Burials at execution sites as a reflection of society's attitude towards people in the dregs of society
Abstract
The text concerns the issues of refusing ecclesiastical burial and funeral at the cemetery in the Middle Ages and in modern times. According to written sources the excommunicated, non-baptized, dissenters, as well as "bad Christians" were excluded from the cemeteries.
This group also included for example those who committed suicide, moneylenders, misers, an others if they died in a state of a grave sin. In the late Middle Ages also executed criminals joined this group.
All these, according to sources, were to end up buried either outside the cemetery wall, or in the field or often at the gallows. This practice is confirmed by archaeological excavations of the execution sites.
The article outlines the latest research of this kind in the Czech Republic and focuses mainly on the excavations in the town of Vodňany in southern Czech Republic.