Biserica evanghelică din Saschiz, judeţul Mureş. Cercetări arheologice (II): cimitirul exterior / The Evangelical church at Saschiz, Mureş County. Archaeological research (II): the cemetery around the church
Journal Title: MATERIALE SI CERCETARI ARHEOLOGICE - Year 2018, Vol 0, Issue 0
Abstract
The study analyses the burials uncovered around the evangelical church in Saschiz, thus supplementing the previously published data about this monument. Archaeological research, carried out at the time of restoration works, has identified several dozen burials, irregularly spread around the church. The necropolis has a low density of burials, the graves are unevenly distributed and their overlaps suggest family burial places. The burial ritual is straightforward – all the deceased have been laid to rest lying on their back, with the forearms set over their body. An interesting feature is that most graves did not respect the traditional head‐to‐west orientation, being influenced by the church's orientation, on the NW–SE axis. None of the graves had grave goods, so the chronological framework has been established based on the date of the church, stratigraphic study and the lack of burials older than the church. According to these features, the burials began at the earliest after the middle of the 15th century and ceased after almost a century. The topo‐chronological characteristics show that the short‐lived funerary function of the church was for the benefit of a select number of parishioners, most likely belonging to the forefront families of the community. The archaeological research in Saschiz has thus documented a rather rare situation in the colonists’ environment – one in which the parish graveyard was functioning, around the year 1500, in a different location than the church. Articolul analizează mormintele descoperite în exteriorul bisericii evanghelice din Saschiz, completând, astfel, datele publicate anterior despre acest monument. Cercetarea arheologică, realizată cu ocazia restaurării, a identificat câteva zeci de morminte, dispuse neregulat în jurul bisericii. Necropola este rarefiată, mormintele sunt repartizate inegal, iar suprapunerile sugerează existența unor locuri de înmormântare familiale. Ritualul de înmormântare este simplu, toți decedații fiind depuși în poziţie culcat pe spate, cu antebrațele așezate în diferite poziții pe bazin sau abdomen. Un aspect interesant este acela că majoritatea mormintelor nu au respectat orientarea tradițională cu capul către vest, fiind influențate de orientarea bisericii, puternic deviată pe axa NV–SE. Niciunul dintre morminte nu a avut obiecte de inventar, drept urmare limitele cronologice ale cimitirului au fost stabilite pe baza datării edificiului religios, a absenței înmormântărilor anterioare acestuia și a studiului stratigrafic. Conform acestor factori, înhumările au început cel mai devreme după mijlocul secolului al XV‐lea și au încetat după aproape un secol. Caracteristicile topo‐cronologice ale cimitirului arată că funcția funerară a bisericii a fost de scurtă durată și accesibilă unui număr restrâns de enoriași, cel mai probabil proveniți din familiile reprezentative ale comunității. Astfel, cercetările arheologice de la Saschiz au documentat o situație destul de rar întâlnită în mediul coloniștilor, în care cimitirul parohial a funcționat, în jurul anului 1500, în alt loc decât biserica.
Authors and Affiliations
Daniela Marcu Istrate
Keywords
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