Cremation grave

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Urn grave
East Germanic male fire grave (2nd half of 2nd century ) from the Beskids , exhibited in the Archaeological Museum in Krakow (2013).

A cremation grave is a type of grave used to bury the burnt remains of the dead as a fire pile or in vessels (made of clay , stone, metal) or urns specially made for this purpose . In Europe it appears in the early Neolithic (e.g. linear ceramic ). The change from cremation to body burials in late antiquity was often associated with the emergence of Christianity in Europe , which, however, cannot be maintained in recent research.

Prehistoric time

The corpse burn was already collected in the early Central European Neolithic and, if necessary, deposited with additions in the cremation grave (corpse burn storage, dump). It was first brought into the earth by the bearers of the Schönfeld culture , often in specially designed urns ( face urns ) on regular grave fields (urn fields). In Central Europe the urn grave is a phenomenon of the late Bronze Age, which coincides with the Urnfield culture between 1250 and 750 BC. Widespread. In the Young Bronze Age, small stone boxes sometimes protect the urns, as is shown by finds in Dohren in the Harburg district . Urn graves are still in use in the Iron Age and, as in the urn field in the Ruser Steinbusch, are sometimes marked by stone setting.

Historical time

Cremation graves were found in many places in the former Roman Empire , for example in Germany, France , Italy , Austria . With the Romans, if the dead were cremated, as with other types of burial, after solemn preparation, they were washed, anointed and festively dressed in the house. On a public, repeatedly used cremation site (lat. Ustrina = fire site from ustus = burned) near the burial site (cemetery, burial ground), the dead and bier were placed on a prepared pyre and burned. The wood used to build the pyre was subject to a strict selection, as could be determined by scientific studies. Depending on the region, beech, oak or hornbeam were predominantly used. After the embers had been extinguished with wine or water, the remains of the corpses were recovered from the ashes and buried in a vessel (usually a clay vessel or clay pot with a lid), or in a richly decorated urn vessel, depending on the status, but often the entire ashes with incombustible ones Sharing of clothes (fibulae), grave goods and parts of the bier. The ash container and some of the unburned grave goods were then placed in the actual grave at the burial site and covered again with earth.

Variations were the grate pit (Latin: bustum = corpse fire site , burial mound), in which the dead person was burned on a grate directly above the actual grave or on the floor of the grave pit, or the simple fire pit, into which the corpse burn was poured without a container of its own .

literature

  • Tilmann Bechert : On the terminology of Roman provincial cremation graves. Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt , 10/1980, Verlag des Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseums , Mainz 1980, ISSN  0342-734X
  • Robert Bernhart: Roman cremation graves in Schörfling . In: Heimathausbote. News sheet of the Heimathaus Vöcklabruck association, part 9, Vöcklabruck 1961
  • Heinz Cüppers , Helmut Bernhard, Walburg Boppert: The Romans in Rhineland-Palatinate . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1990; ISBN 3-933203-60-0
  • Eugen Funck: Roman cremation graves in Remagen , Bonner Jahrbücher 122, Bonn 1912.
  • Andreas G. Heiss, Ursula Thanheiser, Peter Scherrer & Ronald Risy: Construction and fire - aspects of wood use in the Roman Aelium Cetium (St. Pölten). In: Römisches Österreich 31 (2009): 11–32
  • Angela Kreuz: Functional and conceptual archaeobotanical data from Roman cremations . In: J. Pearce, Martin Millet and M. Struck (eds.) Burial, society and context in the Roman world [Roman Burial Archeology Conference, Durham] . Oxbow Books, Oxford 2000, pp 45-51
  • Herbert Jandaurek: Roman cremation graves in Schörfling am Attersee . In: Pro Austria Romana. News sheet for research on Austria's Roman times, year 11, 1961.

Web links

Wiktionary: Brandgrab  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations