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Stanisław Wilk

Matoga conducted a surface survey in the village of Książnice and started the Archaeologi-cal Survey of Poland (AZP) card for the site.

In the course of ten seasons of excavations (2001/2002, 2003-2006, 2008, 2010-2013), conducted by the author, a multi-cultural settlement-and-burial Eneolithic and Early Bronze complex has been discovered. The complex consists of: a Lublin-Volhynian culture cemetery, a Funnel Beaker settlement, a Złota culture cemetery, a settlement with mixed materials from the Złota and Globular Amphorae cultures, a Corded Ware culture cemetery’, and a settlement with a Mierzanowice culture ditch (Fig. 1). The subject of the analysis in this article are three skeletal graves of the Mierzanowice culture, excavated in the seasons of 2008 and 2010.

The research conducted in the summer of 2008 was financed by the resources from Priori ty 4 of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, in collaboration with “Galileo”, the Foundation for Humań Development, named in honour of Professor Marian Mazur; while the research conducted in 2010 was financed by the resources from the Provincial Office for the Protection of Historical Monuments in Kielce.

A separate article by Anita Szczepanek, published in the same volume, is devoted to anthropological analysis of the discovered osseous materiał.

1. DESCRIPTION OF GRAVES

Grave 1 (feature 4/08), investigated in August 2008.

The grave was unearthed in trench II/08, at the depth of 41-50 cm. At the cut of slope at the top, the feature was a regular rectangle with rounded comers, with the longer W-E axis; from the E it reached as far as the NE profile of trench II/08. The fili of the pit was light grey-beige in colour with loess particles, with clearly visible darker streaks at the edges of the pit (Fig. 2). Profile A-B along the W-E axis of the grave was dug. At the depth of 70 cm the pit, 105 x 175 cm, had a marble structure, consisting of mixed light-grey and beige loess of the fili with lumps of loess. In the central part of the feature, tliere was a darker, spherical patch (Fig. 3: A). At the depth of 93 cm, some fragments of a skeleton and the first elements of the burial goods were found. On the temporal bonę and eye sockets of the deceased, a fragment of a diadem madę of mussel shell beads was found. Closer to the centre of the grave, several bonę beads and beads madę of mussel shells, as well as a pendant madę of parts of boar tusk, with holes at its edges, a pendant madę of boar tusk and triangular flint arrowheads were found. At the depth of 100 cm, the complete skuli of the deceased and forearms crossed in front of the face were brought to light. At that level, arrowheads, numerous shell and bonę beads, and another pendant of boar tusk were later found. By the lower jaw, a fragmentarily presen ed earring madę of copper wire was found. At that level, the fili of the grave was of mixed character — of light grey colour with smali pieces of charcoal. The bottom of the pit was found at the depth of 110 cm. In A-B profile,