In 2018, during a rescue archaeological excavation taking place in one of the gardens of Staré Město near Uherské Hradiště, 23 early medieval graves containing skeletal remains of 26 individuals were detected. The site is situated on the northern border of the well-known Great Moravian burial ground ‘Na Valách’. In a large number of the newly excavated graves, greater or lesser deviations from the usual funeral rite were recorded. While the established burial rite in Great Moravian society means the deceased lies on their back in the supine position with extended extremities and head towards the west, here we found skeletons in very different orientations, lying in a prone or crouched position, or, at least, with unusual positions of their upper or lower limbs. Additionally, some of the graves contained incomplete or no skeletons. There is also one double burial and a triple burial, and several graves in superpositions. In nine graves, objects of material culture were found, the most important of them come from the rider’s grave 20/2018. The presented study aims to interpret the burial contexts using the bioarchaeological approach, which is, however, affected by the quality of the preserved finds, especially skeletal remains.
Migration has been used as one explanation for graves that deviate from the prevailing orientation and structure. Graves oriented in the north-south direction (i.e., deviating from the customary contemporary west-east orientation) at the Great Moravian and early medieval burial grounds of Přemyslid Bohemia and Moravia have attracted the attention of archaeologists for more than 100 years. These are most often interpreted as the graves of foreigners, based on the assumption that different burial rites indicate immigrants, but this has not been confirmed or refuted with empirical evidence. With this study, we have taken the first step towards testing the validity of this hypothesis. Samples from the dental enamel of the permanent molars of two individuals (H 16/2018 and H 18/2018) from the burial site “Na Valách”, located at the Great Moravian central site in Staré Město, were subjected to stable strontium isotope analysis. This analysis can help to assess the likelihood of mobility for these individuals. From the results obtained, it is not possible to confirm the non-local origin of either of the individuals, although in the case of H 16/2018 we may theoretically consider it. However, to definitively reject or confirm the hypothesis of a non-local origin of the people buried along the north-south azimuths, future analysis of a much larger sample size will be necessary.
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