes buried near the border. The cemetery has traces of looting. The location of looting trenches indicates that the robbing of graves took place when they were still visible on the surface. However, due to the general lack of valuables within the cemetery, we believe the robber’s targets were human remains. Even partial results show that the burial ground in Gać may be significant for a better understanding of the life of the Polish serfs.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Life and Death in Medieval Poland   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36659.0