The selected issues of the early middle-ages burial places

I. Introduction. The dissertation paper contains four separate studies dealing with the topíc ofburials in the Early Middle-Ages. The paper's focus is the Czech Early Middle-Ages environment, however, in all studies the author tried to integrate the Czech evolution into the Central Europe context. The contents of particular chapters is the following: II. The change in burial rites in the early middle ages as an issue for archeology and cultural anthropology. The frrst part is aimed at the crucial change which took place in the course ofthe 9th century involving the handling ofthose who died- the cremation is altemated with burials of non-bumt bodies. On the basis of the oldest skeleton graves analysis the author comes to the conclusion that the above mentioned change in the Czech environment happed somewhat later than has been generally considered until now and therefore, its historical context should be re-assessed, as well. Next parts ofthe section try to capture the burial rite change as a cultural phenomenon accompanying in a series ofEuropean areas the initial steps of the integration of traditional "gentile" societies into the structures of the Medieval Europe which was being formed. The aim of the comparison of several better knowable regions was to outline the scope of the variability of causes and..