Święte, Site 11: Monumental (?) FBC Cemetery in the Subcarpathian Loess Region

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the Funnel Beaker Culture cemetery at Święte, site 11 (Subcarpathian Loess Region, southeastern Poland), identified during rescue excavations carried out prior the construction of the A4 highway. A total of 49 graves were recorded and excavated, forming a well-organized burial ground with poorly preserved human remains and modest grave goods. Although no direct traces of monumental long-barrow constructions were recorded during excavation, GIS-based spatial analyses and the placement of Corded Ware Culture graves along the margins suggest that such structures may once have existed within the FBC cemetery but did not survive. The cemetery should therefore be cautiously interpreted not as a flat burial ground, but as a more complex, potentially monumental sepulchral space.