Graves with Horses Discovered in the 7th–8th Centuries Cemetery in Șpălnaca/Șugud (Alba County)
Graves with Horses Discovered in the 7th–8th Centuries Cemetery in Șpălnaca/Șugud (Alba County)

Summary/Abstract: Two graves, identical through their “funerary construction”, were discovered in the cemetery from Șpălnaca/Șugud (Alba County), i.e. with mortuary pits that contained human bodies buried together with horses. Through their constructive characteristics and through the position and orientation of the human skeleton, different from that of the horse skeletons, the tow graves in Șpălnaca/Șugud are as yet unique finds among the archaeological discoveries from Transylvania dated to the 7th – 8th centuries.The two graves with entire horse skeletons from Șpălnaca/Șugud are not an isolated phenomenon among the burials from the Carpathian Basin during the period of the Avar Khaganate. Graves of this type from Pannonia and West of the Danube, just like the ones in Șpălnaca/Șugud, are not very numerous in Avar cemeteries as compared to other types of graves with horses, but they did exist in the Carpathian Basin and became generalized during the 18th century.

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