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Projects / Programmes source: ARIS

Analysis of the Cemetery Župna Cerkev in Kranj (Slovenia)

Research activity

Code Science Field Subfield
6.02.00  Humanities  Archaeology   

Code Science Field
6.01  Humanities  History and Archaeology 
Keywords
Archaeology, Early Medieval Ages, cemetery stratigraphy, grave goods, chronology, spatial, analysis, digital tools (GIS), Kranj, Slovenia
Evaluation (metodology)
source: COBISS
Organisations (1) , Researchers (1)
0618  Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
no. Code Name and surname Research area Role Period No. of publicationsNo. of publications
1.  38265  PhD Jernej Rihter  Humanities  Head  2022 - 2025  63 
Abstract
The cemetery of Župna Cerkev in Kranj (Slovenia) is one of the largest Early Medieval cemeteries in the south-eastern Alps as well as in the larger part of Central Europe (Fig. 1). The current state of research provides a good starting point for a qualitative leap in the archaeological knowledge of the Central European Early Middle Ages. The cemetery has 2943 archaeologically excavated graves, of which about one third are Early Medieval. A stratigraphy of the graves (Harris matrix) and a typochronology of Early Medieval jewellery and anthropological analyses have been produced. No archaeological interpretation of the cemetery has been made to date. The stratigraphy and the material remains indicate a continuous burial activity between the 8th and 18th centuries in the same area next to church buildings from different periods. Kranj (Carnium), as a place of supra-regional importance, positioned at the junction of of the Alps and the Mediterranean, as well as the individual artefacts, which are not typical of the material culture here in the Early Middle Ages, show numerous contacts with neighbouring regions. As such, the cemetery represents a unique and representative site of a significant part of Central Europe and not only of the Southeastern Alps. At this stage of the research, we consider that all the conditions have been met for approaching a synthetic analysis of the cemetery, which is a long-awaited desideratum both among the domestic and the international specialists. The objective of the proposed research is the synthetic analysis and archaeological interpretation of one of the largest Early Medieval cemetery in Central Europe. To this end, we have set 3 specific goals. First, we will date the Early Mediaeval and younger graves with and without artefacts. Second, we will conduct a spatial analysis of the cemetery. Third, we will make an archaeological interpretation of the results, focusing on the Early Medieval period and supported by the results of the spatial analysis. The results will provide a basis for resolving a number of interpretive issues in Central European archaeology: from questions related to archaeological typologies to problems of identity group formation and questions about the possibility of detecting population migrations.
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