In this dissertation project Deborah Schulz investigates a burial ground dating from the late Imperial Period to the Migration Period (3rd to the early 5th c. AD) in Lower Lusatia/Brandenburg.
Research
Stratified cemeteries are a type of cemetery built up in one or more layers of different, overlapping and inseparable cremations in the late Roman Iron Age and early Migration Period (3rd – early 5th century) in Central Europe. One of these cemeteries – Jänschwalde (Germany) – is an exceptionally well preserved location that is situated within and on top of a post-glacial dune, which was reactivated with the beginning of settlement in this area. The cremation graves are mainly built in thin layers, separated by drifting sands, which accumulated during the main occupancy of the cemetery. These drifting sands made it possible to separate single graves. This particular occurrence of individual graves within drift sand layers is extremely rare. The exceptionally well preserved graves made it possible to reconstruct and assume burial rituals as well as the development of the cemetery. The graves were mainly the untouched remains of the pyre, which were conserved by the naturally covering of drift sands.
This Ph.D. thesis is being written within the program “Landscape Archaeology and Architecture” (LAA) of the Berlin Graduate School of Ancient Studies (BerGSAS).