An Early Bronze Age human community. A complex analysis of the Early Bronze Age Únětice culture cemetery at Prague 9 - Miškovice.
Michal Ernée, Ph.D., GA ČR (404/07/1408), 2007-2009
The purpose and final aim of the proposed project is to obtain as complete an overview as possible of the human community that from roughly 2200 to 1600 BC buried its dead close to what is now the Miškovice municipality in Prague 9. This will be achieved not only through a detailed processing of the excavation documentation, but primarily through a series of natural scientific analyses of the skeletal remains and rich grave inventories recovered, in particular bronze, amber, shell etc. items. Anthropological and palaeopathological analyses will also be undertaken, the genders of the deceased will be identified through DNA analyses, the origins of the deceased will be ascertained through dental analysis, dating will be gauged by way of the 14C method, analyses will be made of the composition of the bronze artefacts (X-ray fluorescence analysis, NAA, lead isotope analysis), amber beads will be analysed, and petrographic analyses will be undertaken of the stones from grave structures. This will bring to an end the complex scientific evaluation of an excavation which, thanks to the extremely richness of the finds and the quantity of analysis, will be of crucial importance to our understanding of the early Bronze Age in Central Europe. All of the foregoing are necessary preliminaries to the preparation of a monograph on the cemetery.
