GRABKAMMER, TOTENHAUS, RITUALRÄUME. ÜBERLEGUNGEN ZUM KAMMERGRAB VON POPRAD-MATEJOVCE

• Authors: Lau Nina , von Carnap-Bornheim Claus

Title variants

EN

Chamber tomb, burial chamber, house of dead, ritual space. Consideration on the chamber-grave from Poprad-Matejovice

• Languages of publication: DE

Abstracts

EN

The tomb of Poprad-Matejovce from the late 370s AD, its discovery, excavation and later exploration is closely linked to the person of Karol Pieta. The excellent preservation of organic material even in the higher layers of finds as well as the detailed documentation make the tomb a model case for chamber tombs of the late Roman Period and early Migration Period for questions concerning the level of meaning of structural aspects, the rites connected with the concept of the afterlife, internal spatial structures of the tombs, find zones and all the detailed processes of tomb construction, procession and burial. Thus, the outer burial chamber can be regarded as a general ritual space in which all elements connected with the burial can be located. Through an entrance on the east side, the burial public could view all the burial rites materialised in this ritual space as well as the deceased laid out on his bed in the inner chamber. The inner chamber is constructed as a house of the dead with a gabled roof, defining a space exclusively reserved for the laid out dead with his personal grave goods and costume/status elements. The architecture of the inner chamber is clearly based on the element of the domus aeterna from Roman burial contexts. The tomb at Poprad clearly shows an inner zoning. In addition to the zone reserved for the dead within the house of the dead, another space is defined to the south of the house of the dead, in which only objects from the sphere around the funerary banquet and cleaning rituals were found. An important find is the funerary bier, which had been dismantled and deposited on the roof after the mortuary house had been closed. This was certainly used during the procession to the burial site and is a singular find in the Barbaricum. All in all, the grave at Poprad shows indications of rites and ideas of the afterlife that are difficult to decipher because, in contrast to Roman burial rites, written sources are lacking in the Barbaricum of this period.

Keywords

EN

SLOVAKIA; ROMAN PERIOD; POPRAD; CHAMBER GRAVE; RITUAL; HOUSE OF THE DEAD

• Publisher: Slovak Academy of Sciences, Archaeological Institute
• Journal: Slovenská archeológia (Slovak Archaeology)
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 69
• Issue: suppl 2
• Pages: 323 – 332

Contributors

author

Lau Nina

• Zentrum für Baltische und Skandinavische Archäologie, Schloss Gottorf, Schlossinsel 1, D – 24837 Schleswig, Germany

author

von Carnap-Bornheim Claus

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31577/slovarch.2021.suppl.2.29