Opening graves and turtles. The pond turtle (Emys orbicularis L.) from the cemetery of the Wielbark Culture in Czarnówko and the question of post-funeral interferences in the past

Abstract

Abstract In 2010, the remains of a pond turtle were discovered at the bottom of a secondary pit (“robbery” trench) in one of the graves (feature 963) in the Wielbark Culture cemetery at Czarnówko (PL). This paper attempts to characterise the find from Czarnówko in the context of two important questions: the opening of graves and the presence of turtle remains in the grave against the background of similar finds from the Central and East European Barbaricum. The problem of post-burial manipulation affects about 90 % of the graves in the cemetery at Czarnówko. The situation from grave 963 finds analogies in the burial grounds of the Masłomęcz Group, the Chernyakhiv culture and the Sarmatian and Longobard sites. The problem of the presence of these reptiles in the graves is related as it turns out to the phenomenon of grave opening, a phenomenon of great territorial and chronological extent observed in the areas where inhumation was practised during the Roman Period and the Migration Period.