What is the PresentDead project about?

The ERC PresentDead project investigates practical, conceptual and emotional dimensions of human interactions with human remains and artefacts in graves from early medieval Central and Eastern Europe (5th to 8th centuries CE). Innovative approaches will be used to investigate the practices documented in archaeological sources and textual evidence, combining state-of-the-art scientific methods, technical solutions and new theoretical approaches. The project’s working hypothesis is that perspectives on interaction with the materials of the dead will vary with the ritual stages of funerals.