Abstract
In 1985-1986, in the course of a rescue excavation organized by the Museum of the Capital City of Prague, 13 small cremation graves and 4 large graves were discovered on the grounds of the new Nové Butovice residential complex in Jihozápadní Město (Southwestern Town) (Fig. 1). Six of the small cremation graves could be identified as urn graves (graves 1, 6, 15, 21, 22, 34) and 7 cremation graves were deposited in simple pits (graves 3, 4, 5, 7, 20, 35, 58).
Only one of the four large graves unquestionably contained an inhumation (grave 8), the others only contained very small parts of the skeleton (graves 61 and 15/P.18.-II). No skeletal remains were noticed in the remaining large grave (no. 3/P.18.-II).
No anthropological analysis of the skeletal material has been carried out. Most of the cremation graves were, to a large extent, damaged by ploughing and soil stripping.
The large inhumation graves without apparent modifications can be classified as combination groups II-1 (graves 8 and 61), and II-2 to II-3 (graves 3/P.18.-II, 15/P.18.-II). Ceramic findings were most widely represented.
The pottery was of inferior quality and poorly fired. It is possible to believe that it primarily served funerary purposes.
Metal findings are only represented by simple rings (graves 20, 34, 58, 61), an iron knife (grave 61) and a bronze artefact of unknown purpose (grave 15). The glass and amber beads with a small bronze spiral which were recovered from cremation grave 15 can be regarded as parts of a necklace.
The other findings include a ceramic rattle (grave 3/P.18.-II) and a fragment of an idol (grave 61). On the basis of fragmentarily preserved ceramic vessels and inconclusive metal findings, the Nové Butovice cemetery can be classified as belonging to Reinecke's chronological phase Ha C1-Ha C3, which corresponds to the time period from the early phase up to the later part of the middle phase of the Bylany culture in central Bohemia.