Fire pit grave

A fire pit grave is a burial place in which the more or less burned human bones, grave goods or remains of them and the ashes with remains of the pyre are buried in a shallow pit without a container ( urn ). The designation grave depot is controversial.

Such graves were especially widespread in prehistory and early history , but also among the Romans , especially in burial grounds dating from the imperial era . In some cases the remains of bones were carefully picked from the burned pyre , in other cases all remains of the cremation were buried unsorted. In the latter case, archeology also speaks of fire graves.

In addition to all fields with pure fire pit graves this form of burial was partly with inhumations socialized . Since the grave pits were often not too deep, many of the former fire pit graves were probably destroyed by construction, erosion or the plow.

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 , p. 253ff.
• M. Ebert: Keyword fire pit grave. In: Reallexicon of Prehistory II. Berlin 1952, p. 122 f.
• Siegfried Kurz : Burial practice in the western Hallstatt culture (=  Tübingen writings on prehistoric and early historical archeology . Volume 2 ). Waxmann Verlag, Münster, New York, Munich, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-89325-386-6 , pp. 67-80 .