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Archaeological Excavations of the Crkvari – St. Lawrence’s Church Site 2010
Tatjana Tkalčec
orcid.org/0000-0003-3963-7706
; Institute of Archaeology, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Archaeological excavations of the mediaeval church and cemetery in Crkvari near Orahovica have continued. The southern area, next to the modern-day chapel, i.e. the part originating from the 15th century, was excavated. The foundations of two buttresses from this stage of the church were unearthed (SU 871 and SU 872). These served as supports, but also played a stylistic and artistic role in the late Gothic church that was added to the older three-nave church. A corner of the eastern (SU 869) and southern wall (SU 870) of the southern nave of the older three-nave, probably early Gothic, church was found together with a corner buttress (SU 897). The remains of a structure that have not been archaeologically defined yet (the remains of a tomb or possibly a side altar?) were also found immediately to the west, along the inner face of the wall (SU 869).
A further 97 graves were excavated, making a total of 368 excavated tombs. Four basic horizons were identified, as was the case in previous campaigns: the most recent (modern era), with a large proportion of burials of small children, babies and newborns; a later phase of late mediaeval graves from the 15th and beginning of the 16th century; an older phase of late mediaeval graves (13th–14th century); and early mediaeval graves and graves from the so-called High Middle Ages (11th–13th century). A special feature of the 2010 excavations is the large proportion of enclosed coins (mostly in the graves of infants aged less than one year old at the time of death) in the horizon of modern era graves, particularly in the 17th century.
The 2010 results again produced some completely new data on burial rites at the site. Bearing in mind all the information gathered in archaeological excavations up to the present day and also the accompanying anthropological analyses, an overall study and publication of the site will obviously fundamentally extend our knowledge of early mediaeval and particularly late mediaeval and modern era burial rites, as well as of the population of the area, about which, for the time being, there is very little scientifically verified information in Croatia. Of course, the site fills us with enthusiasm not only because of its cemetery finds, but also because of its significance in the society of the time. This manifested itself through several stages of sacral architecture, extensions, superstructures, and eventually a sort of cessation and reduction not only in architecture, but also in the significance of the site, which has been transformed into a present-day small village cemetery chapel.
Keywords
archaeological excavations; Crkvari; St. Lawrence’s Church; cemetery; mediaeval hill fort; early Middle Ages; late Middle Ages; modern era
Hrčak ID:
89801
URI
Publication date:
25.10.2011.
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