The new book is devoted to the publication and analysis of materials from barrow cemeteries in the North-Western Belarus, stored in the collection of the State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw. It is published in two languages, Polish and Belarusian, and includes an extensive summary in English.
The State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw was one of the largest institutions collecting artefacts and information on archaeological sites of the eastern borderlands of the Second Polish Republic. Based on the circumstances of their discovery, the artefacts from the barrow cemeteries of contemporary north-western Belarus in the PMA collection can be grouped as follows: material obtained during planned archaeological excavations; items found by accident or during formally unsanctioned “excavations”; assemblages discovered under unknown circumstances or with questionable information on their origin.
The book primarily aims to:
− publish the material in maximum detail, including all available archival material and data on the history of discovery or formation of individual collections, reconstruct the funeral rites and grave goods of individual burials (provided the basis for such conclusions exists), and determine the chronology and cultural affiliation of individual burials and cemeteries;
− explain the context of the founding and functioning of individual cemeteries and their place on the archaeological map of the broad stretch of the Balt-Slavic borderland in the Early Middle Ages;
− analyse the history of research and protection of archaeological sites in the north-eastern voivodeships of the Second Polish Republic in the context of the development of Polish and Belarusian archaeology in the interwar period.
The book contains individual chapters prepared by Iryna Maroz, Sylwia Wajda, Łukasz Maurycy Stanaszek, Michał Golubiński and devoted to issues which are quite different but very relevant to the context of this study.
The chapter authored by Iryna Maroz presents the main directions in the formation of the system of recording and protecting archaeological heritage in the north-eastern voivodeships of the Second Polish Republic and the specification of its functioning. SylwiaWajda devoted her chapter to a detailed typological and chronological analysis of glass beads − one of the most common types of grave goods.The first-ever anthropological analysis of the skeletal remains from the burials constitutes an important part of the research on the material recovered from the barrow cemeteries of contemporary north-western Belarus and stored in the collection of the State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw. The analysis was conducted by Łukasz Maurycy Stanaszek, and one of its results was the selection of samples from the skeletal burials for DNA analyses, performed by Michał Golubiński. It should be emphasised that the results of the DNA analyses published in the book represent the first attempt at such studies of the population of north-western Belarus from the early medieval period.
One would like to express hope that this work will become an example for other specialists and inspire them to conduct new research in the field of archival archaeology, contributing to expanding the knowledge of the shared archaeological heritage of all the nations of the Second Polish Republic.
Mikalai Plavinski
Archaeological Materials from Medieval Barrow Cemeteries of North-Western Belarus in the Collections of the State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw. Warsaw: Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw, 2024.
Mikołaj Pławiński
Zabytki archeologiczne ze średniowiecznych cmentarzysk kurhanowych Północno-Zachodniej Białorusi w zbiorach Państwowego Muzeum Archeologicznego w Warszawie. Warszawa: Wydział Archeologii Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Państwowe Muzeum Archeologiczne w Warszawie, 2024.
ISBN: 978-83-66210-46-2
ISBN: 978-83-970005-7-5