Southern suburb of the Great Moravian stronghold Břeclav-Pohansko : the problem of how to exactly distinguish settlement features from the so-called empty grave pits
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Slavia Antiqua |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Archaeology, anthropology, ethnology |
| Keywords | Břeclav Pohansko; southern suburb; early middle ages; grave; settlement feature; empty grave pit |
| Description | Assessing of archaeological features, such as settlement and grave pits, is traditionally a matter of careful and sometimes time-consuming examination by using comparative methods. Despite considered one of fundamentals in archaeology this approach is known to be heavily dependant on a degree of researcher's erudition and his/her subjective perception of studied issues. Therefore, as alternative, statistics-based methods were suggested as helpful assistance while dealing with unspecified features. This paper re-examines 57 unspecified features from the Southern Suburb of the Great Moravian stronghold Břeclav-Pohansko, whose purpose was previously left unresolved. In order to distinguish grave pits from settlement features we combined the traditional comparative assessment approach with computer-aided techniques featuring univariate and multivariate statistics. The comparison between the set of unspecified features and true grave pit originated from the same archaeological site was carried out on features' dimensions and orientation. |
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