7.3.2009 The dead had coins and antlers in the grave

The new discovery was announced by Brno archaeologists twelve years ago. They discovered a Slavic burial ground with fifteen skeletons in Modřice near Brno. Some of them had charity as a ferry coin or antlers for good luck.

Alms were routinely remembered by the dead on their way to the grave. Archaeologists eventually found several tombs with skeletons from earlier Slavic settlements that are older than Modřice. The graves were Christian, but the alms were more pagan.

“The burial ground in Modřice from the twelfth century is a unique early medieval find. So far, we have discovered fifteen graves with skeletons from earlier Slavic settlements, which are older than Modřice, "praised the finding at the beginning of March 2009 by the head of archaeologists from Archaia Zdeněk Merta.

The skeletons probably originally lay in wooden coffins, which disintegrated over time. In total, archaeologists have found the remains of three deceased alms. One of them held an eggshell in his hand, the other had a coin in his lap, and the third was decorated with antlers.

According to archaeologist Miroslav Dejmal, the most important find in Modřice was the Mladá Hradiště burial ground. "According to the preliminary determination of one of the found denarii, we can date it to the 11th century," the archaeologist outlined the results of the research.

The fourth discovered object, the so-called earrings, also helped to classify the time finding. This feminine hair ornament occurs only in tombs from the eleventh to thirteenth centuries.

After completing the research in Modřice, archaeologists stated that they found a total of nineteen graves. Four of them were children. "We managed to find 3 denarii (two and a half), beads (for a child), two earrings (two more in a secondary form outside the graves), the remains of eggshells (4 graves) and a richly decorated antler object," Dejmal said.

According to him, the research provided an interesting view of the settlement of Modřice hundreds of years ago. Archaeologists also planned an analysis to clarify the settlement structure in the Modřice cadastre in the Mladá Hradiště period. For several years, Brno archaeologists also studied the site near the industrial zone in Modřice. This is an area with settlement in virtually all prehistoric stages of our history.

Sources: www.archaiabrno.org, www.denik.cz