Pravěké osídlení v okolí velkomoravského kostela ve Starém Městě – „Špitálkách“

A rescue excavation was carried out in the Staré Město – “Špitálky” location in 1949–1950 by J. Poulík who examined an enclosed sacral area with the remnants of a Great Moravian church and a smaller inhumation cemetery containing more than 40 graves. The church and the immediate surroundings later became part of a national cultural monument. A new evaluation excavation took place there in 2020 in connection with its complex revitalisation and focused on the area north of the church’s foundations. The survey proved that although neither the ecclesiastical area nor the cemetery continued in this direction, it did document intensive prehistoric occupation. Besides the settlement features (Moravian Painted Ware culture – MPWC, Urnfield culture – UFC), two graves were also discovered. Based on the inventory and funeral rite, one grave can be dated to the final phase of the Corded Ware culture while the other is represented probably by a UFC pit cremationburial. The study assesses the newly uncovered archaeological situations set in the context of the settlement structure in the Staré Město area in the individual prehistoric periods.