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Places of the dead - Late Bronze Age sacred places in the Carpathian Basin

Cemeteries with a larger number of burials can be recognized in the Carpathian Basin starting with the Bronze Age. Late Bronze Age communities buried their deceased members in the vicinity of their settlements, mostly along the paths leading to the settlements. Cremation was the usual way of burial. The funeral practice consisted of several phases: the construction of the pyre, placement of the deceased person on the pyre, cremation, feast, collection of the cremated remains, disposal of the remains in a grave pit, funeral feast. The study of archaeological remains from the graves distinguished the phases of the ritual, carried out with greater or smaller differences within the community. Since very few pyres have been preserved and discovered in the Carpathian Basin so far, the sacralisation of space can primarily be discussed in the case of cemeteries, where the ritual parting with the dead took place, either completely or at least partly. The creation of sacred places depended on beliefs. A recognizable sign of sacralisation of landscape for burial is the continuity of place. In certain cases, such continuity of sacred places was several hundred years long. Towards the end of the Late Bronze Age, tumulus burials appeared in the southern part of the Carpathian Basin. Earthen mounds erected above the graves were often preserved as marks in the landscape, which in time gave rise to various stories and legends. Interestingly, there are cases that one-time sacred places were subsequently reused for the same purpose.

landscape, cemeteries, tradition, deceased, Late Bronze Age

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