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Cemeteries and Burials from Bavaria

Already in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras, long before settling down, people were buried in accordance with fixed rules, as the approximately 9700-year-old skull burials from the Great Ofnet Cave near Nördlingen (Donau-Ries district) show. Smaller groups of graves, such as the necropolis of Essenbach (Landshut district), developed into larger cemeteries in the late sixth millenium BC during the early Neolithic period, e.g. Aiterhofen-Ödmühle in Lower Bavaria.

Crouched inhumation was customary at first. Hatchets, axes, bone and flint tools, stone jewellery, snails and shells as well as clay vessels served as grave goods. These traditions of burial customs continued into the early Bronze Age (2200-1600 BC). From the Middle to the Late Bronze Age (1600-1300 B.C.), extended cremations in burial mounds became the norm. Women were often buried with needles and jewellery, men with daggers, axes and needles

From the late Bronze Age and the Urnfield Period (1300-800 BC) onwards, almost all of the deceased were cremated and buried, especially in Bavaria - in some large urn cemeteries. Increased social differentiation could now also be observed. The local elites were given arrows, bows, spears and swords as well as the remains of four-wheeled ceremonial carts. Ceramic dishes slowly developed into sets of dinnerware

The frequency and extent of the burials decreased in the middle Urnfield Period (1100-950 BC), but increased again in the later Urnfield Period. Glass in the form of small blue pearls and the first bronze objects with inlays of iron appeared more often. Burials in flat graves and urns also took place. In the early pre-Roman Iron Age, fields of large burial mounds arose once more and culminated in imposing princely burial mounds, such as the one from Kinding-Ilbling (Eichstätt district) in Upper Bavaria.

From the beginning of the middle Latène Period (250 BC) small flat grave-cemeteries appeared, while grave goods decreased again. Until the early Middle Ages, around AD 700, the deceased were buried wearing their traditional garments, men with weapons and women with jewellery, in rows within huge cemeteries. After that, such customs became less usual. The deceased now received devotionalia, i.e. objects of devotion and piety, such as rosaries and crosses, into the tomb. The burial took place in cemeteries next to churches.

Finds by Cemeteries

Prehistoric cemeteries and burials

Roman cemeteries and burials

Early medieval cemeteries and burials

Modern-Era cemeteries and burials

The other part collections of the "Archaeological Findings" available in bavarikon

>> This collection is part of the holdings of "Archaeological Finds" of the Archäologische Staatssammlung München (Archaeological State Collection of Munich).