NISKO, POLAND—The First News reports that the remains of 115 children were found in a sixteenth-century cemetery associated with a large Catholic church in southeast Poland during road construction. Some of the children were buried with coins in their mouths. Most of them were minted during the reign of Sigismund III Vasa, who ruled Poland from 1587 to 1632, or from the reign of John II Casimir, who ruled from 1648 to 1668. “It’s certainly a sign of their beliefs,” said archaeologist Katarzyna Oleszek. “The coins are called obols of the dead or Charon’s obol. It is an old, pre-Christian tradition. But it’s been cultivated for a long time, even as late as the nineteenth century.” According to the ancient tradition, the coin was intended to be a payment or bribe to Charon, the ferryman who conveyed the dead across the river that separated the world of the living from the world of the dead. Oleszek also said that no buttons, nails, or coffin handles were recovered from the sandy soil, which suggests the children had come from a very poor community. All of the remains will eventually be reburied in a local cemetery. To read about the burials of four medieval knights near the Polish village of Cieple, go to "Viking Knights, Polish Days."
16th-Century Cemetery in Poland Yields Children’s Remains
News June 25, 2020
Recommended Articles
Top 10 Discoveries of 2020 January/February 2021
Largest Viking DNA Study
Northern Europe and Greenland
Digs & Discoveries November/December 2020
Honoring the Dead
Digs & Discoveries November/December 2020
Piggy Playthings
Artifacts May/June 2020
Torah Shield and Pointer
-
Features May/June 2020
A Path to Freedom
At a Union Army camp in Kentucky, enslaved men, women, and children struggled for their lives and fought to be free
(National Archives Records Administration, Washington, DC) -
Features May/June 2020
Villages in the Sky
High in the Rockies, archaeologists have discovered evidence of mountain life 4,000 years ago
(Matt Stirn) -
Letter from Morocco May/June 2020
Splendor at the Edge of the Sahara
Excavations of a bustling medieval city tell the tale of a powerful Berber dynasty
(Photo Courtesy Chloé Capel) -
Artifacts July/August 2024
Etruscan Oil Lamp
(Courtesy Museo dell’Accademia Etrusca e della Città di Cortona; © DeA Picture Library/Art Resource, NY)