Zum Nachweis von Fremden im Archäologischen Befund

Foreignness is a very complex topic which has become really popular in the humanities over the last few decades. In archaeology the claim of evidence of "strangers" or "outsiders" becomes more plausible the more circumstantial evidence is derived from independent sources. This article deals with the identification of strangers with the help of grave-orientations. In Belarus we find burials with distinctive orientations, mostly in the periphery of the settled regions. It is assumed that these graves were made for "strangers" whose otherness is expressed through a different grave-orientation. We find a similar variation in the orientation of burials in northwest Slavonic settlement areas which resemble those in Belarus. In one case the interpretation here is supported by an anthropological kinship analysis of data from a cemetery. We can only speculate on the kind of otherness (religious, cultural, social etc.) the gravedigger was indicating. To support the interpretation that graves with special orientations were dug for "strangers" we need more kinship analysis.