EN
The aim of the study was to identify regular fea- tures in the funerary rites of the Wielbark Culture people, i.e., types of burial, grave furnishings, and the character of infant burials found in cemeteries of these people. Analysis based mainly on graves of infans I and infans II individuals (or children aged respectively 0-6 and 7-15 years). The investigated sample included 369 assemblages. Not all the known children’s graves were eligible for analysis, as close to 300 further graves could not be classified reliably to either age group due to their damaged condition and imprecise determination. The taboo which apparently existed in the Wielbark Culture limited in a significant manner the number of objects which accompanied the dead (i.a., weapons, tools). We have evidence that also burials of children adhered these general rules but it is notable that assortment and number of categories of grave goods were more modest. The main difference in comparison to graves of older individuals (imenis-senilis) is the smaller number of dress accessories which are represented mainly by a single fibula and a handful of beads. Dress accessories become increasing- ly more numerous in graves of older children. In some of these burials (of infans II individuals) several fibulae, buck- les and assorted ornaments are found, but it is only in the graves of iuvenis (15-19 year old) individuals that we see the adoption of adult costume. The presence or spindle-whorls, needles or awls, hook needles, whetstones or quern stones and knives, on many occasions, present also in graves of babies, suggests that the nature of these offerings was symbolic. Categories of objects which definitely did not belong to the world of children include, first of all, silver bracelets, metal neck-rings and spurs. Also absent from the analysed series were globe-shaped pendants and banded pendants, bronze vessels, glass counters, tweezers and ear spoons, as well as fire steels. The presence of damaged objects in childrens graves possibly meant to be used in their original or some other function suggest that the children’s world was recognised by the adults as being separate from theirs. Items which occur in the deposits just once or very rarely are more likely the expression of individual parental emotions than a reflection of some general funerary tradition. The only deposit featuring an element of weaponry (apart from spurs) which is noted in double graves of an adult male and child, are arrowheads discovered in a barrow at Kitki. Spurs in male graves make their appearance only in burials of iuvenis individuals and this was the age, also in case of girls, when they entered the adult world and acquired full rights. Burials of newborns or babies, admittedly not numerous, suggest that at least some of the infants were entitled to independent burial, perhaps, even right from the time they were born. We have no way of knowing at present whether limited evidence on the burial of these smallest of children results from neglect in burying them, some archaeologically elusive form of burial, or could it be that the death rate in this group among the Wielbark Culture people was lower than we think? In comparison to the Przeworsk Culture, double burials of children with another individual were common in the Wielbark Culture community. Next to a contemporary demise of two or three people which, presumably, would have been the main impulse to bury them in one grave, we have to take into account emotional motivation. Next to coterminous burials in cemeteries of the Wielbark Culture we find graves which were deposited in succession within a short time interval; this is suggested by the custom of inserting secondary graves into already existing ones. The tendency was to add to a skeleton grave of an adult a cremation or inhumation burial of a child, but the reverse is not uncommon either (Table 2). In terms of form, infant burials do not depart from the norms used in case of adult individuals. The remains of infants have been discovered in coffins or other sorts of stone or wooden structures. They are recorded also with burials of adults under barrows, and not rarely, as independent barrow burials (e.g. Nowy Łowicz, Barrow 41).