Death and funerary customs belong to the stable and conservative elements in a society. They are very slow to change and can remain almost identical for hundreds, even thousands of years, varying only with fundamental changes in the social sphere and culture. In the case of ancient Israel, changes to long-established death and funerary customs often occurred when new foreign influences were incorporated and transformed in accordance with indigenous traditions and norms. Even when a new theory within the death "ideology" appeared, it did not necessarily dictate a change in mortuary behavior towards the dead. Actually, we cannot always find a causal relationship between a doctrine or particular religious attitude and the corresponding burial practice. For nearly two millennia Jews practiced the full body treatment, including manipulation during the secondary burial, while at the same time regarding corpse handling as unclean and polluting.
Příspěvek přináší shrnutí poznatků o raně středověkém pohřbívání v aglomeraci hradiště v Libici nad Cidlinou. Díky soustavnému, více než jedno století trvajícímu zájmu archeologie máme k dispozici poměrně ucelený obraz vývoje významného raně středověkého centra. Rozlišení tří hlavních chronologických horizontů umožňuje sledovat v kontextu pohřebišť i dynamiku vývoje celé lokality. Na základě srovnání jednotlivých pohřebišť se autor pokouší o vymezení sociotopografie celé aglomerace hradiště a zároveň poukazuje na limity tohoto poznání založeného pouze na archeologických pramenech. and This paper provides a summary of knowledge relating to Early Medieval burial within the agglomeration of the fortified enclosure at Libice nad Cidlinou. Thanks to consistent interest on the part of archaeology for more than a century, a relatively complete picture is now available of the development of this important Early Medieval centre. The discernment of three main chronological horizons makes it possible to trace the development dynamic of the entire site in the context of the cemeteries. On the basis of a comparison of the individual cemeteries the author attempts to define the sociotopography of the whole enclosure agglomeration, and at the same time show the limits of this understanding based purely on the archaeological material.