Graves from the Palace Centre – east site: an attempt at ethnic cultural identification of burials intra muros in Pliska

Abstract

This study presents five graves discovered east of the Palace Centre in Pliska (fig. 1). They represent individual burials located in the inter-dwelling area (fig. 2). The graves’ contexts were studied interdisciplinarily. The archaeological study provided data on the stratigraphy of the graves and detailed documentation of the burial pits and skeletal remains. The anthropological study provided information about the sex, age and height of the buried individuals, also their anatomical and anthropological features, disease (pathologies), traumas and medical manipulations that left traces on the bone remains. Stratigraphically, the graves date to the last phase of habitation of the medieval city (between the 30s/40s of the 11th c. and the 60s of the 11th c.). The newly studied graves can be placed in the context of the other intramural graves in the Inner City of Pliska, which makes it possible to clarify and summarize a wide range of issues related to the stratigraphy and chronology of the intramural graves and their connection with the demographic and ethnic cultural changes in the medieval city.

Keywords

• Pliska
• graves
• anthropological research
• trepanation