EAA 2023: Abstract

Famine or epidemic periods were not exceptional in the Middle Ages in Europe. These catastrophic events are evidenced by the extreme changes in the funerary ritual (mass graves). This is also the case of medieval Kutná Hora-Sedlec (Czechia, 14th century), where 32 mass graves were excavated during rescue excavations. Their chronology is based on the stratigraphic configuration with two levels of pits. Based on historical documents mentioning a period of famine in 1318 and plague epidemics in 1348-1350, radiocarbon dating, and coins, the presence of mass graves can probably be linked to these catastrophic events. In this study, we aimed to understand better the differences between these two groups of mass graves, focusing on estimating the season-at-death of 42 individuals buried in them based on cementochronology. Given that famine and plague epidemics are strongly linked to the environment, socio-economic conditions, or climate changes and exhibit seasonal dynamics, the differences in seasonality may contribute to clarifying the causes of mass graves or the connection with documented historical events. Our results showed that each group of mass graves corresponds to one season (graves: A, B = spring/summer, graves: C, D, E = autumn/winter), hypothetically related to different seasonal peaks of mortality of famine and plague periods, supported by historical documents. This study was supported by Czech Science Foundation (21-09637S) and Ministry of Culture (DRKVO 019-2023/7.I.e, 0002327).

cementochronology, season-at-death estimation, Middle Ages, mass graves, plague, famine

Poster presentation

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Eliška Zazvonilová^1,3

Hana Brzobohatá³
Jan Frolík³
Petr Velemínský²
Jaroslav Brůžek¹