Plunder or Ritual? The Phenomenon of Grave Reopening in the Row-Grave Cemeteries from Transylvania (6th-7th Centuries)
Plunder or Ritual? The Phenomenon of Grave Reopening in the Row-Grave Cemeteries from Transylvania (6th-7th Centuries)

Summary/Abstract: Grave reopening represents one of the most common phenomena in the cemeteries dated to the Migration and Early Medieval Period. This activity has been interpreted in several ways in the archaeological literature: current theories explain it as either grave plundering or ritual grave reopening. The row-grave cemeteries in Transylvania, the easternmost area of the Merovingian culture, were disturbed to a very high degree. Despite this fact, the phenomenon of grave reopening has hardly ever been discussed in the Romanian archaeological literature. The aim of the present paper is to analyze this issue, based on the published data, in order to draw conclusions regarding the frequency of the disturbed graves, the methods used in the grave reopenings, which objects were removed and which were left behind, and the moment when the reopening took place. However, such research is seriously hindered by the insufficiency of information, mainly in the case of the old excavations; therefore, part of the results can only be hypothetical.

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