Call for papers: EAA 2025 Belgrade ‘Grave reopening in the first millennium CE’

We warmly invite abstract submissions for session 35 at the 31st Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists in Belgrade on 3-6 September 2025:

Grave reopening in the first millennium CE – connecting European regions

Session Organizers

Alison Klevnäs (Uppsala University, alison.klevnas@arkeologi.uu.se), Edeltraud Aspöck (University of Graz), Tamara Šarkić (University of Belgrade), Lavinia Grumeza, (Romanian Academy), Alpár Dobos (National Museum of Transylvanian History)

Session Abstract

Taking as our starting point the broad region of central and southeastern Europe in which the conference takes place, this session will discuss evidence of deliberate re-entries into inhumation burials during the first millennium CE.

Graves disturbed soon after burial or while cemeteries were still in use are a widespread phenomenon across first millennium Europe. Usually evidenced by disarranged skeletal remains and artefacts and often pits dug to access contents, they have been noted in many countries since the early days of excavation, and have typically been regarded as grave robbery.

In post-Roman western Europe, recent research has debunked traditional narratives in understanding grave reopening. Methods from micro-stratigraphy, archaeothanatology, and bioanthropology are being used to better understand natural processes and post-burial interventions, as well as the timing, motives and beliefs behind these actions. Far from theft, the widespread reopening there seems to be a selective activity targeting specific forms of artefact, and is argued to represent extended mortuary customs.

The focus of this session is to discuss evidence in central and southeastern Europe against a broader geographical and methodological picture. These regions see even higher intensities of reopening, with whole cemeteries often affected, not least in earlier phases. The territories of the Pannonian Plain, for example, experienced centuries of migrations, warfare, and raiding, and there are cultural discontinuities, as well as elements of continuity. There researchers have observed a widespread phenomenon of grave reopening in numerous necropoli in different phases. However, there are not yet regional discussions, comparisons, or contextualization of the phenomenon within the broader European historical context.

The session aims to connect archaeological and bioanthropological research on grave reopening and post-burial interventions, and to share knowledge and approaches. Contributions may include synthetic research, case studies, and methodological reflections. We plan to publish the papers as a proceedings volume.

Please submit your abstract by 6 February 2025

https://www.e-a-a.org/EAA2025

EAA 2025 session Grave reopening in the first millennium CE – connecting European regions

PresentDead blog post 1

And #PresentDead hit the ground running: 29th – 30th September 2023 we visited the colloquium ‘Between Goths, Huns and Gepids. The Middle Danube Region in the Early Migration Period’ in Târgu Mureș in Romania. It was organised by Mureș County Museum (Târgu Mureș) in collaboration with the National Museum of Transylvanian History (Cluj-Napoca) to mark the publication of the migration-period inhumation cemetery from Ernei from the Transylvanian Plateau: The Migration Period Cemetery from Ernei, BMM sa XIX, Cluj-Napoca, 2023 (edited by Alpár Dobos and Sándor Berecki). Ernei is a site that we plan to investigate together with other cemeteries in the region for in-depth analysis of the grave reopening.

On Friday the colloquium was opened by our colleague and cooperation partner Alpár Dobos, with a presentation on the cemetery Ernei, a cemetery with 70 graves and hence untypical for the 5th century in this region, where solitary graves and small grave groups are common. However, its dating to the mid-5th century CE is secured not only by grave goods but also by recent radiocarbon dates. The publication of the C14 results is a collaboration of the excavators with Ali Klevnäs (one of the outcomes of her project ‘Interacting with the dead. Belief and conflict in Early Medieval Europe (AD 450-750)’ and currently in preparation. For PresentDead, the high number of reopened graves – all but one of the graves were reopened – raises interesting questions about the start of the reopening phenomenon.

Whilst the presentations on the first day provided more insights on migration period artefacts and sites of the region, with interesting discussions also in relation to PresentDead research questions, on day 2 the whole morning was dedicated to the discussion of grave disturbances: Ali Klevnäs started with a presentation on the state-of-the-art of research on reopened graves in Western Europe. I provided an overview of PresentDead, its overall aims and objectives and a focus on case studies and the specific approach I had developed to overcome current hinderances of research. Thom Gobbitt gave an overview of the textual sources that he will be working with for PresentDead and gave examples of texts that will be relevant from the Langobard laws, his specialism. The third talk from the PresentDead project was presented by Astrid Noterman, who presented on methods that we will use, primarily from within her specialism as an biological anthropologist and taphonomist (archaeothanatology). We had an interesting discussion, once again drawing our attention to terminology (is reopening the right term? We say yes, in English, German and French, but possibly not in other languages), but also what role ethnic labels may play in PresentDead (or not!).

In the second part of the session on grave disturbances Alpár Dobos was introducing newly excavated sites in Transylvania and how they would fit into the picture (and which interesting questions they pose about the origin of reopening); Regina Viktória Csordás gave a first presentation on her new PhD project on reopening of Transdanubian cemeteries in Hungary that she just started at Eötvös Loránd University; and the section was concluded by Coriolan Horațiu Opreanu who presented on a mortuary custom that is still upheld by the Romanian Orthodox Christians, the exhumation and reburial of the human remains of their dead. A reminder, that reopening of graves can be the cultural norm for engagement with the dead. The afternoon provided us – among other presentations – with more insights in particular on artefacts and even more specifically we learnt of new material analyses that were carried out as part of the ‘Power and Culture in the Carpathian Basin during the Early Middle Ages’ project and that gave us more ideas to think about in particular in relation to ways of recycling – an important factor when it comes to discuss the whereabout of objects removed from graves.

Symposium!

We’re excited to announce that the GRR network will soon be holding its first major event. With the generous support of Riksbankens Jublieumsfond, we’re organising an international symposium on Merovingian-period burial reopening, to be held at Stockholm University on 12th-13th January 2017. This will be the first conference on the widespread and fascinating phenomenon of early medieval grave disturbance since 1977!

The symposium has its own webpage with more information and a registration form at http://reopenedgraves.eu/events/

Hope to see you there!

Grave reopening at EAA 2015 in Glasgow

Edeltraud Aspöck and Alison Klevnäs will both be at the Glasgow EAA in September 2015 talking about disturbed burials.

We’re both in Session RI12 ‘Grave disturbances: the secondary manipulation of burials’ on 3/9/15 at 1330-1800 in James Watt South, Room 355.

Alison’s also in AM5 ‘Bridging scales: Local to global perspectives on mobility, interaction, and transmission in the first millennium AD’ on 5/9/15 at 0800-1000 in Mathematics Building, Room 214.

 

Abstract for EAA 2015 Session RI12 ‘Grave disturbances: the secondary manipulation of burials’

Dr AM Klevnäs, Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University

Grave reopening in early medieval Europe: new research perspectives

This paper presents new research into a long-recognized phenomenon: the widespread reopening and ransacking of burials in the row-grave cemeteries of the Merovingian kingdoms. Grave disturbance has been recorded in hundreds of early medieval burial grounds since the 19th century, but until recently there was almost no synthetic work comparing evidence between sites and regions. The practice was commonly glossed as graverobbery, and assumed to be an unlawful activity with material motives. Hence reopening was for a long time seen mainly as a problem: disturbance not only of the dead but also of the archaeological resource, with analysis of burials, grave goods and social structures all hindered by interference with the original burial context.
However, the last few years have seen significant new findings about the date, extent, and types of grave reopening seen in this period. This paper highlights the work of the Grave Reopening Research working group (reopenedgraves.eu), whose members are carrying out detailed investigation of reopening evidence in five different areas of early medieval Europe. This new work demonstrates that it is possible to move on from speculation about motives and to develop interpretations which are grounded in the evidence. Grave reopening was a widespread and intensive practice in 6th and 7th century Europe, with untapped potential for understanding contemporary attitudes to death, decay, commemoration, possessions, and ancestors. It has significant implications both for our understandings of early medieval burial practice, and also more widely for recognition of conflicts and power relations in early medieval society.

Grave reopening EAA Glasgow 2015 – a follow up by Nils Müller-Scheessel to ‘our session’ in Oslo!

The session by Nils Müller-Scheessel and Matej Ruttkay at EAA Glasgow is a follow up of our 2012 EAA session in Oslo and the focus is on taphonomy – so I am going to present results from my post-doc project – anyone else from the group thinking to attend?
http://eaaglasgow2015.com/session/grave-disturbances-the-secondary-manipulation-of-burials/