‘Houses of Graves’ of Central-East Europe: Archaeology about Jewish Funeral Rituals

Abstract

This article presents the state of archaeological research on Jewish cemeteries in Central-East Europe, mainly on the basis of excavations conducted in Poland, Czechia, and Lithuania). It presents the possibilities of reconstructing funerary rituals on the basis of archaeological findings: the organisation of the burial space, the dress and equipment of the deceased, the layout of the corpse and the arrangement of the interior of the burial pit. Possibilities for interdisciplinary studies of the funerary customs of the Central European diaspora were studied and further research needs were identified.