3389187769

Early Bronze burial materials from site 2 in Książnice, Świętokrzyskie province 243

the fili was of double character — at the level of the skeleton, there was a clearly distin-guished light grey layer of soil with smali pieces of charcoal. Higher up, there was a marble-like layer, as described above, consisting of light grey soil with loess particles (Fig. 3:B, 4).

Burial

The skeleton of an adult małe atthe age of maturus (about 40-45 years old, Szczepanek 2014) was in the contracted position, on the right side, with the skuli to the east, the face — to the south, and the lower limbs to the west. The upper limbs were bent: the left one at the angle of 6o°, and the right one — 90°, and positioned under the skuli. The lower limbs were bent at the angle of 90°, and the bones of the feet reached a profile NE of trench II/08, which — at the same time — constituted the edge of the asphalt road (Figs. 5, 6).

Inventory

On the skuli of the deceased lay, the nearly completely preserved, diadem of shell beads(Figs. 7,8). On the temporal bonę, immediately below the diadem, an earring was unearthed — in the shape of an open circle with overlapping ends, madę of thin copper wire (Figs. 9,14: B). Parts of another earring were found near the lower jaw. Side by side with the skeleton, 4 pendants of boar tusk were found (Fig. 14:E), as well as 126 complete and 51 pieces of shell beads (Table IV, Fig. 14:G), 51 complete and 22 parts of bonę beads (Table I, Fig. is:A, B) and 7 fiat pendants madę of part boar tusk with holes near the edges (Fig. 14:F). In front of the right femoral bonę, an artefact madę of a thin, narrowing copper piąte was found (Fig. 14:A) as well as a smali fragment of a copper wire bent in the middle (Fig. 14:D). Both of the artefacts were lying next to a group of bonę beads, probably being part of a belt (Fig. 10). Near the left femoral bonę, there was a bonę pin with a wide, fiat head (Figs. 11,15:C). Altogether 12 flint artefacts were found in the grave (Table II, Fig. 13:A), including: 8 arrowheads, 2 flakes (among them, 1 of an axe), 1 proximal fragment of a blade, 1 splinter. The arrowheads were located round the skeleton, and one — was driven into the rib (Fig. 12). Apart from that, in the grave 22 smali potsherds were found, including: 1 rim fragment decorated with horizontal cord impressions, 1 lump of daubed clay, 2 fragments of animal bones and 1 fragment of bonę chisel.

Grave 2 (feature 5/08), imestigated in August 2008.

The burial was unearthed in trench II/08, at the depth of 50 cm. At the cut of slope at the top, the feature was in the shape of a rectangle elongated along the W-E axis, and measured 100 x 95 cm. In the east the pit reached a NE profile of trench II/08, which — at the same time — constituted the edge of the asphalt road (Fig. 16). The fili of the feature is greyish-brown in colour. Feature 5/08 to SE truncates pit 6/08. The profile A-B towards W-E was dug (Fig. 17: C) and the exploration of the grave was started.

Burial

At the cross-section of profile A-B and profile NE of trench II/08, at the depth of 70-90 cm, a group of human bones was found, including parts of long bones (femur, tibia, humerus) ribs, skuli with the occipital hole tumed upwards, and lower jaw bonę, belonging