Badania archeologiczne nowożytnego cmentarza na terenie budowy Centrum Kongresowego przy ulicy Jana Bułhaka na Dębnikach w Krakowie

Abstrakt

ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON THE MODERN CEMETERY UNEARTHED AT THE CONFERENCE CENTRE CONSTRUCTION SITE ON JANA BUŁHAKA STREET IN DĘBNIKI DISTRICT IN KRAKÓW

The ICE Kraków Congress Centre will be built at the borderland between two former villages, Dębniki and Ludwinów, located on the right bank of the River Vistula, on the area adjoining the Grunwaldzkie Roundabout from the southwest. The planned investment was preceded by archaeological studies carried out in 2008 and 2009. In the area of a local shrine, known as a lantern of the dead or the Dębniki post and dated back to the late 17th or the early 18th century, relics were discovered of a hitherto unknown Catholic cemetery from the 17th century. The necropolis had been established in the neighbourhood of a small architectural structure of which only foundations made of stone with occasional brick chips have survived. The structure could have been a small belfry based on a rectangular plan approximately 600 cm [19.7 ft] in length and 520 cm [17.1 ft] in width. The central part of the structure housed a massive plinth, 230 cm x 250 cm [7.5 ft x 8.2 ft] in size, probably used as a base for the stairs leading to the upper storeys. Inside the structure, between the foundations, seven people were buried, presumably members of the families (?) connected with the founders of the necropolis and the builders of the structure. Around the belfry there were discovered 158 graves as well as traces of seven vertical beams which apparently are the remains of wooden crosses pointing to the location of supposed family plots at the cemetery. The total of over 200 people were buried here. Some of the graves probably still exist under the pavement and the roadway passing through the southern section of the necropolis; some were irretrievably damaged in the course of a variety of earthworks (for instance while installing a sewage system in the area) that were carried out at the site of the necropolis in the 20th century. The total of 165 graves from the mid-17th century have been unearthed and studied. During the early stage of functioning of the cemetery, the dead were placed in graves oriented in an east – west (E – W) direction, and after that – in a north – south (N – S) direction. The chronological sequence is reflected in the fact that younger graves often damaged older ones. The relations between the two types suggest that the cemetery could have been used by two or three generations of the residents of Dębniki, Ludwinów and other settlements in the area of right-bank Kraków. It seems probable that the dead were buried here over a period of anything between 50 and 60 years. The studied graves consisted of 30 burials identified as children’s graves (approximately 18 per cent of the population) who had died at the age of infans I (20 burials) and infans II. In a few cases, the children had been buried along with adult persons (mothers?), with the first placed on the latter’s legs or bottom part of the trunk. These were probably graves of people who had died at the same time, presumably in childbirth or directly afterwards. The other group consisted of the graves of people who had died at different ages. The sex of 82 buried persons (49.8 per cent of the burials) was identified; 40 graves (24.2 per cent) were classified as women’s, while 42 (25.6 per cent) as men’s. In the remaining 53 graves (32.1 per cent of the population), adult persons of unspecified sex had been buried. Among them prevailed the remains of persons who had died at the age of maturus (between 30 and 50 years of life); only 14 persons in their fifties or older (that is at the age of maturus / senilis and senilis) had been buried at the cemetery. The highest mortality rate among women (18 burials) and men (14 burials) was observed in the age groups of juvenis and adultus, that is between 15 to 20 and 30 years of age. The high mortality rate among women had been connected with childbirth, confinement and related conditions, while the corresponding rate among men could have been directly linked to their participation in wars, and in the 17th century – to military activity and the occupation of Kraków by the Swedish army. Graves discovered at the said cemetery were rather abundant in information pointing to whether the corpse had been buried in a shroud or, less frequently, in a coffin. Diverse traces of the presence of coffins were observed only in 39 graves (36 per cent burials), while the characteristic arrangement of the skeleton suggesting that the corpse had been buried in a shroud was found in as many as 71 graves (64.5 per cent burials). The arrangement was equally frequent in infants’ (18 burials), women’s (19) and men’s graves (18), as well as in the graves of adults of unspecified sex (16 cases). Traces of a coffin appeared with practically corresponding frequency in women’s (15) and in men’s graves (19), and very rarely in infants’ graves. Traces of upholstery clothing or other lining material inside the coffin were not found in any of the graves. The necropolis located at the borderland between Dębniki and Ludwinów was characterized by a substantial number of graves containing various elements of burial equipment. Such pieces were found in 34 graves; they had constituted burial equipment for 20 per cent dead. The finds consisted of parts of dress (clothing) in the form of metal buttons, clasps and brooches for holding together clothes or hair. Such items were found in seven graves; buttons were discovered in burials containing the remains of three men and one woman, while the clasp was found in the woman’s grave. Another group of burial equipment consisted of ornaments including a brass wedding ring from a man’s grave, necklaces made of glass and wooden beads found in women’s graves and a man’s grave, and a necklace made of 51 beads of semi-precious stones. Two graves contained the remains of bonnets, which have survived in the form of a thin wire plaiting and 80 miniature glass beads. Yet another group of burial equipment comprised devotional items, including small brass crosses and a large cross made of wood and brass, medallions (and lockets) made of brass and glass, and rosaries with wooden beads. Of the devotional items, the most frequent were rosaries, found in seven women’s graves and two men’s burials. In four of the women’s graves, the rosaries were discovered along with small brass crosses and brass medallions and a pair of metal buttons. The other two small brass crosses were also found in women’s graves, placed next to the upper part of the trunk, while one of men’s graves revealed the abovementioned metal cross inlaid with wood and white nacre, located at the place of the buried man’s right hand and arranged in a way that pointed to it having been held in the hand. It is possible that the cross was placed in the grave of a clergyman (?) buried on the north-western side of the supposed belfry. The devotional items also included brass and glass medallions found in women’s and men’s graves and in an infant’s grave. In the women’s graves, the medallions were accompanied by rosaries and necklaces. The last group of historic objects discovered in the graves consisted of various metal finds which had been parts of burial equipment or elements of coffin and grave decor. Among these, the most significant are three brass coins from the reign of King John II Casimir, dated back to the 1670s. They were discovered in women’s burials. Corroded iron nails were found in other graves. Traces of metal objects or fabrics with metal thread were visible in the form of greenish marks on skulls and bones of upper limbs. Burial gifts occurred most frequently in women’s graves; they were found in 16 graves located in the northern and the western parts of the necropoli .