Vlíněves cemetary of the Vinařice phase, district Mělník Migration period - population group and grave looting
Abstract
The archaeological excavation of the poly-cultural site located on an area used for sand mining activity in Vlíněves unearthed a burial ground from earlier Vinařice phase of the Migration Period (end C 4th AD - half C 5th AD) with 21 grave pits and 22 buried individuals. The work presents archaeological context, preserved finds from the graves and anthropological evaluation of bone remains from the graves.
It is very likely that all graves were subject to secondary intervention. A detailed analysis of the interventions into grave fillings, similarities between them together with anthropologic and taphonomic analysis made it possible to determine that in 7 cases the interventions happened in a period shorter than 2 years after the burial.
The presented results lead to the conclusion that the community is likely to have consisted of 70 to 150 individuals and that the burial grounds were used for about 3.5 to 6.5 years. The work also presents a description of about 80 cranial non-metric morphological traits, the analysis of which did not confirm any significant morphological analogy among the buried individuals.