An Arpadian age (10th–11th c.) burial ground was unearthed on the plateau of Oberleiserberg along with features and findings from several other periods. It was first discovered during the excavation led by Herbert Mitscha-Märheim and Ernst Nischer-Falkenhof in the 1920s and 30s. In the 1970s and 80s the site was archaeologically investigated by Herwig Friesinger and his team. During these archaeological campaigns 71 additional graves were found. The multidisciplinary analyses of the medieval findings and features as well as the human remains unearthed on Oberleiserberg are part of the international project Frontier, Contact Zone or No Man’s Land — The Morava- Thaya Region from the Early to the High Medieval Ages (I 1911 G21, led by Stefan Eichert and Jiří Macháček funded by FWF (Austrian Science Fund) and GAČR (Czech Science Foundation). The early and high medieval findings indicate contact of the entombed population with nonnative peoples, possibly reaching as far as the Baltic Sea. Anthropological analysis of the excavated skeletons shows us more about the everyday life of the people buried here and together with isotopic analysis of the human remains, conclusions about their living conditions are possible.

The paper deals with the study upon the possibility to reduce migration of deposited pesticide wastes by using natural and waste sorption agents that would make a screen against plant protection means penetration into the hydrosphere. Sewage sludge from dairy treatment plant "Mlekovita" in Wysokie Mazowieckie as well as the same sludge with sawdust composted under natural conditions in Rudka Forestry Inspectorate was applied as natural sorption agents. Freundlich's and Langmuir's isotherms revealed that raw (no composting) sewage sludge showed better sorption features towards chloroorganic pesticides.

The custom of burying the dead is not merely commonly accepted by the Christianity way of disposal of the human body after death. It is most deeply rooted and perfectly expressing Christian anthropology, revealed in the Holy Scriptures as a consequence of original sin, a sign of hope in the resurrection, and imitation of Christ, who was buried in the tomb. In the Catholic view, the burial is a corporal work of mercy, an act of care for the dead and their loved ones. Gaining popularity the practice of cremation is accepted by the Church for the sake of hygiene, economy, or community. Human remains, also in the form of ashes, always must be buried or placed in the columbarium. The Church does not allow human body disposal by resomation or promession. Alternative forms of memorializing the deceased, though attractive esthetically and sentimentally, are not only outlandish in Christian culture, but also contrary to the Christian teaching on origins, nature, and destination of the human person.

The objective of this article is to present the funerary eye and mouth plates use as a funeral custom from the 10th century in the Carpathian Basin. Presented artefacts, which were interpreted as funerary eye and mouth plates, were sewn onto the shroud used to cover the skull or were placed on the eye cavity and on the mouth of the deceased person. The collected artefacts were divided into four parts, based on the formal aspect. Their characteristics were examined. These artefacts show strong connections with specimens known from eastern Europe, especially with the ones known from the Ural. The ancient Hungarians brought this funeral custom to the Carpathian Basin in the course of their conquest. Ethnic studies are needed to understand the discussed custom, and the subject requires further research.

ABSTRACT:

The text discusses medieval and modern sepulchral finds of coins from Eastern Europe, conventionally referred to as the “obol of the dead”. For the first time the phenomenon was observed in 8th century graves of nomads in the Khazar Khaganate. In the 9th and 10th century, Arab dirhams and Byzantine miliarenses appear in graves in the areas of the Scandinavian expansion, mainly in the basin of the upper Volga and the Dnieper. In the 11th century the custom of equipping the dead with coins becomes common and it is mainly West European pennies that are used for the purpose. In the 12th and 13th century, the practice becomes virtually obsolete to experience a revival in the 15th century. In modern times the observance of the custom reaches its peak in the 17th century and remains to be recorded in ethnographic sources until today.

SUMMARY:

The text presents the custom of equipping the dead with coins, followed in medieval and modern Eastern Europe.

In this area coins appear for the first time in richly equipped graves of nomads, dated to the 8th century, along the lower course of the Don and Volga rivers in the Khazar Khaganate. They are predominantly gold issues — Byzantine solidi and gold-plated dirhams, placed in the mouth of the dead.

In the 9th and 10th centuries coins and their fragments, which can be referred to as “the obol of the dead”, occur in the barrow mounds in the north-west areas of ancient Rus’, on the east and south coast of Ladoga Lake, in the interfluve of the Volga and the Oka as well as in sites located along the upper and middle course of the Dnieper, particularly in the Czernichow Land. In the second part of the 10th and 11th century the custom becomes widespread, and most of the finds come from inhumation burial. Apart from those areas, coins appear in graveyards located along the upper course of the Volga River, in the areas of Lake Peipus and Lake Ilmen as well as in the basin of the Dnieper and further down to Kiev. Characteristically enough, all the sites are located in the area of the Scandinavian expansion and colonisation.

The predominant types of coins found in graves dated to the 10th century are Arab dirhams as well as Byzantine folles, miliarenses and solidi. It should also be noted that graves with pendant-coins become more frequent. At the end of the 10th century there is an observable decrease in the inflow of Arab gold into the Baltic region. At the end of the 10th and the beginning of the 11th century, coins from Western Europe appear and dominate the entire next century. They are usually German issues, but also English and, to a smaller extent, Bohemian and Hungarian coins. Interestingly enough, the number of coins left in the form of “the obol of the dead” is much higher than that of pendant-coins. Sometimes the local, Rus’ coins occur, although rather infrequently.

In the 12th and 13th century the custom of equipping the dead with coins disappears completely from the forest zone of Eastern Europe, which is caused by the cessation of the inflow of Western European coins into Novgorod Rus’ and predominantly, by the evolution of burial practices, manifesting itself in abandoning the custom of equipping the dead. In the 13th and 14th century, after the Mongol invasions, coins reappear in the graves of the nomads of the Golden Horde, who bring the custom from the grasslands of Central Asia. The finds are dominated by Golden Horde issues.

In the 14th century, coins are occasionally used in the burials of Lithuanian and Slavic population in the Polish-Rus’ and Lithuanian-Rus’ border areas (today’s Eastern Poland and Grodno Region). In the latter case, the finds of coins are particularly frequent in graves from the 15th century. Similarly to the 11th century Rus’ this is an area of intensive Christianisation and transformations of burial practices. Outside the Grodno Region, the coins appear frequently in graves across Lithuania, Samogitia, Semigallia, Latgale, Livonia and Courland. In the 16th century, coins start to appear in graves of newly Christianised Finno-Ugric peoples of Mari, Mordva and Udmurt. They appear both as the “obols of the dead” and pendants in lavishly decorated necklaces and hats.

The culmination of the practice of equipping the death with coins falls on the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century. The areas of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and of the Grand Duchy of Moscow are dominated by local issues, mostly small coins of low nominal value.

In archaeological sources, there is a rapid decrease in the number of sepulchral finds of coins in graves from the second half of the 18th century. We know of only one burial with coins from the 19th century. Similarly, coins were discovered only in one 20th-century grave, which does not, however, signify that the practice of equipping the dead disappeared — it only reflects the current state of examination of contemporary archaeological sites. Ethnographic sources frequently record the tradition of equipping the death and confirm the presence of such practices in the areas of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Poland.

The Marhřgda Bed occurring at base of the Adventdalen Group in Sassenfjorden, Spitsbergen contains common ankerite–replaced belemnite skeletons. Petrographic, major element geochemical, and stable carbon and oxygen isotopic data indicate that the ankerite originated in a catagenic environment associated with thermal degradation of kerogenan d hydrocarbongen erationinthe sequence. It formed at maximum temperature of 150°C under burial of approx. 2 000 m, most probably during Paleogene filling and subsidence of the Central Spitsbergen Basin. Dissolution of biogenic calcite and precipitation of ankerite reflect extensive heat flow through the Adventdalen Group sequence related to the Cretaceous and Paleogene magmatic and orogenic activity in Svalbard.

The Marhegda Bed is a carbonate-dominated Uthostratigraphic unit occurring locally at base of the Middle-Late Jurassic organic-rich sequence of the Agardhfjellet Formation in Spitsbergen, Svalbard. It has been interpreted to represent oolitic limestone facies deposited during an initial stage of Late Jurassic transgression. Petrographic, major element geochemical, and stable carbon and oxygen isotopic data presented in this paper indicate that this litho-stratigraphic unit is not a depositional limestone, but a diagenetic cementstone band originated in organic-rich sediment containing glauconite pellets and phosphatic ooids and grains. Two ep­isodes of carbonate diagenesis, including early precipitation of siderite and burial precipitation of ankerite, have contributed to the development of this cementstone. Extensive siderite precipi­tation occurred at sedimentary temperatures in nearsurface suboxic environment in which microbial reduction of ferric iron was the dominant diagenetic process. Precipitation of ankerite occurred at temperatures of about 80-100°C in burial diagenetic environment overwhelmed by thermal decarboxylation processes. Formation of ankerite was associated with advanced alteration of glauconite, dissolution of apatite and precipitation of kaolinite.