EN
Our present archaeological record of funerary sites of the Funnel Beaker Culture (TRB) from the area of Sandomierz Upland – 38, includes 35 gravefields and 3 inhumations inside storage pits within settlements (Fig. 1). Out of this number, regular excavation was made of 12 cemeteries. Results from this research have been published, even if only in the form of brief reports on the fieldwork, or, as in the case of the recent discoveries at Czyżów Szlachecki and Złota, are at a stage of analysis. The most fully investigated cemetery is probably the one at Malice Kościelne, with an area of ca 1 000 m2 harbouring two trapeze-shaped megalithic tombs and flat graves close by. Another quite comprehensively investigated is site 3 at Pawłów, where an area of ca 1 400 m2 was subjected to five seasons of fieldwork. At Stryczowice (ca 1 000 m2) investigation was made of the eastern and central sections of three trapeze-shaped tombs and a flat inhumation cemetery nearby. At Broniszowice also, investigation was made only of the eastern and central area of a single large trapeze-shaped megalithic feature containing graves within, found under a so-called ‘tumulus A’. Excavation at the cemeteries was less extensive and yielding from 1 (Czyżów Szlachecki) to 7 graves (Dacharzów) occasionally with fragments of accompanying megalithic constructions (eg, Święcica and Czyżów). Research in the Sandomierz Upland has documented the presence of two classes of TRB cemeteries: megalithic, where next to flat inhumations are found large mortuary structures (tombs) with a stone-earth-timber construction (Fig. 2, 3, 10, 11) and non-megalithic, with flat graves only (Fig. 4, 5). There is some proof that the latter may be of later date than the megalithic cemeteries originating around the turn of the 3rd millennium BC or early during that millennium, ie, are associated with the late phase of the SE Group of TRB. As already mentioned, isolated burials inside storage pits are known from a number of settlements. The typical form of the tomb is on a plan of a high trapeze, oriented approximately along the E-W axis (Fig. 10), with a chamber in its wider eastern part containing the central grave covered by a mound, either having the form of two burial chambers parallel to each other or a single chamber, in which case it contains a double burial (Fig. 8:1.2). In both these types of cemeteries the prevailing form of burial are pit graves with various stone structures (pavement, settings, cists, etc); in non-megalithic cemeteries they invariably have a roughly E-W orientation, in megalithic cemeteries the orientation is E-W (most cases) or N-S (Fig. 6–9). The dominant form is single inhumation in an extended supine position. Double and, very rarely, triple burials are also noted. Some of the dead were given a different form of burial, eg, in a prone position, bound, disarticulated, secondary and fragmentary burials, which suggests some sort of anti-vampiric practices (Fig. 12). No significant differences were observed in the furnishing of the graves found in the megalithic and non-megalithic cemeteries, but it was observed that the flat graves associated with megalithic tombs had richer inventories than the central burials in the megalithic tombs. The burials inside storage pits within settlements followed the same rules of position and orientation documented in graves in the cemeteries.