Złota culture grave from Kleczanów, Sandomierz district, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship

Abstract

In 2014, a niche grave linked with the Złota culture was accidentally discovered in Kleczanów (Sandomierz district, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship). An approximately 25-year-old man was inhumed inside. He was crippled: one of his legs was shorter as a result of an improperly healed fracture. His body was subjected to magical rituals. For example, his skull was separated from the rest of the body and placed in a stone-lined cache. The grave inventory was composed of at least three vessels (a mug with a handle and two amphorae), two bone plaques (belt elements), a bone awl, and a flint arrowhead, as well as animal bones (a pig mandible, limb bones of the following animals: roe deer, medium-sized bird, and sheep or goat). A 14C date obtained from a bone fragment allows us to date the grave to the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC.