House of the dead-exceptional burials of the Avar period (seventh century AD) in Podersdorf am See (Burgenland/A)

Bibliographic Data

ID5403600
AuthorsBendeguz Tobias (0000-0001-6946-4397, Austrian Academy of Sciences, corresponding author), Thomas Koch Waldner (0000-0002-5695-364X, Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum), Christina Strobl (0000-0001-6059-243X, Innsbruck Medical University), Harald Niederstätter (0000-0003-3279-3597, Innsbruck Medical University), Christina Musalek (Natural History Museum Vienna), Konstantina Saliari (0000-0002-1344-0756, Natural History Museum Vienna), Ulrike Töchterle (0000-0002-7507-5416, Universität Innsbruck), Walther Parsons (0000-0002-5692-2392, Innsbruck Medical University, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume12
Issue8
Publication date2020-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueArchaeological and Anthropological Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1866-9557 • E-ISSN: 1866-9565
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s12520-020-01102-5
OpenAlexW3042784679
LanguageEN
References cited24

A unique archaeological finding of five individuals buried in an early medieval pit house was discovered in Podersdorf am See (Austria). Three of those individuals were buried in narrow grave pits that had been deepened into the house floor; two of them were lying on the pit floor in a crouched position. Pit houses with six-post construction are known since Roman times and were particularly widespread during the Migration Period. On the basis of radiocarbon analyses of charcoal from the hearth, the use phase of the pit house of Podersdorf am See can be dated to the sixth century AD. The burials took place around the same time in the second half of the seventh century AD, when the house lost its original function. Around that time, regular burials took place in the cemetery in the immediate vicinity of the house. The anthropological examination of the five skeletons showed no significant differences in comparison to the ones that were buried in the cemetery. By means of aDNA analyses, it could be established that at least two of the individuals were closely related to each other

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Geography · Hearth · Period (music · Radiocarbon dating · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Eurasian Exchange Networks · Forensic and Genetic Research · History

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