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139
VII/1/2016
INTERDISCIPLINARIA ARCHAEOLOGICA
NATURAL SCIENCES IN ARCHAEOLOGY
homepage: http://www.iansa.eu
Book reviews
Volume VII ● Issue 1/2016 ● Page 139
Hroby barbarů v Praze-Zličíně.
Svět živých a mrtvých doby stěhování
národů.
Barbarian Graves at Prague-Zličín. The
World of the Living and the Dead of the
Migration Period.
Jaroslav Jiřík, Jiří Vávra,
Miroslava Šmolíková, Milan Kuchařík
et al
.
The City of Prague Museum. Prague
2015, 255 pp. ISBN 978-80-87828-15-1.
Czech language.
The main fgures behind the
collective work of twelve authors are the
archaeologists Jaroslav Jiřík and Jiří Vávra.
The publication is abundantly illustrated
with fnds, particular site situations, and
many impressive, scientifcally-based
reconstructions created by Libor Balák.
The monograph as a whole may be divided
into two parts. The frst eight chapters
are dedicated to the Migration Period in
general: primarily presenting introductory
passages about the Migration Period in
Europe (Dieter Quast) and the Migration
Period in Bohemia (Jaroslav Jiřík), and other
more specifc contributions. The second
part (nine chapters) focuses on the results
of the Prague-Zličín burial site research:
describing the exacting research itself and
dealing with the fnds and their connections,
mainly gold and silver jewellery, ceramic
and glass vessels, tools, everyday objects,
and textiles. The authors also pay attention
to a special phenomenon of that time,
i.e.
the robbing of graves, and naturally to their
anthropological examination. Some chapters
have been written more for researchers who
are familiar with the issues, while other
chapters have a more informative character
or present partial results of the Prague-
Zličín burial site research. The book further
benefts more serious readers by having
professional notes and a list of quoted
literature, and thus no major shortcomings
can be identifed. Only in the localisation
of some cultures (mainly the Wielbark
Culture) being imprecisely placed in two
maps (p. 79) or are missing (p. 94) do we
fnd inaccuracies, but this could be down to
professional proof-readers.
This monograph does not aspire to be
an all-embracing evaluation of research,
as this would require a catalogue of fnds,
detailed descriptions of site situations,
and plans of all the graves. Rather the
authors have sought to present the complex
Migration Period in Europe and Bohemia
and mainly show the abundance of the fnds
and main results of the examination of the
Zličín site in the context of the surrounding
Barbaricum at the border of the Western
Roman Empire. Global interpretations
that follow on from the burial site analyses
would require more time. Nevertheless, it
can already be said that the Prague-Zličín
burial site is one of the most signifcant of
the Vinařice group and that its signifcance
goes beyond Bohemia. The necropolis
was also used by the elite of the Vinařice
group and the location’s background may
be regarded as one of the centres of power
in the so-called Great Prague area. Based
on the preliminary analysis of the artefacts,
many multifarious long-distance contacts
can be observed: not only in the Danube
Region, central and South Germany, and
the Rhineland, but also in areas of today’s
Italy, France, and even Egypt. In addition to
the archaeological fnds from the 5
th
century
AD, the site expands our knowledge
through its collection of organic materials,
or rather the environmental research
made on such (anthropology, osteology,
textile, leather, human hair, and fragments
of wooden cofns). The Elbe Germanic
bearers of the Vinařice group played an
important role in the transformation of the
Late Roman Period cultures along with
the groups of inhabitants of the earlier
Migration Period (especially with the
Allemani and the Danube-East Germanic
tribes). It was a turning point of the pre-
Merovingian 5
th
century, such that all of
Europe changed radically and gradually
passed from Late Antiquity into the early
medieval way of life – that also strongly
afected the Bohemian basin.
The greatest value of the book for
researchers lies in the fact that it presents
luxurious and other precious fnds as
well as outlining some topics for further
research. I only wish to the authors and
the implementation team that the Prague-
Zličín burial site of the Barbarians will
receive a detailed scientifc elaboration after
publishing of this brilliant presentation of the
research results. Only this would help move
forward 5
th
century research in the Bohemian
basin and the
Barbaricum
territory. The
reviewed undertaking just published is a
springboard for the authors to do so.
Eduard Droberjar
This representative publication about the
Migration Period and the Prague-Zličín
burial site is the frst complete popular
scientifc evaluation of research fndings
from the largest necropolis of the human
skeletal remains in Bohemia of the so-called
Vinařice group from the 5
th
century AD.
Following several partial essays, this book
was compiled to accompany an exhibition
of the same title held at the City of Prague
Museum (May 2015 – February 2016).
The publication is based on high-quality
interdisciplinary rescue archaeological
excavation conducted between 2005
and 2008 during which 173 graves were
unearthed. All chapters of this book are
written in Czech language, English version
is being prepared.
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