Cemeteries of the Churches of Our Lady in Summo in Ostrów Tumski in Poznań from the second half of the 10th? towards the late 18th century – variety of funeral practices

Abstract

Abstract. The cemetery of the Church of Our Lady on Ostrów Tumski in Poznań was mentioned in written sources for the first time after the consecration of the Gothic collegiate church (1448), together with the information concerning the construction of a wall in the years 1465-1466. However, observations resulting from archaeological research suggest that the dead could have been buried also in the pre-Romanesque palace chapel. In total, about 160 graves were recorded around the Gothic church and inside it, as well as numerous human bones, either in clusters or separate. The obtained data concerned various forms of burials, arrangement of skeletons, and grave goods. In the later phase of the cemetery, within the area south of the church, a change in the orientation of the skeletons was observed, while in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries an arrangement of three rows of graves appeared. The most recent of the burials seems to be an ossuary in the middle of the central nave. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, human bones, transferred from the cathedral, being rebuilt at the time, were reburied there. The results of archaeological research of the cemetery have been confronted with written sources and iconography of Ostrów Tumski. From the south, west and north, relics of the brick and stone cemetery wall were also recognised. The material obtained during field works requires further detailed analyses and research: either archaeological or anthropological, and also in terms of conservation.