Profane death in burial practices of a pre-industrial society : : a study from Silesia / / Paweł Duma.

• VerfasserIn: Duma, Paweł,
• Place / Publishing House: Oxford : : Archaeopress Archaeology,, [2019]; ©2019
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (133 pages) :; illustrations

This book discusses phenomena characteristic of funeral practices of the pre-industrial society of Silesia (Poland). The author explores specific groups of people and the places they were interred, supplementing the study with analysis of the results of archaeological research, which mainly involved fieldwork carried out at former execution sites.

Table of Contents

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright page -- Contents Page -- Figure 66. Wrocław-Osobowice. Municipal cemetery. Burial plots next to the cemetery wall used mostly for burial of unidentified individuals. According to a centuries' old tradition these graves are consigned to the periphery. -- Figure 65. Mikowice. The plague cross from 1600 at its original location, still complete. -- Figure 64. Pławna. Cemetery. -- Figure 63. Rybnica Leśna. Church - eyewitness to the events of 1709. -- Figure 62. Preventive measures taken against the harmful 'living dead' in Central Europe -- Figure 61. Wrocław, Nowy Targ square. View of the pottery vessel holding the remains of an infant. -- Figure 60. Wrocław, Nowy Targ square. Bones of the infant discovered inside the pottery vessel. -- Figure 59. Wrocław, Nowy Targ square. Infant pot burial still in situ. -- Figure 58. Burials of infants in pots. -- Figure 57. Schaffhausen in Switzerland, St. John cemetery. Burial of a woman who died in childbirth with scissors placed outside her coffin - a grave offering often found in this region by burials of women who had died in labour or soon after. -- Figure 56. Jelenia Góra. Objects excavated from the gallows site. -- Figure 55. Jelenia Góra. Objects excavated from inside the gallows. a - link of a strangulation chain -- b - fragment of an execution staple -- c - unidentified iron bar fragment -- d - presumably a fragment of another staple. -- Figure 54. Złoty Stok. Nails found near to the gallows. -- Figure 53. Kamienna Góra. A stove-tile fragment (waster) recovered from the gallows interior. -- Figure 52. Kamienna Góra. Selected finds from the excavation. -- Figure 51. Lubomierz. Objects recovered during excavation. -- Figure 50. Jelenia Góra. The gallows reconstructed.

Figure 49. Jelenia Góra. One of the roof tiles excavated by the gallows wall at the bottom of the rubble layer originally resting atop one of the pillars -- Figure 48. Jelenia Góra: a-f ˗ the gallows roof structure during excavation which revealed an arrangement of six rows of tiles. -- Figure 47. Jelenia Góra. The best preserved fragment of the gallows foundations. -- Figure 46. Wojcieszów. Archaeological profile showing the depth of the gallows foundations. -- Figure 45. Wojcieszów. View of the pavement outside the gallows entrance and a coin still resting in its original context (to the right of the scale). -- Figure 44. Wojcieszów. View of the archaeological trench excavated outside the entrance to the gallows. -- Figure 43. Lubomierz. The gallows reconstructed. The entrance was probably in the wall facing the town visible in the background. -- Figure 42. Lubomierz. The gallows foundations. -- Figure 41. Lubomierz. Plan of the gallows showing the area excavated in 2010 and 2011. -- Figure 40. Lubomierz. The view of excavated gallows remains. -- Figure 39. Złoty Stok. Skeletal remains in grave no. 2. -- Figure 38. Złoty Stok. Skeletal remains in grave no 1. -- Figure 37. Złoty Stok. The remains of the gallows and graves of convicts during excavation. -- Figure 35. Kamienna Góra. Stratigraphic sequence exposed inside the gallows. -- Figure 34. Kamienna Góra. View of the surviving wall of the gallows. -- Figure 33. Kamienna Góra. View of the gallows remains at the time of the archaeological fieldwork. -- Figure 32. Modrzewie. The view of excavated gallows remains. -- Figure 31. Modrzewie. The gallows foundations and the robber trench. -- Figure 30. Modrzewie. The gallows foundations and the robber trench -- Figure 29. Modrzewie. Excavated human bones reassembled.

Figure 28. Modrzewie. Bones excavated from the top of the rubble filling the robber trench removing a fragment of the gallows foundation. -- Figure 27. Lubomierz. The skeleton found at the bottom of the grave after the upper skeleton was removed. -- Figure 26. Lubomierz. The double grave inside the gallows. -- Figure 25. Lubomierz. The unexcavated feature found below the roots of the lime tree roots. Its top layer contained human bone. -- Figure 24. Lubomierz. Concentration of disarticulated human bones found at the base of the rubble layer. -- Figure 23. Złoty Stok. Complete skeleton of a cat excavated discovered inside the gallows. -- Figure 22. Złoty Stok. Plan of the site showing the remains of the gallows, graves and the feature discovered inside the gallows structure. -- Figure 21. Złoty Stok. Human remains discovered in the feature inside the gallows. Drawing by P. Duma. -- Figure 20. Złoty Stok. A feature detected inside the stone gallows containing a concentration of human bones intermingled with broken brick and stones. -- Figure 19. Jelenia Góra. The layer containing human bone. -- Figure 18. Jelenia Góra. Human bones with an execution staple inside the gallows resting in situ (over the bedrock). -- Figure 17. Jelenia Góra. The gallows foundations during excavation exposed by the removal of the rubble layer. The original occupation layer of the execution site. At left, stones removed from the foundations but left behind. -- Figure 16. Jelenia Góra. Plan of the excavation trench with the gallows remains. The bottom level of the rubble layer. -- Figure 15. Jelenia Góra. Human bone inside the gallows structure. -- Figure 14. Wojcieszów. Objects excavated outside the gallows entrance (probably from a wooden door). a, b - nails -- c - iron shank -- d - nail fragment. -- Figure 13. Modrzewie. Plan of the site and excavation trenches (I-VIII).

Figure 12. Modrzewie. View of the site showing the location of the gallows foundations with a clump of lime trees in the background. -- Figure 11. Kamienna Góra. The town gallows marked on a panorama of the town, c. 1740. -- Figure 10. Lubomierz. A brick with a cross-shaped mark found by the gallows foundations. -- Figure 9. Lubomierz. Upper limbs belonging to one of the buried men. Bones of the hands are missing. -- Figure 8. Lubomierz. Grave holding the bodies of two men. -- Figure 7. Lubomierz. The remains of the gallows with a double burial inside and the stem of the lime tree planted when the gallows was demolished in 1824. -- Figure 6. The last journey of a convicted man. The procession has crossed the city gate and is making for the execution site. The gallows is in the background, built on a square plan and covered with a wooden platform. The remains of the hanged are shown -- Figure 5. Casting bullets having magical properties by the gallows wall. This was done at midnight, that hour of ghosts. Nineteenth century steel engraving based on a painting by Richard Knötel (1857-1914). -- Figure 4. An early printed poster displayed on the town wall in Głogów informing about the execution of a woman who had committed infanticide. -- Figure 3. Death boards (Totenbretter) put up at the crossroads at Kašperské Hory in the Czech Republic. Similar traditions are noted in the Krkonoše Mountains and in Bavaria. Particularly in mountain regions, in wintertime the deceased would be left to li -- Figure 2. Cutting down the body of a suicide. In reality, this is a propaganda scene rare in everyday life documenting efforts made during the Enlightened Age to change public attitudes to death by suicide. Emphasis was placed on the value of every human -- Figure 1. Wodzisław Śląski. Holy Cross church. Atypical burial of a woman found by the cemetery boundary.

Figure 36. Jelenia Góra. Rectangular postholes identified tentatively as traces of a wooden gallows. -- Table 1. Jelenia Góra. Bones excavated from the gallows interior. Assessment: Honorata Rutka -- Table 2. Jelenia Góra. Mandibles used to assess the minimum number of executed individuals. -- Table 3. Złoty Stok. Human skeletal remains recorded in feature No. 1. -- Table 4. Dimensions of surviving and recently excavated remains of stone gallows -- Table 5. Selected pot burials of children known from Central Europe. -- Table 6. Cases of decapitation and other preventive measures against the 'living dead' recorded in Silesia, Upper Lusatia and County of Kladsko -- List of figures -- List of tables -- Introduction -- 1. Valorisation of cemetery space -- 1.1. Cemetery boundaries -- 1.2. Functions of cemeteries -- 1.3. Hierarchy of cemeteries -- 1.4. Hierarchy within cemeteries -- 2. Suicide -- 2.1. Differences in religious denominations and legal bases for punishment of suicides -- 2.2. Place of death - profane space -- 2.3. Suicides in cities -- 2.4. Significance of crossroads and boundaries for burials -- 2.5. Executions of suicides - prevention or punishment? -- 2.6. Beliefs and magical practices associated with suicide death -- 3. Executed bodies and execution sites -- 3.1. Superstitions and magic practices associated with execution sites -- 3.1.1. Magical properties of criminal body parts -- 3.1.2. Magical properties of the hanging rope and other items from the gallows -- 3.1.3. Hanged men's clothes -- 3.1.4. Magical properties of plants growing on the execution site -- 3.1.5. The role played by the hangman in perpetuating these superstitions -- 3.1.6. Archaeological evidences of the popular beliefs and superstitions -- 3.2. The location of execution sites -- 3.3. Burials of the executed and false cemeteries'.

3.3.1. Uses of the gallows structure interior.