Przestrzeń cmentarzysk pradziejowych w teorii i praktyce archeologicznej
The space of prehistoric burial grounds in archaeological theory and practice

Summary/Abstract: The ways of interpreting prehistoric burial grounds were modified several times within last decades. However, still dominant is the approach in which the most important is to document well, to systemize and to specify grave findings. The present paper considers the researches emphasizing the space relations in the burial ground area as well as the interrelations between ritual structures situated there. The grounds, in historical depiction, were analysed on the basis of the following methods: cultural evolutionism, positivism, structuralism, and also hermeneutics and phenomenology. Gradually, the attention was paid to the new research problems: distances between graves, directions of the burial grounds’ development, establishing their inner and outer boundaries, settlement of ritual structures (hearths, funeral pyres, concentration of pottery and stones) and the tradition of using the space of burial grounds in later historical periods. The conclusions presented in the paper show that the biography of archaeological structures, such as burial grounds, is initiated in primeval history but is completed by other generations of observers and researchers of those relics. Their space „text” is unceasingly read and interpreted.

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