Early medieval cemetery in Giecz, site. 10. Preliminary research results

Discovered in 2013, the inhumation cemetery in Giecz, site 10, is the fourth funeral site related to the early medieval settlement complex that developed around one of the principal stronghold centres of the first Piast site. The cemetery is located about 500m north-west of the stronghold, near an early medieval settlement discovered during surface research in 1928. During three excavation seasons (2014–2016), 55 burials and several dozen settlement features from the period preceding the establishment of the cemetery were discovered and excavated at the site. In general, the graves were oriented along an east-west axis, forming a row system characteristic of early medieval cemeteries. The burial pits were distinct, mostly rectangular, with rounded corners, of varying dimensions. In a few cases, traces of wood were observed. These were interpreted as a formwork or a wooden construction framing the grave or a specific widening of a burial pit suggesting a remnant of the bier. The deceased were placed in an extended supine position, their heads mostly to the west, with arms folded along the body or on the pelvis. These rules were not always respected in the case of the graves of small children, but also several adults were positioned differently in graves (with the head facing east, flexed on the side or with the hand on the abdomen or the chest). Most of the burials were single, but a double grave was also discovered, in which a small child was later interred into in the grave of an adult woman. Grave goods were recovered from 31 burials. They were mainly everyday items (knives, buckets with iron rings, spindles or fragments of combs), coins and ornaments, among which noteworthy are two necklaces consisting of glass beads and semi-precious stones found in children’s graves. A very preliminary analysis of the grave goods (the excavated artefacts have not yet been subject to conservation) suggests that the cemetery functioned between the eleventh and the thirteenth centuries. Excavations at Giecz, site 10, are going to be continued under a research programme implemented by the Archaeological Reserve in Giecz in cooperation with the Slavia Foundation