Moscow University
Anthropology
Bulletin
Anthropology
Bulletin
1) The Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Academic str., 1, Minsk, 220072, Belarus 2) Lomonosov Moscow State University, Anuchin Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology, Mokhovaya St, 11, Moscow, 125009, Russia
Skepyan Anastasia Anatolyevna, docent, PhD; nasta_sk@mail.ru; Metelski Andrej Anatolievich, Doctor of Historical Sciences; a_miacelski@tut.by; Vorontsova Elena Leonidovna, PhD; ORCID ID 0000-0002-7817-7274; e.l.vorontsova@mail.ru. Filkin Ivan Alexandrovich; ORCID ID 0000-0002-5973-8355; filkinivan1992@gmail.com.
Introduction. Results of archaeological, historical and anthropological research of the reburied remains discovered in 2019 under the floor of the crypt of the Corpus Christi Church in Nesvizh (Republic of Belarus) are presented. Objectives of the work were: establishing the origins and social identity of the deceased as well as clarifying the dating of the burials; sex and age determination and bioarchaeological examination of the remains. Materials and methods. A historiographical note about the church was compiled based on the documents from libraries and archives in Belarus, Russia, Poland and Lithuania. Long bones of the skeleton were studied. Sex and age determination was carried out using a standard set of methods. The univariate statistical model developed by I.M Sineva (2013) and PCA were also employed for determining sex based on dimensions of the long bones. The simple moving average technique was used for modeling demographic structure of the sample. Results and discussion. This section summarizes the results of the historiographical survey describing the history of erection of the temple, construction of tombs in crypts, and their reconstruction in the early XVIII century. Analysis of the documents, burial equipment including remains of expensive textile lead to a conclusion about possible personal identities of the buried and their social status. These data were used to produce tables showing the social status of the deceased members of the Society of Jesus in the Nesvizh Collegium, their place of birth and age of death. The bioarcheological study revealed the minimum number of individuals (MNI), sex and age distribution of the sample. The results of the historical and bioarchaeological analyses were compared. Conclusion. The crypts of the of the Corpus Christi Church were originally intended for the members of the Society of Jesuit and the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Since the end of the 16th century, the crypt has become the family tomb of the Radziwilles and was also the final resting place of the patrons of the college and church and their families. In the XVIII century, the crypts were rebuilt and then exclusively used as a patrimonial tomb of the Radziwilles. The remains of the members of the Society of Jesuit were reburied under new stone floors under the main altar. The remains of the patrons might have been reburied with them or near the walls of the church. The archival records, funeral inventory, remains of the textile with metallic threads, and location of the burial site (under the main altar) suggest that the social status of at least some of the elderly persons living in the Nesvizh collegium (provinces, prefects, etc.) was fairly high. Our analysis of the skeletal remains shows that at least 59 people individuals were reburied in the crypt, mostly males over 50 years of age (64%). These results are consistent with historical records of the circle of persons eligible to be buried in the crypt under the main altar. Some single bone specimens that can be determined as female and sub-adult might fall to the burials occasionally, from the few family tombs of the founders.
Nesvizh; Corpus Christi Church; Society of Jesus; historiography; archeology; paleoanthropology
DOI: 10.32521/2074-8132.2020.2.138-146
Цит.: Skepyan A.A., Metelski A.A., Vorontsova E.L., Filkin I.A. A necropolis near the Corpus Christi Church in Nesvizh: archeology, history, anthropology: archeology, history, anthropology. Part 1. Сhurch crypt // Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin (Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seria XXIII. Antropologia), 2020; 2/2020; с. 138-146
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