A Synthesis of Archaeological, Genetic, and Spatial Data in Studying Medieval Families: An Example from the Vanished Village of Gać, Poland

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Life and Death in Medieval Central Europe" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In our paper, we aim to demonstrate the use of spatial, genetic, and archaeological data in family studies by using a Medieval cemetery in Gać as our case study. An international team of archaeologists and anthropologists have partially recovered and examined a cemetery situated in the now-vanished village of Gać over three seasons, as part of a Mortuary Field School supported by the Slavia Foundation. The investigations have uncovered 206 burials dating from the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries. The cemetery at Gać presents an excellent opportunity to examine family structures in the under-represented context of Medieval Central Europe. Results from our spatial analyses indicate that the graves were not located randomly. Moreover, subadults burials form clusters, and the distance between the burials of women and those of subadults indicates a deliberate effort to keep them in close proximity. These patterns suggest clusters represent family units, formed mainly by the grave of a mother and her prematurely deceased children. Another interesting phenomenon is the observed custom of inserting additional skulls into the coffins of the deceased. This practice may have been a gesture of respect toward a deceased relative whose grave may have been accidentally destroyed during burial.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Life and Death in Medieval Central Europe   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39900.0