Интердисциплинарни изследвания на три гробни комплекса от Сердика

Interdisciplinary Investigations of Three Burial Complexes in Serdica

Abstract

This study presents the results of an interdisciplinary investigation of three burials from the Eastern and Western necropolises of ancient Serdica. The order in which the graves are examined in this study is determined by two principles: first, the structures are presented according to their location (the Eastern necropolis, followed by the Western one), and second, according to the amount of available information, in descending order. Therefore, the analysis begins with the double burial 2/2002 from the subfloor area of the “St. Sofia” Basilica, continues with burial 9/1962 from the same sector, and concludes with a single burial from the Western necropolis, recorded during the 2019 excavations at 6 Ivan Denkoglu Street (the only burial structure documented in that year and sector).
Through the combined application of archaeological analysis and anthropological examination, the research illuminates aspects of funerary practice, social identity, and health in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Radiocarbon dating carried out at CEZA (Curt-Engelhorn-Zentrum Archäometrie gGmbH) in Mannheim, Germany, further refined the chronological framework of the necropolises.
The first burial (2/2002), located near the Basilica of “St. Sophia”, represents an asynchronous double interment dated to the mid-3rd c. AD, comprising an adult individual (likely female) and a child deposited later. The second burial (9/1962), although long considered Late Antique, is radiocarbon-dated to the mid-10th c. and contains the remains of a 5–6-year-old child showing skeletal changes indicative of tuberculous meningitis and evidence of a perimortem therapeutic trepanation. The third burial (2019), from the Western necropolis, is a brick-lined grave with rich furnishings and textiles, belonging to a high-status adult male dated to the late 3rd – early 4th c.